The Chief Minister's Cannon-Fodder Ex-Wife

After Zhong Li dies unexpectedly, she transmigrates into a novel about raising a future chief minister, becoming the cannon-fodder ex-wife who abandons the lame male lead and elopes with an oil peddler.

After the cannon-fodder ex-wife elopes with the oil peddler, he promptly sells her into a brothel, where she becomes a woman who leans on the doorway to solicit customers.

Once she grows old and loses her looks, and is riddled with disease, the brothel throws her out. She eventually dies of illness in some godforsaken corner, and vultures pick at her corpse.

By contrast, after the male lead, Cui Jiuyan, is abandoned by his ex-wife, his fortunes immediately soar. First, a wandering physician cures his lame leg. Then a renowned scholar of the age takes him on as his sole disciple. He follows the scholar to study at a top academy and marries the scholar's concubine-born daughter.

Three years later, he becomes the provincial graduate; five years later, the top metropolitan graduate; fifteen years later, a second-rank official; and within twenty years, chief grand secretary. It's as if he's activated cheat mode.

Zhong Li secretly wipes her brow. What a relief! The original owner hasn't had a chance to cheat yet. She'd better grab this golden thigh and hold on tight first!!

She walks up to the male lead and is stunned by his face.

Holy crap! No wonder she's cannon fodder. How could anyone turn down a man this handsome and still go chasing after another guy!!

Eloping is out of the question. She's not here to break up this family. She's here to join it.

She rolls up her sleeves. So what if her husband has a lame leg and her mother-in-law is sickly? No problem. She can earn money to support them.

*

Cui Jiuyan breaks his leg in an accident. The doctor declares that he will inevitably be left disabled. Overnight, he goes from a promising young scholar to a cripple whose future is ruined, and he experiences every cruelty the world has to offer.

He noticed early on that Zhong Li was flirting with the oil peddler, and knew they planned to elope, but in his despair, he didn't bother to interfere.

Who would have thought that the day before they were supposed to elope, Zhong Li would suddenly turn cold toward the oil peddler and start looking after him devotedly, while also caring for his mother and asking after her health?

Cui Jiuyan: "???"

What kind of ploy is this?

He didn't expose her. He decided to watch and see what happened.

Little did he know that once he started watching, he'd keep watching for the rest of his life.

Bonus scene:

Zhong Li notices that the legitimate daughter of the great scholar Fang keeps looking at her suspiciously and is always hanging around Cui Jiuyan. Is she trying to steal her man?

When Cui Jiuyan comes home from school that evening, she pins him against the wall, runs her hands over his long legs, and says with a cold laugh, "If you dare be unfaithful, I'll break both your legs and make you a cripple again."

Cui Jiuyan isn't bothered. He wraps an arm around her waist and chuckles. "With a shrew like you at home, your husband would never dare be unfaithful in this life."

Zhong Li declares, "Not in your next life either."

Reading notes:

1. Both leads are each other's one and only.

2. The female lead has a portable space.

Theme: Work hard, earn money, and build a fortune.