The Scheming Beauty Became a Sensation After Pretending to Be Deeply in Love

[Blurb revised before the story begins. Core elements remain: a beauty-enhancing System, an ambitious and self-serving female lead, and a harem of men competing for her.]

This story is also titled Everyone Says I'm a Lovesick Fool.

Su Ling'er had a hard life.

In her mountain village, only boys were allowed to study. When she was ten, she spent a whole week squatting outside the home of a volunteer teacher before finally getting to attend first grade.

She wasn't clever, and skipped grades to save money. She never went to bed before midnight. At nineteen, she got into an ordinary university in the capital and made it out of the mountains.

But by then, her family was deep in debt to loan sharks.

Her parents treated her badly, but she couldn't abandon her ten-year-old sister. Having been caught in the rain herself, she wanted to hold an umbrella for someone else.

During her four years at university, while others had fun, she worked to pay off the debt. She washed dishes every day, and the skin on her hands cracked and healed, then cracked again.

At twenty-three, the year she graduated, she paid off her family's debts.

That was also the year she learned she wasn't her parents' biological child. Her real parents were the wealthy Ding family, and the woman who had raised her had deliberately switched the babies.

Ding Baozhu, the girl who took her place, was cherished and adored, just as her name suggested.

Su Ling'er had actually seen her before.

No one knew that the most dowdy girl at A University wanted to become a livestreamer, enter show business, and be loved by many people.

Between serving tables, Su Ling'er would watch livestreams and all kinds of galas, drawing from them the strength to keep going. Her greatest dream was to pay off the debt and try her luck in Hengdian.

Ding Baozhu was the princess surrounded by all kinds of celebrities and top-tier stars on those livestreams.

She came from a distinguished family and had a doting older brother. Su Ling'er, meanwhile, had only a troublesome younger brother, and even the younger sister she cherished scolded her for not caring whether the family lived or died.

The Ding family came looking for Su Ling'er for one reason: her biological older brother was sick and needed a bone marrow donor.

How could Su Ling'er stand up to a powerful family? How absurd. She died at twenty-four, on the operating table while donating bone marrow to her biological brother.

*

When she woke again, she had returned to the year she started university.

She was ugly, stupid, and carried the country bumpkin's air she could never wash away.

But none of that mattered.

This time, her greatest strength was that she had no feelings and only wanted to succeed.

She would climb to the very top and see the dazzling view from there.

The day System 22 arrived, she knew:

One day, she would absolutely make it.

*

System 22 envied its twin brother, 21, who had started enjoying retirement. Even a System from some backwater wanted to trick a powerful Host into carrying it to an easy win!

Step one to an easy win: find a top-quality Host!

...Forget it. I don't have enough energy. I'll just make do with whoever. T T

Much later, looking at its Host, now a true beauty, System 22 suddenly realized that its eye for talent was just as good as its brother's.

*

"A peerless beauty is loved by countless people."

"I'm not beautiful, but if I have countless people love me, I can become a peerless beauty, too."

"The first step to being loved is to give my love."

The female lead's early approach to winning people over: she pretends to be devoted and is willing to lower herself as much as it takes. She can even fool herself. Everyone calls her a "lovesick fool" and a "silly girl," but it's all an act.

The male leads never see through her disguise. They only think they're scum and blame themselves for not cherishing her. Then comes the regretful chase.

And the female lead? Keep on fawning, and in the end you'll have everything.

(Her goal is always to build her own career, not marry into a rich family.)

Or rather, marrying into a rich family is just a stepping stone for her.

*

A victim's words:

"She said she loved me and came close to me on her own. Her ordinary face was full of uncertainty, and her eyes shone so brightly I could barely look at her... I knew no one would ever love me the way she did."

"But when I took out my heart and placed it in her hands, she said it was too late. She was tired."

"...Then this time, let me be the one to love you."

*

"Beneath an ordinary body lies a soul unwilling to be ordinary."

"Ambition grows without restraint."

"My name is Su Ling'er. Ling is not the character for 'pity.'"

Favorability = Beauty

An incredibly ambitious female lead.

1. The System assigns missions, and the female lead wins over different targets to unlock a peerless beauty bloodline. Very over-the-top, and I love it.

2. A growing female lead. She looks cool and fragile, but is cold-hearted and unyielding inside. She's not a good person, but a love con artist, with both sides willing.

3. She has many ex-boyfriends, but only dates one person at a time. She's essentially loved by everyone, so the men stay faithful even after they break up.

4. There will be scummy men and crazy men.

5. Melodramatic, satisfying, and full of rapid-fire regretful chases. This is exactly my thing.

6. This is essentially a fluffy wish-fulfillment story. Please don't apply it to real life.

Blurb screenshotted 2022.11.4

Theme: Everyone is a passing traveler on life's journey. Only the self keeps moving forward.