A Place by Your Side

After awakening, Lu Qingyan discovers that she's the lowly heroine of an angst-filled romance. The author lures readers in with the promise of a scumbag husband desperately trying to win his wife back, but instead has him cruelly humiliate, neglect, and torment her. She appears to cross her own boundaries and get entangled with other men against her will, yet never finds true release. The author drags her through the mud, reducing her to a disposable shell who flits between different men and exists only to torment readers. Why are the men always powerful and the women always begging for scraps of affection in these stories? Why does a man get to sow his wild oats and come back to his wife, expecting her to forgive him? Who wants that tiny bit of supposedly true love when the roles in a polygamous relationship are reversed? So when her scumbag husband cheats, she records video evidence, then, once the thirty-day divorce waiting period is over, packs both of them off to prison. Lu Qingyan: “This disposable shell, made to torment women and readers, is welcome to whoever wants it.” Male lead descriptions: Cold, stern, insecure adopted older brother: “The year my parents died and I was adopted, I refused to call them Mom and Dad because I didn't want to be just your brother.” Newly famous, scheming movie star: “I admit that I had ulterior motives at first, but now, what do I have to do to make you look at me again?” Cool on the outside, warm within, and mixed-race: “Yes, it was only a photograph, but it bewitched me all the way across the ocean.” Sweet, gentle younger brother with a hidden dark side: “You know I grabbed you at my first-birthday grab-bag ceremony, Sis. Giving up? Impossible.” They squabble and compete, all for a place in her bed.