The Pampered Cannon Fodder of the Seventies

[The author's note for Chapter 67 has a bonus extra from the hero's point of view. The blurb for my next novel, After Becoming the Substitute Bride of the Merman King, is at the bottom. Please add it to your reading list, heart you!]

In A Warm Embrace in the Seventies, there's a doomed supporting villainess who tries everything to seduce the male lead, a sent-down youth: she jumps into the water to get wet, repays kindness with resentment, and cycles through crying, making a scene, and throwing herself at him. She's the most textbook cannon-fodder villainess in the book.

Her ending is tragic, too. Even as the beloved daughter of the village brigade leader, she can't escape being driven out of the village and dying of hunger and cold.

The moment Lin Jiajia wakes up, she realizes she's become this doomed villainess. Even worse, she's landed right in the scene where the villainess jumps into the water to force the hero to take responsibility for her.

As the fuse that sets off the hero's anger in the original story, Lin Jiajia nips things in the bud: she kicks the hero aside and swims to safety on her own.

At first, when Lin Jiajia promises He Jinshu she won't pester him, he remains suspicious.

But after one day, then two, then many more, he notices that the person who used to gaze at him with adoration and infatuation has grown distant and cool. Only then does he realize she meant what she said.

Things are unfolding just as he used to wish, but He Jinshu can't explain the strange feeling in his heart. He's especially troubled when he learns she's gone to the city for a matchmaking date, then gone to the movies with her match. A dark, sour jealousy takes root in him.

Later, when he hears she didn't pursue things with her match, he can no longer hold back and confesses his feelings.

Lin Jiajia never imagined that one day the hero of the book would fall for her.

The first time he confesses, she turns him down.

The second time, she still doesn't accept.

But he doesn't give up. He stays by her side like a puppy quietly begging its owner for affection. Unable to resist the flutter in her heart, she finally says yes.

[Please note]

1. The heroine isn't perfect. She can't handle hardship and doesn't cook.

2. The original heroine is not vilified.

3. The story will be around 200,000 words. There aren't many awful or malicious characters. It's mostly about the heroine making money and the leads falling in love. At heart, it's a sweet romance.

[Next Novel Preview]

After Becoming the Substitute Bride of the Merman King

In The Merman's Tear, the legendary ruler of the sea, the Merman King, is described as a sinister, twisted creature, covered in ugly black scales, with a coarse voice, a taste for human blood, and a black mask hiding his face. He's a black demon, a king of death.

Especially after most of the marine life is destroyed later in the story, the Merman King uses all kinds of poisonous sea creatures to make toxic water, spreading it throughout the oceans. Eventually, the currents carry it into human society, bringing humanity and marine life to the brink of extinction. Just before he dies, the Merman King sheds the only tear of his life: the Merman's Tear.

The Merman King never shows his face throughout the entire book, but his final act of choosing mutual destruction rather than surrender leaves a deep impression on Qin Miao.

But the original cause of everything is the bride sent by human society to cement a peace treaty. Terrified of the Merman King, she slits her wrists by the sea. Her blood flows into the azure water, confirming the Merman King's reputation for cruelty and bloodlust.

Human society no longer dares to trust the peace treaty. One insignificant person sets off a butterfly effect, leading to repeated clashes between humanity and the sea, with war raging on.

Now Qin Miao has transmigrated straight into the room of that bride. With no identity and no family to claim her, she has no choice but to take the bride's place.

On her first day as the Merman King's bride, Qin Miao is incredibly nervous. On the second, she's worried about surviving... Many days later, the Merman King still hasn't shown himself, and she secretly lets out a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao befriends a merman. Her new friend is thoughtful, gentle, beautiful, and clingy. He loves to press his blue-and-gold gradient tail against her calves, and he's always the first to give her anything nice he finds.

Then one day, she sees her merman friend wearing a black mask and speaking coldly to his subordinates. That's when she realizes... he's the supposedly wicked Merman King, her missing husband.

In front of his subordinates, the Merman King is cool and imposing.

The Merman King of legend is sinister and terrifying, with a taste for human blood.

The Merman King Qin Miao knows is sensitive, romantic, and a gentle, devoted husband. Every night, he gazes at her with deep blue eyes, tender and clingy, and his tail is always curling around her legs. He can't wait to give her every good thing he has.

[Those rumors led me astray!!]

Theme: Even if you're a villainess, you can still shape your own fate.