A Substitute Bride in the 1970s: She Stocks Up on an Island with Scratch Tickets

[Period setting · military marriage + pampered real heiress + wild, rugged soldier + scratch-card System + island foraging + slow-burn, married first and in love later]

“Su Miaomiao, a country bumpkin like you doesn’t deserve malted milk! You’re marrying that old widower Lu Zheng! If you won’t, get out of the Gu family!” Gu’s mother sneers, shielding the fake heiress, Gu Baozhu, in her arms.

Su Miaomiao has just arrived in this world and awakened the [Scratch-Card System]. She gives a cold laugh. “I’ll marry in her place, but you’ll give me two thousand yuan and the ration coupons for the four big-ticket items. Not a penny less, or I’ll report you to the armed forces department for sabotaging a military marriage!”

She strips the Gu family of everything on the spot, then turns around and reports the fake heiress for sneaking into the woods with a street hooligan. With her bags packed, Su Miaomiao boards a ship bound for an island in the far south.

Rumor has it that Lu Zheng, the regiment commander stationed on the island, avoids women, brings misfortune to his wives, and is a scarred, dark-faced brute. The island is so poor that its residents can only eat tree bark.

But when she reaches the dock, Su Miaomiao, whose skin glows pale in the sea breeze, wears a floral sunhat and sips chilled orange soda she won with a scratch card. She points at the tall, stern-faced officer there to meet her and coos, “You, big guy in black. Yes, you. Carry my suitcase.”

Lu Zheng looks at his delicate wife, who seems as if a gust of wind could knock her over. His Adam’s apple bobs. “...You’re a handful.”

Later, while other families choke down salted fish and bran, Su Miaomiao scratches her way to max-level cooking skills, and her top-grade abalone and oysters make the whole military housing compound drool. While other wives are darkened by the sea breeze, Su Miaomiao scratches up premium clam cream and Snowflake Cream, growing more alluring by the day.

Later still, the steely, ruthless brute Lu Zheng kneels beside the bed in the middle of the night with a basin of warm water, carefully holding her fair, tender feet. “Wife, is the water too hot?”