It started as a contract marriage. Both didn't want to get married but had an agreement to stop the pressure from relatives. It gradually developed and there's a lot of ambiguity but the real relationship started way far. The marriage is not forced since both of them said NO to their relatives and they both have the upper hand.

except for the other reborn girl. I'm actually surprised her Dad's side of the family didn't go after her money nor contacted her, since they are also money grubbers. She totally forgot about them and went on with her life

A little egoistic part, during a disaster, the writer thinks that western countries just leaves the useless people behind when saving people. It's just funny, especially since this is the 90's and public opinion is already a big deal during that time even if there's no internet yet.

I feel the need to explain some of the points the 1-star reviews mentioned and correct them. First off, as someone who likes this kind of genre (80s-90s; second chance; female OP MC; money/business goddess), then I highly recommend people who enjoy this genre to read it as well. This novel is much deeper than just a reborn FL and icy ML. It delves into a lot of psychological trauma and struggling through depression and this explains many of the behaviors of the main characters. The FL is reborn but she is not Mary Sue OP. You have to understand that in her first life, she started from nothing and through sweat, tears, and blood, she paved her way to becoming a successful business woman. When she gets reborn, that is her golden finger so it's only right to use it when you're being trampled by family who don't like you. She does not know advanced martial arts, she was almost kidnapped once in the past due to being rich so after that she hired someone to train her so she has some sort of self defense. She only uses her self defense a few times and even then can't do anything to people with weapons. Just because she can kick a fat hooligan man in the knees when he least expects it then suddenly it's called advanced martial arts? A normal girl can't know basic self defense? She knew her mother in her past life so it isn't too unreasonable to say she has enough clues to find her again in the second life. Ofc a FL is extremely beautiful, is it a sin to be beautiful or want to read about beautiful girls who are also smart? (Rolls eyes) And this is where I disagree the most, SHE IS NOT ABLE TO INSTANTLY MAKE THE ML LIKE HER. I even doubt I'm reading the same novel when I saw this. The ML and FL came from the same village when they were young and were considered a bit of childhood sweethearts, but she rarely remembered him at that time since she was so young. Their mothers joked about engaging them to each other at the time and that's one of the excuse the ML's scum family uses to try to get her to marry ML. But the ML and FL do not like much less love each other at first sight. It actually takes a while for them to slowly accept each other because they both have their own demons. The ML falls first but only because of her persistence to save him. The ML is not perfect. He is a solider and was traumatized at a very young age because his mother was abused by his dad's family after his dad died. He goes into his missions recklessly because he doesn't think he's a good person to live and that's one of the reasons he was able to climb so quickly through the ranks. High risk, high rewards. He actually has a major case of depression and detachment from life which eventually lead him to dying early in her first life. She knows this and desperately want to help him, not because she's automatically in love with him, no, she and him only met a handful of times in her past life and aren't even considered friends. She wants to help him because she knew who he was and how much he sacrificed for his country and comrades so she wants him to live and gain the courage to live. Their marriage at first was a contract but, at the very beginning, if he didn't agree to it then she was going to find someone else. Just because she admired his past work and wanted to help him doesn't mean she loved him right at the start. There was no intense love or feelings until they got to know each other better and as the reader, you can see it grow slowly and it feels normal. She didn't force the marriage contract. She said her conditions, pointed out the pros and cons for them both, and gave him time to think it over. When he first asked her what if he said no then she got up and was about to walk away cause she also had a plan if it didn't work out. She didn't need him to live, but working with him was a much easier way for the both of them. She is a business woman and it makes sense that it was a business contract. Also, ML is very good looking ofc. If the FL stares at the ML and thinks he has a cute butt, then that's called being h**ny? Just cause a woman admires the way a man looks then it's a crime and she's overstepping? So we can't call guys cute/handsome? That's offensive? This novel is surely meant for women so what is it? That we can't have good looking men to stare at? And there are more than just one scumbag going after FL, it is a novel, she has enemies, and as a woman, I have to add it still happens even in these days so it's not that unusual so why even point that out LOL.

Regarding the point about women treated like cows, I'm sorry to shatter your bubble but that still happens even to this day. Yes, even in modern times of the 22s, bad things still happen more often to women than men (gasp). Much less the 90s and in a country like China who barely has any stable regulations at the time. Just because something was made illegal by law doesn't mean people still don't do it. The one-child policy started in 1980. It forced women to abort females and families to kill them or leave them on mountains/traffic them just so they have another chance at a boy. About 30-60 million females were estimated to have died due to this policy. When did it end? 2016. In 2005 a report shows 1 in 4 wives are abused in China probably more being underreported. Sooo it's not even the 90s at this point and women are still being treated as worse than men? Shocking. In regards to the novel, arranged marriages happen behind closed doors, that's not unusual. And it's not even considered an arranged marriage LOL. It's not just Chinese culture that marriage consists of parental support and dowries. A lot of other cultures have the same thing and it's going to happen regardless of outlawing it or not. If two families pressure from the sidelines and their kids get married by themselves then is it an arranged marriage? The families can say they didn't force it and there's nothing the law can do. So there's a lot of roundabout ways to get an "arranged marriage" in an not illegal way. I can say that a lot of the 80s-90s time zone CN novels have "arranged marriages" in them (whether the FL/ML or not) so you're definitely in the wrong genre if you're reading these kinds of novels. Don't leave a 1 star when you can't even understand the setting of the novel.

The novel starts with the FL dying in a hospital bed because she's spent years overworking herself (the novel says she gained lung cancer due to overworking or it was just plain old exhaustion and my MTL skills aren't 100% so I summed it up as dying due to too much hard work). As she's dying, she hears her dad's family side (Su family) arguing among themselves about her inheritance. Her dad divorced her mom when she was young and remarried. So her dad and stepmom (who hates her) is arguing with her aunt. Her aunt's daughter Su Qingqing (so her cousin) is one of the main villains in the novel. Qingqing is actually from the modern times but cursed the novel and got reborn into the novel so in the first life she already knew what might happen. But the problem for Qingquing is that she doesn't know who the ML of the novel is. So she stole FL, Su Ruan, first marriage to the Lu family. Qingqing knows that Lu Mingchen was supposed to become a general so she wanted to become a general's wife and thought that Lu Mingchen's son will be the ML of her novel. However, Lu Mingchen (our ML of this novel), never married her and scared her so badly that she eventually married his cousin instead years later. But because of Qingqing, Su Ruan was forced to marry someone else and that was Huo Xiang Yang. In their first life, Huo Xiang Yang her Su Ruan had a very happy marriage to the outside but it was not actually a happy marriage. At first Su Ruan really liked Huo Xiang Yang but then he cheated on her when she was pregnant, causing her to miscarry, and from then on, she ruled the Huo family with an iron fist. It was her that invested in companies and stocks and made a fortune and the Huo family can only lie down and be beaten in order to live a luxurious life. As she is dying, the Huo family starts arguing with the Su family on the inheritance too while Su Ruan laughs cause she knows none of them will get anything since she has already decided to donate all her money in her will. Then she hears her real mom rush to the hospital and wails her name as she is breathing her last breath. She only found her mom towards the end of her life and realized that her mom may be the only person who really cared for her and this is her regret. So when she gets a second chance at life, she decides not to marry Huo and to retake her college examination because she never got the chance to go to college. At the same time, her cousin Qingqing also reborns because as Su Ruan was dying in the hospital, Qingqing was rushing to see her and gloat but died in a car accident. So they rebirth at the same time. However, Qingqing is kept guessing if Su Ruan rebirth for most of the novel while Su Ruan realized Qingqing also rebirth but didn't say anything. Qingqing decides to marry Huo this time because she believed Huo really loved Su Ruan in the last life so she makes a lot of fuss and even towards the end of the novel, she doesn't exactly die. There is quite a bit of face slapping but it's not overly excessive.

One of the major sections of the novel was her getting married to the ML and helping him deal with his family, the Lu family. Apparently they wanted the ML to marry asap because ML's grandpa left a lot of old gold and artifacts that can be sold for a lot of money but were only going to be given to ML after ML gets married. They thought she was a girl that listens to her dad and is weak-willed so since ML is a solider, if they get married then ML will give her the gold and artifacts when ML needs to go on missions and they can then take it away from her. But since she knows her father doesn't really love her that much (he does care since she is his daughter but he cares more for his stepfamily and more for his career) and that her stepmom hates her then she also draws a line with them in this lifetime and doesn't listen to them. She then finds out that ML's mother died because his grandpa and grandma refused to give his mother her medicine on time because they wanted his mother to tell them where all the gold and artifacts were. He saw his mother die as a child in front of his eyes and then his family told everyone that he scared his mom with a snake and caused her to die of fright because she was already so weak after his father died in the line of duty. He grew up in the family that hates him and only because he ran to the army when he had the chance did he survive and eventually they couldn't control him anymore. But he always thought of avenging his mother and that would mean killing his grandpa so he closed himself off to everyone even the FL because one day he may become a mu*derer. The FL eventually helps him get through this period and he resolves the family problem. The FL at this point is only helping him because she doesn't want him to die. In her past life, he died early (at first I thought it was su*cide but then it turns out to him dying on a mission so my MTL skills showing it's weakness here). But before he died in his past life, he saved her from being kidnapped once and remembered her as the kid he used to play with. So when he passed, he gave her all the gold and artifacts from his grandpa and asked her to use the money to help disable veterans and their families. She started a business to help them out and a lot of his old comrades came to support her and that's how she knew so much of him and his heroism.

So after successfully opening up his heart to have the courage to live again, she decided to keep her distance from him because they still only have a contractual marriage. Eventually, once he realizes that he really loves her then he pursue her and also resolve her heart demons. In her past life with Huo, she was trampled on by his family and only after she became wealthy could she begin to control them. After Huo cheated on her and caused her miscarriage, she closed off her heart. Eventually, ML and her were able to resolve this and then comes a lot of dog food shoved into our faces. There are also a few side characters that are couples that also shove dog food at us. For example, one of the wives of a commander who is much older argues with her husband constantly because he's always hanging around the younger girls in the army (these are mainly the art troupe that comes a few times a year to perform). So Su Ruan dressed her up and decides to go to the male art performers to get an autograph from the commander's wife's favorite performer and take pictures. A moment of silence for all the vinegar jars that broke during this time.

There is a part of the novel where she passes her college exam and gets admitted to a high university. For some reason, the MTL said one of her dream jobs was to become a professor but that never happens in the novel. When she goes to university, since she's a freshmen she has to live on campus and the ML also is in a different military university but signs up to become her instructor for the military training that all students undergo. They keep their relationship private and at this time, the ML has already fallen for the FL but she hasn't yet for him. There is a bit of drama but the drama never lasts too long and the ML and FL never have any misunderstandings (which I thoroughly enjoy). Eventually she writes him a love letter in the newspaper when promoting her shop that benefits disable veterans and their relationship becomes publicized. They eventually become a real couple after this.

Then she starts ramping up her business. Her last life she did clothes but this time she's doing jewelry. She bumps into the ML's parents of the cousin's novel but it's only a bit of the story and they are only side characters which is good because their love story is one of the dog eating blood wrenching heartbreak novels about you chase me and I chase you. The cousin does make trouble now and then but is always eventually resolved by either the FL or ML. Regretfully the cousin doesn't have any sort of "bad ending".

The last part of the novel is about the FL and getting over her past miscarriage. It caused her to be scared of hurting pregnant women or children. But eventually she wants to give birth for the ML. The ML knows her insecurities and fear so he never pressures her and told her not to rush it. However, she realizes that the time of death for the ML is coming soon. Apparently he is going to die in a flood in a few years so she begins making as much money as she can so she can donate it to help the flood rescue workers. And she also starts investing in technology to create better lifejackets and lifeboats. She is also desperately wanting to get pregnant just in case anything happens to him so she has something of his and also to have another thing for him to want to hold onto life for. A while back, the cousin already told the ML that the FL was reborn and knew everything about him and wanted to lie to him to get his money. He just laughed at this and said she can lie to him if she wants to. He does realize she is reborn and she doesn't hide it from him after this so he knows that she is doing all this for him. When the flood comes, she volunteers to go and donates a hefty sum of money for the relief effort. Eventually, right at the end of the flood, he almost drowns but is saved by her life vest. She was so terrified that after confirming he was ok, she fainted and they come to find out she's finally pregnant.

Unfortunately the novel ends here. I pointed out a lot of major events but it's the small details and side events that happen that also make the novel more enjoyable. There are some inconsistencies with the writing but it's not overwhelming and deters from the main storyline. The translation is a bit choppy but the MTL is also readable. Overall, I highly recommend people who are interested in this kind of genre to read this and give it a chance.

The romance is sweet once they really embraced each other.. A bit of push and pull, and the biggest contributer to the romance is definitely Dr. Wen~

The villainess has her own imaginary world, and she lives both lives self-absorbed by her own selfish desires, relying on luck and not hard work. You can imagine how her endings are.

ML's family and FL's father and his family are the leads' enemies for two life times. They got what they deserved..

The best characters are the FL's mother, and her new family. They are the biggest support and 'redemption' for the FL. They give strength to the FL in finding success~