The Soft and Beautiful Woman in a Period Novel Awakens

The story next door, The Wife Who Died Young in the 1990s Transmigrates, has started updating! Visit my profile to check it out.

The new story is an experiment with a different kind of period drama, featuring time travel. The heroine travels between the young male lead and his counterpart from eighteen years in the future.

Blurb:

Xie Xiaoyu is the youngest daughter of the village chief. She's pretty, sweet, and charming, with big, expressive eyes.

Xie Xiaoyu falls for a young intellectual sent down to the countryside. She turns the little grain she has into rice balls, wraps them in lotus leaves, and secretly slips them into Yan Yi's pocket.

She looks after his family, who are living in the cowshed, and cares for his frail little sister.

But Xie Xiaoyu doesn't know whether Yan Yi likes her...

After the Yan family is cleared of its charges, they ask Xie Xiaoyu what she wants.

Xie Xiaoyu sees the plot of a parallel world, where another version of her uses her past kindness as leverage to marry Yan Yi. They spend the rest of their lives as a bitterly mismatched couple.

Knowing the plot in advance, Xie Xiaoyu changes her answer just in time. Instead of saying, "I want to be Yan Yi's wife," she says, "I want to be Yan Yi's little sister."

After the Yan family returns to the city, Xie Xiaoyu also returns to work. Making money makes her happy. Her only problem is Yan Yi, who keeps turning up in front of her for no reason but never tells her whether he likes her.

Furious, Xie Xiaoyu swears she'll find a man a hundred times better than Yan Yi.

Someone introduces Xie Xiaoyu to a prospective match. Yan Yi happens to be there when they meet.

Xie Xiaoyu introduces Yan Yi to the man across from her. "This is my older brother..."

Yan Yi gives a cold smile. "The last man who believed that ended up with a broken leg. My partner runs off to the matchmaking market every time we argue. Don't mind us."

Blurb for After Becoming the Disabled Big Shot's Substitute Bride in the 1990s:

The year Gu Chengfeng became paralyzed, his fiancée Lin Zhi's younger sister ran away. Her family couldn't repay the betrothal money, so they made Lin Zhi take her sister's place and marry Gu Chengfeng, who had been paralyzed in an accident.

Lin Zhi takes care of him in the Gu household as his fiancée, but Gu Chengfeng still refuses to marry her.

Later, Gu Chengfeng's legs recover. When he can walk again, he wants to marry Lin Zhi, but she has already left the Gu household.

When they meet again, both are single. Gu Chengfeng marries her, and for a few years they live together with mutual respect. Their life isn't good, but it isn't bad either.

A car accident traps them both. Lin Zhi asks Gu Chengfeng, "You married me to repay me, didn't you? If we could start over, please don't marry me."

Gu Chengfeng slowly closes his eyes. "All right. If you get the chance to change your mind, make sure you're happier than you were with me."

They make this promise to each other. But when they open their eyes, Lin Zhi is reborn in the second year of their marriage, on the third day of their separation.

In their previous life, this separation marked the beginning of the distance between them. This time, Lin Zhi calls Gu Chengfeng. "Honey, I'm hungry. I want something to eat."

Gu Chengfeng buys fresh meat and vegetables on his way home and cooks three dishes and a soup.

Reborn, Lin Zhi puts an end to the cold war they had in their previous life. She blinks her bright, dewy eyes and says sweetly, "Honey, I missed you so much after just one day apart."

Gu Chengfeng: "..."

His colleagues discover that their usually aloof Captain Gu absolutely spoils his fussy little wife.

Someone asks Gu Chengfeng why he loves Lin Zhi so deeply and remains faithful to her to the end.

Gu Chengfeng says, "I was young and reckless. Later, I didn't know how to express myself, and I owed her so much. Only now do I understand what love feels like."

Theme: A woman should be self-reliant.