Chapter 1: I became a beautiful lady with a strong complexion

“Where~ where have I seen you before?”
“Your smile looks so familiar.”
“I can’t quite remember…”
“Ah~~ it must’ve been in a dream~~”

The sweet and lingering voice of Teresa Teng was playing from the village loudspeakers, her melody captivating and gentle. Inside a shabby room, Ruan Xiangxiang’s mood was equally sweet. She stood in front of an old mirror adorned with a red double-happiness wedding character, admiring her reflection with great interest while smugly talking to herself.

“Tsk tsk, a sharp chin and double eyelids—so beautiful. Are these eyes inlaid with blue sapphires? That red beauty mark at the end of my brow—must be the legendary beauty mole! And this nose… oh my, that nose bridge is so high and defined. These long legs, goodness, they’re longer than my own life! And this fair, glowing skin… isn’t this the cold white tone that everyone dreams of?”

“Oh my heavens, this face is too perfect. Must be one of Nuwa’s graduation projects!”

The only flaw was a glaring red scar on the forehead of the mirror’s stunning woman. Ruan Xiangxiang carefully applied ointment to it with her delicate fingers, feeling extremely distressed—she absolutely couldn’t let it scar. The face was just too gorgeous; she couldn’t bear even a slight imperfection. After finishing with the medicine, she went back to admiring herself again.

She truly looked more stunning with every glance—especially those deep, icy-blue eyes, like priceless sapphires that sparkled like the stars. One look could steal a soul. Her figure? Flawless. Though her height of 168cm wasn’t quite supermodel level, her proportions were impeccable—ample curves, a waist so slender it looked like it could be gripped with one hand, and an elegant sway with every step.

This was already Ruan Xiangxiang’s second day inside the book, and she still wasn’t over how beautiful she had become. Her favorite part was definitely those eyes—so bewitching that she felt enchanted just looking in the mirror.

She couldn’t understand what the original owner of this body had been thinking—having such a heavenly face and devilish figure, yet still choosing to walk down a dead-end path.

To understand what happened, you’d have to start from two days earlier.

Back in 2024, Ruan Xiangxiang had relied on her own abilities to rise to the top of a multinational corporation. At a company celebration, she had a few too many drinks and fainted. Before passing out, she asked two assistants to help her back to her hotel room.

“She’s really bulky, no wonder she’s thirty and still single.”
“Right? Dark skin, thick build, even though she works out all the time, she still looks sturdy! Honestly, her looks don’t match her name at all!”
“Well, she is capable at her job.”
“Pfft, as if she could rely on her face to get by—no way.”
“You’re so mean. Keep your voice down—what if she hears us? Come on, President Li is waiting. He promised us the project as long as we keep him company tonight.”

Their voices faded as they walked away, leaving Ruan Xiangxiang fuming. Couldn’t they at least badmouth her somewhere private?

But what they said was true. Ruan Xiangxiang really did have a forgettable face—round and plain, and a pear-shaped body. No matter how much she exercised, she always looked bulky. Because of her appearance, her career advancement was anything but easy. As the assistants had said, her position was entirely due to her professional skills.

After earning some money, she even considered plastic surgery. But when she went to consult one of Thailand’s top clinics, the doctors told her that to truly become beautiful, she’d need extensive surgery. And at just 158cm tall, even with all the work done, she’d still just be a prettier potato.

Afraid of pain and valuing her life, Ruan Xiangxiang gave up on the idea.

Naturally, with such “inconvenient” looks, she’d never been in a real romantic relationship. Her biggest regret in life wasn’t love—but not having a beautiful face.

Thinking of that, she passed out drunk… and never woke up again.

When she next opened her eyes, she had transmigrated into a book set in 1983.

As everyone knows, it’s usually the cannon fodder or evil female characters who get transmigrated into. Ruan Xiangxiang was no exception. In the novel, she was a small stepping stone, sold off by her stepmother in exchange for a bride price to fund her stepsister’s university education.

Her biological father had once been a sent-down youth in Yanbian and met her mother while working on a construction project in a remote region. Her mother was from the Tajik ethnic minority, the only ethnic group in China with blue eyes—a people with clear European features. She was exotically beautiful, with her most striking feature being those icy-blue eyes.

Her father had strong features and a tall frame, and together, they had one daughter: Ruan Xiangxiang, who inherited her mother’s exotic beauty and especially her mesmerizing blue eyes.

Unfortunately, in that era, such a striking and foreign appearance wasn’t widely accepted. Whenever she went out, men would leer at her while gossipy women called her a seductress and a fox. Years of these comments had made the original Ruan Xiangxiang feel ashamed of her beauty. She walked hunched over, trying to hide her figure.

Her mother had passed away early due to illness. Her father brought her back to their hometown in Shendu City, Henan Province, and remarried a woman named Zhang Lingyu, a divorcee with a daughter.

That daughter was originally named Zhang Mengzi, but changed her name to Ruan Mengmeng after the remarriage. She was the female lead of the novel—pure, sweet, and every man’s dream girl.

With their help, Ruan Mengmeng eventually became a beloved darling in the book’s timeline, blessed with both beauty and wealth. Meanwhile, the original Ruan Xiangxiang was the first stepping stone on Ruan Mengmeng’s path to success.

That year, Ruan Mengmeng got into a university in Shangdu City. The family lacked money, so Zhang Lingyu came up with a plan: marry off her stepdaughter to get the bride price and fund her own daughter’s education.

But due to her overly striking appearance, no one wanted to marry Ruan Xiangxiang. Older folks thought she looked like a temptress and stayed away.

Zhang Lingyu cursed her out in frustration, calling her a worthless tramp no man wanted.

Unexpectedly, one family came forward, willing to pay 300 yuan in bride price to marry her.

They were the Gu family, from Daping Village, a rural area under Shendu City in Henan Province. Zhang Lingyu, seeing the money, agreed without even asking about the family’s background.

Afraid Ruan Xiangxiang would resist, she and her daughter drugged her and had her sent off in the middle of the night.