Gang Zhu was the next monarch of the Female-Dominant Kingdom, the one with the highest combat prowess, the most ‘womanly charm’, and the one poised to inherit the throne.
She was the great hero, the great general, admired and obsessed over by countless delicate men.
She was also the idol worshipped and revered by the other women of the Female-Dominant Kingdom.
Her prestige within the kingdom was truly second to none.
It was precisely because of this that when the previous monarch suddenly passed away without leaving a will announcing an heir, Gang Zhu, the seventh-ranked royal heir, was able to effortlessly surpass her other elder sisters and become the next monarch, the one upon whom the hopes of the entire Female-Dominant Kingdom rested.
However, what no one knew was that this highly prestigious, most ‘womanly’, and universally adored great hero had a secret, which was—
She wanted to be a delicate man.
To be more precise, she wanted to be a little woman who spent her days wearing beautiful clothes, styling her hair in the latest fashion, dressing up prettily like a weak man, staying at home to do embroidery, blend perfumes, and cook.
Unfortunately, she was born with extraordinary talent and possessed innate divine strength from a young age. She was also noticed by a reclusive master, and so she began her miserable days of diligent daily training and lifting weights.
She ran further and further away from the life she yearned for…
In the end, she became the person she least wanted to be.
A true woman, eight chi tall, covered in bulging muscles, capable of killing a tiger with one punch, mighty and imposing.
Originally, Gang Zhu thought that even if she was destined not to become a delicate man, she could at least keep her hobbies.
In the future, she could become a leisurely prince, idling at home doing embroidery, blending perfumes, and cooking!
After all, once the door was closed, no one could control what she did in her own home.
But despite all her calculations, she never expected that she wouldn’t become that idle prince. Instead, she was forced onto the throne…
Even more unexpectedly, before she could successfully ascend and become the next monarch, she opened her eyes and transmigrated to a bizarre, unfamiliar place, and even became the person she most wanted to be!
She now possessed a body that was delicate, beautiful, and superbly gorgeous, like a celestial fairy!
What was even more incredible was that after receiving the memories of the person she had possessed, she was shocked speechless!
It turned out she had crossed over to another world in the blink of an eye, a world completely different from her own country.
This place was not like her country, where women were revered. Here, men and women were equal.
To be more accurate, it seemed the genders in this world were reversed compared to her country.
The men here were like the women in her country. And the women here were like the men in her country…
『So what Imperial Father said was true… There really is a country completely different from our Female-Dominant Kingdom… There really is a world where the genders are reversed…』
Gang Zhu murmured softly, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
Wasn’t this exactly the world she had always yearned for!!!
Starting today, she could finally openly wear beautiful, ornate clothes, adorn herself with exquisite accessories, apply gorgeous makeup, and do embroidery, perfume blending, and cooking to be a delicate, slender little woman!
Heaven knew she was truly fed up with a life where she had to pretend to be an iron-willed female warrior in front of everyone, and fed up with the daily routine of wearing the same unchanging armor, leading troops into battle, and getting herself all dirty!
From today on! She was going to be a delicate, soft, weak, and dainty pretty woman who clung to others like a little bird!
She would never be an iron-willed, stinky woman again!
So! From this moment on! She was no longer Gang Zhu, the quasi-national leader of the Female-Dominant Kingdom! She was—Bai Baozhu!
After perfectly adapting to her new name, Bai Baozhu simply bandaged her wrist, which wasn’t cut too deeply, sat down on the rest chair in the bathroom, and began earnestly sorting through the memories of her current body.
The more she sorted, the more shocked Bai Baozhu became.
The place she was currently in was not the original host’s home, but the filming location for a show called Love Cottage.
And the Love Cottage program was quite magical. The production team would find eight young men and women to live together for a month in the “Love Cottage,” and they would deduce the romantic signals that appeared among them.
Six of the guests (3 men and 3 women) would appear in the first episode, and the final pair of male and female guests would appear later.
Every night, the guests would need to anonymously send a text message to one member of the opposite sex.
The studio hosts would guess each guest’s crush target for that night’s text message in every episode…
Although, due to the pandemic, Love Cottage was currently being filmed and broadcast simultaneously.
But also because of the pandemic, everyone was isolated in the Half-Mountain Villa, unable to contact the outside world. The production crew had also cut off their internet, strictly forbidding them from watching the already aired episodes of Love Cottage.
So, even though Love Cottage had already started airing, none of the eight guests participating had seen the broadcast episodes, and they knew even less about the audience’s reaction after the show aired.
It was as if they were living in a paradise, staying in this Half-Mountain Villa that lacked nothing, falling in love and filming the show.
However, just today, something happened at the original host’s home. The call reached a production team staff member’s phone, which also gave the original host a chance to contact the outside world.
And it was precisely this opportunity that led the original host to have a terrible thought…
Due to the pandemic, several major incidents had occurred in the original host’s family, requiring a large sum of money—an amount the original host couldn’t afford.
On top of that, the cousin who called to inform the original host ‘kindly’ told her that she was now blacklisted by the whole internet, being called a Green Tea Bitch and a Fish Pond Manager, which made things even worse.
In the end, the original host, who already had a fragile heart greatly stimulated by being ‘abandoned’ by several male guests and not receiving any love text messages from male guests for many days, momentarily lost her perspective and made a wrong choice she would surely regret. It was precisely because of this wrong choice that Gang Zhu came here.
“Sigh~”
After sorting through most of the original host’s memories, Bai Baozhu couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh.
She didn’t know how to evaluate the original host she had possessed.
But one thing she understood was that the original host wasn’t actually a bad person.
Perhaps she had her own vanity, perhaps she was a bit willful, a bit spoiled and arrogant because of the favor she received.
But she wasn’t the Fish Pond Manager the public made her out to be.
Her ambiguous attitude towards the male guests on the show, and some of her behaviors displayed on the program, were all just part of the wealthy, beautiful goddess persona her agency had crafted for her.
That’s right, her agency.
On the surface, the original host was a recently graduated dance major, an unemployed person who occasionally did part-time work as a print model. But in reality, she had signed with an agency before graduating.
This opportunity to participate in Love Cottage was also the first work opportunity her company secured for her. Similarly, she didn’t come to this dating reality show to fall in love.
She joined the program to prepare for her own debut.
And after learning she was blacklisted by the whole internet, the original host’s star dream shattered, which was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back.
However, these straws that broke the original host’s back were, for Bai Baozhu who had just transmigrated from the Female-Dominant Kingdom—
Not a problem at all!
Getting blacklisted for participating in a dating reality show? Consistently getting zero votes with no one choosing her? Her star dream completely shattered?
No problem, no problem! Anyway, she wasn’t interested in being some star.
As for falling in love… she didn’t have much interest in that for now either!
So! She would just treat her current situation as a vacation, a good rest within the program, doing some embroidery, blending some perfumes, and cooking!
As for the problem of the original host’s family debt…
『Someone as capable as me, proficient in all eighteen martial arts…』
Earning money shouldn’t be too difficult for her, right?
Thinking this, Bai Baozhu began considering which of her skills could make money!
She knew martial arts… but now she had a different body, and this body’s age was already too old, equivalent to having her martial arts crippled. She would need to train again from scratch.
Her embroidery skills were also good; she even knew difficult techniques like double-sided embroidery.
But embroidery was very time-consuming…
As for perfume blending, it required many materials, and she didn’t know if this world even had those materials…
After much deliberation, Bai Baozhu finally felt that the only skill that could make her family rich seemed to be her culinary arts!
『It seems I’ll have to focus on cooking from now on…』
Just as Bai Baozhu was quietly muttering to herself about needing to properly study this world’s recipes and research local tastes, she heard a series of urgent knocks on the door.
“Knock knock knock!”
“Zhu Zhu, are you okay? Why have you been in the bathroom for so long without coming out?”
Hearing the clear, sweet female voice from outside the door, Bai Baozhu finally felt the reality of arriving in this strange new world.
She quickly drained the faintly bloody water from the bathtub, swiftly cleaned the bathroom, and after checking repeatedly to ensure no traces were left, she finally opened the door under the increasingly urgent knocking.
“Zhu Zhu, open, the door.”
Bai Baozhu’s sudden opening of the door startled the person outside, causing her words to falter slightly.
At this moment, Bai Baozhu, who had opened the door, also saw clearly who the girl standing at the door was.
Medium-length hair with straight bangs, a doll face, not very tall, with round, almond-shaped eyes that looked silly and cute. Without needing to think much, Bai Baozhu knew this girl was Xia Tiantian, the female lead number three in Love Cottage.
She was also, among the three female guests in Love Cottage, the one who had the relatively best relationship with the original host.
Of course, this was also thanks to Xia Tiantian’s good temper, kindness, and strong sense of tolerance.
“Zhu Zhu, are you okay? Why did you shower for so long? It’s been almost three hours, right?”
Seeing Bai Baozhu’s pale face, her whole body damp, her smooth black hair not even blow-dried and clinging to her cheeks, looking somewhat disheveled compared to usual, Xia Tiantian immediately grew concerned.
Especially when her eyes suddenly caught sight of the tightly bound tissue and hair tie on Bai Baozhu’s wrist.
“What happened to your hand?”
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Bai Baozhu imitated the original host’s usual aloof demeanor and said lightly.
Seeing that Bai Baozhu seemed truly fine, Xia Tiantian didn’t ask further.
After all, she had lived and interacted with Bai Baozhu for half a month now, and she had some understanding of her missy temper.
Not to mention their relationship wasn’t at the level of close friends; even if it were, judging by Bai Baozhu’s temper, asking further would only be asking for trouble.
“Then let’s hurry to the living room. It’s almost 11 o’clock, time to send the text messages.”
“Mm, okay. Wait for me, I’ll change clothes and go with you.”
Following the original host’s memories, Bai Baozhu specifically took out a white lace nightgown with a courtly, retro style from the original host’s wardrobe, one that could cover her wrists, and put it on, her heart full of girlish delight.
Bai Baozhu (Gang Zhu): Aaaah! The nightgown is so preeetty aaaah—
Watching Bai Baozhu change into the white lace nightgown and walk out with a satisfied expression, although Xia Tiantian didn’t understand why her roommate had that look on her face, she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly about how truly beautiful her roommate was.
Even without makeup, with a clean, bare face, she still had another kind of beauty, like a clear-water lotus, natural and unadorned.
The only pity was her temper wasn’t great, making her a bit difficult to get along with…
But even if her temper wasn’t great, it shouldn’t matter, right? After all, boys all like pretty girls.
However, what Xia Tiantian, who was silently complaining in her heart, couldn’t have imagined was that the male guests who came to participate in the program were not ordinary boys at all.
Ever since the fourth female guest arrived, Bai Baozhu, the goddess recognized as having the highest looks in Love Cottage, had long since fallen from her pedestal and had been getting zero votes for a long time…