Zhao Ran transmigrates into the body of a cannon fodder ex-wife in a 1983-era novel titled The Days of Being Heavily Pampered by My Factory Director Husband After Rebirth. The original host died of acute appendicitis because her husband, Yang Jianjun, a factory director and veteran, prioritized helping neighbors over taking her to the hospital. Zhao Ran, a modern woman who previously sold dietary supplements, awakens in the dilapidated home of the original host, a woman who was financially exploited and emotionally manipulated by her husband for six years. Yang Jianjun withheld their marital savings, giving his wife only ten yuan monthly while keeping three thousand eight hundred yuan in a secret bankbook. He also allowed his domineering mother to steal from the household and neglect the three young daughters.
Upon waking, Zhao Ran immediately asserts control. She smashes open Yang Jianjun’s locked cabinet, discovers the hidden savings, and takes three hundred yuan in cash along with the passbook, which she stores in her personal spatial dimension, or Kongjian. Suffering from appendicitis, she hires neighbors to transport her to the hospital, paying them with the stolen money and entrusting her children to a kind elderly neighbor, Grandma Sun. During her hospitalization, Yang Jianjun visits only once and fails to pay the medical bills. When Zhao Ran attempts to leave, she discovers her remaining cash has been stolen by Yang Jianjun. Rather than succumbing to shame, she reports the theft and files a missing person report for her husband, forcing him to appear at the police station and the hospital.
The confrontation reveals Yang Jianjun’s true nature to the public. He admits to taking the money and claims the bankbook was his personal property. Zhao Ran counters by exposing his financial abuse and neglect in front of hospital staff, police, and onlookers. Yang Jianjun, humiliated and unable to maintain his respectable facade, agrees to transfer the funds to her account but leaves her with no money for discharge. Zhao Ran returns home to find her children neglected and dirty, having been left in the care of her mother-in-law, who stole the childcare money Zhao Ran had left with Grandma Sun.
Zhao Ran confronts her mother-in-law, smashing through her window with an axe to retrieve stolen goods, including four hundred yuan and a jade bracelet. She kills one of the old woman’s chickens to assert dominance and forces her to pay for water delivery and laundry services using the stolen money. During this time, Zhao Ran discovers her Kongjian has evolved from a simple storage space into a functional environment with a medicinal herb garden and a well. The herbs resemble ingredients for aphrodisiacs, reminding her of her previous life’s business. She also realizes the jade bracelet she stole may have magical properties, as it originally activated the Kongjian in the novel’s plot for the female lead.
Realizing she cannot return to her original world immediately, Zhao Ran decides to stay and fight for her independence. She plans to divorce Yang Jianjun, secure her marital assets, and protect her three daughters from the fate destined for them in the novel. The story follows her transition from a victim of circumstance to a proactive survivor who uses her modern knowledge and supernatural advantage to dismantle the toxic family structure and build a new life.
