After Emptying the Ancestral Home, the Capitalist Young Lady Takes a Substitute Marriage and Goes to the Countryside

Ruan Shujin, a forty-five-year-old woman, dies of anger on her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary after her husband An Minhua and their children force her to accept his mistress, Zheng Shuya, into their home. An Minhua reveals he has been supporting Zheng Shuya and her paralyzed mother for years, viewing Ruan Shujin’s suffering as repayment for past grievances. Humiliated and betrayed by her entire family, Ruan Shujin collapses and dies, only to awaken in her body in 1966 Shanghai, thirty-six years in the past. She finds herself on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, a time when her family’s status as capitalist owners of a major textile mill will lead to their destruction. In her previous life, she had blindly trusted her loving parents and husband, only to be exploited and abandoned. Now reborn, she resolves to change her fate and exact revenge on those who wronged her.

Ruan Shujin’s immediate crisis involves a forced substitution marriage. Her stepmother, Cui Ruping, and father, Zheng Yousai, pressure her to marry Xie Zheng, the childhood betrothed of her stepsister Zheng Shuya, to secure an alliance with the declining Cui family. In her past life, Ruan Shujin refused and fled to Hong Kong with her family, leaving Zheng Shuya behind to suffer, while she herself followed An Minhua into exile. This time, Ruan Shujin agrees to the marriage but with conditions: she demands the betrothal jade pendant and a substantial dowry. Upon receiving the pendant, she discovers it connects to a mysterious spatial dimension containing a replica of her ancestral home, allowing her to store and duplicate valuable assets. She uses this ability to secretly transfer her maternal grandfather’s hidden hoard of gold, antiques, and currency into her space, leaving her greedy family with nothing but empty rooms when they attempt to flee.

The core conflict shifts as Ruan Shujin navigates her new relationship with Xie Zheng. Initially perceived as cold and aloof, Xie Zheng reveals a traumatic past: as a child, he was abandoned by his biological family, locked in a dog cage by the manipulative Old Master Cui, and only rescued by Ruan Shujin, who secretly fed him. Their marriage becomes a partnership of mutual understanding and protection. Ruan Shujin donates her family’s textile mill to the state, severing her ties to the capitalist label that doomed her in the previous timeline. She also exposes her father’s illegal black market activities, leading to his arrest and that of the Cui family members. Her biological mother and stepfamily are sent to labor reform camps, where Ruan Shujin refuses to intervene, letting them face the consequences of their actions.

As the political climate deteriorates, Ruan Shujin and Xie Zheng prepare for a new life in Mengdu, a remote region where Xie Zheng has been assigned to work on desertification control. Before leaving Shanghai, Ruan Shujin systematically empties her ancestral home of all valuables using her spatial ability, ensuring her family escapes with nothing. She also secures a place for her loyal uncle and younger siblings in a military compound, protecting them from the coming turmoil. The story concludes with Ruan Shujin and Xie Zheng departing Shanghai, leaving behind the toxic family dynamics and the painful memories of her past life. She enters her new marriage not as a submissive wife, but as an equal partner, ready to build a life defined by her own choices rather than the sacrifices demanded by others.