Jiaojiao was born frail, and at her hundred-day celebration, it was prophesied that she would be plagued by illness and misfortune.
In desperation, her mother believed a rumor and adopted a boy, hoping he could "take her fate" in her place.
But Jiaojiao hated him.
She hated the way he looked her over, his shifty, greedy eyes, and, most of all, his frivolity and stupidity.
His eyes were full of schemes. How could a frail girl inherit such immense wealth and a legacy built over a thousand years? But no matter how much he tried to seduce her, flatter her, or sabotage her, nothing worked.
Desperate, he pushed her in front of a speeding truck, hoping to kill Jiaojiao outright.
The accident crushed Jiaojiao's leg. Everyone wanted to kill him, but when Jiaojiao lowered her eyes, she saw his shadow...
It seemed like an illusion. The man's shadow was indistinct, its edges writhing with tentacles of an uncanny shape.
A tentacle reached out from its body and curled around the unfeeling leg beneath her wheelchair.
The man looked up. His eyes were as if something had washed them clean, stripped of their former greed and stupidity. He gazed at her in a trance, like her most fervent believer.
"..."
Something had replaced the man she hated. The thing kneeling before her now was nothing but a horrifying monster.
It was the monster beneath her wheelchair, obsessed with her slender, helpless legs.
It lent her the strength to walk, cleared away her obstacles, and let her vent her anger.
The monster didn't understand what it meant to "use" someone. It only knew that it was "useful."
As long as it was useful, Jiaojiao would beckon it with her tentacles and reward it.
So it had to be a useful monster.
If she granted it just one glance, it would do anything.
* Bad-tempered, frail heiress x obsessed monster
The heroine is frail but highly intelligent, and handles her career with ease.
The hero desperately wants to please the heroine. He's a silly puppy who would do anything for her.
* A matriarchal world, but not the strange kind with "female head of the household" or "men giving birth" settings.
Here, women have more freedom and choices, more rights and wealth, and more say.
The CEOs, family heads, decision-makers, government officials, judges, and so on are all women. Women have higher levels of education and learning than men.
* "Taking her fate" doesn't mean the male supporting character was supposed to die. It's an old folk custom, like confusing the gender of ghosts and misleading the underworld officials. The mother meant to raise the male supporting character alongside the heroine, and he would receive everything he was supposed to, but men wouldn't be given the inheritance or the family business.
The male supporting character deserves his gruesome death for trying to marry into the family for its wealth.
The male lead did not take over the male supporting character's body. He created his own appearance.
Theme: Keep striving to live, even through adversity
