The Female Literary Master of the Eighties

This is an old story from 2021. Read and buy with caution. Check the comments first. Thank you all for your company (bows).

Her first fiance cheats and breaks off their engagement. Her second fiance elopes with her cousin. Her third fiance slips and falls into the water the night before they are supposed to register their marriage, and dies!

The year is 1982. Li Xue'an transmigrates into the body of a woman with the same name. Her reputation as a husband-killer has spread throughout the surrounding villages, and the large bride price that should have been hers has vanished.

Deep in debt, she has no choice but to pick up her old trade: writing novels. She is a bestselling author, after all!

She teaches men to dress neatly and charm women, explains proper contraception, teaches women to stand on their own feet and use the law to protect themselves, and, when inspiration strikes, even throws in a few tips on how to catch a husband cheating!

As she writes, she somehow earns herself a new title: champion of women's rights.

Li Xue'an: "Men need a good scolding to amount to anything."

The whole nation secretly watches, unable to imagine what kind of man could handle this champion.

Xu Zhiguo: "There's no such thing as 'handling' your spouse. It should be mutual respect."

As he speaks, he picks up a basin of comfortably warm water and sets it in front of Li Xue'an so she can wash her feet.

In the future, Xu Zhiguo will be a household-name national heartthrob.

He devotes his life to crop breeding, dramatically increasing grain yields, and his achievements are recorded in textbooks.

His looks are also widely praised. Hailed as the most handsome man in science, he gets tens of thousands of comments calling him "husband" under news reports about him.

(Xu Zhiguo: They must have too much to eat.jpg)

He never marries, adopting only two nephews. When he dies, the whole world mourns.

Li Xue'an, who is terrified of changing history: For the first time, I'm afraid of a man.

After his older brother dies in the line of duty and his sister-in-law runs off, Xu Zhiguo is left with two young children. He has no choice but to drop out of school and go home to deal with this huge problem.

Everyone tells him to get a wife. He wasn't interested, until he met Li Xue'an.

Please note: This is a fictional setting with no real-life models. One-to-one romance, female-led story, mostly everyday family life. The heroine isn't actively campaigning for women's rights. The hero is very attentive to his wife, but he's just an accessory.

My Second Marriage as a Nanny in the 1980s is currently serializing. Visit the author's profile to add it to your collection.

New novel blurb:

Yuan Zhanying returns to 1985. Her husband's mistress hooks an arm through Yu Jintao's and looks down at her. What follows is decades of nightmare:

Her meek endurance leads to a marriage where husband and wife share a bed but not a heart. The mistress moves into their home, the illegitimate child takes over the family assets, and her daughter falls into depression.

Given another chance, she can't put up with it anymore.

Divorce. She has two working hands, and she's willing to work hard. She refuses to believe she can't survive on her own.

Lin Deming looks polished on the outside, but his home life is a mess. After his mother works herself into chronic back pain, she finally decides to hire a housekeeper.

Not too pretty, or she'll obviously have her mind on the wrong things. Not too old, or who knows which one of them will end up taking care of the other. Not too skinny, or she'll be all skin and bones with no strength...

After going through countless candidates, he finally meets Yuan Zhanying.

The housekeeper has too many tricks up her sleeve. She ties her apron tight while cooking to show off her lovely figure. She kneels to scrub the floor late at night, her thighs and ankles so pale they seem to shine. When she brings lunch to his workplace, she deliberately greets every colleague, as though staking her claim.

Because she is exceptionally good at her job, Lin Deming puts up with it.

But after she spends three days in a row dressed to the nines, leaving him tossing and turning in the middle of the night, he can't take it anymore.

He has to make his position clear. No matter how much she tries to seduce him, it won't work. He's a university professor, and he would never fall for a divorced woman with a child.

After having his proposals rejected again and again, Lin Deming can't sit still and recruits his mother to plead his case.

After being pressed for a long time, Yuan Zhanying mutters the truth:

"I can support myself, and my daughter is sweet and well-behaved. If I marry again, having children and running the household will become my duty. How could I be better off than I am now, having to ask someone else for money?"

"Besides, Mr. Lin is handsome and accomplished. Why would he be interested in me? Is he marrying me just to save on housekeeping costs?"

Lin's mother keeps nodding as she listens. That could be it.

Lin Deming: "?"

Please note: The male lead has never had sex; the female lead has. The plot is pure wish fulfillment, mostly everyday family life.

The heroine is fat but fair and beautiful, and will fail to lose weight eight million times. The hero is chauvinistic, and believes it wholeheartedly.

The romance in the early part is entirely in the hero's imagination as he wins himself over. From the heroine's perspective, it's a marriage first, love later.

Theme: Women should stand on their own two feet.