After finishing a romance novel about an emperor and his minister's wife, Jiang Miao read about Xie Fanghua, the wife of the Marquis of Wu'an's heir. At a palace banquet, she accidentally drank some wine and, through a twist of fate, spent the night with Emperor Weizhao of Chengyang. Thus began her legendary life as the emperor's sole favorite in the harem.
Jiang Miao had the same name as a barely noticeable cannon-fodder character. She had forced herself to finish the entire novel despite her discomfort, never imagining that the author's lengthy extra chapter would make her name suddenly prominent and leave her so frustrated that her chest hurt.
Who would have thought that the next morning, she would wake up as the Jiang Miao in the book? By then, the emperor had already decided to keep the heroine in the palace by force. To show his sincerity, he turned around and chose the most beautiful among the consorts who had yet to be favored, offering her to the Marquis of Wu'an's heir in exchange for his wife.
That consort was Jiang Miao.
Counting the extra chapters, this cannon-fodder character appeared for less than two thousand words in the whole book.
To change her fate, Jiang Miao left the palace again, only to find that the flap of her butterfly wings had made Lu Dan, the Marquis of Wu'an's heir, lose his memory. Worse, he mistook her for Xie Fanghua and couldn't wait to dote on her? (No replacement romance. The male lead is pretending to have amnesia, but is actually reborn.)
Absolutely not!
When she decided to leave the palace, she had no intention of being trapped in the inner courtyard. She wanted to venture into this man's world and see if she could change it!
...Coming soon...
The Virtuous Wife's Contrast Character, also known as Second Marriage, A Wife's Second Spring, Just as My Second Spring Begins, My Ex-Husband Rises from the Dead, and Longing for the Moon
When Fu Wanyue woke up, she was shocked to discover that she was the contrast character to the heroine in a novel.
They had both married wealthy, dissolute men. The heroine had married up because she had been careful with her words and observed proper etiquette at a banquet, while Fu Wanyue had married down because an accident had ruined her reputation.
After marriage, the heroine paid her respects morning and evening, behaved dutifully, and constantly encouraged her husband to improve himself.
Fu Wanyue, on the other hand, often fooled around and joked with her husband, taking little interest in his future.
The heroine's husband eventually passed the imperial examinations and became an official, while Fu Wanyue's husband could only abandon literature for military service and risk his life to make a future for himself.
When news arrived that both men had died in the line of duty, Fu Wanyue had an ambiguous scandal with another man in the second year of her widowhood, and eventually left to wander far from home, with nowhere to settle.
The heroine, however, observed the rules for widows and devoted herself to mourning. Despite all kinds of difficulties, she gritted her teeth and persevered. In the end, her husband returned alive, and she earned everyone's respect.
She also gave birth to three sons in a row and received praise from the empress for her virtue, securing a position no one could ever shake.
Remembering that Fu Wanyue had once come from a family so prestigious that it seemed beyond reach, the heroine thought she was probably now enduring a hard and miserable life in some remote wasteland.
She reflected that even in ancient times, a person's family background did not entirely determine their fate.
Fu Wanyue thought for a long time, still unable to understand why the heroine, a fellow transmigrator, was so messed up!
But then again, she really had married down to a dissolute man, and had been widowed for only half a year...
Several years later, at a palace banquet.
Looking at the original heroine standing below with her head respectfully bowed, Fu Wanyue, now empress, sighed silently.
The novel had never mentioned that her supposedly dead husband could come back to life, too.
Oh well. At least her conscience was clear.
Theme: Strive to change your fate
