In the 12th year of the Republic of China, the Huang Mansion in Santa Lane, Xicheng District, Beijing.

"Ah——" Huang Wanzhen, who was wearing a white middle-length dress, woke up from her sleep.

"What's wrong, Miss? Are you having a nightmare again?" Xiulan, the maid who was keeping watch outside Qiangong's bed, asked anxiously.

"I'm fine, I just had a nightmare."

"Miss, don't be afraid, Xiulan is here." Hearing her mistress's call, Xiulan quickly lifted the bed curtain and walked in.

Huang Wanzhen looked up and saw a young girl in a blue cloth jacket with a stand-up collar and buttons walking towards her with a burning candle.

She was lucky and did not become one of the lower class people in the Republic of China, but the situation she faced was just as bad.

Thinking of this, she felt a little distracted.

Xiulan stepped forward and patted her back, constantly comforting her: "Miss, don't be afraid, Miss, don't be afraid."

Huang Wanzhen pushed her away and said, "I'm fine. I just dream about what I think about during the day."

Xiulan: "Miss, don't think about it anymore. It's a nightmare. The more you think about it, the harder it is to get out of it. Lie down and sleep quickly."

Huang Wanzhen hummed, thought for a moment, and then said, "Hang up the bed curtains and put the candles on the table. I just had a nightmare and I'm a little scared."

Xiulan did as she was told, then turned around and said worriedly, "Don't be afraid, miss. I'm right outside. Call me if you need anything."

Huang Wanzhen: "Okay."

Xiulan helped Huang Wanzhen lie down again, tucked in the quilt for her, and then left slowly and quietly.

Huang Wanzhen looked around. The familiar carved bed and old dressing table, everything seemed so real, yet it also made her feel unreal.

She was born in the early 21st century and grew up in a well-off family, but her parents divorced before she graduated from high school.

After the divorce, they were both busy with their own careers and had no time to take care of her, but fortunately they still knew to give her living expenses.

When she was in college, she became addicted to reading novels. Not satisfied with reading them herself, she started writing her own novels. She didn't make a lot of money, but it was enough for her daily expenses.

Before traveling through time, she had just graduated from college and was not in a hurry to find a job. She went back to her hometown to visit her grandmother, but unexpectedly she got into a car accident.

When she woke up again, she had become a poor lady from a noble family in the Republic of China.

Oh! By the way, this isn't a canonical history, but a novel with a female protagonist.

Why was she so sure? Because she had read the novel, "Beauty of the Republic of China."

Thinking of the content of the novel, her heart sank.

She was not wearing the clothes of the heroine, but the supporting actress Huang Wanzhen who had the same name and surname as her in the novel.

The Huang family was once a prominent family in the capital. Mr. Huang Shuhuai was an official of the fourth rank and served as the deputy envoy of the Ministry of Public Administration. He was a strong-willed person throughout his life, but he had a son who was not a good person.

Huang Zhengming was spoiled by his mother, Huang Xu, into a life of drinking, gambling, whoring and smoking. Not only did he bring disgrace to the family, but he also squandered the huge family fortune.

When Huang Shuhuai was nearly sixty years old, his health was deteriorating. He was upset when he thought that his son only had three daughters and had no son to continue the family line.

In order to find a way out for the Huang family, Huang Shuhuai dragged his sick body to the Zheng family and asked the Zheng family to fulfill the marriage contract made by the late Mr. Zheng.

During his lifetime, Mr. Zheng served in the same dynasty as Huang Shuhuai, and was appointed a fourth-rank academician in the Hanlin Academy, which was one level lower than Huang Shuhuai at that time.

But now, the Huang family has no successor, and Mr. Zheng's son Zheng Ruqing has been valued by the "New Dynasty" Beiyang Government and serves as a counselor in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Zheng Ruqing was unhappy with this marriage, but due to his father's last wish, he finally helped his only son Zheng Yusang to agree to the marriage.

When the news reached the Huang Mansion, the three unmarried young ladies were all delighted.

Given the Huang family's current situation, it would have been great to marry into an ordinary merchant family, but they didn't expect that they could even marry into an official family.

The eldest daughter Huang Wanshu and the second daughter Huang Wanzhen were both born to the mistress Huang Dong, and their status was higher than that of the third daughter Huang Wanqiong, who was born to a concubine.

Huang Wanshu was the eldest daughter and the most qualified to marry into the Zheng family, but how could Huang Wanzhen and Huang Wanqiong give up such a good marriage? They were bound to fight for it.

After much arguing, Huang Wanzhen, who was the most beautiful, finally got this good marriage.

What Huang Wanzhen never expected was that Zheng Yusang attended a modern school and despised her for being an ignorant woman with bound feet whose head was full of thoughts of free love. He felt that the marriage arranged by her parents was like a shackle that trapped him.

Zheng Yusang was determined to study abroad to pursue his so-called freedom and dreams. After learning that his parents had arranged such a marriage for him, he ran directly to the Huang family and wanted to break off the engagement with Huang Wanzhen.

Huang Wanzhen thought it was ridiculous at the time and flatly rejected him.

He did not give up and went home to lobby his father. Zheng Ruqing said that he could send him to study in the United States, but the prerequisite was that he married Huang Wanzhen.

On the second day after her marriage, Zheng Yusang packed her luggage and boarded a ship bound for a foreign country.

It was four years later when he came back, and he was accompanied by a lady in a Western dress.

The young lady's name was Lin Qingrou. She was graceful and elegant, which formed a sharp contrast with Huang Wanzhen who was wearing a traditional cheongsam.

Zheng Yusang came back this time to divorce Huang Wanzhen and marry Lin Qingrou.

At that time, Huang Wanzhen was in an extremely difficult situation. Her grandfather and father had passed away long ago, and the only remaining ancestral home in the family had been taken away by the clan members.

My mother relied on the remaining dowry to rent a simple house in the south of the city and lived a hard life.

For Huang Wanzhen, the Zheng family is her only support. She said that she would never leave this wealthy family and share a room with her mother.

In order to stay, Huang Wanzhen tried every means to persuade the master and mistress of the Zheng family. With their support, Huang Wanzhen was not divorced.

But Zheng Yusang was not reconciled. He had no feelings for Huang Wanzhen. In his eyes, this woman with bound feet was nothing more than a product of feudal ethics and a stumbling block in his pursuit of freedom.

Not long after, he took Lin Qingrou away from Beijing and went to the prosperous Shanghai.

However, the parents-in-law blamed Huang Wanzhen for not being able to hold on to their son's heart and causing him to leave them.

From then on, Huang Wanzhen's life in the Zheng family became much more difficult.

She was ignored and ridiculed, and spent long nights alone in the deep courtyard of the mansion.

As a result, Huang Wanzhen resented Zheng Yusang.

In Shanghai, Zheng Yusang quickly got a job in the Democratic Party government by virtue of his status as a doctor who studied abroad and a returned talent.

His official career went smoothly, and he also gave Lin Qingrou a grand wedding. Lin Qingrou became an official's wife, but no one knew that Zheng Yusang had an original wife, Huang Wanzhen.

After Huang Wanzhen found out, she hated him even more.

As time went by, Beijing was changing. New ideas and new cultures were flooding in like a tide, impacting this ancient city.

Huang Wanzhen also slowly awakened in this wave. She began to read and learn to read secretly, acquire new knowledge, and understand the outside world.