Jiang Li transmigrates into a book about a real and fake heiress as the real daughter of the prime minister. Raised in the countryside, she endures countless hardships to return to her birth parents, only to discover that everyone loves the fake heiress.
The original Jiang Li resented and bullied the fake heiress. On her wedding day, she took the fake heiress's place and married her fiance, Prince Ning. When the truth came to light, she was divorced, beaten, cast out, and left to die in a separate estate belonging to the prince. She became a laughingstock in the capital and a disgrace the prime minister's household refused to acknowledge.
After transmigrating into the book, Jiang Li starts off covered in injuries, abandoned in a dilapidated estate where no one ever visits. It's desolate, miserable, and she is waiting to die.
To stay alive, Jiang Li grits her teeth and bears the pain, surviving on wild greens and fruit. She clears wasteland, grows vegetables and crops, and makes delicious food, all while focusing on earning money and escaping her cannon-fodder fate.
That winter, Jiang Li rescues a handsome young servant who is badly injured at the estate. Thinking he is another unfortunate victim of the villainous Prince Ning, she feeds him well and promises to elope with him, roam the world together, and never part, in life or death.
They fall for each other, their feelings perfectly matched.
On the Lantern Festival, the day for family reunions, Jiang Li packs her things and leaves the prince's estate. After waiting in vain for her beloved, she is heartbroken and blames herself for being blind and giving her sincere love to the wrong person.
But in the heavy snow, she is surrounded by servants from Prince Ning's estate. The gentle, handsome young servant from before has transformed into the lofty Prince Ning. "A-Li, you are the princess consort I formally married. Where are you going?"
Jiang Li curses inwardly. In the novel, Prince Ning is a major villain. She can't afford to get involved with such a walking calamity. "Your Highness? Have you perhaps forgotten? Jiang Li was divorced and driven out of the prince's estate long ago. I have nothing to do with your household!"
"Jiang Li, you liar! You were the one who said you'd elope with me!"
Jiang Li wishes she could go back in time and slap herself twice. "Your Highness, I was foolish and deserve to die. Everything I said back then was only a joke. Surely someone as noble as you wouldn't take it seriously."
"A-Li, what if I did take it seriously?" Prince Ning's eyes are red-rimmed, his complex gaze full of reluctance and pleading.
Theme: Stand on your own two feet and grow stronger
