The 1980s Female Painter

Daddy's girl Zhong Miao and her father were caught in a shipwreck, then transmigrated into a book set in a bygone era.

Who knew she'd arrive right at a wedding?

Can someone tell me where this good-for-nothing came from? If he dares make a move on me, I'll smash a washbasin over his head. If one isn't enough, I'll give him another.

The good-for-nothing passed out after being struck by the heavy enamel basin...

What? Dad transmigrated too? Now that Daddy's girl has someone to rely on, whatever my dad says goes.

She and Pei Ze were a contrast pair in the book. Contrast my foot. She wasn't in the mood for any of that.

Slander? Bullying? Bring it on, one pair at a time. If fists will do, there's no need to use words.

The rumors about her and Pei Ze never stopped spreading through the village, and life just went on in a muddle.

She got into an art academy, her husband grew better and better at making money, her mother-in-law had ancestral property, and her father's business boomed just as it had in her previous life.

The original female lead: From a distance, she looks like a scrap collector. Up close, she's from an art academy.

Zhong Miao: Did you get into college? Didn't I hit you hard enough last time?

The original female lead: ...

Zhong Miao: Now that life's getting better, should we still get divorced?

Pei Ze: Ahem, wife, there's no need for that.

Pei Ze was a college graduate. After his older brother and sister-in-law met with disaster, he gave up his assigned job and returned to the village to care for his elderly mother and the nephew they'd adopted.

His wife was a country girl who couldn't do a thing except eat. She was obviously lazy and gluttonous.

Only later did he realize he might never win his wife's heart, and that he could face divorce at any moment.

This heartless girl only listened to her father, so winning over his father-in-law became a compulsory course.

A big tree catches the wind, money attracts thieves, and a pretty wife attracts men. It was enough to give him a headache.

Pei Ze: Wife, bail me out.

Zhong Miao: Where are you? How am I supposed to bail you out?

Pei Ze: I'm soaking in a vat of jealousy. Hurry up.

A few words of caution:

This is a fictional story set in an imaginary era.

[Gentle, devoted, sharp-tongued loyal dog of a man] x [A daddy's girl with an unconventional, clear-headed mind]

Content warnings:

1. The characters aren't perfect. The male lead is a college student from the countryside in the 1980s, while the female lead is a modern person who received a modern education. Their ways of thinking differ, which causes friction. The male lead is selfish at first, while the female lead cares about no one but her father. They gradually discover each other's good qualities.

2. Dozens of village mouths spread rumors. When the leads run into the gossips, they'll fight back with fists, clear thinking, and sheer grit, sometimes teaming up for a beating. When they don't cross paths, they focus on their own lives and don't take the rumors too seriously.

-------Pre-release section---------

The next novel has been renamed My Heart Hurts, He's Crazy and Irresistible [Eighties and Nineties]. It's now underway. Here's the blurb:

Tang Yishu: Sit up straight. This reporter is going to interview you.

Jiang Dai: I'm sitting up straight. I'm repenting. I was wrong, Shushu. If I'd known I'd transmigrate into this crappy book, I would have written you as a strong female lead who'd carry me to victory.

Tang Yishu: What does it feel like to transmigrate into your own super, super, super-angsty book where every character gets a bad ending?

Jiang Dai: I regret everything. My head hurts. Nobody in the main cast is a good person. I'm terrified.

Tang Yishu: What does it feel like to become one of the leads you wrote to die?

Jiang Dai: Look at my name. I chose it. I'm about to bite the dust.

Tang Yishu: Have you finished writing this book?

Jiang Dai: Guilty, frail, and my kidneys are weak too...

After graduating from college, four melodramatic young people married early, becoming two couples. Their artistic souls aflame, they swore to return to their hometown and build up the local town, scattering a basin of youthful passion along the way.

Jiang Dai: How did all that passion turn into melodrama? Oh, right. I wrote it.

One day we're sticking together through thick and thin, and the next I'm wrecking your livelihood.

Xie Xun: Know you're wrong?

Jiang Dai: I do, I do. Back then, I should've made you useless and written myself as the heroine of a feel-good novel.

Xie Xun: Did I marry you so you'd mop the floor every day?

Jiang Dai: I don't want to die. I'm covering for myself, and I'm going to work a miracle to change the fate of our hapless little group.

Jiang Dai changed her strategy. Afraid of dying, she didn't dare go around looking for investors like she had in the original story. Without hesitation, she gave up business and took up writing.

Tang Yishu: Jiang Dai, are you slacking off again?

Jiang Dai: N-no, I'm not slacking off. I used every fancy phrase and poured in all my heartfelt feelings. I wrote until my pen practically smoked, and that's how I managed to produce so many essays and stories. I've already sent them to newspaper and magazine offices. I'm sure I can lure more melodramatic young people here, I mean, ambitious young people, to develop the place together.

Xie Xun: How many pen pals do you have now?

Jiang Dai: More than forty. Three of them are already on the train. They'll arrive at the battlefield in forty-eight hours.

Xie Xun: Why don't you come with me? My father has more money than he can spend. How about we work together to squander it all?

Jiang Dai: What a sincere offer, Young Master. I'm kind of tempted. What should I do?

The catkins filling the sky became the drifting fate she wrote about.

The dilapidated little courtyard became a cage in her writing that couldn't hold fate captive.

The rain swelled the water until it reached her knees, becoming a carefree, willful drift in her writing.

The ambitious young people who'd been lured here by a few of her articles: Why isn't it like what you wrote?

Jiang Dai: Art comes from life, but rises above it. Art is a burst of inspiration

What? You're a film director and want to make a documentary about me?

Yes, yes. Why won't you write like you should? You're always knitting. How am I supposed to film that?

Uh, I was a knitter in my previous life too. It's relaxing. Want to give it a try?

Before long, the whole street was taken over by artistic young people. The east end was full of writers, and the west end had become an artists' village. It had become the place contemporary artistic young people dreamed of most.

The eighties: A youth spent with wild abandon, laughing and cursing, finding joy in hardship, and having a love affair with the one person you couldn't live without. A life without regrets.

Reading guide:

1. Neither the main nor supporting characters are perfect.

2. There's both melodrama and passion.

I've got chapters saved up and will update daily, no delays or abandonment. If you have any nutrient solutions, please water this little sapling. Please add it to your collection!

Theme: Do what you love.