Yang Haiyan transmigrated into a character who was a mere foil to the female lead in an ancient setting.

In the novel’s plot, both women were sold into the same household to work as maids:

The original character was the head maid—beautiful, skilled in embroidery, and literate. When the family fell on hard times, she was ordered by an imperial decree to marry Qin Fang, a centurion in the border army.

The female lead, on the other hand, was a lowly servant—plain-looking, unskilled in embroidery, and illiterate. When the family also fell on hard times, she, too, was given an imperial decree to marry the male lead, Han Zhen, another centurion in the border army.

The original character, thinking she was superior, constantly compared herself to the female lead. However, the female lead followed the male lead and rose to become the wife of a general. Meanwhile, the original character sabotaged Qin Fang’s career and ended up as a mere comparison in the family courtyard, forever living in the female lead’s shadow.

After transmigrating into the book:

Yang Haiyan looked at the tall, long-limbed man before her and thought to herself, “He’s just my type.”

Qin Fang, looking at the frail woman who couldn’t even lift a bucket of water, thought to himself, “I only earn 1 tael of silver and 30 pounds of grain per month. That’s barely enough for me to eat, and now I have a wife to feed, too? Life is tough.”

A male lead full of inner drama vs. a wise, laid-back female lead.