The Carter family had a big day ahead—it was wedding day.

Darlene Davis sat on the heated brick bed, her head covered by a red veil, draped in a traditional wedding dress that hugged her curves just right. Her hands sat neatly folded on her lap, still and quiet.

Suddenly, chaos erupted outside.

"Ethan! Quit making a scene! It’s your and Blaine’s wedding day, remember? You've watched your little brother grow up, and now he’s already in the bridal room!"

"Mom, this whole mess is just wrong, and you all know it!"

Ethan Carter clenched his jaw. He should’ve expected things to go south the moment he agreed to come back. Some things just never changed around here.

BAM!

The door across slammed with a loud thud, nearly splitting in two. The shouting stopped cold.

Under the veil, Darlene yanked the crimson cloth off, stood up, and marched toward the door. But before she reached it, someone pushed it open from the other side.

Their eyes locked. Awkward didn’t begin to cover it.

Behind Ethan, an older woman with bound feet shuffled in. Her face was stiff with guilt, but with her new daughter-in-law standing right there, she couldn’t avoid this.

"Darlene, I guess you’ve heard what happened... It’s Andrew and Clara’s fault, we know that. I'm truly sorry. Tomorrow, your dad and I will make things right, one way or another."

Darlene’s brows scrunched tighter. Clearly, “we’ll fix it tomorrow” wasn’t cutting it.

Standing nearby, Darvin Carter kept his eyes on the floor, ashamed. He used to pride himself on fairness in his household. Never thought a scandal like this would unfold—especially not involving his two most promising sons.

What stung even more was the fact he couldn’t do a damn thing right now. Only option left was to force Ethan and Darlene together and pretend this was all fine.

He had high hopes—thought Ethan’s return would patch some family ties. Instead, everything just fell apart.

What a mess.

What a headache.

And no one seemed to get how much it crushed him inside.

With a heavy sigh, he stuffed his old tobacco pipe in his mouth and took a few hard puffs—probably the only relief he’d get tonight.

Poor girl barely crossed the threshold, didn’t even get the veil off before catching grief. What would the neighbors think?

Darvin tapped out the pipe bowl and muttered, half to himself, "Kids really are debts you never stop paying."

Then, forcing himself to look Darlene in the eye, he said, "Miss Davis, we were wrong. Things got messed up, and tomorrow I’ll bring my wife and the boys over to your folks to make it right."Darlene Davis: "...Why wait till tomorrow?"

Just a moment ago, when she hit her head on the nightstand, Darlene suddenly found herself in another life. She’d somehow ended up in the body of a girl with the same name, memories and all. It didn't take long for her to grasp the situation.

Apparently, Clara Davis had messed up trying to drug her into switching places for a marriage, but the dose went wrong, and the original Darlene died—leaving her to take over.

She shut her eyes for a quick check—yeah, her spiritual space was still intact.

Score!

Back in her last life, after her parents split, both went on to remarry. Somehow, she ended up being the one all her half-siblings envied. She milked both her parents for all they were worth and pretty much lived the good life.

She even stumbled upon a magical spring that grew anything and everything. Her days? Absolute chill. Even with a regular job, she lived better than most bosses. Life was smooth sailing.

Sometimes, she even felt like her parents and boss were all working to make her life easier.

Designer clothes? Check. Fancy house? Yup. Luxury car? Also yes. She was riding high.

Heck, getting her parents to improve themselves just to make up for things was her proudest accomplishment. They each handed her a card that made her grin for days.

Darlene in her past life had nothing but upward momentum.

But this time around… Boom. Straight downhill.

She was born into privilege. The Davis family's eldest daughter in Hushi, with a mom from the prestigious Xie family, four influential uncles, and a boatload of cousins who adored her.

Except—she’d showed up at the worst time.

The country had just clawed its way out of a famine. Folks were still struggling to fill their bellies, and this little mountain village they landed in wasn’t spared.

Hang on—Darlene Davis, Clara Davis, Ethan Carter, Blaine Carter, Darvin Carter... Why did all these names sound way too familiar?

Holy crap. She hadn’t just traveled through time—she’d dropped straight into a novel!

And not just any story, but the one where she’s the tragically unlucky sister to the female lead in “Rebirth in the 60s: Sweet Wife of the Future Tycoon.”

That book… It followed the lead, Clara Davis, living her happily-ever-after.

Clara woke up back in the sixties and lucked out with a kid-producing system. Before you knew it, she snagged Blaine Carter—the guy who’d go on to become the richest man in Dragon Country.

The Carter clan was huge, and most of the village was related somehow. Naturally, traditional values ran deep. While Clara did bump heads a bit with her sisters-in-law, that didn’t matter—Blaine doted on her endlessly.

After the economic reform, Blaine jumped into business and totally crushed it.

As for Clara? Well, she got to be Mrs. Tycoon, living the kind of cushy life most people could only dream of.And Darlene Davis—Clara’s older sister—was the biggest wreck in the whole damn story.

Their dad, Arthur Davis, used to be a big-shot businessman in Hushi, rolling in cash. Back in the rough years, he did help out the Reds and even donated most of his fortune after the founding of the country. But even that didn’t save him when the crackdown came.

Lucky for him, someone lent a hand when he got into trouble. Eventually, he gave away everything he had and took his two daughters to hide in a remote mountain village in Heisheng—the place they now lived—called Carter Village.

These days folks called it the Hongxing Brigade.

Nearly every household here had the last name Carter and stuck together like glue. Only a few outsiders had moved in while trying to escape famine. Word was, the villagers all came from the same ancestor, and when their family went downhill, they settled on this patch of land—which used to be their ancestral shrine grounds.

They thought they could rebuild their lives, but history changed, regimes shifted, and the Carters never made it out of this backwater.

Carter Village was where Clara’s happy story began, but for Darlene, it was where her life got buried.

In the end, Blaine Carter led the whole village to wealth—everyone drove fancy SUVs and lived in big houses. The villagers praised the Davis family to the skies.

Clara and Blaine returned home in style, gave back to the community, even got on national TV, the whole country applauding them.

“Look at them,” people said, “grateful, loyal, the Carters raised a real gem—such kind-hearted folks!”

And Clara? Everyone said she hit the jackpot—beautiful, sweet, born to live the good life~

This book might’ve been all about love and fluff, but the sweet parts belonged to someone else. The pampering, too. Darlene was just the one getting walked all over!

Having read the original story, Darlene knew damn well that Blaine Carter’s first pot of gold came from her so-called "dowry," the very lifeline Alice Robshaw had planned ahead, stashing it away in Hong Kong for her daughter.

Alice—youngest of the Robshaw daughters—was sharp and capable. She always made sure to leave a backup plan. After all, she knew that in Arthur’s eyes, Darlene never matched up to Clara.

Alice had always feared that if things turned bad, her husband might just abandon Darlene. So she dangled a fat “meaty bone” in front of him—

That large sum of money made sure Arthur wouldn’t dare turn his back on Darlene.

Turns out, she was right.

Because after Alice passed, everything did go south.

Darlene clutched the horse-and-swallow pendant that hung from her neck, gently took it off and tucked it into her secret space.

She’d read the book—she knew this pendant had more to it. There was a tiny mechanism hidden in the swallow’s tail, and once opened, it revealed Alice Robshaw’s personal seal.

If she could just get her hands on the savings book, she could withdraw the funds—no more worrying about food or board.

And that seal? That was exactly what Arthur Davis had been desperately trying to track down for years.