The Delicate Beauty of the 1970s

My neighboring novel, The Heiress of Hong Kong in the 1980s, is now available. Please add it to your reading list!

Synopsis:

[Content warning: The heroine is not a strong female lead. She never goes to college and has no career storyline.]

In her previous life, Wen Mingxi went on a hot-air balloon ride with her family. The weather suddenly changed, and the balloon plunged from the sky... Only to have her accidentally transmigrate into a novel set in a bygone era.

According to the plot, she would marry the male lead, a young intellectual sent to the countryside, and her whole family would wait on him. But before long, her husband would abandon her and their child without hesitation and return to the city.

Ten years later, unable to have a son with his city wife, he would return to the countryside to bring Wen Mingxi and their son back, granting her the honor of having her name added to the family genealogy because she had given him a son.

By then, the male lead would have made it big, and he'd have had countless women in his arms. Meanwhile, the female lead would be stuck at home, enduring her mother-in-law's abuse.

She would die of depression at fifty.

What made Wen Mingxi want to throw the book into a brazier and burn it to ashes was that after the female lead died, her son bluntly called her a parasite who had contributed nothing to the family. He said she was a country bumpkin who didn't know how to behave in polite society, and that she had died young because she couldn't take life.

Wen Mingxi thought... Even giving birth to a piece of barbecue pork would be better than having a son like that! Marrying a rock would be better than marrying that kind of husband!

Han Xianxiao was that rock.

He was unruly by nature. Though he came from a military compound, he was nothing but a spoiled young wastrel.

When Wen Mingxi once again found herself being pestered by a young male intellectual, Han Xianxiao was also chewing on a foxtail grass stalk and worrying: He'd heard his old man wanted to introduce him to a veteran's daughter. She was spoiled and delicate. What kind of nonsense was that...

Han Xianxiao found Wen Mingxi and fell silent for a moment.

Han Xianxiao: "You... I suppose you'd do. But remember, I'm not marrying you because I want to."

Wen Mingxi: "I didn't say yes because I like you, either."

Han Xianxiao: "Good!"

Each got what they wanted, and they hit it off. They quickly got into character, playing a lovesick couple in front of everyone.

With the wedding date approaching, Han Xianxiao said, "How about we just get married first? It's only been a little while. If we split up this quickly, our parents will be furious. Once we're transferred back, we can put an end to this."

Wen Mingxi had been thinking the same thing, so she nodded.

Later on...

Han Xianxiao sat Wen Mingxi on his lap and gently stroked her increasingly rounded belly. At last, he said, "We can't let our baby grow up without a father. And as parents, we have to set a good example, right?"

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Synopsis written December 9, 2022+

Marriage first, love later. Everyday family life, slow and steady.

Set in an alternate world. Not a story about a powerful or strong female lead.

A sweet romance and an everyday-life story.

Content warning: No golden finger.

Theme: Live life well.