Pei Jingshu transmigrates into an old-fashioned, angst-filled novel where everyone's intelligence has taken a nosedive. She becomes the most long-suffering background character of all: the matriarch of the Li Duke's household, and the mother-in-law of the tragic heroine.
The good news: she's the legal wife, with no concubines to contend with, and her husband is stationed at the border and rarely comes home. She rules the inner household without question.
The bad news: all three of her biological sons are complete disasters!
The eldest favors his concubine and mistreats his wife. The second is infatuated with his widowed cousin, his unattainable first love. The third is a “genius” of the worst kind: to curry favor with the powerful, he marries his legitimate daughter off to a wastrel, while giving her good marriage match to his illegitimate daughter instead!
Even her three married daughters suffer one injustice after another in their husbands' homes.
And her gentle, long-suffering daughter-in-law, Song Zhiwei, is being forced by her rotten son to kneel in the cold rain. She's about to begin a miserable life as the heroine of an angst-filled novel.
Pei Jingshu flips the table. “What kind of hellish family is this?!”
On the very day she arrives, she pulls the shivering Song Zhiwei to her feet, then slaps her rotten son twice, loud enough for the whole household to hear!
“That slap is for favoring your concubine and mistreating your wife!”
“That slap is for being unfilial and heartless!”
“From today on, I'm in charge of this family!”
She shields Song Zhiwei behind her. “Good girl, don't be afraid. From now on, I'll teach you.”
And from then on, everything changes.
She storms into the Marquis's residence and tears up the marriage contract meant to sell her granddaughter for status.
She stands up for her daughters, exposing and crushing every scoundrel who framed them or tried to harm her granddaughters.
She cleans house, throwing out the sanctimonious cousin and the scheming concubines alike.
She also helps her daughter-in-law make money and build a career: together, they open an embroidery shop, establish a school, and build a network to help women support one another.
Very good-looking, Thunder Method, No Space System. This book is worth reading.
The method is neat and pretty.