She Plays the Male Lead in a Ridiculous CEO Romance

[Completed]

[Female Lead = domineering CEO] X [Male Lead = stubborn, delicate flower]

[Both | transmigrate into a book] + [Both | gender swap] Extra chapters will appear whenever inspiration strikes~

Synopsis:

Shang Xiaoque transmigrated into a book, landing in an over-the-top CEO romance novel.

Just how over-the-top was it?

Slaps flying left and right, drugging and ending up in the wrong bed,

throwing the law out the window, getting kidnapped and stabbed left and right.

Looking at her flat chest and the mushroom that had suddenly sprouted between her hips, she relaxed. Had she transmigrated into the book's male CEO lead?

Being a CEO was great! No slaps to worry about, no getting drugged, though it seemed she was destined to get stabbed in the end?

No big deal. She could get a steel plate or something put in beforehand. Maybe she could even dodge the knife!

As long as she ignored the 24-hour surround-sound performance of the OOC Symphony playing in her head,

she was the happiest girl in the world... No, the happiest CEO.

Richer than a kingdom, powerful enough to move heaven and earth! She could casually make the Wang family go bust when the weather turned cold!

Wait! That delicate-flower female lead up ahead, waving a cleaver in one hand and a mop in the other, cursing, "Anyone who comes near me dies," seemed a little off!

Whose delicate-flower heroine was this short-tempered?

The more Shang Xiaoque looked, the more familiar she seemed. How was she so much like her sharp-tongued, scheming, stubbornly arrogant former boss, Meng Yujiu?

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Meng Yujiu had transmigrated into a book too! He'd landed in an incredibly vulgar, brainless CEO romance novel.

He'd become the stubborn, delicate-flower heroine with a masochistic streak.

Heroine, are you okay?

They drug you, and you open your mouth? They raise a hand, and you offer them your face?

Your teammates try to help, and you refuse; your opponents beg for mercy, and you rush to forgive them?

You've got misunderstandings piled a mile high, but you refuse to speak. Are you out of your mind?

Honestly...

Brain-dead and spineless, abused in body and soul;

softer than a steamed bun, not as tough as a persimmon!

Meng Yujiu silently appealed to the heavens. Could love really generate electricity? Or was the glow of a self-righteous saint supposed to light up the whole world?

Who cares! He was quitting. He couldn't play this delicate-flower heroine for another day!

Wait! That CEO male lead up ahead, swirling a wineglass in one hand and propping up the bridge of his nose with the other, while providing his own soundtrack from Vertigo, seemed a little off!

Whose CEO was this melodramatic?

The more Meng Yujiu looked, the more familiar he seemed. How was he so much like his honey-tongued, stubborn subordinate, Shang Xiaoque?

Before transmigrating, they were a domineering CEO and a stubborn delicate flower. After transmigrating, they were still a domineering CEO and a stubborn delicate flower, only they'd switched places~ (Gender swap + both transmigrate into a book)

Female lead: Shang Xiaoque. Male lead: Meng Yujiu (Yu means "great." After thinking it over for ages, I couldn't very well name the male lead Meng Shuoj u or Meng J ujiu, so I had to find an obscure character with a similar meaning~)

P.S. Why not find a similar character to replace the "Xiao" in the female lead's name, too? I tried. Shang Miaoque, Shang Zuique... None of them sound as good as Xiaoque!!!

This novel is also known as The Magpie Takes the Dove's Nest, How to Become a Proper CEO, and A Proper CEO Romance Novel, among other titles.

The male and female leads are both normal people, but... it has every trope a brainless CEO romance should have, and plenty of snark.

First posted on February 24, 2025, at 00:53

Upcoming Novel Below

Title: She Crawls in the Shadows of a Cyberpunk World

The World Beneath the Crumbling Nest is a concept game still in closed beta.

Tang Bugong happened to land the game's publicity job and got a beta invite.

The moment she logged into the game, someone shot her in the head.

When she woke up again, a horde of mechanical creatures beat her to death!

With no other options, the System awakened her first ability: parasitism.

She looked at the severed limbs and body parts strewn all around her, unsure what to inhabit: a kneecap or a skull? A soft link or a mechanical arm?

Help! Can someone give her a complete body?!

She managed to piece the pile of flesh and mechanical parts into a human shape,

and from then on began crawling through another world in the shadows (her own body will heal, don't worry!).

No one knew where Tang Bugong came from. On the surface, she was "up to no good and guilty of every crime under the sun."

She had received 13 different wanted posters alone, and her combined bounty was sky-high.

She blew up a church and openly defied the Church;

then she set the White Mulberry Tree on fire, causing the biggest energy crisis in history.

The Church hated her to the bone, and the Federation government wanted to grind its teeth at her.

At last, after more than a hundred ability users surrounded her, they finally captured her and sent her to the West District, a place no one ever returned from.

But in the blink of an eye, she came back with the people of the West District, leading a massive gang.

Instance One [Evil God Descends]: Strange noises came from an abandoned cardboard box in the sewer. Tang Bugong leaned closer to listen.

A voice came from inside the shoebox-sized carton. The speaker asked her to retrieve a coat that had been swept away by the water.

She fished it out and took a look.

What the heck! It was a bloody horsehide?

Tang Bugong grinned and leaned closer. "How about we help each other out? Could you pick up my right eyeball for me? It rolled over by your foot. Oh, and pull my head off and fasten it back on with this iron skewer."

Evil God: "Which of us is the creep here?"

Instance Two [The Fog City Falls]: The giant tree in White Mulberry City secreted a green liquid, the source of energy that everyone in the city depended on to survive.

Then one day, the White Mulberry Tree fell ill, and every resident of White Mulberry City fell ill with it.

Tang Bugong: "Bring me five straws... No, ten. I'm going to suck that tree dry!"

The people of White Mulberry City: "It's over! This is an energy crisis of catastrophic proportions. Are we going back to the Stone Age for good?!"

Instance Three [The Collapse of Order]: Moros Church in New Harbor became the latest viral tourist attraction.

If you went there at midnight, a bride in a wedding dress would hold a wedding ceremony with you.

But when she asked you the third question, you absolutely had to answer, "No."

Tang Bugong charged over with a megaphone: "Yes, yes, yes! Let's get married right here, right now!"

The bride shed her "skin" and ran off in tears: "I'm straight!"

Instance Four [Exile to the West District]: The West District, a city of sin,

a place of exile for criminals and a shelter for the abandoned.

A lawless, ungoverned city-state, a land of sighs and regret.

Tang Bugong, a hardened criminal, looked at the electronic shackles covering her wrists, ankles, and neck and sighed helplessly.

A month later, she was already the new leader of the biggest gang in the West District!

Instance Five [The Mystery of Tangdi City's Fall]

Things gradually veered into the bizarre.

Countless powerful people died one after another because of her;

the Bloodlimbed clutched their own flesh and blood as they crawled at her feet,

and cyberpsychos followed her every command.

Everyone told her she was the savior foretold in the prophecy.

But she discovered the prophecy was full of conspiracies...

This is a world filled with despair and fear.

Everyone lives inside a blood-red eggshell, but one day, that shell will crack.

Poisonous fog, mutant beasts, evil gods, disease, and natural disasters will all arrive in time.

The seeds of hope have already been quietly planted, waiting for the day they break through the soil.

Everyone is their own savior.

Tips:

1. All the monsters in this novel belong to Chinese tradition. Some are drawn from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, while others come from folk legends. Rather than Lovecraftian, they're more like those in the SCP Foundation: they can be understood, sealed, and contained.

2. The female lead's alignment shifts between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good.

3. A multiplayer transmigration game with a touch of ensemble cast. Everyone is strong, and of course the female lead is the strongest, but this isn't an invincible-lead story. Her opponents are powerful too.

4. This novel is a slow burn. The female lead can't instantly destroy the world at the start. She only gets her first ability after completing the first instance.

5. There is a romance, but not much of it, and there is a clear pairing that develops as the story progresses.

6. This world is built on headcanon, so please don't compare it to the real world.

Theme: Even CEO stories need to make sense