The Beautiful Mom Is Done [The 1970s]

[The novel I transmigrated into as a cannon-fodder character, I quit showbiz and found a stable job has begun serializing. Please add it to your reading list!]

To outsiders, Qi You seems to have won at life.

By a twist of fate, she married the much-coveted Educated Youth Lu. Even after he got into college and returned to the city, he didn't forget to bring her and their children with him.

Her in-laws didn't look down on her for being from the countryside, either. They even arranged a job for her.

Her husband was ambitious, and both their children were bright, getting into prestigious universities. Her in-laws were easygoing and never mistreated her. Who wouldn't praise Qi You for being so lucky?

But only Qi You knew how hard it really was.

Her husband treated her with icy courtesy. He had married her out of a sense of responsibility, nothing more.

Her in-laws ignored her, constantly reminding her without a word of the gap between her and her husband.

Even her children weren't close to her. They treated her like a distant relative.

All those years of giving and trying to please everyone had been nothing but a way to make herself feel better.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the past. Qi You decided she would stop humiliating herself to please her husband and his family.

As for her children, she looked down at the two little ones clinging to her.

This time, she would never hand them over to her in-laws. She could raise them well herself. She would go to college and build a career of her own, instead of being someone's appendage.

[Coming soon: After quitting showbiz and finding a stable job, why am I even more famous?]

Shi Ning transmigrated into a book as the cannon-fodder supporting actress who competes with the female lead, an award-winning actress, for the male lead.

But cannon fodder always end up miserably. Thinking of the ending in the book, where everyone denounced her and people threw eggs at her whenever she went out, Shi Ning couldn't help shaking her head. Quit showbiz. She had to quit.

Just then, her parents gave her an ultimatum: quit showbiz and come home to take the civil service exam. If she passed, they'd buy her a car and a house and restore her allowance.

Shi Ning: Is that really an option? It's just going back to my old line of work. I can do this.

*

After three months of intensive studying, Shi Ning finally passed the exam. With her parents' reward in hand, she happily settled into her secure government job. Shi Ning couldn't stop thinking how great it was.

Just as her haters began to suspect she was up to something again, an official account's short video, "Xiao Shi Shows You How to Pay Social Security," went viral.

Haters everywhere: ????

Her rivals: Shi Ning actually went and got a job at the Social Security Bureau behind our backs?

Shi Ning: Thanks for asking. I'm at the Tax Bureau.

Netizens: The Tax Bureau? Do you mean the one I'm thinking of?

*

Soon, a rising actress in showbiz got exposed over tax issues.

Netizen 1: Isn't that the actress Shi Jie unfollowed a while ago?

Netizen 2: Be bold. You can leave out the 'isn't.'

Netizen 3: Follow Shi Jie to the front line of the gossip!

Shi Ning: It really was just a coincidence. Do you believe me?

Netizens: Don't believe rumors, don't spread rumors. Follow Shi Jie and you'll never get canceled.

Shi Ning: ???? Never mind. I'll just keep livestreaming guides to filing annual individual income tax returns!

*

A promotional video for a top-tier hospital made a neurosurgeon featured in it an overnight sensation. People flocked to the comments to call him their husband.

Fans tracked down his social media account and soon discovered his interactions with Shi Ning, the newly crowned national heartthrob.

Netizens: As expected of Shi Jie. She's always on the front line of the gossip!

Shi Ning: Is it possible that he really is my husband?

[Coming soon: The kid in the stepmother story set in the olden days is done being a pawn.]

Every stepmother story has a father who starts out down on his luck but later succeeds, and a terrible biological mother who values money and status above all else.

The stepmother wins over everyone around her with her warmth and kindness, including the father, and the two become a loving couple admired by all.

After transmigrating, Gu Qing became one of the pawn-children won over by the stepmother.

The only purpose of a pawn-child is to move the plot forward and highlight how awful the biological mother is and how kind the stepmother is.

On one side, her terrible biological mother uses the siblings every day to play on their father's affections, hoping to get close to him and reconcile.

On the other, their stepmother is warm, friendly, and kind in front of others, but cold and distant behind closed doors. She saves her smiles for her own children.

They are nothing but pawns in their mothers' struggle to win their father's affection.

Thinking of the book's ending, the stepmother's children all grow up to be successful big shots.

"She" tries to steal the male lead from her stepsister, the stepmother's daughter, and her own father throws her out.

Her brother, Ji Lang, is sent to a care facility by their stepmother, who claims it's for his own good, because of his autism.

Ji Qing slammed her hand on the table. She was done being a pawn. She would strike out on her own with her autistic brother.

Everyone who knew the Gu family said the siblings had gone crazy. They weren't even ten years old, yet they were demanding to split from the family. In the end, all they got was a dilapidated building.

Everyone waited to see the two siblings make fools of themselves.

But instead of a joke, they got news that the area was being redeveloped. Their father and stepmother were green with envy. Ji Qing turned a tiny clothing shop into an industry leader and became a world-renowned designer.

And her autistic brother recovered and became a world-famous pianist.

Everyone was dumbfounded, especially the stepmother. Hadn't she and her children been the main characters?

Theme: Independence and self-reliance are the foundation of a good life.