Marrying a Hoodlum in the 1980s

My next book will be "Joining a Family Reality Show with My Infamous Brother." Please add it to your reading list. The blurb is below this one.

Blurb for this story:

Though Xie Yanzhi's name sounded refined, he was a notorious thug in the county. His name alone could stop children from crying. Nobody could say exactly what bad things he had done, but everyone thought of him as vicious and sinister.

The people of the county hated the thug Xie Yanzhi most of all. Behind his back, they called him Xie Er Gou.

When Xie Yanzhi was around, nobody showed their dislike. Behind his back, they cursed him for dishonoring the name his father had given him and tarnishing his ancestors' reputation.

Li Zhenzhen used to think the same way.

Like everyone else, she hated the notorious thug. She hated even more the mother-in-law who forced her to honor their childhood betrothal.

Only later did Li Zhenzhen realize how terribly wrong she had been.

This man had treated her so well, yet she had never cherished him.

Her mother-in-law had treated her like her own daughter. Apart from the one time she had insisted Li Zhenzhen fulfill the marriage agreement, she had never forced her to do anything she didn't want to.

Now Li Zhenzhen has returned to the night of her wedding to Xie Yanzhi, the night she had been most willful in her previous life.

She set down the bowl she had been about to smash and walked toward the man she hadn't seen in five years.

*

Only as she was dying did Li Zhenzhen truly understand Xie Yanzhi.

He had accepted everything about her and quietly given his all behind her back. Even before he died, he had paved her future with every good thing imaginable.

It was a pity Li Zhenzhen had realized it too late.

Fortunately, Heaven had given her another chance. This time, she would make it up to Xie Yanzhi.

This time, she would show everyone that this man wasn't bad or cruel.

How could a man who would later donate money to build roads and Hope Schools be a bad person?

"One Hundred and One Ways for Brother Yan to Win His Wife"

First move:

Jiang Xiuying yanked her son Xie Yanzhi by the ear and scolded him furiously. "Do you have a mouth? Can't you talk to your wife first for once?"

Twenty-first move:

Little Brother Chen Guoshun said, "Bro, if you're trying to win your sister-in-law over, you have to dress like me. She's a teacher, so you need to look trendy and cool."

Xie Yanzhi asked doubtfully, "Really?"

Chen Guoshun clutched his chest. "As true as my heart."

Then Li Zhenzhen saw her husband, whom she had carefully given a makeover, standing in front of her in a black T-shirt, tight cropped pants, and platform shoes, with a long middle-parted wig on his head.

The visual impact was intense.

*Yan and Zhenzhen, together for life

1. Not a youth-educated or military setting, no stepmother, and no transmigration into a book.

2. A healing story.

3. A teacher and a thug.

My next book will be "Joining a Family Reality Show with My Infamous Brother." Blurb:

The day before Jiang Lin's college graduation party, she had a vivid dream, woke up, and suddenly realized that she was living in an entertainment-industry novel.

She and her fraternal twin brother were a cannon-fodder female supporting character and a villainous male supporting character, nothing but convenient plot devices.

In the book, her villainous younger brother Jiang Lai joined a live-streamed family reality show. The whole internet hated him, passersby threw eggs at him, and after the show ended, he died by suicide after falling into depression.

As for her, she blindly ran the Jiang Group until it went bankrupt, then ended up in prison.

Jiang Lin, who had been involved in the family business for less than three days: "..."

*

The heroine of the book was bright and generous. She gained twenty million followers through the show and even earned the title of "The Nation's Best Big Sister." Her career opportunities were so good that she left everyone else in the dust, landing one leading-role drama after another.

The villainous younger brother became the most hated actor of the year, without question, thanks to his villainous lines on the show.

Throughout the family reality show, the heroine kept humiliating the villainous younger brother and stealing the spotlight.

Jiang Lin: "..."

There was no need to go so far in playing the role of a plot device.

*

After her vivid dream, Jiang Lin stopped Jiang Lai, who was carrying their three-year-old cousin to the show, and declared righteously, "She's a minor. How can you make her work with you? Of course I'm going instead."

Jiang Lin felt wronged. "..."

You were the one who turned me down first.

*

When the live stream began,

Jiang Lin and Jiang Lai's identical faces gave everything away, and #JiangLaiInWomensClothes

shot back to the top of the trending list, sending the family reality show's popularity soaring to number one.

Netizens: [So, did Jiang Lai actually wear women's clothes or not?]

[Jiang Lai could do drag now. Nobody could say he'd look out of place.]

After a day's games,

as soon as they got home, Jiang Lai grabbed his sister's hand.

Jiang Lai: "Sis, Ji Minglu isn't as tall or as handsome as me. Why is he more popular?"

Jiang Lin glanced at the camera that had zeroed in on the siblings, then rolled her eyes. "I don't know why he's popular, but I know why you aren't."

Jiang Lai: "???"

Netizens: [Haha, you can tell they're real siblings just by looking at them.]

[Finally, someone who can handle him.]

[Suddenly, I think I'm shipping these siblings.]

[Am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious when identical faces say things like this?]

*

For a game show where contestants had to do the splits to choose their houses, the heroine of the original book smiled sweetly. "Teacher Jiang Lai has such long legs. You'll definitely come first, right? You'll be the first to choose a house."

With one sentence, she put Jiang Lai on the spot. If he won, fine, but if he lost, he would be humiliated.

Jiang Lin glanced coolly at the influencer, then clapped and shouted to Jiang Lai, "Lai Lai, she's looking down on you. Come on, use your skills to prove yourself!"

Netizens: [...]

[That's my Linlin.]

[Hahahaha, I never expected this to be her reaction.]

[Jiang Lai: Do you have any manners?]

*

After two episodes of the reality show aired, the biggest hit wasn't the heroine of the original book, but the funniest sibling duo of the year: Jiang Ziba.

Jiang Lai also gained fans with his quick tongue on the show, and plenty of netizens flocked to his Weibo account asking him to spill gossip.

Jiang Lin also unexpectedly made her debut on the show.

The Jiang family's cannon-fodder ending from the original book was completely rewritten. Jiang Lin was pleased, but... why was the CEO who lived next door showing up in front of her more and more often?

Reading guide:

1. Told from the heroine Jiang Lin's perspective.

2. The heroine of the original book is portrayed negatively.

3. Please don't compare this to real life.

Thank you, cuties.

Theme: Good days come from hard work and perseverance.