After Failing the College Entrance Exam, I Set My Sights on Prosperity [The 1980s]

You Xu transmigrated into a period novel as a failed college entrance exam candidate. Fortunately, she got bound to a Bookstore System when she transmigrated. Thanks to the cheap materials available, she opened a book-rental shop near a university.

On the north back street of Donghai University, a newly opened rental shop called "Keep Improving" stood out from the rest. Every now and then, a few uniquely printed novels of rather poor quality would appear on its shelves: The Chaos Pill Emperor, Lin Fan's Immortal Cultivation Story, Martial Dao Supreme, My Tomb-Raiding Adventures, The Temptation of the Wolf...

The titles were strange, but readers couldn't put the books down. They were thrilling and rousing. What's more, when the proprietress happened to meet someone she considered destined, she would occasionally gift them precious academic papers. Graduates who had spent two or three months slaving away in the lab with little to show for it treasured them like priceless gems...

You Xu had thought the Bookstore System was useless, something to amuse herself with in her spare time. Its greatest use, she figured, was to add a few exclusive titles to the shop now and then. But unexpectedly, the novels drew more and more passionate readers...

A philosophy student couldn't wait for the next volume of the immortal cultivation novel and came to ask for guidance in earnest. An archaeology student asked if she could release a tomb-raiding series, and even wanted to know the exact location of the Tomb of King Xiang. A university professor respectfully came by to ask about the author of an academic paper and how to contact them. Even a film producer showed up one evening, ingratiatingly handing over a business card and hoping to buy the film and television adaptation rights to a hit novel...

You Xu had only wanted to build a comfortable life, never expecting that one day she'd be counting money until her hands cramped, with so much cash that it hardly meant anything. But what was the deal with that university student named Su Kanbo? He kept dropping by the shop for no reason. Surely a rich, handsome, and popular guy like him at university couldn't also be a passionate tomb-raiding fanatic?

Su Kanbo had heard from his classmate Luo Lili about the rental-shop proprietress's past: she used to run with a rough crowd in high school, hit a teacher shortly before graduation, and handed in a blank paper at the college entrance exam... A rebellious little punk through and through. But when he finally saw her, he realized it was all lies. In a bookshop filled with the scent of ink, a pretty girl in a white dress sat by the window, reading a book and elegantly sipping her coffee. The setting sun rested on her shoulders, warm and healing, like a dream... But the next moment, she slammed her book down on the table, stood up, and cursed angrily: "Damn bootleggers!"

Well, a girl's gotta make a living...

Luo Lili and You Xu had been classmates in high school. They were both poor, but their academic performance was worlds apart. As You Xu's foil, Luo Lili had always felt naturally superior to her, as if she were a cut above. After the college entrance exams, the two had ended up in completely different worlds.

But Luo Lili never dreamed that one day she'd run into You Xu again outside a university. Now You Xu had not only quietly climbed into her social class, but also had classmates and professors flocking to her. Even the boy Luo Lili had secretly loved for so long was among them...

This was simply intolerable!

Theme: Hard work and courage.