A Top-Tier Star from a Wealthy Family Becomes a Stepmom in the 1970s

My next historical romance, Beauty in the Hibiscus, is open for pre-collection. Please visit my author page and add it to your collection. Pretty please!

Blurb:

After a year away from the film industry, award-winning actress Chi Man transmigrates into a script on set, becoming the tragic supporting female character she played in a period drama.

From the very start, her sister-in-law from her maiden family takes over her house, her second husband slaps her in front of his stepchildren, and all the village women call her a shameless woman who covets wealth but refuses to properly serve her husband.

Was this really the golden supporting role meant to mark her return to the screen? Did she sign the contract with her eyes closed?

On top of that, she is the female lead's lifelong foil. The only time she turns evil is at the end of her life. For the sake of the female lead's halo, the screenwriter not only kills off the supporting character, but also makes her repent for her evil deeds, forcing her to reach the end of her life in misery.

After taking in the plot of the original, Chi Man can't stand it for even a second. She angrily flips over every table in sight.

Her sister-in-law from her maiden family has usurped her home and is acting all high and mighty, as if she wants to squeeze the original owner dry? Chi Man takes back the house from the start and orders Wang Guilan and her whole family to get out.

Her second husband, Xie Hongbing, makes the original owner work herself to the bone for the Xie family, serve her parents-in-law and stepchildren, and endure beatings and scoldings at the drop of a hat? Chi Man immediately files for divorce, ruining the Xie family's reputation for abusing their daughter-in-law so they can never find another servant to wait on them.

What? Her foil has finally dropped her innocent act to experience life and wants to challenge her to an ultimate showdown?

Chi Man only wants to make money and take care of her bargain-basement kid, so she might as well get some practice in while she's at it.

When the female lead makes a splash, she exposes her past. When the female lead tries to isolate her, she isolates the female lead instead. When the female lead improves a process, she exposes her for stealing the technology. When the female lead uses any means necessary to climb the ladder, Chi Man accidentally hits like, and the husband the female lead was so proud of is gone.

Song Shiyu trembles: Chi Man, do you have three heads and six arms?

Chi Man: Esteemed foil, your balance is running low. Press 1 to recharge your IQ, press 2 to top up your funds. If none of the above options work, press the pound key to call garbage collection at 666-888.

Pre-collection blurb for Beauty in the Hibiscus:

1.

Wen Yuerong, daughter of the Deputy Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, is breathtakingly beautiful. Countless young noblemen in the capital seek her hand in marriage. Then her father is caught up in a wrongful case, and her grand mansion falls apart.

Facing the catastrophe of having her family property confiscated, Wen Yuerong goes to seek help from a young master of the Song family. Their engagement is suddenly called off. To distance themselves from the matter, the Song family makes Wen's father's situation even worse, and before long he dies in the Imperial Prison.

The Wen family is ruined, and Wen Yuerong is sent to the Imperial Music Bureau. The legitimate daughter of a prominent official's family becomes a courtesan whom everyone feels free to mock.

2.

The first time Shen Chaolun met Wen Yuerong was at Xiangji Temple, in the countryside outside the capital. By a clear stream outside the temple, Wen Yuerong played in the water and teased the fish, then happened to pick up a stone and give it to him.

Shen Chaolun frowned. "This stone is hideous. Also, are we close enough for you to call me that?"

Wen Yuerong replied, "You don't seem to have many friends. Later, when we eat grilled fish, I'll share a banana leaf with you."

Later, Shen Chaolun ate the grilled fish and kept the stone.

In late autumn of the forty-fifth year of Qingzhen, Shen Chaolun met Wen Yuerong again at a birthday banquet in the Shen residence. She was then as beautiful as a hibiscus, standing gracefully among the noble young ladies and outshining them all. Unfortunately, she was already engaged to a young master of the Song family. That night, Shen Chaolun got thoroughly drunk. The following month, he left the capital to repel enemies in the northern desert.

The third time Shen Chaolun saw Wen Yuerong was two years later, at the Hua'e Tower. The once-delicate flower had fallen into a filthy place, where she was mocked and toyed with. In truth, she was already dead inside, merely clinging to life.

She sang lewd songs and recited licentious verses. He asked how she had come to this. She only said, "I lived in vain," without a single word of resentment.

Two months later, a young woman's corpse was found in the moat. That was the last time Shen Chaolun saw Wen Yuerong. He laid her to rest on a small hill outside Xiangji Temple, vowed never to marry, and guarded her day and night. Five years later, Shen Chaolun died in battle. In his final moment, his lips pressed against the stone's entwined-branch pattern.

3.

In the depths of winter in the forty-seventh year of Qingzhen, Wen Yuerong had a long dream. When she awoke, tears had dampened her snowy cheeks. She stepped into the Imperial Music Bureau once more, but this time she found a powerful patron and accepted Shen Chaolun's affection.

Everyone said Shen Chaolun was aloof and eccentric, not someone to trifle with. He was someone one could admire from afar but never approach. Only she knew what she had missed.

Theme: Hard work brings prosperity.