After Marrying a Top Scientist, I Thrived [The 1970s]

Lu Yujiao transmigrates into a book as the dutiful daughter-in-law in a period novel. Her husband dies young, leaving her to shoulder the burden of his family alone, raise her younger brother, and care for her in-laws. In middle age, her health gives out and she dies.

At the moment she arrives in the book, her family has come to mourn. After discussing it, they decide to take Lu Yujiao home so she can remarry.

A twice-married woman is hard to matchmake, and a woman ought to stay and look after the home she shared with her late husband...

Lu Yujiao glances at the kitchen knife the original owner had prepared to slit her own throat and tosses it to the ground.

She can't die, and she won't stay a widow and suffer. The next day, she goes home with the parents and brothers who love her.

Lu Yujiao is devastatingly beautiful, with skin like jade and a graceful figure. The whole county knows she was once considered a natural fit for the theatrical troupe.

Now that the Lu family has put out the word, the men coming to meet her are lining up.

After looking over her options, Lu Yujiao takes a liking to Shen Jingduo, the broad-shouldered, tall one.

That's the one. He's the powerful mentor of the male lead in the book. Sure, he's a bit older, but he's rich, trouble-free, and rarely home. It's practically a high-paying job where she can slack off.

-

Before the wedding.

Shen Jingduo says solemnly, "We're only getting married by agreement. After the wedding, we'll each live our own lives."

One day after the wedding.

The former husband who was supposed to be dead suddenly comes back.

Lu Yujiao only follows along to take a curious look, but that night Shen Jingduo carries her into the bedroom.

After that, Shen Jingduo's gaze grows more and more dangerous. Within days, they end up in the same bed.

The long-unused wooden bed frame is worked until it falls apart, and Lu Yujiao is carried, dazed, to the sofa in the main room.

"No, not here."

"It'll be fine, Jiaojiao. If not here, where else could we..."

The man whispers something in Yujiao's ear, and she angrily gives him a hard pinch.

The man doesn't make a sound. His gaze is full of tenderness as he says, "All right, whatever you say."

[Reader's Guide]

· The male lead turns his widowed sister-in-law into his teacher's wife; the supposedly dead ex-husband returns; and she is pampered by a tech tycoon. A swoony, keyboard-mashing romance written for the author's own tastes, with a focus on pacing.

· Slow burn, melodramatic, steady and gradual. Written to indulge the author's personal kinks.

Theme: Find yourself and love yourself.