Eighties Sweet Marriage: Cold-Faced Tough Guy Unlocks New Skills Every Night

Mu Cheng, a twenty-eight-year-old former automotive company employee turned successful livestream host, finds her life upended after a fatal elevator accident. She transmigrates into the body of Mu Guiying, the villainous female supporting character in a 1980s romance novel titled "The Military Youth's Second Marriage: Spoiled with Love." In the original story, Mu Guiying is an illiterate, scheming woman who ruins the life of the male lead, Gu Yunche, a young and handsome regimental commander, before meeting a gruesome end on a smuggling ship. Upon waking in a dilapidated rural home in 1984, Mu Cheng realizes she is in the middle of the novel's opening scene. Gu Yunche, who was brought to the village by his mother to rescue Mu Guiying from an abusive aunt, is disgusted by her attempted seduction, which was actually a trap set by her aunt Liu E using drugged wine.

Recognizing the danger of her situation, Mu Cheng immediately distances herself from the original plot. She refuses to play the role of the seductress and instead exposes her aunt's scheme, claiming she was forced into the drugging. When Gu Yunche discovers that Mu Guiying is already betrothed to Liu E's mentally disabled eldest son, he initially decides to abandon her and return to the capital to pick up Bai Lin, his childhood friend and the novel's true female lead. However, fate intervenes when Liu E attempts to force the fool to consummate the marriage with Mu Guiying. Mu Cheng fights back, injuring the attacker in self-defense, and faints from hypoglycemia. Gu Yunche, witnessing her vulnerability and the truth behind her suffering, feels a surge of guilt and compassion. He rescues her, feeds her sugar water, and ultimately decides to take her to the capital, not as a wife, but as a ward of the Gu family.

The journey to the county town and subsequently the provincial capital marks a significant shift in their dynamic. Mu Cheng, utilizing her modern knowledge and sharp wit, navigates the hostile environment with confidence. When Liu E and her relatives attempt to block their path to reclaim Mu Guiying, she cleverly uses legal terminology and threats of police intervention to scatter them, shocking Gu Yunche with her competence. She also forces Liu E to sign a document severing all financial and familial ties, reclaiming the three gold bars left by her deceased grandparents. Throughout the trip, Gu Yunche remains distant and focused on his duty to Bai Lin, yet he cannot ignore Mu Cheng's transformation from a delicate, spoiled girl into a resilient and intelligent young woman.

Upon arriving in the county town, the pair's interactions reveal underlying tensions and unspoken curiosities. Gu Yunche, bound by duty and his feelings for Bai Lin, attempts to maintain a strict boundary, referring to Mu Cheng as a younger sister. Meanwhile, Mu Cheng is determined to forge her own path, free from the tragic fate of the original character. She expresses a desire to change her name, rejecting the association with the historical figure Mu Guiying, and seeks independence through education and employment. The story follows their arrival in the provincial capital, where Gu Yunche is reunited with Bai Lin, setting the stage for a complex love triangle and Mu Cheng's struggle to survive and thrive in a new era while avoiding the pitfalls of her original storyline.