The Beautiful Lady's Sweet Second Marriage [The 1970s]

[Revised multiple times. The complete version is available only on Jinjiang.]

Completed: "The Little Flower Spirit's Military-Wife-Chasing Daily Life in The 1970s"

Blurb: Hao Qingmei is a pitiable supporting character in a period novel. She marries a man who dies on their wedding night, becoming a beautiful young widow at just nineteen, famous far and wide.

Not long after the legendary male lead dies on a mission, the heroine throws her gravely ill mother-in-law out of the house, then turns around and hooks up with someone else, living it up on the compensation money.

A reader named Qingmei is transported into the book and takes in the male lead's mother. Before dying, the mother insists, "In my next life, I'm making sure you marry him!" Only then does she close her eyes in peace.

Qingmei thinks that's the end of it.

After waking from a nap, she finds herself in a dilapidated house at the very start of the novel. That day, the male lead's mother is supposed to take betrothal gifts to the heroine next door.

Qingmei settles in to watch. At worst, she'll get to see them perform the whole drama again.

But while the heroine is at home, waiting in vain for someone to come, Qingmei's shabby, looked-down-upon house fills with people bearing betrothal gifts. At the front stands none other than the male lead's mother, whom Qingmei had comforted on her deathbed.

The heroine rushes over and points next door. "Auntie, my house is the third one. You've gone to the wrong place."

The male lead's mother shoves her aside and points at Qingmei. "No, I'm bringing the betrothal gifts for her, not you!"

*

Regimental Commander Gu gets a phone call at his army post.

His mother: "I've found you a wife. She's beautiful!"

Gu Qingzhou: "Arranged marriages are unacceptable."

His mother: "Donghe Village, Second Brigade, Fifth Row, House Four. Not House Three."

Gu Qingzhou: "Forcing someone to marry is illegal."

His mother: "Fine, then I'll go be her mother. You can be my son-in-law who married into her family, at most."

Gu Qingzhou: "...What are her details?"

His mother: "A beautiful young widow. She's quite a catch. Get back here, quick!"

Gu Qingzhou: "…" She's probably a fraud.

Everyone says Gu Qingzhou rushes home in a fury to catch the con artist. Who would have thought he'd spend all his energy pursuing Qingmei, and now has her pressed against the door, urgently seeking a kiss?

After the wedding, everyone says mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law don't get along, especially when the bride is a widow. But everyone soon learns that the short-tempered mother-in-law obeys Qingmei in everything and practically treats her like royalty.

One day, the heroine, now down on her luck, comes to pick a fight.

Before she can even see Qingmei, her mother-in-law charges out first: "Ugh, what a nuisance! Get lost!"

2024.5.26

(This story is fictional, with no real-life inspirations or implications.)

Theme: May the world treat the elderly with kindness