In the Seventies, I Married the Male Lead's Older Brother

[Updating slowly, as of July 10]

Liang Zhi was reborn, and this time she decided to live differently.

In her previous life, she and Cheng Mu had been childhood sweethearts and promised themselves to each other. They hadn't made their relationship official in front of their elders, but everyone already considered them a couple and was happy about it.

Later, Cheng Mu's family poured all their resources into pulling strings, and finally got him into a Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers University.

On the day they parted, Cheng Mu told Liang Zhi to wait for him. She agreed and promised to take good care of his parents while he was away.

Three years later, Cheng Mu did return, but he wasn't alone. He had brought a pregnant woman with him.

Cheng Mu smiled as he introduced her to everyone: This was his wife, his university classmate, and the mother of his child.

Liang Zhi was struck as if by lightning.

While Cheng Mu was away studying, his mother had fallen ill, and Liang Zhi had bustled about caring for her. When she was too sick to get out of bed, Liang Zhi helped wash and feed her.

When Cheng Mu's father died, the family couldn't get in touch with Cheng Mu, so Liang Zhi buried him as his daughter-in-law.

In this relatively isolated village, everyone had even assumed Liang Zhi was Cheng Mu's wife, just waiting for him to graduate so they could marry.

Cheng Mu said he hadn't expected things to turn out this way. If Liang Zhi was afraid of gossip, she could keep living in his house as his daughter-in-law.

He also said he and his wife would settle in the city, and explain to people that they were "divorced but still living under the same roof."

Reborn Liang Zhi was so furious she slapped him. "Who said I'm your wife? I'm your sister-in-law!"

Cheng Mu had an older brother, Cheng Songyue.

From childhood onward, he had always kept Cheng Mu firmly in his shadow. As long as Cheng Songyue was around, nobody ever noticed Cheng Mu.

Cheng Songyue enlisted at eighteen, became the youngest regimental commander at twenty-four, then vanished without a trace at twenty-six.

Everyone said Cheng Songyue was dead. Even his mother had stopped expecting her eldest son to return.

At the sound of Cheng Songyue's name, Cheng Mu's voice turned cold. "Suit yourself."

Would marrying a dead man really let her get away with anything?

Liang Zhi gritted her teeth and held herself back from picking up a rock and hurling it at him.

On the very day Cheng Mu was preparing to leave with his wife, a jeep suddenly drove up outside the village.

A tall, stern-looking man stepped out. "Mom, I'm home."

Cheng Mu's mother said, "Son, come here. This is your wife."

She grabbed Liang Zhi and pulled her in front of her eldest son.

------Pre-release Novel 1------

Title: The Real Heiress Goes on a Rampage in a Period Novel

Blurb: When the Zheng family found Su Xiaocao, her fat little brother was riding her like a dog.

Her adoptive mother whipped her with a stick. "Crawl faster! Faster! If Yaozong gets bored, I'll send you back to the mountains."

As far back as Su Xiaocao could remember, she had lived in the mountains.

Many unwanted baby girls had died on the mountain behind her home, but she was tough enough to survive.

Her adoptive mother said it was because she was too tough that they couldn't bring her into the family, or she would bring misfortune to her parents.

So she had to endure the wind and rain, and listen to wolves howling in the middle of the night.

Every night, Su Xiaocao was terrified, afraid of dying and even more afraid of staying alive.

She had no idea when this endless cycle would ever end.

Until the Zheng family came looking for her.

The Zhengs were rich, and her father, Zheng Hongjun, was a second-generation rich kid.

Her father, Zheng Hongjun, said, "Xiaocao is my daughter. Our Zheng family can't leave her out there. How much do you want before you'll hand her over?"

Her mother, Zhang Aiping, said, "Xiaocao, come home with us. From now on, we'll treat you just as well as Zheng Baozhu."

Su Xiaocao cried, then laughed. She went into the kitchen and grabbed a cleaver.

"I don't want money. I want your lives!"

Why should the adoptive parents who treated her like an animal get money?

Why should their daughter, Zheng Baozhu, be treated like a precious gem?

Why should the biological parents who had never once thought of her get to pay their way out of everything?

Later, Su Xiaocao solved every problem by going berserk now and then.

The old patriarch admired her bluntness, and the bigwigs liked her free spirit. Her sincerity and lack of pretension won her a huge following, too.

"Xiaocao's wonderful. If she doesn't like you, have you ever considered that the problem might be you?"

"Hongjun, let me put it this way: without Xiaocao, you're nothing!"

"What precious gem? Zheng Baozhu isn't fit to carry Xiaocao's shoes!"

------Pre-release Novel 2------

Title: The Rich Stepmom in the 1990s

Blurb: Ruan Ruan transmigrated into a book and became a little stepmother in a period novel.

The heroine lived in the same compound. She cared for the elderly above and the children below, had a loving marriage, and gave birth to twins. She was the model woman of the entire compound.

And then there was Ruan Ruan.

Her husband was a layabout. Either he was never in a hurry about anything, or he came home smelling of all kinds of perfume.

The two children her husband had adopted from friends were already grown and weren't on her side. They barely said a few words to her all day.

Her husband's parents didn't like her and absolutely refused to live with her.

Poor Ruan Ruan. Her house wasn't a home, and her life was steeped in misery...

Not at all!

Her husband was never home, and Ruan Ruan was thrilled. Who wanted to spend every day fussing over some smelly man?

The kids were grown and weren't close to her, and she was delighted. They weren't her own children anyway. They could just be friends. Who wanted to spend all day dealing with kids' snot and diapers?

Her in-laws didn't like her, and she was ecstatic. She could eat whatever she wanted and spend all day eating, drinking, getting her hair done, and making clothes with her best friends!

Ruan Ruan had only one problem: she had too much money and couldn't spend it all.

She'd heard that housing prices would skyrocket in the 1990s. Maybe she should trade in her little gold bars for property deeds?

She decided to go for it. Being a landlady was the life!

[April 28, 2024]

Theme: Sunk costs are only a temporary fixation. When it's time to let go, let go.