After Being Taken In by a Motherly Ice-Cold Beauty

Synopsis:

1. To Que'er, who hates me most in the whole world:

I am the strictest mother in your studies, the worst mentor in love, and the most convincing pretender of a wife. If the only way to earn your forgiveness is to pay for my sins with my life, then take it with your own hands. -- Rong Jiuci

2. In the first year after Rong Jiuci took her in, Xiu Qianque was a dazed little fool, and Rong Jiuci was the strictest mother in her studies.

She made her get up at five and go to bed at midnight, taught her to write essays, practiced English with her, and cared more about her exam scores than the company's profit margins.

The day Xiu Qianque received her university acceptance letter, she saw a gentle look on Rong Jiuci's face for the first time.

Snow from the northern frontier drifted across the woman's face, but rain from Jiangnan fell in the depths of her eyes.

In the second year after Rong Jiuci took her in, Xiu Qianque was a lovestruck fool, and Rong Jiuci was her flawless wife.

Xiu Qianque finally understood why Rong Jiuci was both strict and indulgent, gentle and distant. She granted all her requests, yet never shared her bed.

Xiu Qianque's older sister, Xiu Qianxuan, who had been sickly and died young, had once been the love of Rong Jiuci's life.

The notes Xiu Qianque had memorized were in Xiu Qianxuan's handwriting.

The university she had worked so hard to get into was the one Xiu Qianxuan had entered through automatic admission.

The Rong Jiuci she wanted so desperately had always belonged to Xiu Qianxuan alone.

Every time Rong Jiuci looked at her, she was remembering that brilliant first love.

In the third year after Rong Jiuci took her in, Xiu Qianque resolved to stop competing with the dead.

If Rong Jiuci wanted to be her wife, then she could be her wife.

If she didn't want to be her wife, she could be her sister-in-law, her aunt, or her mother. As long as she stayed by Xiu Qianque's side, that was enough.

Rong Jiuci was Xiu Qianque's only anchor in this world. Rong Jiuci was everything to her.

In the fourth year after Rong Jiuci took her in, Xiu Qianque went abroad on an exchange program as an outstanding student representative.

She often fainted for no apparent reason, but no one could find out why.

When she woke again, she saw her mother, who was supposed to be unconscious from a car accident, her older sister, who was supposed to be dead, and Rong Jiuci, who said nothing.

The weakness of losing blood made her understand: Her mother's coma was a lie, her sister's death was a lie, the diagnosis of an intellectual disability when she was a child was a lie, and all of Rong Jiuci's kindness was a lie!

From the day she was born, Xiu Qianque had been Xiu Qianxuan's blood bank! They had been using her to keep Xiu Qianxuan alive all along!

At twenty-two, Xiu Qianque imprisoned her mother, murdered her sister, and killed her wife. She lost her mind and became a madwoman.

Rong Jiuci covered the scar on her lower abdomen. From then on, the face in her dreams of passion and her nightmares was one and the same.

3. Xiu Qianque, head of the Xiu family, a century-old dynasty of architects, has a strange, haunting, and supernatural artistic style. The 3A game she led at twenty-five was praised as if it had come from beyond the heavens.

She defied convention, betrayed her ancestors, and inspired endless controversy. The most widespread rumor was that she had once forced her sister-in-law into marriage, loved her until it turned to hatred, and hated her enough to kill.

The evidence: every game she developed had one of the same endings, without exception: killing one's wife for revenge, killing one's wife to attain the Dao, killing one's wife to save the world...

Players couldn't understand how the once dimwitted little sparrow, Xiu Qianque, had been so cruelly toyed with that she became the dark, twisted female ghost she was now.

Xiu Qianque sneered at the question.

Which one of us is really the ghost?

The woman who crawls into her bed every night, stubbornly takes her hand and guides it over the scar on her lower abdomen, then keeps going and says she wants to make up for all the love Xiu Qianque was denied in the past: that woman is the real female ghost!

4. Xiu Qianque and Rong Jiuci's relationship has entered a new phase.

A rebellious daughter who deliberately calls her ex-wife "Mommy," and a faithless mommy who takes on the duties of raising her in order to remarry.

Coming home late yet again, Xiu Qianque felt warmth on her lips before she had time to turn on the light.

Someone kissed her with fierce passion.

Xiu Qianque's face remained expressionless. "I remember calling you Mommy when I got up this morning."

So if you aren't going to play the role of a mommy properly and are playing the role of a wife instead, that's crossing a line.

The lights came on. Rong Jiuci's clear eyes lowered slightly. As she licked Xiu Qianque's fingers, she looked utterly innocent. "Que'er, you've called me Mommy for a whole month. Don't you want revenge? Don't you want... me to die by your hand?"

First: a rebellious younger woman, later a gloomy revenge-minded genius x First: a restrained, chaste, maternal beauty, later a debauched, deranged, sinister female ghost

Marriage first, love later / partially raised together / love and hate intertwined / the remorseful pursuit of one's wife

Please note:

1. The setting is entirely fictional, with same-sex marriage. There are countless original worldbuilding details, the plot is melodramatic, and the age gap between the leads is ten years.

2. Xiu Qianque was deliberately registered as intellectually disabled as a child, but is actually a genius.

3. Rong Jiuci has only ever loved Xiu Qianque. She and Xiu Qianxuan were never lovers.

4. No actual wife-killing.

Theme: The pursuit of freedom.