A Makeup Artist’s Daily Life as a Bride Substitute in Ancient Times

The blurb for Second Spring Breeze is at the very bottom. Please add it to your reading list~ [Sweet-tongued, cool-hearted confidante x reckless, frivolous fake wastrel] The Empress Dowager made a disastrous match, pairing Xie Mingrui, a wastrel of the capital who failed the autumn imperial exams year after year, with the most upright and straitlaced young lady in the Hanlin Academy’s household. On their wedding night, Xie Mingrui entered the bridal chamber with a long face. In the flickering candlelight, his new wife sat in her phoenix crown and wedding robes, her eyes bright and her sweet voice soft enough to make his ears melt. She smiled and called him “husband” first. After they married, he wasn’t constrained at all. Somehow, they even got along like a loving couple. He drank and caroused. “Husband, I made you some hangover soup. Take it with you.” He stayed out all night. “Husband, there’s no need to tell me about such trivial things.” Am I being too awful? Feeling a twinge of conscience, Xie Mingrui turned back halfway to Miaoyin Pavilion. He unexpectedly caught his wife climbing over the wall with practiced ease just after he had left home to go carousing. Xie Mingrui: ? Why was his wife going to Miaoyin Pavilion too? Why was she doing people’s makeup there? - Ruan Ruan, a makeup artist, transmigrated one day and got unlucky enough to become a spy for an enemy state. The moment she opened her eyes, she found the Listening Wind Bureau of the Fan Kingdom’s Military Affairs Office conducting a massive manhunt. To avoid prison, she took someone else’s name and married into the Xie family. Xie Mingrui was the sort who seemed stubborn but was soft-hearted and easy to fool. His handsome face was a pleasure to look at, and most importantly, he often stayed out all night, leaving her free to return to her old profession. As her makeup business boomed and even the drunken customers who harassed her became fewer, Ruan Ruan had saved enough money to run away. But then, by chance, she found a copy of The Listening Wind Bureau Daily Log in Xie Mingrui’s study: [June 12] Used an excuse about drinking to catch two enemy spies at Zuixiang Pavilion. [July 5] Used an excuse about going horseback riding to deliver a coded letter to my colleagues at the Listening Wind Bureau in Lincheng for deciphering. [July 18] Day off. Kept watch at Miaoyin Pavilion and secretly chased away the eighth lecher this month who had harassed my wife at work. - Reason for entering the “Growth and Comeback” contest: After transmigrating and falling into difficult circumstances, the heroine never gives up on her dream of working as a makeup artist. She eventually becomes a celebrated ancient-style makeup artist, using her skills to help others and herself and build a better life. Reader advisory: 1. Fictional setting. The logic serves the romance, so please don’t overanalyze it. 2. One-on-one, happy ending, both leads sexually inexperienced. A sweet story about winning back his wife after marriage. The male lead falls first. Second Spring Breeze: A beautiful, gentle woman who has seen through worldly illusions and divorced, determined to build her career x a general who has loved her in secret for years and is finally getting his chance The day Xu Xing was rewarded for his military achievements and made Marquis of Changping, Yu Yan finally received the divorce papers signed by her ex-husband and escaped the mire. With half a chest of dowry and a child, she moved to Jinsui Alley, returned to her old trade, and opened a breakfast shop. A customer, eager for gossip, asked, “Shopkeeper, I hear the Marquis of Changping used to admire you, but you went and married a scholar instead. Do you regret it now?” “What nonsense. The Marquis of Changping was just my old neighbor.” Through the mist rising from the steamer, Yu Yan’s face looked as fresh as it had before she married. “I only regret not giving him more breakfasts back then, so he’d have become successful sooner and come help my business.” As she turned around, a man in black with powerful arms and a narrow waist stood silently in line, a huge saber slung over his shoulder. His imposing presence made the customers give way. Yu Yan looked at her old neighbor. “What would you like, sir?” “Two baskets of buns. No, three.” Later, someone asked Yu Yan’s ex-husband a similar question. “Your ex-wife turned her breakfast shop into the most expensive restaurant in the East Market, and the Marquis of Changping keeps chasing after her to offer his devotion. Do you regret divorcing her?” Her ex-husband gritted his teeth. “When I signed the divorce papers back then, whose knife do you think was at my throat?” Theme: Love means laying your heart bare.