How Could Someone Like This Be the Villain?

[A gloomy, deadbeat young master determined to prove his resolve by dying x an optimistic, carefree puppy of a big sister]

Sorry for the slow updates!

Shen Zhitang transmigrates into a melodramatic novel famous for its villainous protagonist. To avoid a tragic bad ending, she promptly divorces her fiance, a simp for the heroine, returns to her old trade, and opens a cosmetics shop. Along the way, she also picks up an unusual beggar.

The beggar's surname is Li, and his given name is Goudan. Though he's a beggar gang's "local big shot" who holds sway over the streets of the imperial capital, he's handsome and graceful, with a face as lovely as peach blossoms. His phoenix eyes are especially striking, sharp yet touched with an ineffable tenderness.

The only problem is that he's lazy and has a terrible work ethic. Luckily, that face of his draws customers from all over the street.

Shen Zhitang grits her teeth and puts up with it.

...The lucky charm I picked up myself, I'll keep pampering him even if I have to do it on my knees!

Who could have guessed that one day, Shen Zhitang would hear something called a "System" speaking beside the heroine, saying that Goudan was the major villain the heroine couldn't win over?

Shen Zhitang: ? Who are you talking about?

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When Li Heshu was young, he followed his father into the palace to serve as the Crown Prince's study companion. The first thing his father, the Imperial Tutor, told him was, "Ziyan, you must learn to hide your talents."

At first, he couldn't understand. A young man's ambitions should reach for the clouds. Gifted from childhood, he was determined to come first in everything, even in this gilded cage.

By the time he finally understood what his father meant, the people he'd once known had become desolate graves, none of them even marked with a headstone.

Li Heshu escaped death by sheer luck, but spent his days in a daze, wandering everywhere until he became a beggar in every sense of the word.

One day, after getting drenched in the rain, he curled up in a stable that night and came down with a high fever. In his delirium, he had a bizarre, fantastical dream.

In the dream was a headstrong young woman. She said she wanted to open a shop of her own on Chang'an Street, the busiest street in the world.

Her eyes shone like a sharp sword, cleaving through the gloom that had enveloped him.

But the people from his past were gone.

Li Heshu came to his senses. He decided to uncover the truth and take his revenge, then leap from the tallest bell tower in the imperial capital and crash down upon this man-eating palace.

At twenty-one, he happened to pass by a newly opened cosmetics shop on Chang'an Street that was hiring. The young woman's smile was as radiant as a flower, just like the one from his dream.

She pulled him back into the world of the living.

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1. One-on-one romance, both each other's first love. The heroine falls for the hero at first sight because he's handsome (not really).

2. In the hero's eyes, there has only ever been one heroine.

3. At first, the hero wants to die and just coast through life. Later, because of the heroine, he can't bring himself to die. But he's always been an avoidant, self-deprecating type.

Theme: Work hard to change your fate