In a VIP private room at a high-end club in S City.
"Sister, come and catch me!"
"Sister, no peeking!"
Under the flickering, suggestive lights, four tall, handsome men with ruby lips, white teeth, and well-defined abdominal and pectoral muscles stood shirtless, wearing fuzzy headbands and posturing like succubi.In the circle they formed, a woman with a seductive figure wore a high-slit spaghetti-strap dress, her hair styled in wavy curls. Though a black silk ribbon was tied over her eyes, one could still tell her features were delicate and her appearance stunningly beautiful.
"Careful now, if I catch you, there will be a punishment."
Xia Weiyi stumbled forward, reaching out in the direction of the voice. But these male models were as slippery as eels; every time she barely managed to brush against some muscle, they slipped away again.
"You need to try harder, big sister!"
A man with a fresh, youthful college-student vibe deliberately paused so she could feel his pectoral muscles.
Xia Weiyi touched him with satisfaction, preparing to launch a surprise attack, but the target nimbly slipped away once more.
After that, the four men repeated the trick, teasing her until her heart itched with restless desire.These men were well-versed in reading the room. Just as Xia Weiyi’s patience reached its limit, they all slowed their pace, intentionally letting her catch them.
Xia Weiyi got her wish and laid her hand on a sturdy bicep. Just as she was about to pull him close, her foot struck an empty wine bottle, and she instantly lost her balance.
After a dizzying tumble, her forehead slammed into the hard corner of a table. Accompanied by a sharp, piercing pain and a rush of warmth across her face, the person who had just been immersed in decadence lost consciousness, plunging into an endless darkness.
...
Qiyun Courtyard, Duke Zhongguo's Estate, Dayu Dynasty.
"Someone, come quickly! The Princess has fainted."
"Go fetch Doctor Chang!"
"Mother!"
...
Chest tightness, shortness of breath, a desire to die...
These were Xia Weiyi’s immediate sensations as she regained consciousness.
She struggled to open her eyes, only to be met with the sight of antique-style bed curtains. In her ears, the voices of several women rang out with concern.
"Doctor Chang has arrived."
"Doctor Chang, hurry and examine the Princess. She was overcome with rage today; I am worried she might have harmed her health."
The voice belonged to an older woman. Xia Weiyi felt bewildered, and before she could process the situation, she felt someone approach. Something was placed over her wrist, and then several fingers pressed against her pulse.She desperately wanted to open her eyes once more to take a look, but her body betrayed her; soon, she lacked even the strength to keep her eyelids raised.
Before slipping into unconsciousness, her mind was filled with the words that woman had just spoken.
A physician? A princess?
Such archaic terms.
Was she not in the middle of playing a game involving handsome men? Had the club owner switched the theme on her?
Physical discomfort eclipsed her inner confusion. Soon, Xia Weiyi found herself unable to think. In a hazy blur, she accepted a stream of foreign memories and finally understood her current predicament.
As it turned out, she had transmigrated into a novel she had once read, titled *Rebirth: The Favorite of a Powerful Official*.
The story roughly followed the female lead, Tang Qingyue, who had been blinded by vanity in her past life. To prove she could do better, she broke off her engagement with the male lead, Song Yunjian, only to marry a scoundrel. In the end, she suffered the destruction of her family and met a tragic death.
After her death, her soul wandered the world and realized that Song Yunjian had remained steadfastly in love with her. Not only had he remained celibate for her sake, but after she died, he had carefully calculated and eliminated everyone who had ever harmed her.
Once he had avenged her, the male lead withdrew from the imperial court, spending his days guarding her grave until he eventually fell ill from grief and passed away young.
After Song Yunjian’s death, Tang Qingyue was reborn with her memories intact. She returned to the exact moment just after the two had broken off their engagement, right when the male lead was feeling utterly disillusioned. Thus, the story began of the female lead’s arduous journey to win back her husband.
The market was flooded with such rebirth stories; one could guess the general plot without even trying.
At first, she hadn't been interested, but she happened to see that one of the minor characters shared her exact name.
Xia Weiyi didn't feel her name was particularly common. The characters "Weiyi" were taken from the *I Ching*—"The wild goose gradually advances to the high land; its feathers can be used for rituals; auspicious." The only slight drawback was her surname, Xia, which, when combined, formed the name of a certain place.
So, when she inadvertently caught sight of a character named Xia Weiyi in *Rebirth: The Favorite of a Powerful Official*, she assumed it must be a significant role and began to read.
As it turned out...
The good news: the character was indeed important, with plenty of screen time right up to the grand finale.
The bad news: she was the female lead’s evil mother-in-law, not even a true villain, but merely a trivial clown—nothing more than a stepping stone in the romance between the leads.
The original owner of the body came from a prestigious background. She was the eldest daughter of Prince Duan and the eldest granddaughter of the Emperor, bestowed with the title of Princess Pingyang, having been doted upon since childhood.
At sixteen, she had married her sweetheart, the heir to Duke Zhongguo’s Estate.Heir Song was as handsome as jade with the noble bearing of a dragon, and the original owner was likewise a breathtaking beauty. Because they had been in love long before, their marriage was like oil and honey, their hearts beating in perfect harmony—truly a match made of celestial immortals.
The Heir loved the original owner deeply. It was not until the fourth year of their marriage that she gave birth to their first child, yet during all that time, the Heir never took a concubine or a maid, nor did he ever philander.
However, good times do not last. In the sixth year of their marriage, her husband died in a fall from a horse. The original owner was heartbroken to the point of despair; had she not discovered a child growing in her womb at that time, she likely would have followed him.
Gritting her teeth, the original owner held on until her daughter was born. By then, the thought of ending her life had left her, but the once gentle and amiable woman became erratic, frequently striking and scolding the servants, and losing even her patience with the children. Her son grew increasingly distant from her. As for her youngest daughter, because the sight of the child reminded her of the most agonizing period following her husband's death, she could not bear even to look at her, casting her off to others to care for while completely ignoring her.
Thus another three years passed, and the original owner's temper grew more and more violent. The only person she could draw somewhat close to was her adopted son—none other than the male protagonist of *The Grand Secretary's Pampered Pet in Reincarnation*, Song Yunjian.
Song Yunjian had been adopted by the original owner and her husband after their marriage. Only eight years younger than her, he held her in profound respect. In the years since her husband's death, it was this adopted son who had constantly consoled and guided her. In the original owner's heart, Song Yunjian weighed far more than her two biological children.
Yet this fiercely filial adopted son was the very one who had enraged her to the point of fainting today.
Xia Weiyi carefully sorted through the original owner's memories and discovered that the whole affair began with the marriage arrangement between the male and female protagonists.
Song Yunjian and Tang Qingyue, the young lady of Earl Pingxi's Estate, had been betrothed since childhood. Now, with the two of them sixteen and eighteen respectively, the two families were planning to hold the wedding at the end of this year.
Just as preparations were getting underway, however, a scandalous secret was exposed regarding Earl Pingxi's Estate: the true and false daughters.
Sixteen years earlier, Marchioness Pingxi had accidentally slipped while going out and was forced to give birth at a peasant's home.
As luck would have it, a woman in that household was also expecting a child. The two infants were born shortly apart, and then, in a twist straight out of a melodramatic novel, they were swapped.
The true daughter had come seeking her family, but Marchioness Pingxi had already poured all her maternal devotion into Tang Qingyue. Unwilling to abandon the girl, she gave some silver to the peasant woman and kept Tang Qingyue in the estate.
Yet Tang Qingyue was of a sensitive disposition. Once her true background was exposed, she felt as though everyone looked down upon her, convinced that her good days were coming to an end.
Therefore, she vowed to live a better life. Just then, she happened to cross paths with Xia Huaiyu, the fifth son of Prince Rui.
Prince Rui was the imperial prince with the greatest hope of seizing the throne at present. As long as she married Xia Huaiyu—even as a concubine—she might become an imperial consort in the future, or at the very least a prince's secondary consort, prospects far brighter than marrying an adopted son. Consequently, she harbored the intention of breaking off her engagement.
Seizing upon the chaos of the true and false daughters, she insisted that the one betrothed to the male protagonist was the true daughter, and even resorted to threatening death, creating a tremendous uproar at Duke Zhongguo's Estate.
In truth, the original owner had always looked down upon Earl Pingxi's Estate for its lower social standing, deeming it unworthy of her adopted son. But since the marriage had been set by her late husband, she could only manage it with care. Who would have thought that the other party would turn out to be a false daughter and actively seek to switch brides? Enraged, she delivered a harsh rebuke on the spot, but her adopted son, Song Yunjian, stepped forward to defend Tang Qingyue, angering her so much that she fainted on the spot.
And then... she, Xia Weiyi from the modern era, transmigrated into this body.
"..."
Having recognized this reality, Xia Weiyi was somewhat speechless.
In the modern world, she was merely a wealthy second-generation slacker who lived off her family, lazy, lustful, and dim-witted. But at least she lived in a harmonious society; as long as no accidents occurred, she could enjoy a life of wealth and privilege until a ripe old age.
Who could have guessed that she merely indulged her appreciation for a handsome face, only to tumble right into a book—and an unstable feudal society at that?
Truly, a handsome face is a sword pointed at one's own head.
Xia Weiyi recalled the contents of the book. She knew that after breaking off the engagement, Tang Qingyue would soon experience a rebirth, reconcile with her convenient adopted son, successfully marry into the Duke's Estate, and live a shameless, blissful life with the male protagonist—occasionally crossing swords with her, the wicked mother-in-law, to provide readers with a rush of satisfaction.
In the novel, through the female protagonist's efforts, the male protagonist and the original owner became completely estranged. Later, when Prince Duan fell from power and Prince Jing ascended the throne, the original owner—as Prince Duan's eldest daughter—naturally met a grim end.
Out of lingering regard for the mother-son bond, the male protagonist eventually petitioned the new emperor for mercy, asking that the original owner be sent to a monastery for life imprisonment. The new emperor, mindful of the male protagonist's meritorious service in defending the throne, granted his request.
Thus, the original owner was dispatched to a monastery far from the Capital, only to fall victim to bandits along the way and be humiliated to death. Upon hearing the news, the male protagonist felt sad for merely a fleeting moment before returning to his passionate entanglement with the female protagonist.
"What an ungrateful wretch."
Xia Weiyi muttered indignantly. Now that she had transmigrated into the original owner's body, she naturally intended to live well in her stead and avoid the tragic fate described in the book.
As for the male and female protagonists... oh, no. Since she had transmigrated here, *she* was the protagonist now.