Chapter 1: Transmigrated into a Hellhole

The speech concluded, and thunderous applause erupted from the audience.

Holding her script, Xia Keqing stepped off the stage.

“Comrade Xia Keqing, your speech was amazing!”

“The way you stood there with such confidence, like the radiant sun at 8 or 9 in the morning I admire you deeply. Would you be willing to grow and improve with me?”

Xia Keqing turned her head mechanically to look at the boy speaking. Her expression was… hard to describe.

But her mouth moved faster than her brain.

“Not interested. Rejected for being ugly.”

Chen Zhou blinked, confused. “What?”

Xia Keqing shifted away slightly. “Nothing. Chen Zhou, I think I’m doing just fine improving on my own.”

He followed her insistently. “But Xia Keqing, we clearly “

Xia Keqing broke out in a cold sweat. “Clearly what?”

Her reaction was too intense, and her voice rose a little. People around them began to glance over. Chen Zhou was startled, instinctively stepping back about half a meter. Xia Keqing gave him a mocking smile and turned away.

Just moments ago, she had been asleep in bed. Was this a dream?

Suddenly, a strange set of memories flooded her mind.

In those memories, her name was also Xia Keqing. She was the first university student from her village, but her family was poor and couldn’t afford tuition. Her parents arranged a marriage for her her fiancé was a soldier, a stable and reliable profession in those days.

Her parents made the decision without her consent.

She was devastated.

She wanted to study. She didn’t want to marry so young especially not to a man she had never even met.

Xia Keqing loved literature and poetry. Her dream was to become a great poet, like Tagore. But if she married this unseen man, Shen Jichuan, she’d become Mrs. Shen, follow him around as a military wife, and tend to his daily needs.

That would be the end of her dreams just a housewife with a predictable life.

Not what she wanted.

So, she secretly wrote a letter to Shen Jichuan, telling him about her aspirations. Miraculously, her faraway fiancé agreed to support her university education.

And so, she got to attend college.

There, she met Chen Zhou, a fellow literature lover.

They bonded quickly over their shared passions, and love bloomed.

Behind her family’s back, and behind Shen Jichuan’s back, she started dating Chen Zhou. They shared poetic musings, deep emotional connections, and eventually things escalated.

In Chen Zhou’s dorm room, they crossed a line.

She had to confess everything.

Nervous and scared, she didn’t even notice how pale Chen Zhou turned.

Even though she and Shen Jichuan weren’t married yet, disrupting a military engagement was a criminal offense.

Still, she was optimistic. She believed Shen Jichuan would be understanding, that he wouldn’t force someone who loved someone else. She wrote him a heartfelt letter, explaining her dreams and her new love.

And sure enough, Shen Jichuan let her go.

They quickly broke off the engagement.

Then, she found out she was pregnant, so she had no choice but to drop out and marry Chen Zhou.

But his parents clearly didn’t like her. Despite her being a college student, they looked down on her pregnant before graduation, from a rural background.

Her in-laws were cold. Chen Zhou did nothing. The rift between them grew.

Their idealistic “spiritual connection” turned into emotional abuse and neglect.

Then came the real bombshell: Chen Zhou had been previously married while serving as a rural youth worker, and had a child who was already a few years old. He was a serial cheater.

After marriage, he started gaslighting her criticizing her for letting herself go, for no longer being the poetic muse he once loved.

So he found another girl for his “spiritual connection.”

She broke down completely.

Later, during childbirth, she had a difficult labor and gave birth to a daughter, only to be blamed again by his parents for not producing a son.

Her life was a complete tragedy.

As for her former fiancé, Shen Jichuan rumor had it he had a new match, a powerful official’s daughter.

After marriage, Shen Jichuan’s career skyrocketed.

They became people from two entirely different worlds.

Xia Keqing suddenly realized

Wasn’t this the novel she stayed up late reading last night?

The title was “The Sweetheart Wife of the Cold-Faced Officer from the ’80s.”

Unfortunately, the “sweetheart wife” wasn’t her.

Xia Keqing sighed. So she had transmigrated into the book?
And not just into any character a disposable background character, a total cannon fodder, with a miserable ending.

Welcome to Hell Mode.

In the original novel, she was barely mentioned.

The stars were her former fiancé, Shen Jichuan, and his darling little sweetheart wife.

But now, she was the cannon fodder Xia Keqing and she absolutely refused to go down the same doomed path.

In the 1980s, being a college student meant everything. You could get assigned a job aftergraduation unlike the future, where you graduate and face unemployment.

As long as she stayed away from Chen Zhou, her life wouldn’t end up so miserable.

Xia Keqing made up her mind in an instant.

She wouldn’t even dare dream about Shen Jichuan now, but asfor Chen Zhou thescumbag he was absolutely off the table.

She would stay away from trash men and live a good life!

She turned to look at Chen Zhou, who was still wearing that smug, self-assured grin he probably thought was charming.

She nearly threw up.

Chen Zhou was decent-looking, but his skin was dark, and he had on a white sweater with a gray scarf. That look might fool the naive original Xia Keqing but not her.

She rolled her eyes.

Then she remembered: the scarf he was wearing?
She (well, the original her) had knitted it for him her very first attempt, with clumsy stitches and all.

Without hesitation, Xia Keqing yanked the scarf right off his neck.

Chen Zhou was stunned.

He yelped, drawing the attention of nearby classmates.

Suppressing his anger, he leaned closer and whispered, “Comrade Xia Keqing, what are you doing?”

Xia Keqing remained calm. “Comrade Chen Zhou, this scarf was a gift for my fiancé not for you. Give it back.”

Just thinking about what a scumbag he was in the novel made her want to beat him with it.

The original Xia Keqing had poured her heart into knitting this scarf. Even throwing it to the dogs would be better than giving it to him.

Chen Zhou’s face turned even darker. “But you said it was a gift for me.”

A normal person would’ve been flustered at this point.

But not Xia Keqing. She wasn’t the original host. She had zero guilt, and shot back confidently, “When did I ever say that? Do you have proof?”

In this era, people were conservative. A girl wouldn’t give a guy a scarf in front of others if they weren’t engaged.

So of course, Chen Zhou had no proof.

He choked on his words.

Xia Keqing calmly pulled out a small pair of scissors from her keychain and shredded the scarfinto pieces, tossing it into the trash.

“It’s dirty now. My fiancé wouldn’t want it anymore.”

She looked heartbroken as she said it.

Around them, classmates began whispering:

“Didn’t expect Chen Zhou to be that kind of guy.”

“That was meant for her fiancé why did he take it?”

Chen Zhou’s face turned black.

Someone murmured, “I thought Xia Keqing and Chen Zhou were a couple. They were always together.”