The Long-Suffering Wife in the Period Novel Has Had Enough

(The main story is complete. My next story, "Raising Kids by Agreement in a Reconstituted Family in the 1950s," is now underway. Please add it to your favorites! The blurb is below.)

Blurb:

Ye Li transmigrated into a period novel as the tragic first wife. In the original story, the woman she replaced had married her husband for his wealth, treating him with cold violence and mentally and verbally abusing him. After he divorced her, the main story began: he found success in both his career and love life, while she became a tragic first wife relegated to the background.

Why should she have to become a cruel, tragic first wife as soon as she transmigrated? She wouldn't stand for it!

The man, eyes red, pleaded with her: "Ye Li, let's not get divorced."

In the original story, she kicked him aside and went to meet her scumbag lover in the middle of the night.

Ye Li, who had just transmigrated into her body, stopped herself in time and calmly said, "Who said I wanted a divorce? I certainly didn't."

Later...

Ye Li: "Qin Yi, I want a divorce! You're way too clingy!"

Qin Yi: "Who said we're getting divorced? I'm certainly not!"

Blurb for "Raising Kids by Agreement in a Reconstituted Family in the 1950s":

Jiang Zhen transmigrated from the post-apocalyptic world to the winter of 1949. Having arrived in her own body, she joined a crowd of refugees. To get a legal identity, she took the place of a deceased woman who looked just like her. In return, she took the woman's two children with her. On the way, she encountered troops hunting bandits and helped rescue several wounded soldiers.

As soon as she arrived at the Fancheng base, the deceased woman's live-in son-in-law husband sent her divorce papers to sever their ties.

Jiang Zhen promptly divorced him. To stay in Fancheng and support the two children she had taken in, she plunged into the local matchmaking scene.

Gu Liancheng died in a campaign to suppress bandits during the first year after liberation. After his death, his elder brother's two children were left in the care of his brother's fiancee. One grew up to be a murderer, the other a hopeless romantic. One died, and the other went mad.

Gu Liancheng was reborn on the day of the bandit-suppression campaign and made it back alive to his unit. At his wedding, his fiancee caused a scene and refused to marry him. Thinking of what had become of his elder brother's children, he promptly called off the wedding. The children needed someone to care for them, so Gu Liancheng was forced to join the matchmaking scene.

He told his prospective match:

- "I'll cover all the household expenses and give you thirty yuan a month to spend however you like."

- "No children for ten years. After that, if you still haven't left, you can manage my entire allowance. We can have as many children as you want."

- "I won't ask for a divorce lightly, but if you mistreat the children, I'm sorry."

Several women he met for matchmaking angrily called him shameless: "Being handsome doesn't give you the right to be shameless. With conditions like yours, only a crazy woman would agree."

Meanwhile, Jiang Zhen told her prospective match:

- "No children for ten years. Once both our sets of children are grown, if we want children, I might agree to have one."

- "Pay me thirty yuan a month. I'll cover half the household expenses, but you have to do half the housework."

- "Don't hit me or the children, or I might beat you to death."

Several men she met for matchmaking called her all sorts of names: "You're pretty, but you've also got two burdens in tow, and you still dare to make such outrageous demands? What man would agree? He'd have to be crazy."

Gu Liancheng overheard Jiang Zhen's conditions. When he got the chance, he hurried over and saluted her. "Comrade Jiang Zhen, would you agree to raise the children with me under a contract?"

Jiang Zhen nodded. They registered their marriage and began a chaotic, widowed-style life raising children at the military base.

The two of them could barely manage three words a day. The wives in the family compound pitied them and bet that Captain Gu's second wife wouldn't last six months before running away.

Jiang Zhen thought raising children in a widowed-style marriage of convenience was fine. It was much easier than the post-apocalyptic days when you never knew where your next meal would come from and had to live in constant fear.

The two of them continued their chaotic, quiet arrangement to raise the children together.

Later...

Jiang Zhen kicked Gu Liancheng off the bed. "Gu Liancheng, you're breaking our deal! What happened to our widowed-style marriage of convenience?"

Theme: Life won't let down those who work hard, and good fortune favors the proactive