Ignoring the Female Lead's Inner Thoughts in a Period Novel [The 1980s]

To repay a life-saving debt and fulfill her friend's dying wish, Zhou Xiaowei wants to develop an affordable, high-quality frostbite ointment, so that everyone can have one, then another, and another.

But despite studying hard, she has limited talent and fails to get into a related program, so she is forced to study the humanities. As soon as she graduates, her family starts pressuring her to marry:

Her retired soldier father wants a son-in-law in the military; her mother has her heart set on a skilled chef; her eldest sister thinks teachers make good husbands; and her newly married younger sibling, belly already showing, asks whether marrying within the family might be a good idea.

Even worse, her cousin, who has returned home wealthy, insists on setting her up with a lazy, slippery ne'er-do-well, swearing that he will one day become the richest man in Huaxia!

Zhou Xiaowei is so furious she faints. When she wakes, she hears her cousin's thoughts:

[The richest man kept finding one substitute after another to ease his grief over Zhou Xiaowei's early death.]

[She won't listen no matter how much I try to talk her out of it. She's hopeless. No wonder in her last life she married that short-lived guy who died after being hit by a car, just to spite me!]

[So I was reborn and awakened to my role? I'm actually the heroine of The Eighties' Queen of Street Stalls? I'm the one the richest man cherishes most? Zhou Xiaowei is just a supporting female character meant to be my foil?]

[...]

After learning she has less than two years to live, Zhou Xiaowei decides to take both paths at once. Since she doesn't have enough talent herself, she'll find a brilliant technician through matchmaking and continue the research. Meanwhile, in her spare time, she'll write down the warmth she encounters while following the army through icy lands, hoping people will remember the simple dream shared by two little girls.

She never expects her novel to become a hit.

And she never expects the brilliant technician to be able to do the research, or to encourage her to become the queen of medicinal skincare and fulfill her dream completely.

After using her reborn knowledge to get ahead, Shen Lanhua plans to help her sisters out a little.

But Zhou Xiaowei is so stubborn she won't listen to advice and isn't interested in Li Yimin. She doesn't even stop to think that Li Yimin comes from a good family, his grandfather is a factory director, he's well educated with a technical-school diploma, and he's handsome too. Even if he lazes around, his family is wealthy.

After getting so angry that she awakens, Shen Lanhua realizes that she is actually the heroine, and Li Yimin is her perfect match.

In the story, Zhou Xiaowei sees that after she reforms and persuades Li Yimin, he not only succeeds in his career but also becomes gentle and devoted. She regrets her choice and uses every means at her disposal to seduce him, trying to become his mistress.

Shen Lanhua: "…"

Shen Lanhua is delighted and, following the plot, gets drunk and pregnant. But after they register their marriage, Li Yimin still lives it up and keeps looking for substitutes.

Shen Lanhua is furious. Unable to accept it, she keeps checking up on Zhou Xiaowei.

But she sees that Zhou Xiaowei is alive and well.

She wasn't framed, pushed aside, or laid off. She rebuilt her household-products factory with her own hands.

She didn't end up a living widow. She has a son and a daughter, and even when Zhou Xiaowei's husband sends people to seduce her, they can't lure her away.

Instead, Zhou Xiaowei drives Shen Lanhua's company into bankruptcy and forces her to kneel and beg for mercy.

Meeting Gu Sijia's gloomy, deathly stare, Shen Lanhua suddenly remembers something. In her previous life, young people called him a business tycoon. He destroyed his family's ancestral business and sent his stepmother and younger brother to prison. He was famous for showing no mercy, even to his own family, and for being ruthless.

Theme: No matter how old you are, you have the right to pursue happiness.