The Courtyard’s Pampered Wife in the 70s

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Gu Shunhua realized she was a side character in a retro-era novel just as she was buying a roasted sweet potato in Dashilan Alley.
The familiar Beijing accent rang in her ears: “Are you buying it or not?”
She dropped the sweet potato and bolted straight for the train station.

According to the novel’s plot, she would soon divorce her husband temporarily just to return to the city. But at the moment of divorce, her cousin Chen Lu would seize the chance to marry her ex-husband, bear him children, and bask in his rise to success—while her own twins would end up imprisoned for embezzling company funds.

The book’s tone, full of superiority thinly veiled as pity, reads:
”Gu Shunhua wasn’t truly evil—just a little petty, a little shortsighted, the typical selfishness of a small-minded woman. Traumatized by her time in the countryside, she resorted to desperate measures just to return to the city… and lost a perfectly good marriage in the process.”

Gu Shunhua: To hell with that!

She charged back to the countryside, scooped her twins into her arms, and declared,
”Wherever Mama goes, you go too. The three of us will never be separated again!”

Ren Jingnian, fiddling with the radio, looked up: “Why are you back already?”
Staring at the man who would one day dote on the novel’s heroine while ignoring his own children, Gu Shunhua straightened her back and said,
”You wish I’d never come back? Want to mistreat my son and daughter?”

Ren Jingnian: “…?”
Gu Shunhua: “Fine, let’s divorce. I get the kids—you get the donkey.”

Ren Jingnian: … What did I even do wrong?

Meanwhile, Chen Lu—who admired her superior so much she wrote an entire romance novel inspired by him—also found herself transported into the book.
 Now, with the tide of Reform and Opening just beginning, the dashing young tycoon she modeled her hero after may be married, but he’s still full of promise…
She thinks: This is my chance!

Only…


Why haven’t they divorced yet?


Why not yet?


Why…
Why?!

Associated Names
One entry per line
The 1970s Wife of the Courtyard
The Courtyard Compound Wife in the Seventies
七零之大院娇妻
Related Series
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Recommendations
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Recommendation Lists
  1. Ancient china love stories 2
  2. List_BG 1
  3. 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s and more

Latest Release

Date Group Release
06/18/25 Juju’s Translations c28
06/16/25 Juju’s Translations c27
06/13/25 Juju’s Translations c26
06/11/25 Juju’s Translations c25
06/09/25 Juju’s Translations c24
06/06/25 Juju’s Translations c23
06/04/25 Juju’s Translations c22
06/04/25 Juju’s Translations c21
05/28/25 Juju’s Translations c20
05/26/25 Juju’s Translations c19
05/23/25 Juju’s Translations c18
05/21/25 Juju’s Translations c17
05/19/25 Juju’s Translations c16
05/15/25 Juju’s Translations c15
05/15/25 Juju’s Translations c14
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Serendipity_22
Serendipity_22 rated it
May 17, 2025
Status: Completed
3.5

The FL is married and part of the sent-down-youth. She later married and gave birth to twins. Because she’s originally from Beijing, she and her husband divorce & plan to reunite later.

As she just arrives at Beijing, she suddenly learns that she’s a malicious character in a book - a mean, money-hungry ex-wife - while her cousin is the virtuous supportive new wife. According to the book, her daughter will become a horrible person and her son will see her cousin as his mother, while her husband will only care... more>> about his new wife and children.

At first she can’t believe it, but then she just travels back & takes her children with her. Her husband promises to come to Beijing too. At first she’s unsure if she can trust him because of „the book“, but later she comes to trust him again.

it’s essentially a rags-to-riches story with a little slice-of-life sprinkled in.

The FL is very hardworking, kind to those who are dear to her, always willing to mediate and listen to her friends/family. But she’s ready to fight and argue for what she thinks is right. There’s a lot of women supporting women in the book, which is very nice. But she’s also not always right and makes mistakes sometimes, which I liked
Spoiler

her brother has a fake marriage to help a woman, at the beginning she’s squarely on her sister-in-laws side, because she has empathy for her situation. She even argues with her brother over it. Later on it gets clear that she’s very manipulative and fake. The FL gets angry because of that, but also realizes it’s her own fault for being gullible.

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The ML, her husband is very great. He has not a lot of screentime at the beginning but he’s very supportive and loving
Spoiler

the FL gets the opportunity to go abroad for education for 2 years. He supports her going and takes care of everything for her.

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for a long period of time, the FL is the breadwinner of the family. He’s not feeling emasculated because of that, they even joke about it. He’s very grateful to her & hes working hard to give her everything she dreams of. He’s also a very involved father - also, equal treatment of both children - dependable and has a very high EQ. He often sees trough people better than the FL and understands relationship-Dynamics very well.

They also have a great circle of friends. They are supportive of each other and help out.

The cousin/FL of the book:

Spoiler

shes actually a transmigrator into her own fan-fiction. In real life, she’s a worker at the MLs company and „fell in love with him“. He was not interested and rebuffed her. She later met his daughter who made fun of her for trying to be her father’s mistress. Because of that and because she felt that the FL didn’t deserve him, she wrote a fan-fiction, in which she gave both the FL and her daughter a very bad ending. It was later discovered that she wrote that, she then confronted the FL and in the quarrel she transmigrated.

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The force of the book:
Spoiler

At the beginning of the story there are several characters who are influenced because of the story and behave abnormal. The FLs mother for example spoils the cousin immensely but she later wakes up and realizes her absurd behavior. The ML at the very beginning is also influenced but only in a minor way (he gives the cousin an apple) - the FL later tells him her experience with the novel-knowledge but he doesn’t believe her (he only believes in science) but he starts to think the cousin is a spy :D which leads so funny situations

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all in all a nice book, with lots of cooking.

the author also did a lot of research and based everything on true historical events and explains them in detail in her notes/comments, which was very interesting and informative. <<less
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