Chapter 1: First Day as a Salted Fish
Qin Jiaojiao was woken up by deafening music. Wondering who lacked the public decency to blast DJ tracks in the middle of the night, she opened her eyes and froze at the sight of her surroundings.
In the middle of the dance floor, half-clothed young men and women pressed against each other as they danced, their faces covered in heavy makeup. The atmosphere was incredibly lively.
This was… a nightclub?!
Hadn’t she fallen asleep while reading a novel? How did she inexplicably end up in a nightclub?
Suddenly, someone pressed close to her. Holding a glass of wine, the person deliberately pitched their voice into a sickly-sweet tone and called out, “Miss Qin, let me offer you a toast…”
Qin Jiaojiao subconsciously pushed the person away. “Who are you?”
In the dim lighting, a boy in his early twenties looked embarrassed. He hurriedly said, “Miss Qin, I’m Xiao Yu. We were just introduced…”
Qin Jiaojiao felt a heavy weight in her head. She rubbed her temples and grabbed the coffee table to stand up. Surprisingly, her legs felt unsteady—she didn’t know if she had simply had too much to drink.
The boy leaned in and supported her hand. “Miss Qin, where are you going…”
“Go away, don’t touch me.” Qin Jiaojiao batted his hand away and hurriedly left the booth.
Watching her retreating figure, the young boy quickly pulled out his phone, made a call, and demanded, “Are you sure you slipped her the drug?”
Passing by the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the nightclub entrance, Qin Jiaojiao caught sight of a strange young woman in the reflection and couldn’t help but widen her eyes.
The girl had a slim, tall figure, and her skin was so fair and hydrated that it looked as though she was bathed in milk. She wore a silky, luxurious, embroidered little suit. At first glance, she exuded the noble aura of a girl raised in a wealthy family.
Qin Jiaojiao quickly pulled out her phone, opened the camera app, and stared into the lens.
The girl’s face sported an exquisite, cool-toned European-style makeup look. Her long eyelashes were thick and curled, and she wore gray colored contacts. Her pretty lips were painted with a light red lipstick. However, beneath the glamorous makeup, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her complexion looked terrible.
This beautiful face looked a bit like hers—it was practically her ultimate, upgraded replica!
Probably because she had drunk too much, she felt the world spinning around her. Fumbling through her small leather purse, she finally found an ID card. The name was exactly the same as hers, but the region indicated she was from the Beijing circle.
Her head was spinning faster now. Glancing at the restless men lingering in various corners, Qin Jiaojiao quickly tottered away on her stiletto heels and found a nearby hotel.
Fortunately, she could unlock her phone with facial recognition. After paying for a room and swiping the keycard to enter, she kicked off her heels and threw herself onto the bed in the hotel slippers.
She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, plunging into a deep dream.
…
The next day, the phone by her pillow began ringing like crazy.
Qin Jiaojiao groggily felt around for her phone and answered, “Hello?”
“Jiaojiao, Shen Xiaoshan and Meng Zi’ang got married today!” a crisp female voice announced.
Qin Jiaojiao frowned and opened her eyes. “Who?”
“Weibo’s trending searches have exploded! All the major platforms are reporting the news of Shen Xiaoshan marrying a wealthy young master, congratulating her on marrying into a wealthy family.” The woman spat viciously, “Why hasn’t lightning struck those two bitches dead yet!”
Massaging her hungover, aching forehead, Qin Jiaojiao said, “I didn’t sleep well last night. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I’m about to start filming anyway. I’ll video call you tonight when I’m free.”
Qin Jiaojiao sat up in bed, unlocked her phone, and immediately saw the pushed headline news.
#ShenXiaoshanMarriesWealthyBoyfriend#
#HalfTheEntertainmentIndustryAttendsShenXiaoshanWedding#
#ShenXiaoshanLuxuriousWeddingOfTheCentury#
There were nearly ten trending searches about Shen Xiaoshan’s wedding, and the top three had completely blown up. Luckily, with the entertainment industry frequently blowing up the trending charts these past few years, the Weibo servers hadn’t crashed.
Wasn’t this the plot of the novel she had just read?
Qin Jiaojiao had never imagined that transmigrating into a book would happen to her. And it wasn’t some car accident that caused it—she had simply woken up without any warning to find herself inside the book.
From her teens to her twenties, for ten years straight, she had deeply loved reading novels. She had consistently stayed up late for a decade, relentlessly pursuing this hobby. Recently, she had felt some slight discomfort in her heart, but it surely wasn’t enough to cause sudden death, right?
As luck would have it, she had transmigrated into a romance novel set in the entertainment industry and wealthy high society that she had just finished reading. She had only read it because the female supporting character shared her exact name, and her friend had jokingly suggested she memorize the whole text.
Then, out of curiosity, she had skimmed through the novel at lightning speed, only to be left fuming mad by the end of it.
To think she had actually transmigrated into this very novel.
The male and female leads of the novel were Meng Zi’ang and Shen Xiaoshan.
One was a top-tier A-list actress who went from playing extra roles to winning Best Actress. The other was a young master born into a wealthy family, of noble status and with a successful career. They went from childhood sweethearts to a chance encounter in a foreign country, reuniting back home, an unexpected pregnancy, marriage, and falling deeply in sweet love… ultimately walking hand-in-hand to the pinnacle of life.
From the title alone, it was obvious that Wealthy Sweet Pampering was an incredibly fluffy, doting romance novel. The beginning detailed how the male and female leads met as children and were childhood sweethearts for a time. Later, the male lead was claimed by his wealthy father, and the two were separated for over a decade.
Due to her family’s poverty, the female lead, Shen Xiaoshan, went abroad to work and study. By a twist of fate, she helped the framed male lead, Meng Zi’ang, out of a tight spot. They left deep impressions on each other but were separated again before they could reunite.
After graduating, Shen Xiaoshan returned to the country. Chasing her dream of becoming a star, she entered the entertainment industry. Just as she was about to fall victim to the industry’s unspoken casting couch rules, she ran into Meng Zi’ang again. Because the male lead had been drugged, the two of them ended up rolling in the sheets.
Out of a sense of duty, Meng Zi’ang wanted to take responsibility for Shen Xiaoshan, but she rejected him. She told him that if they didn’t genuinely like each other, they should just pretend it never happened. However, a month later, Shen Xiaoshan discovered she was pregnant.
When Meng Zi’ang’s family heard the news, they demanded the two marry immediately to give the child in her womb a proper status.
The two already had favorable impressions of one another, so they obediently tied the knot. The ‘marriage first, love later’ plotline left readers swooning with yearning. Shortly after their wedding, Shen Xiaoshan and Meng Zi’ang participated in a couples’ variety show.
The newlywed couple was exceedingly sweet on the variety show, making all the viewers and fans insanely jealous. Because of this, they went viral across the entire internet.
The most hated villainous supporting characters in this novel were the wealthy cannon fodder female supporting character, Qin Jiaojiao, and her husband, Zhou Shaoli.
Serving as the ultimate comparison group for the male and female leads, the book described Qin Jiaojiao as coming from a wealthy background but hating studying since childhood. She managed to coast her way to a watered-down elite degree abroad. She was arrogant, willful, and highly unlikable.
During the recording of the couples’ dating variety show, she would constantly court death out of jealousy towards Shen Xiaoshan, strangely making a fool of herself on various occasions and being mocked by everyone. Later on, she would be divorced and abandoned by Zhou Shaoli. Even worse, her father would be diagnosed with terminal cancer, her mother would fall into depression, her family would go bankrupt, and her entire family would meet a miserable end.
Having married into wealth, Shen Xiaoshan used the variety show’s immense popularity to ensure a smooth-sailing career in the entertainment industry. From a modestly famous C-list artist, she rode the wave of viral fame to become a top-tier A-list female star. With just one solid, presentable masterpiece, she became wildly popular and ascended to the throne of Best Actress.
After marrying Meng Zi’ang, Shen Xiaoshan was deeply loved by her mother-in-law and lived a carefree, happy life.
Qin Jiaojiao’s marriage to Zhou Shaoli, on the other hand, was an arranged marriage between two families. Her mother-in-law, Li Wanru, considered her an incompetent, useless piece of trash who only knew how to eat, drink, and play, providing zero help to her husband in both life and career. This disdain only grew when Li Wanru found out that the Qin family had originally planned an arranged marriage with the Meng family instead.
Comparisons only brought pain. Qin Jiaojiao couldn’t understand why a poor, scheming woman could suddenly transform from a pheasant into a phoenix just by marrying into wealth and climbing a high branch, making her—a true phoenix—look inferior to a pheasant.
What’s more, Shen Xiaoshan had married the wealthy illegitimate son she had previously despised and kicked to the curb. How could she possibly swallow that anger?
Thus, Qin Jiaojiao constantly targeted Shen Xiaoshan with an endless array of underhanded tricks. But Shen Xiaoshan, who had grown up soaking in all sorts of harsh environments, wasn’t afraid of these tactics at all. She retaliated tooth and nail, returning every blow. Ultimately, Qin Jiaojiao’s face was slapped red as she made a complete joke of herself.
While recording the dating variety show, Qin Jiaojiao blamed her indifferent husband. She resented him for being like a block of wood—devoid of a sense of humor, not knowing how to say sweet things to make her happy, and failing to take meticulous care of her. The two frequently argued, their fights turning incredibly ugly.
After accidentally bumping into Zhou Shaoli talking to another woman, Qin Jiaojiao grew extremely paranoid. Suspecting that Zhou Shaoli was playing around with women behind her back, she went crazy and hurled abuses at him. This caused their relationship to deteriorate rapidly, and unable to stand being monitored by her every single day, Zhou Shaoli demanded a divorce.
Later, Zhou Shaoli went abroad to expand into the overseas market and didn’t return for many years. Meanwhile, back in the country, Qin Jiaojiao’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The company encountered a cash flow crisis, their stocks hit the limit down, and other disasters struck.
The Qin family’s company went bankrupt, drowning in debt. Qin Jiaojiao plummeted from the clouds, becoming a punching bag for everyone. Those snobs who kissed up to the mighty and trampled on the weak all sneered that this was the ending she deserved, that someone as vicious as her should live a miserable life and wasn’t worthy of pity.
After that, the rest of the novel was devoted entirely to the sweet, pampered daily life of Shen Xiaoshan and her wealthy husband, concluding in a perfectly happy ending.
Thinking about that miserable future, Qin Jiaojiao shivered.
No way. She absolutely could not become the female lead’s comparison group.
Her phone rang again. Qin Jiaojiao picked it up and saw it was Auntie Zhang, the housekeeper.
She answered the call, and Auntie Zhang’s voice came through. “Madam, Mr. Zhou’s mother will be coming over this afternoon. Do you want to come back and prepare?”
Qin Jiaojiao remembered now. Her marriage to her husband, Zhou Shaoli, was a business arrangement devoid of affection. In their courtyard villa, the two slept in completely separate bedrooms.
Every time her mother-in-law, Li Wanru, came to visit, she would notify Auntie Zhang in advance. Qin Jiaojiao would then have to rush back from wherever she was and move her personal belongings into Zhou Shaoli’s room.
In the original plot, Qin Jiaojiao had gotten blackout drunk last night and been drugged, then photographed by media reporters entering and exiting a hotel with a young male college student. If it hadn’t been for the explosive popularity of Shen Xiaoshan marrying into wealth, she would have hit the trending searches for her scandal.
Thank goodness she felt something was wrong last night and ran away early.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Qin Jiaojiao hung up the phone, got out of bed, and padded into the bathroom in her slippers to wash up. Using the hotel’s facial cleanser to wash off her makeup, she left the room wearing her slightly wrinkled black pearl suit.
The sky was gloomy, dark clouds gathering in a dense mass. It looked like a heavy downpour was imminent.
Finding her home address through an online shopping app, Qin Jiaojiao hailed a cab. Just as she got into the car, the sky abruptly darkened, and a summer rainstorm began washing over the busy streets.
Watching the pouring rain outside the window, Qin Jiaojiao pondered her next steps.
This strange book world felt far too unreal, but since she was here, she had to live well.
What if she could go back one day?
Zhou Shaoli lived in a courtyard villa in the city district, an area where the wealthy and famous of Beijing resided. The location was a moderate distance from the city center, and the landscaping made it look like an ancient scenic town.
The driver drove into the villa district and stopped outside the gates of the courtyard villa. Qin Jiaojiao paid the fare, shielded herself from the rain with her purse, and ran over to ring the doorbell.
A short while later.
A servant came to open the door. Upon seeing her, they froze slightly.
“Madam, you’re back.”
Translator’s note:
Hi! Welcome to my new domain:DD Nothing much really changed tho!
Leave a Reply