A Gold-Digging Girl in the 1980s

Ji Mengxi is the unwanted tagalong who enters the family compound when her mother remarries for the third time.

And yet, everyone loves her.

She's beautiful and kind, and can sing and dance...

Every second-generation son in the compound is smitten with her, fighting over the chance to marry her. Everyone except Bo Jun's older brother, Bo Sheng.

Bo Sheng is tall and imposing, with an aura that could swallow mountains and rivers. He's one of the most outstanding men in the compound.

He can't stand women like her, who are so different on the inside from what they show on the outside.

As it happens, she can't stand Bo Sheng either.

He's a rigid, upright, old-fashioned man, and she wants nothing to do with him.

She's had enough of hard times. She never wants to fight dogs for scraps of rice bran again. All she wants is to marry a rich, obedient, gentle man.

The first time Bo Sheng meets Ji Mengxi, she's fourteen and has just moved into the Cheng family home with her mother.

The girl is so pretty and immaculate, like a gardenia just opening on a branch in the courtyard.

It's a shame that this gardenia is poisonous.

On her very first day, a Cheng family girl gets beaten.

In her first year, a Cheng family son falls out with his sister over her.

By the fifth year, the brothers in the compound, once close enough to share a pair of pants, have beaten one another bloody and split apart over her. His younger brother, Bo Jun, even makes a scene at home about wanting to marry her, and is willing to give up joining the army and making a fortune in business for her.

Bo Sheng thinks they've all gone crazy. What's crazier is that there's another version of himself in his head, clamoring every day for him to marry her.

While he's asleep at night, that other self sneaks off to play the snail maiden and take care of Ji Mengxi.

When he sees Ji Mengxi kissing someone in an alley, he comes back dejected as if his soul has left his body, then tells Bo Sheng to go clean up the mess for her...

Later, he goes mad too, even more than they do...

Across two lifetimes, he wants only one person: Ji Mengxi. Bo Sheng.

Reader notes:

1. The male lead is reborn. At first, his souls haven't fully merged (young Bo Sheng by day, older Bo Sheng by night).

2. The female lead is a gold digger (a genuine one). She really wants to marry up, but she's also genuinely exceptional.

3. The female lead will have her own career.

4. Six-year age gap.

5. I haven't figured out the content warnings yet. I'll know once I get to that part.

Theme: There is love beyond life itself.