She Only Lived to Thirty-Six

[Parallel Worlds + Multiple Male Leads + Faux Body Possession] (Some male leads are chaste, others aren't, so proceed at your own discretion. The heroine is no delicate flower: she's shrewd but principled, kind without being a pushover.)

Song Yao has a secret. When she was five, she sat on the little mound outside her home and met a beautiful woman holding a cake. As the woman crouched down, Song Yao saw flecks of light shimmering in her eyes, like countless stars from parallel worlds crushed together. “Little Yaoyao, I'll protect you from now on. But in exchange, you can only live to the age of thirty-six. Are you willing?”

As Song Yao grows up, the beautiful woman becomes a beautiful older girl, her secret trump card. With the older girl's help, a life that began with a terrible hand becomes ever more exciting. She deals with her gambling, abusive father, breaks free of her toxic mother, and gets into a prestigious university. She always seems able to make the “right” choice, and every man she meets is more impressive than the last: a brash, free-spirited upperclassman, a cool and upright student council president, a business prodigy whose case is discussed by a teacher in class, and a disciplined young political rising star...

Song Yao's life seems to be going steadily uphill. But no matter how carefully she avoids the wrong choices, the pendulum of fate always swings back into place.

Behind the glittering surface, even greater storms are brewing. How can she live a life of her own, even if it only lasts until she's thirty-six...