[This story passed review, but I can't continue because of problems with the setup. I'll adjust the setup and finish it at a later date.]
"She was the vicious villainess everyone in the book despised, yet she was his white moonlight and vermilion mole."
Shen Jingci lived many lives under countless identities, but she was never allowed to be Shen Jingci.
The first time, she carefully climbed her way up, only to be forced into the Tang family as a concubine and later killed out of jealousy.
As she lay dying, Qin Xia, the Qin family's true daughter who had been cast aside by her family, sacrificed herself to give Shen Jingci a chance to live.
To repay her, Shen Jingci assumed Qin Xia's identity and infiltrated the predatory households of the powerful, only to have her body stolen by a soul from another world.
Her identity, her family, and even the person she had carefully hidden in her heart were all taken over by that transmigrator with a System.
They had the same face and the same name. When Shen Jingci was there, everyone condemned her, while the other woman was adored by all.
Shen Jingci was not willing to accept it.
The second time, she opened her eyes as Shen Qingyi, Princess Consort of Prince Jing, who had died by hanging.
Everyone knew that Prince Jing, Gu Qingping, loved only the daughter of the Qin family and despised the princess he had been forced to marry.
As it happened, Shen Jingci couldn't stand him either. The two, each loathing the other, began a life of pretending to be in love while secretly pursuing their own agendas.
"Let's make a deal. I'll help you win back the woman you love, and all I want is power and fame."
What Shen Jingci didn't know was that the Qin family daughter Gu Qingping loved was the person she had been pretending to be.
Though they spent every day together and their hearts briefly touched, she still arranged for him to marry the transmigrator in a grand, eight-bearer sedan chair, cutting off the last of her own delusions with her own hands.
Who would have thought that Gu Qingping would pin her against the door, eyes red and voice full of anger and sorrow? "You arranged for me to marry her? What gives you the right to decide for me?"
He had always loved the Qin family daughter Shen Jingci was playing.
Now it was the transmigrator's turn to be unwilling to accept things.
She had a System that made everyone fall for her and thought she could easily win Gu Qingping over, but he ignored her, while Shen Jingci manipulated her with ease.
She'd read too many novels and really thought the people of the past were easy to fool.
*
The System said she was a vicious villainess. So she refused to do as it said.
Shen Jingci bought a newspaper office. She reported not only on royal secrets and the gossip of the great families, but also on ordinary city life and the hardships of the common people.
She recruited talented people from everywhere. Gifted women, martial heroines, and all the sheltered young ladies came to write songs of praise for women.
From the Imperial Guards to the beggars, even princes became part of the intelligence network she built with her own hands.
She even used rare mineral deposits as bait in her newspaper to lure her targets into a trap, joining forces with the returning Qin Xia.
With vermilion ore veins as their blade, they toppled the Tang and Qin families and took revenge for every injustice they had suffered.
She had once been the lowest of the poor. Now she was the richest woman alive, using her wealth to help the world. No one called her vicious anymore.
The woman everyone hated became everyone's darling. What did she have to fear from a transmigrator?
Until the original male lead, Second Young Master Tang, was recognized as a member of the imperial family and pointed his sword at their throats to take revenge.
The wastrel prince, who had hidden his abilities and endured in silence, shed his disguise that day and led his cavalry to storm the palace gates.
He brushed the blood from her skirt, his voice trembling softly.
"There is no Shen Qingyi, and no Qin family daughter. There is only one person I love: Shen Jingci."
Keywords: #TheViciousVillainessAwakensAndBecomesAWorkaholic #TheWastrelPrinceIsActuallyHopelesslyInLove #TheTrueAndFakeDaughtersTeamUpAgainstTheTransmigrator
#BothLeadsAreDevotedAndStrong #MarriageFirstLoveLater, specifically for the heroine, then a rekindled romance #EnsembleOfWomen
Theme: The malice and restrictions of society cannot crush an ambitious woman.
