"Villainess Quick Transmigration System Host—Liuyue is entering the minor world."
"Loading plot..."
(Setting: Alternate New Republic of China era.)
[Your name is Bai Liuyue, a daughter of the second branch of the Bai family, a prominent military and political family in Jinzhong.]
[Your maternal grandfather was a first-rank official of the previous dynasty. Therefore, your mother raised the daughters of the household according to the old traditions, teaching them the three obediences and four virtues, and ensuring they strictly followed the rules.]
[You are timid and obedient by nature. Even though it is the Republic of China era, your every move is as rigid and self-disciplined as a noble lady from the previous dynasty.]
[In stark contrast to you is your older cousin, Bai Baozhu. She is the youngest daughter of the Bai family's first branch. Pampered by her older brother since childhood and raised by an open-minded mother, she was sent to study abroad for three years after graduating from a girls' high school.]
[At the age of eighteen, Bai Baozhu returned from her studies abroad. At a family gathering, you saw her wearing a trendy Western-style dress with her hair styled in glamorous, wavy Western curls, looking incredibly fashionable.]
[Meanwhile, you were dressed in an old-fashioned short jacket and a traditional skirt, wearing a pair of indigo embroidered shoes. Standing before her, the two of you looked as though you belonged to entirely different eras.]
[Bai Baozhu looked at you with pity and said, "Cousin, you are so pitiful. We are now in the New Republic era, yet you are still a sheltered young lady hidden away in her boudoir."]
[Aside from pity, there was a faint trace of superiority and smugness in her eyes. You did not take this to heart. After all, the two branches of the Bai family had long since separated, and apart from the holidays, the two of you rarely interacted.]
[You soon heard about the recent endeavors of your arrogant cousin, Bai Baozhu, from others. Rumor had it that she had founded a poetry society in Jinzhong, advocating for gender equality, which attracted many intellectuals and passionate youths.]
[It was said that she published an article titled "Women Are Inherently Strong" in the New Nation Newspaper, encouraging all women to cut off their traditional long hair, step out of their homes, and seek employment, rather than staying indoors to rely on their husbands and live at their mercy.
Her article caused an immediate sensation, and Bai Baozhu's reputation as a talented woman echoed throughout the entire New Republic.]
[Later, you heard that in his youth, your grandfather had forged a life-and-death bond with the Northwest warlord, Xie Zhenning. To maintain the friendly ties between the two families, they had arranged a marriage between their children from birth.
Now that both parties were of marriageable age, the eighteen-year-old Bai Baozhu was to be married to the warlord's son, Young Marshal Xie Chengxiao, who was two years her senior.]
[Naturally, Bai Baozhu refused to consent. Believing herself to be a woman of the new era, she fiercely resisted the idea of submitting to an arranged marriage!
Unfortunately, she was fighting a losing battle. In the second half of the year, she was married off to the Northwest warlord Xie family, becoming the young marshal's wife.]
[To everyone else, this seemed like a joyous occasion for all involved. However, half a month after the wedding, while Young Marshal Xie was away on a patrol, she actually absconded with all the gold and silver in the villa and vanished without a trace.]
[Her first escape was personally intercepted at the train station by Young Marshal Xie, who brought her back. Everyone assumed she would obediently settle down after that.
Unexpectedly, half a year later, she ran away again with the help of Young Marshal Xie's younger sister, Xie Manyu.]
[The second time, Young Marshal Xie caught Bai Baozhu on a southbound ferry. She was accompanied by a man, who turned out to be Xu Yanci, a poet from her poetry society who had also returned from studying abroad.]
[So, this had actually been a long-premeditated elopement.]
[After being forcibly escorted back, Bai Baozhu was locked up in a suburban villa. Aside from the servants who delivered her meals at scheduled times every day, no one else was allowed near her.]
[This was a massive scandal that had been suppressed from the public eye. You only found out because your father, Bai Zhao, did not get along with your eldest uncle, Bai Yi; upon hearing the news, your father had treated it as a joke and shared it at the dinner table.]
[The patriarch of the Bai family, your grandfather Bai Wenshan, felt deeply guilty toward the Northwest Xie family and ashamed of betraying his old friend Xie Zhenning's trust.
Taking the initiative, he proposed that the Xie family divorce Bai Baozhu and, as compensation, offered to marry you off to them instead.]
[The turmoil surrounding Bai Baozhu dragged on for a year. By then, you had also come of age. Timid and docile by nature, you raised no objections to the elders' arrangements and obediently married into the Xie family.]
[Everything should have ended happily right there.]
[But who could have predicted that Bai Baozhu, locked away in the suburban villa, would undergo a drastic change in temperament overnight? Not only did she stop screaming and demanding a divorce, but her attitude toward Young Marshal Xie shifted from her initial disgust to one of gentle affection and submissiveness.]
[Because of Bai Baozhu's sudden transformation, Young Marshal Xie's cold attitude toward her gradually began to soften.]
[Meanwhile, you had already been sent into the Northwest Marshal's Mansion as a bride-to-be. Instantly, your position became incredibly awkward.]
[During your first night at the Marshal's Mansion, you had a long, drawn-out nightmare.]
[In the dream, the divorced Bai Baozhu was sent back to the Bai family. She threw herself back into the poetry society and finally got together with Xu Yanci.]
[However, her married life was far from the harmonious bliss she had imagined. Xu Yanci was exceptionally talented and had a large following of admirers within the poetry society.
He was even hired as a teacher at the Jinzhong Girls' School, earning a great deal of respect. Unfortunately, he could not change his womanizing nature.
While Bai Baozhu was pregnant, he actually hooked up with a young and beautiful female student. In the end, he abandoned Bai Baozhu while she was in labor and eloped with the student.
Left with a child, Bai Baozhu had to rely on her maiden family's financial support while frantically searching everywhere for her husband.
Along the way, while passing through the Northwest, she was nearly abducted by human traffickers. Fortunately, Young Marshal Xie appeared and saved her and her child.
Bai Baozhu then saw her formerly timid cousin, Bai Liuyue, standing behind the handsome young marshal. The two conversed intimately, looking like a perfect, heaven-made couple.
She began to feel deep remorse, regretting that she had pushed away such a wonderful husband and foolishly placed her trust in a scumbag like Xu Yanci.]
[During one of her journeys to find her husband, the boat carrying Bai Baozhu and her child was attacked by bandits, and they both lost their lives.
Before she died, she cried out in bitter regret:
"If I were given another chance, I would definitely not miss out on Xie Chengxiao."]
[The scene in the dream suddenly shifted. You were sent to the Northwest Marshal's Mansion as the new bride.
There, you saw your cousin Bai Baozhu, who had been brought back by Young Marshal Xie. The look in her eyes had changed; she was no longer arrogant.
Instead, her eyes held the panic and desperation of someone who had weathered life's harshest storms.
You watched as she humbled herself to mend her relationship with Young Marshal Xie.
You watched her beg Marshal Xie and your grandfather, Bai Wenshan, to reconsider, crying that she did not want to be divorced, that everything had been her fault, and pleading for one last chance.
Eventually, Young Marshal Xie was moved by her efforts, and the relationship between husband and wife softened.
Meanwhile, your position as the intended new bride became unbearably awkward. Bai Baozhu even began to show hostility toward you.
Acting as if you were trying to steal her husband, to steal Xie Chengxiao.]
[At the end of the nightmare, Bai Baozhu and Xie Chengxiao completely reconciled, and she became the young marshal's most beloved treasure.
As for you, her cousin, you were nothing more than a crucial stepping stone to help advance their romance.
While being sent back to the Bai family, you were caught in a crossfire between warring factions and killed by a stray bullet.]
[Yet, in your previous life, you were clearly the one who had shared thick and thin with Xie Chengxiao, staying by his side until old age. You also clearly remembered how your cousin was abandoned by that scumbag and killed by bandits on a boat along with her child...]
[Why was everything suddenly different? Oh, it was because Bai Baozhu had been reborn.]
[Using methods she deemed righteous but were in fact entirely selfish, she had unapologetically stolen the life that rightfully belonged to you.]
[Since Bai Baozhu can be reborn with her memories intact, then it is perfectly reasonable for you, her timid and harmless younger cousin, to recall the memories of two different lifetimes from a nightmare, isn't it?]
...
[In that case, dear cousin, it is also perfectly reasonable for me to snatch back my Young Marshal husband, isn't it?]
