Shen Yingying woke up to find herself pinned tightly against a tree trunk.
The man behind her had one hand clamped around the back of her neck, as if he wanted to crush it. The force was so strong she felt like her bones might snap.
Shen Yingying nearly fainted from fear. She had clearly been sleeping at home—how did she end up here?
Had her ex-boyfriend come for revenge?
Before she could think further, her survival instincts kicked in. She quickly softened her tone and begged for mercy.
“Sir! Easy, easy—my neck is going to break! Gentlemen use words, not fists. Let’s talk this out properly. I only have two legs—I can’t run away from you. There must be some misunderstanding…”
But instead of letting go, the man tightened his grip. Pain shot through her neck, and tears immediately welled up in Shen Yingying’s eyes.
“Gentleman?”
A hoarse, low voice came from behind her.
“You’re calling me a gentleman? Did I hear wrong? Weren’t you the one calling me a beast? Shen Yingying… are you scared now?”
He gave a low, chilling laugh.
“So you do know how to be afraid.”
His warm breath brushed against her ear, sending a wave of goosebumps across her skin. Shen Yingying’s mind went blank, as if some switch had been flipped.
Countless unfamiliar memories surged into her mind all at once.
In just a moment, she caught the key point among the chaotic fragments.
—She had transmigrated.
She had entered a 1970s-era novel she had read just two days ago, becoming the wife of the villain, Xie Fangzhu. A woman who happened to share her name: Shen Yingying.
The moment she realized this, she nearly died on the spot.
In the novel, Xie Fangzhu only married the original Shen Yingying because he was forced to.
He was the son of a landlord family. His parents died when he was young, and he was taken in by the original owner’s kind grandfather.
But even after being taken in, his life was far from easy.
The Shen family never treated him as one of their own. In places where the old man couldn’t see, they all considered him nothing more than a “landlord’s brat.”
They didn’t treat him like a person—beating and scolding him whenever they pleased, using him like a work animal. Even the village mice had a higher status than him.
He endured it all until adulthood, when his uncle finally pulled strings and sent him to work at a coal mine. Only then did he finally escape the Shen family.
But then the Shen family’s daughter, the original Shen Yingying, had her engagement broken off and her reputation ruined. No respectable family would marry her.
So the Shen family forced Xie Fangzhu—now a working man—to marry her.
Even though the marriage clearly disadvantaged him, the original Shen Yingying didn’t think so. After marriage, she even refused to let him touch her.
In her eyes, Xie Fangzhu was forever just a lowly “landlord’s brat.” If she hadn’t married him, he would have been a lifelong bachelor, ridiculed by everyone. He should be grateful that she gave him a wife and spared him that humiliation.
Xie Fangzhu never argued. He indulged her in everything, even handing over half his monthly wages.
His attitude only made the original Shen Yingying more and more arrogant.
She looked down on him, thinking he wasn’t even a real man—no better than livestock. In the end, she ran off with a man from out of town who claimed to be a factory director.
Before leaving, she even stole all of Xie Fangzhu’s savings, mocking him as a fool who would happily help others count the money after being sold.
But Xie Fangzhu was not an idiot.
As the villain who would later nearly destroy both the male and female leads, he was extremely vengeful. The abuse he suffered from the Shen family as a child was all etched into his memory—and one day, he would repay it all.
The Shen family forcing him into marriage was like handing prey straight into his hands.
After marrying her, he continued as before—no matter what she wanted, he indulged her without limits.
To the people in the mining community, Xie Fangzhu was a man who treated his wife extremely well—so well that people said he held her in his hands for fear she’d fall, and in his mouth for fear she’d melt. Whatever she wanted, he would give her—even the stars in the sky if she asked.
Unfortunately, his wife was not a good one. She was restless, unfaithful.
This stark contrast made many neighbors feel so angry they wished they could beat her up themselves.
So when Xie Fangzhu finally dragged her back after she ran away with another man—and broke her legs as soon as they got home—no one sympathized with her.
Instead, people thought he had finally stood up for himself. A woman without virtue deserved such an ending.
From then on, the original Shen Yingying lost her freedom.
Xie Fangzhu locked her up and kept her like a dog.
He returned all the suffering he had once endured in the Shen household onto her.
The original Shen Yingying fell from heaven into hell overnight. She wished she could die—but the “devil” Xie Fangzhu wouldn’t even give her that mercy.
Soon, she went mad.
What happened inside the house was unknown to outsiders.
They only knew that she had broken down mentally after the failed elopement and became insane, unable to take care of herself.
And her husband, Xie Fangzhu, instead of leaving her, stayed by her side and cared for her diligently.
To everyone else, he became a rare “good man”—and Shen Yingying, in their eyes, was simply ungrateful.
Thinking of the original owner’s final ending, Shen Yingying’s legs trembled like a sieve.
Xie Fangzhu was a madman—worse, he was a physically powerful one.
And right now, that terrifying madman was standing right behind her.
With her frail little body, she stood no chance against him at all.
What should she do?
After only a brief hesitation, she decided to tell him the truth—that she was not the original Shen Yingying.
It sounded absurd, but Xie Fangzhu was a cautious and suspicious man. Faced with someone whose personality was completely different from before, he might actually give her a chance to explain.
And even if he didn’t believe her in the end, as long as she got the chance to talk, she could act—she could perform, and maybe find an opportunity to escape his grasp.
But the moment she opened her mouth, it felt as if an invisible hand had grabbed her throat. No sound came out at all.
Was this some kind of rule of the world she had entered?
Drag someone over to take the blame, and then not even allow them to defend themselves? How utterly tyrannical!
Shen Yingying was furious—but there was nothing she could do. She was a fish on the chopping board, with no choice but to force herself to think of another way.
Suddenly, she remembered something.
From beginning to end, the original Shen Yingying had never changed her attitude toward Xie Fangzhu.
Even after having her legs broken, she never lowered her head. In fact, her insults became even more vicious than before.
And Xie Fangzhu seemed to prefer that attitude—because it gave him justification to torment her even more ruthlessly.
So… what if she tried acting weak instead?
That thought instantly lifted her spirits.
She quickly adjusted her emotions.
Her eyes grew slightly red as she spoke in a pitiful, trembling voice:
“Xie Fangzhu… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hidden things from you…”
The man behind her paused.
Then, as if he had heard something ridiculous, he let out a cold laugh.
“Hidden things from me?”
In the next moment, he roughly flipped her around and grabbed her chin tightly.
His dark, abyss-like eyes locked onto hers. His voice was low and chilling, like a bloodthirsty beast:
“Don’t tell me next time you run off with another man, you’ll remember to inform me in advance? Shen Yingying, do you think I’m as stupid as you?”
Her back slammed hard into the tree trunk. Pain shot through her, and she gasped sharply.
And at that moment, she finally saw clearly the appearance of the infamous villain in the novel.