“Sleep with her tonight, and tomorrow you’ll be the Commander’s son-in-law!”
“Zhong Shuwen, whether you do it or not is up to you!”
The two arguing voices gradually faded away. Then came a loud bang as a door slammed shut.
The noise jolted Lin Yuqing awake from her drugged sleep.
Struggling to open her eyes, she looked around at the unfamiliar room. The old-fashioned furniture, worn with age, made her freeze in confusion.
What was going on?
Hadn’t she just been burning incense at the God of Wealth Temple?
Right…
She suddenly remembered.
She had entered the wrong hall. Instead of the God of Wealth’s shrine, she had wandered into the Matchmaker God’s temple.
She vaguely recalled the Matchmaker God muttering something about poor performance lately and wanting to give her a man.
Then she had blacked out.
A man?
Rubbing her aching temples, Lin Yuqing forced herself out of bed and made her way to the door. Peering through the crack, she saw a man and a woman standing in the living room.
The man looked fairly refined and handsome. He was glaring at the woman opposite him.
“Are you crazy? Why did you drug her and make me do this?”
“If Commander Lin finds out, do you think he’ll let me off?”
Unlike his panic, the woman remained calm.
She sneered.
“When you planned to elope with Lin Yuqing, why didn’t you think about whether the Commander would spare you then?”
Patting his shoulder, she softened her tone.
“Relax. I bought enough of the drug to knock out livestock. Just do it. Nothing will go wrong.”
“If you still want to steal the bride and become the Commander’s son-in-law, this is the only way left.”
“Hurry up. Who knows when her three protective brothers will find this place?”
She pushed him forward impatiently.
Yet Zhong Shuwen stood rooted to the floor.
Looking uncertain, he hesitated.
“Don’t forget she already has a fiancé. A battalion commander. The Lin family might care about her reputation, but he definitely won’t let me off.”
“What are you scared of now?”
The woman grew increasingly irritated.
“You already know her fiancé is a battalion commander!”
“Are you stupid? Do you think a battalion commander would still want a woman after she’s been touched by another man?”
“And even if he does,” she swallowed angrily, “what does a barefoot man have to fear from someone wearing shoes?”
“Just make a scene outside the military compound! Let everyone know about the two of you! The Lin family won’t have any choice but to accept you!”
Her voice grew shriller with every sentence.
Convinced the sleeping drug was powerful enough, she made no effort to lower her volume.
“Hurry! My parents will be back soon! I’ve already risked everything to help you!”
“Hah!”
Zhong Shuwen laughed mockingly.
“Risked everything to help me? Su Jinjin, don’t take me for a fool.”
“Isn’t it because you’ve got your eye on your own future brother-in-law and want to switch places with your sister?”
Su Jinjin’s expression darkened.
After a brief pause, she exploded.
“So what if I do?!”
“We have the same parents! Why did she get to follow Mom and marry into the Commander’s family while I couldn’t?”
“Why does she get a battalion commander as a fiancé while I’m stuck marrying the son of some poor chemical factory worker and living in a cramped apartment my whole life?”
The conversation revealed a flood of information.
Lin Yuqing finally understood.
She had transmigrated into a novel.
Specifically, a novel she had once read called “The Fair-Skinned Rich Beauty of the Seventies.”
The original owner of this body shared her exact name: Lin Yuqing.
And the woman in the living room was her twin sister, Su Jinjin.
The novel’s female protagonist.
When the twins were six years old, their parents divorced.
Lin Yuqing followed her mother into a remarriage and moved into the military compound, becoming the beloved youngest daughter of Commander Lin’s family.
Su Jinjin remained with their father.
Although they no longer lived together, Su Jinjin visited the compound every month to play with her sister.
In the original story, Lin Yuqing loved her younger sister wholeheartedly.
The reason the novel was titled The Fair-Skinned Rich Beauty of the Seventies was because Su Jinjin’s successful rise to wealth depended heavily on the resources and support Lin Yuqing provided in the early years.
Pampered by her stepfather and three stepbrothers, Lin Yuqing grew up far too sheltered.
So sheltered that she never realized the jealousy hidden in Su Jinjin’s eyes.
Jealous of their completely different appearances despite being twins.
Jealous of the endless floral dresses Lin Yuqing wore.
Jealous of her status.
Jealous of everything she had.
Jealous even of her existence.
The turning point of the original owner’s life came when she was twenty-one.
At a celebration banquet, she got drunk and accidentally spent the night with Gu Chenzhou, the neighbor next door.
Gu Chenzhou had moved into the compound five years earlier.
Military compounds had their own hierarchy, and newcomers were naturally looked down upon by those who had grown up there.
Lin Yuqing and her friends disliked Gu Chenzhou’s cold, intimidating personality.
Yet Commander Lin admired him greatly.
Once news of that night spread, Commander Lin immediately arranged their marriage.
Faced with ridicule from her friends and a sudden marriage she couldn’t resist, the proud Lin Yuqing naturally refused.
She cried.
She protested.
She made scenes.
But for the first time in her life, her three brothers sided with their father instead of her.
That was when Su Jinjin deceived her.
“Don’t you always like Brother Shuwen? Do you want to marry him instead?”
Zhong Shuwen had been their childhood playmate before age six.
Lin Yuqing treated him as an older brother.
She didn’t truly love him.
But she still agreed.
Out of spite.
She refused to marry that country bumpkin next door.
And that single impulsive decision destroyed her life.
In the original story, she eloped with Zhong Shuwen that very night and fled into the mountains.
Three days later, her eldest brother found them and dragged her back.
The wedding with Gu Chenzhou proceeded as planned.
Gu Chenzhou insisted on taking responsibility for her.
But the elopement scandal cast a shadow over the marriage from the very beginning.
Somehow, word of her running away spread throughout the compound.
The mockery grew worse.
Trapped indoors and crushed by gossip, Lin Yuqing became increasingly depressed after marriage.
Unable to hate herself, she directed all her resentment toward the man she believed had ruined her life.
During those three years, only Su Jinjin’s weekly visits brought her comfort.
And so she was manipulated again.
This time, into running away.
Following Su Jinjin’s instructions, she stole a document from home and handed it over.
She never intended to hurt anyone.
Su Jinjin had assured her it was an unimportant letter.
Just enough to keep Gu Chenzhou busy for a few months while she escaped.
Protected all her life, Lin Yuqing believed her.
What she didn’t know was that the document contained top-secret military information.
That very day, military investigators took her away.
Interrogation.
Political review.
Exile.
She was sent to a freezing rural village in northern China.
Raised in luxury, she couldn’t survive the harsh labor.
Within three months, she died from exhaustion in the icy wilderness.
Gu Chenzhou learned of her death half a month later.
By then, he had already discovered that the leak had been orchestrated by Su Jinjin and Zhong Shuwen.
Before he could gather enough evidence, news of Lin Yuqing’s death arrived.
He rushed to find her.
All he found was a cold corpse.
“Failing to protect you… failing to teach you… was my failure as a husband.”
Kneeling before her body, Gu Chenzhou wept tears of blood.
The novel’s ending was tragic.
After bringing Lin Yuqing’s ashes back to Beijing and arranging her burial, Gu Chenzhou hunted down Zhong Shuwen and the entire Su family, killing them all.
Then he committed suicide before her grave.
Meanwhile, Su Jinjin escaped by hiding in another city and went on to live a wildly successful life.
When Lin Yuqing had originally read that ending, she had cursed for half an hour.
Was everyone in this story insane?
A Commander’s daughter, cherished by her parents and brothers since childhood.
She could have had everything.
Why insist on suffering for the sake of love?
And now that ridiculous life had become hers.
She had transmigrated.
And of all possible moments—
She had arrived on the very night of the elopement.
There wasn’t even time to change anything.
Her eldest brother wouldn’t find her for another three days.
She was still under the effects of Su Jinjin’s drug.
What was she supposed to do?!
Thump… Thump… Thump…
As panic gripped her, things became even worse.
In the living room—
Zhong Shuwen was already walking toward her room.