Her husband adopted five children. The eldest was rebellious and messy, and always thought she, his stepmother, was a bad person.
The second would go with anyone who fed him. He coveted other children’s snacks, coaxed or tricked them into handing them over, and ate them himself. Their parents were always complaining, forcing her to repeatedly visit their homes to apologize and pay compensation.
The third daughter was stubborn and hid her true feelings behind a mask. When bullied, she protected herself with her fists, and her reputation was even worse than her stepmother’s.
The fourth daughter was timid and cowardly, barely able to get a word out. Outsiders always assumed her bad personality was because her stepmother played favorites.
The fifth daughter was only two and couldn’t be left without adult supervision. She was a clever little slacker, and her stepmother had to outwit a child who couldn’t even talk yet. Each child had a distinct and exasperating personality. Life was hard, and if her husband’s allowance hadn’t kept her going, she would have left long ago.
Deng Rulan wrote in her diary, thinking of the children and feeling fed up. One day, she would use the stick she’d found in the mountains to give those far-from-well-behaved kids a good beating. Little did she know she had somehow become the model stepmother.
Good grief, this was definitely not what she’d set out to achieve.
The male protagonist is disgusting and the female protagonist's father is his savior. But he asked the heroine to be the stepmother of his five children.