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Autumn, 1968.
Jiang Family’s century-old mansion, Hu City.
"Si Si, I know asking you to transfer your job to Qingqing and sending you to the countryside is unfair to you."
"But your father has his reasons!"
"Si Si, please open the door and let us explain, alright?"
Listening to the woman’s sobbing outside the door, Jiang Si was momentarily stunned.
What was going on?
Hadn’t she just been curled up in bed reading a novel?
The book, titled The Tender Beauty Braves Hong Kong: Spoiled by the Top Tycoon, had been recommended by her best friend.
She’d mentioned that there was a cannon-fodder character in it who not only shared Jiang Si’s name but also had eerily similar looks, hobbies, and family background.
Except, the "her" in the book was all looks and no brains—sharp-tongued and arrogant!
With wealth, status, and striking beauty, she looked down on everyone.
Especially her military officer fiancé, whom she treated with nothing but disdain.
The engagement had been arranged by Jiang Si’s late mother, Jiang Xiaoman.
But the original Jiang Si despised the man for being taciturn and lacking romance.
Worried about the harsh living conditions on the military island, she kept delaying the marriage.
What she didn’t expect was that the Jiang family would soon become a target of political purges.
Even worse, her supposedly doting father had been secretly transferring the family’s assets to Yancheng for the past two years.
The entire family of five had prepared to flee to Hong Kong—except they left her behind!
The original Jiang Si, branded a capitalist’s daughter, suffered alone in the countryside.
Within a year, her health deteriorated, and in the end, she couldn’t take the humiliation and bashed her head against a cowshed wall.
But death brought no peace.
The night she was buried, her body was dug up and sold to a neighboring village for a ghost marriage with a widower in his fifties.
Meanwhile, her stepsister, Shen Qingqing—the novel’s protagonist—was the epitome of brilliance and grace.
In Hong Kong, her sharp business sense and magnetic charm quickly earned her success.
There, she met the male lead, the heir to a top-tier Hong Kong conglomerate.
They fell madly in love, married in a whirlwind romance, and had multiple children, with her being utterly spoiled by his family.
Reading this, Jiang Si was disgusted—and she had a good guess who wrote it.
Aside from the uncanny resemblance between her and the original Jiang Si, the protagonist’s name was also familiar.
Shen Qingqing was the daughter of a distant relative of the Jiang family.
The Shens were poor, and her parents heavily favored their son, forcing her to drop out of high school and work in a factory.
Out of pity, Jiang Si’s parents took her in as a household helper.
But Shen Qingqing, born without a silver spoon, acted like a princess—sloppy, forgetful, and worst of all, a thief!
In less than half a year, she stole several pieces of Jiang Si’s jewelry.
Out of respect for family ties, the Jiangs didn’t report her. They just retrieved the stolen items and fired her.
Yet Shen Qingqing, pretending remorse, turned around and wrote this vile novel—with Jiang Si as the villain!
Jiang Si was so revolted she blacked out—and woke up inside the book.
Before she could process it, knocking resumed at the door.
"Enough! Open up!"
"You’ve thrown a tantrum all day—how much longer will this go on? Do you plan to hide in there forever?"
"Fine, I shouldn’t have hit you. But are you completely blameless?"
"Name one girl in all of Hu City as disrespectful as you! I say one thing, and you snap back ten. Do you even see me as your father?"
The speaker was her scumbag dad, Shen Xiuwen.
A 45-year-old live-in son-in-law of the Jiang family, he looked younger thanks to good upkeep.
In the original Jiang Si’s memories, her parents had been deeply in love, always discussing things as equals, making her feel like the luckiest child alive.
But nine years ago, Jiang Xiaoman passed away from illness, and Shen Xiuwen defied objections to marry Lin Yueru, a widow with two kids.
From then on, their relationship soured.
Lin Yueru, however, played the long game.
From the moment she entered the household, she acted submissive, treating Jiang Si better than her own children.
Even after bearing Shen Xiuwen a son, she remained the picture of patience and devotion.
Gradually, the original Jiang Si let her guard down.
The family coexisted peacefully—until last night.
The moment Jiang Si returned from work, Shen Xiuwen hesitantly proposed she give her job to Shen Qingqing.
The original Jiang Si exploded.
"Have you lost your mind raising someone else’s kids?"
"I’m your blood! Her own father isn’t worried about her going to the countryside—why are you playing the hero?"
She didn’t stop there, lashing out at the others.
"All these years, you’ve lived off the Jiang family. I haven’t even settled that debt yet!"
"And you have the nerve to covet my job? Ungrateful vultures!"
Father and daughter shared the same temper.
When words failed, Shen Xiuwen slapped her.
The original Jiang Si, raised in privilege, had never been struck—or even harshly scolded.
Humiliated and heartbroken, she locked herself in her room for a full day.
Reading the novel, Jiang Si hadn’t felt much empathy.
Now, living it, she understood the depth of the original’s pain.
The book never outright stated it, but the step-siblings resembled Lin Yueru.
Yet given Shen Xiuwen’s actions, Jiang Si suspected they were his biological children.
As the "contrast character," the original Jiang Si lost all rationality around Shen Qingqing, while the latter perfected the "wronged but silent" act.
The more Shen Qingqing played victim, the more Jiang Si looked like the cruel, domineering villain.
Jiang Si smirked coldly.
First, her scumbag dad used the Jiang family’s money to raise his mistress’s kids.
Then he embezzled their wealth.
Now he was scheming against the real Jiang heir?
He had a death wish.
"Si Si, are you listening? Si Si?"
Shen Xiuwen’s knocking grew impatient.
Lin Yueru, for once, wasn’t stirring the pot—just defaulting to her sweet-talk.
"Xiuwen, Si Si is still young. Be patient—she’ll understand."
"You're her father—how can you hold a grudge against your own child?"
"She's already 21—still a child?"
Before Lin Yueru could respond, the door swung open with a sharp click—
