Su Xiaoman, the Female Lead’s Foil
Su Xiaoman woke up in a dimly lit room, the buzzing in her ears disorienting her as she reluctantly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred, but she could make out faint strands of sunlight filtering through cracks in the decaying earthen wall. Mottled greyish-white spider webs adorned the gaps between the stones, with spiders scurrying about in the sunlight.
Despite the visible sunlight, the room retained a chilly atmosphere, reminiscent of a gloomy basement. The air was tainted with a cold, slightly unpleasant sour odour, mingled with the scent of rice, growing stronger from a distance. This faint aroma of rice served to clear Su Xiaoman’s consciousness somewhat.
Suddenly, the door, constructed from several pieces of wooden boards, slammed open with a loud bang. A woman with a short ponytail stormed into the room, her voice booming as she launched into a tirade. “She’s really sick? We, who chop wood, cook, and do laundry every day, aren’t sick, but this lazybones is? Does she think she’s some landlady from the old society?!”
…
“Ever since this Su family came in, there’s been nothing but trouble. Do you think this is your parents’ home? You slack off, don’t do any work at home, and spend all day thinking about seducing men.”
“She still wants to flirt with Educated Youth Jiang?! Even if she wants to, it depends on whether others are willing to give her a glance. It’s the village’s joke. Xie Mingtu, your mother asked me to warn you, take care of your wife, Su Xiaoman. Once she’s in the Xie family, she belongs to the Xie family, in life and in death.”
Third sister Xie scolded at the door for a long time, venting her pent-up anger. After several heaving breaths, her gaze swept past the tall, thin man with his back to her and fell on the young woman lying on the bed. Unconsciously, a hint of jealousy flashed in her eyes.
The young woman was covered in a worn-out thin quilt, her long black hair scattered messily on the old, greyish pillow. Her pale, haggard face, partly covered by the messy hair, looked even more pitiful, with an unnatural redness on her lips due to illness, as if she had deliberately applied a layer of rouge.
Third sister Xie silently cursed “vixen-faced woman” in her heart, turning her face away from the woman on the bed. When her gaze fell on the man at the bedside, she felt a sense of satisfaction.
Thinking of Su Xiaoman, who always aimed for higher status but failed to seduce Educated Youth Jiang, and eventually ended up with nothing, Third sister Xie couldn’t help but smirk to herself.
What good is it to be beautiful? In the end, she’s just like them, marrying an uncultured bumpkin.
After venting her frustration, Third sister Xie twisted her buttocks, grabbed the basket on her arm, and with a loud “bang,” she closed the door and left.
Su Xiaoman on the bed blinked her eyes. She didn’t quite catch what Third sister Xie had said. Various images clashed in her mind, and her hungry stomach kept growling, making her too weak to focus on anything else.
She just wanted to eat something.
The man sitting beside her lowered his head, holding a bowl of rice soup in his hands. His eyes were obscured by his messy hair covering his forehead.
“Manman.”
His tone was cautious, his voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz, revealing a sense of humility.
The man tried to hand her the rice soup, but his hand hesitated, as if he didn’t dare to make such a gesture.
In the midst of hesitation, the woman on the bed grabbed his wavering wrist, causing the man to stiffen instantly.
Su Xiaoman took the bowl of rice soup. Her inherent manners restrained her from wolfing it down impulsively. She tilted her head back and slowly drank the warm rice soup.
After drinking most of the bowl of rice soup, her brain, previously occupied by hunger, finally had the energy to think about other things.
Su Xiaoman was once the eldest daughter of the Su family, a prestigious family in Xincheng. The Su family was strict and traditional, a wealthy merchant family that adhered to the traditional belief of favoring sons over daughters. When she was born, her grandmother was very disappointed to learn that she was a girl. After hanging up the phone, she never inquired about her granddaughter again until Su Xiaoman was two years old, when she saw her granddaughter for the first time.
Her father, Su Cheng’an, had a preference for women outside his marriage, indulging in extramarital affairs. Her mother couldn’t control her husband, so in order to solidify her position, she focused all her efforts on bearing a son. When Su Xiaoman was three years old, her mother finally got her wish and gave birth to a son. From then on, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to her son, Su Huai, who became the favourite of the entire family, arrogant and domineering. As the older sister, Su Xiaoman had to give in to him in everything.
Su Xiaoman was born beautiful, with fair skin like snow, a delicate melon seed face, and exquisite features. At the age of fourteen or fifteen, she displayed stunning beauty like a masterpiece.
Su’s mother didn’t particularly like her appearance, feeling that she had a restless face. In order to please her mother and because of the conservative nature of the Su family, Su Xiaoman’s dressing style was particularly restrained. She wore simple straight hair, modest dresses, and had a demure demeanour, suppressing her own beauty and charm.
Despite being the eldest daughter of a wealthy family, she lived at home as if walking on thin ice.
Her first act of defiance against her family was when Su Xiaoman wanted to study fashion design. Despite being ridiculed by her parents, she realized her wish. She went to study design and met a female classmate named Xue Zhenzhen.
This unexpectedly caused a huge uproar.
It turned out that Su Xiaoman wasn’t actually the daughter of the wealthy Su family; Xue Zhenzhen was. They had been switched at birth.
Su’s biological parents were a pair of teachers, her father was a Chinese language teacher at an experimental high school, and her mother was a dance teacher. Her excessively beautiful face inherited her biological mother’s beauty and charm.
“It must have been deliberately swapped!”
“True or false heiress!? Xue Zhenzhen is the true daughter of the wealthy Su family.”
When the Su family’s parents saw their biological daughter, Xue Zhenzhen, they were overjoyed:
“What? Qin’s Third Young Master is actually your childhood sweetheart?”
“Zhenzhen is our real daughter!”
“Hurry up and acknowledge your roots,”
Su Xiaoman’s biological parents said to her:
“We have only raised our only daughter, Zhenzhen. She is the cherished child of me and your father; we can’t let go of her.”
“You’ve grown up in a wealthy family since childhood and enjoyed Zhenzhen’s wealth. Our entire family owes her.”
…
The noble young man, whom Xue Zhenzhen knew since childhood, believed that Su Xiaoman wronged Xue Zhenzhen and deliberately framed her. He switched her design drafts, causing her to be publicly humiliated.
After enduring all these setbacks, Su Xiaoman, in a state of mental haze, was pushed down the stairs by someone.
When she woke up again, she found herself transmigrated, becoming Su Xiaoman, a rural girl from the 1970s.
Combining the remnants of her memories, she realized that she hadn’t just transmigrated into any ordinary world, but into the setting of a novel.
Su Xiaoman was a cannon fodder character in a period drama.
The novel was called “Reborn in the 70s: Abusing Scum and Finding True Love.” The protagonist was Zhang Lili, who, after being reborn, exposed the true nature of her scumbag husband and eventually ended up with the male lead, Educated Youth Jiang, a young master from a wealthy compound.
Su Xiaoman was one of the extreme antagonists in this book and the wife of the main antagonist, Xie Mingtu.
Su Xiaoman was a village beauty who desperately wanted to climb the social ladder. Disdainful of the young men in the village, she only wanted to marry an educated youth from the city, with Educated Youth Jiang being her target.
She pursued Educated Youth Jiang using various methods and even attempted to falsely claim him by pretending to fall into the water. However, she was unexpectedly rescued by the poor boy Xie Mingtu and was subsequently forced to marry him.
Feeling aggrieved for marrying a poor boy, Su Xiaoman continued to obsess over Educated Youth Jiang. However, a year later, Educated Youth Jiang’s elder brother came to the village and discovered that it was Xie Mingtu, not Educated Youth Jiang, who was the true heir of the Jiang family.
Returning to the Jiang compound, Xie Mingtu was mocked and ridiculed for his rough manners and inferiority compared to Educated Youth Jiang. Meanwhile, his wife Su Xiaoman continued to obsess over Educated Youth Jiang. This led Xie Mingtu to completely darken in the novel, becoming ruthless and vicious, ultimately becoming the main antagonist with a tragic ending.
As for Su Xiaoman, the wife of the main antagonist, she also met a tragic fate. Her appearance was ruined, and she ended up wandering the streets in madness, begging for survival.
…
Su Xiaoman could still recall the plot of this period drama because the supporting character Su Xiaoman’s name resembled hers. Additionally, the male lead character setting in this novel, “Reborn in the 70s: Abusing Scum and Finding True Love,” was quite unique. While other novels typically had a “true or false heiress” trope, this author was exceptionally creative, making the male lead a “fake young master” while the antagonist male supporting character Xie Mingtu was the “true young master.”
This was a unique and unconventional setting.
Before the female protagonist Zhang Lili was reborn, she married a scumbag educated youth. The supporting character Su Xiaoman used a “falling into water scheme” to successfully latch onto the male lead Educated Youth Jiang. However, she ultimately failed to follow the male lead back to his family, the Jiang’s, and was sent back. Later, she divorced her husband, and the Jiang family compensated Su Xiaoman with a considerable sum of money. With this compensation, Su Xiaoman mocked and ridiculed Zhang Lili, who had been abandoned by her scumbag husband.
Therefore, when the female protagonist Zhang Lili was reborn, she not only sought revenge on her scumbag husband but also retaliated against Su Xiaoman, who favoured wealth over poverty. This time, she intentionally interfered, preventing Educated Youth Jiang from saving someone, thwarting Su Xiaoman’s plans, and forcing her to marry the poor boy Xie Mingtu.
Although Xie Mingtu later turned out to be the true heir of the wealthy Jiang family, the author’s intention in writing it this way was to demonstrate the difference between the female protagonist Zhang Lili and the supporting character Su Xiaoman.
When Zhang Lili first got involved with the male lead Educated Youth Jiang, there were indeed factors related to his family background. However, as they gradually spent time together, Zhang Lili had already fallen deeply in love with Educated Youth Jiang as a person, not because of his social status.
Even if he wasn’t from a wealthy family and didn’t have distinguished parents, Zhang Lili’s love for him remained unwavering.
Zhang Lili loved him for his talents and virtues, not his social status. Theirs was a true love.
Su Xiaoman and Xie Mingtu, on the other hand, were the foils to the main couple.
At the beginning, Su Xiaoman despised Xie Mingtu. However, after learning that he was the true heir of the wealthy Jiang family, she softened towards him slightly. Later, when she returned to the Jiang family and saw that Xie Mingtu was not being valued, while Educated Youth Jiang continued to be treated as the biological child of the Jiang family, Su Xiaoman began to cling to the excellent Educated Youth Jiang again.
…
Sipping her rice soup, Su Xiaoman tried hard to recall the plot from the novel: “…”.
Because she didn’t read the book in detail, she only knew the general plot and speculated on some details based on Su Xiaoman’s memories.
Su Xiaoman was very puzzled.
Before the female protagonist Zhang Lili was reborn, Su Xiaoman successfully married Educated Youth Jiang, but throughout the story, there was no mention of Xie Mingtu, the main antagonist, and he was not recognized by the Jiang family.
After the female protagonist’s rebirth, due to her interference, Su Xiaoman failed to marry Educated Youth Jiang successfully. However, after marrying Xie Mingtu, he was recognized by Jiang’s second brother, who resembled their uncle, and thus, he was acknowledged by the Jiang family.
Su Xiaoman frowned, feeling that this plot was somewhat odd.
Why didn’t Jiang’s second brother recognize Xie Mingtu before the female protagonist Zhang Lili’s rebirth?
Su Xiaoman furrowed her brows, trying to recall… She couldn’t remember all the details from the book.
Suddenly, she lifted her head and immediately recognized the man sitting next to her as Xie Mingtu. This… this man should be Xie Mingtu, the main antagonist from the original story.
*Cough, cough, cough—* Su Xiaoman was choked by her own saliva.
She hadn’t remembered anything else just now, but she recalled the description of the ruthless antagonist male supporting character in the book: Xie Mingtu was a sinister, handsome man.
Xie Mingtu had a paranoid, ruthless, and insane personality. His appearance was strikingly similar to the second uncle of the Jiang family, who was known for his elegance and grace. However, their temperaments were completely different. It was precisely because Xie Mingtu’s behaviour was so different from the Jiang family’s memory of their second uncle that the Jiang family disliked him intensely.
…
—A sinister, handsome man?
Su Xiaoman’s expression at this moment became extremely strange. The tall and skinny man in front of her, estimated to be over 1.8 meters tall, had a very poor demeanour. He hunched over, his bones protruding, wearing shabby grey clothes with three or four patches sewn on. His hair was messy like a hedgehog, and his face was scruffy with stubble, resembling a destitute beggar one might find on the streets.
This… was a sinister, handsome man?
Handsome?
…Handsome?
Su Xiaoman: “…”
Looking at this appearance of Xie Mingtu, even if he appeared in front of Jiang’s second brother, even if Jiang’s second brother used a microscope, he would definitely not recognize him as resembling his own second uncle, the swapped child of their family.
The corner of Su Xiaoman’s mouth twitched. Suddenly, she remembered the only change before and after the female protagonist Zhang Lili’s rebirth was that Su Xiaoman married Xie Mingtu.
Could it be… that Su Xiaoman, who favoured wealth over poverty, disdained Xie Mingtu’s sloppy appearance, tidied him up a bit, cut his hair, shaved his beard, and was thus recognized by the visiting Jiang’s second brother…
…
Su Xiaoman: “…”
As Su Xiaoman looked at him, Xie Mingtu cowered and lowered his head. Surprisingly, Su Xiaoman could see the word “pitiful” from this tall and imposing figure.
Even the former fake wealthy daughter from a prestigious family felt sorry for him.
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