Buddhist-style Delicate Beauty

Buddhist-style Delicate Beauty Chapter 1

In City A, February brought both warmth and coldness.

Jiang Rao woke up from a nightmare, wearing only a beige chiffon dress as she stood in front of the floor-length mirror with walls made entirely of glass, admiring her boundless beauty.

To be honest, despite having adapted to her new circumstances over the past few weeks, every time she woke up in the morning to wash up, she couldn’t help but feel envious of the original female lead’s stunning looks.

Yes, the original female lead.

Jiang Rao had been reading this old-fashioned CEO romance novel called “The CEO’s Beloved” for about a week now. Despite the seemingly mundane title, Jiang Rao had seen countless recommendations for this novel on social media, and the comment with the most likes read: 

“Combining marriage replacement and substitute, eloping and doting, the cliches and excitement go hand in hand. Although it’s a bit of a cheesy guilty pleasure, it’s really darn good!”

After being convinced by this recommendation, Jiang Rao immediately went to the official website to show her support. After browsing for a while, she found that the recommendations were indeed truthful. In just 16 free chapters, this old-fashioned novel contained exaggerated descriptions of mansions, such as a 2,000-square-meter Half-Mountain Castle and a 300-square-meter European-style bedroom. However, she couldn’t help but admit that it had been a long time since she had read such a ridiculous and dramatic story, yet it didn’t seem to be much worse than modern online literature.

Since she had the same name as the female lead, and the author had given her a good backstory, Jiang Rao found herself heavily invested in the story and bought all the paid chapters in one go.

However, after staying up for a week and reducing her daily sleep time to four hours, she almost spewed out blood when she finally finished the novel.

Of course, in the end, she didn’t actually vomit blood, but she did end up transmigrating.

She transmigrated into the novel and became the early-stage inspirational, late-stage demented female lead who signed a five million contract but didn’t keep her end of the bargain. She was determined to leave the male lead and return the position of the CEO’s wife to the employer. In the end, after being discovered by the blackened male lead, she was subjected to a series of physical and psychological abuse, but still couldn’t bear to leave him and married him in a substitute marriage.

At that moment, the landline phone in her room rang. She picked up the receiver and said, “Hello?” 

She heard the voice on the other end say, “My dear little ancestor, I never said anything to you when you refused to film for half a year! However, the historical drama you starred in last year is now incredibly popular. You didn’t attend the press conference or promotional events, and now that the drama is about to finish airing, can you please make an appearance at the celebration banquet? This is an activity arranged by the company. If you still refuse to attend, I really won’t be able to cover for you anymore!”

Jiang Rao immediately wanted to refuse.

This was simply fooling the gullible. The prenuptial agreement of the male lead’s fiancée was signed under the entertainment subsidiary of the male lead’s family, which only the upper class circle knew about. However, could the company’s top executives not know, or could no one have instructed them? Was it possible to arrange activities for each other without knowing the wishes of the young madam of the group?

However, this idea had just come up in her mind when her whole body began to ache like being pricked by needles. Her head was especially painful.

Over the past few days, Jiang Rao had already figured out the cause of the pain.

Immediately, her thoughts turned and she said to the receiver, “Okay, I’ll go.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the pain suddenly diminished.

This meant that in the original plot, the female lead also attended the celebration banquet.

Faced with the one million-word old-fashioned CEO novel “The CEO’s Beloved”, Jiang Rao could only remember the general plot twists and turns, but not the specific details. Especially when the author glossed over some unimportant plot points, she had no idea how the original female lead would have responded, so in the first day or two of her transmigration, she lived very freely. In professional terms, she was “out of character” for those few days.

However, due to her status as a substitute wife, the original female lead had always maintained a cautious and distant relationship with the servants and butler of this Half-Mountain Castle. Therefore, no one noticed the changes that Jiang Rao had made since she transmigrated.

It wasn’t until that day when she made a decision and her body suddenly started to ache that she experimented a few times and came to a conclusion— she didn’t necessarily have to live the same way as the original female lead, nor did she have to imitate all of her actions and behaviors. However, she still needed to go to the places mentioned in the novel where the original female lead had appeared.

After arranging to meet with her agent in the afternoon, Jiang Rao began a three-hour beauty treatment at home.

She went through all the beauty equipment on the washstand and used the skincare products one by one.

At the moment when she removed the face mask and felt the smooth skin on her cheeks when she touched them with her fingers, Jiang Rao was about to start doing her makeup when she heard a soft knocking sound on the wall by the door.

“Is it time for lunch?”

“Madam, your mother is here. Should I invite her up?”

“Let her wait downstairs, I’ll be down soon.”

She said she would be down soon, but Jiang Rao lingered in her room for about half an hour.

The original female lead’s appearance leaned towards innocence, while the male lead’s real fiancée, Jiang Tang, had a more glamorous appearance.

When they were without makeup, the resemblance between the two women was only 50%, but with a little bit of makeup, they could look 70% alike. If they applied heavy makeup, the similarity could be increased to 90%.

Therefore, even though the original female lead had been holed up at home since becoming a substitute bride, she still applied heavy makeup every day.

The only day she didn’t wear heavy makeup was the day she escaped for the first time. The male lead, who had excellent eyesight, recognized her immediately among a group of servants.

Later on…

Thinking about how the original female lead’s tragic love story started because she didn’t wear makeup, Jiang Rao wielded her brush like a god. She finished the makeup and styled her hair in loose waves, then applied bright red lipstick. Finally, she completed her transformation and headed downstairs. 

As expected, she received admiring glances from everyone she passed.

Although the original female lead had received similar attention every day, Jiang Rao had received even more lately. But there was no denying that being a beautiful woman who was constantly admired felt amazing, except for the fact that she was tormented by nightmares of being abused in body and mind every night.

At the same time, she also received a surprised look from her current employer, Bai Yurou, who was also her nominal mother. 

To be honest, if Bai Yurou had not just returned from visiting her daughter in Country M the previous night, she might have mistaken Jiang Rao for her own biological daughter. However, the impostor was still an impostor, and although Bai Yurou might be surprised at the face before her, she would not feel the kind of maternal love that she would have for her own child.

After the servants on both sides had been sent away by Jiang Rao, Bai Yurou stood up from her seat and walked over to the nearest spot next to Jiang Rao. “You haven’t had any physical contact with Young Master Li, have you?”

“No, he doesn’t come back often,” Jiang Rao replied.

Bai Yurou was dissatisfied with this answer. “Why is it that he doesn’t come back often again? Haven’t I told you before to manage Tangtang’s marriage and relationship? Can’t you maintain a pure and harmonious relationship with my son-in-law? How can Tangtang repair her marriage when she returns if you and Young Master Li have such a strained relationship?”

Jiang Rao twitched the corner of her mouth. 

The main reason the original owner wanted to breach the contract early was due to Bai Yurou’s interference. 

This great mother would come at least twice a month to inquire about the marriage life of the original owner, hoping that the substitute could maintain a pure, harmonious and friendly roommate relationship with her good son-in-law. She also hoped that on the basis of this pure and friendly relationship, the substitute could have a harmonious relationship with her good son-in-law like two musicians playing in harmony.

But was this possible? Although Jiang Rao had never been in love, she knew that in this world, aside from Plato, no one could maintain a relationship with such pure and unselfish devotion.

The original female lead couldn’t manage both things either. Under daily pressure, she thought of taking the initiative to confess that she couldn’t continue anymore. Unexpectedly, Bai Yurou didn’t agree. Not only did she not agree, but she even started coming to the Half-Mountain Castle more often after that.

In addition, during that time, the male lead had discovered some doubtful points and stared at her with an abnormal gaze all day long. Fearing for her safety, the original female lead finally couldn’t hold it anymore and packed her bags to escape from the Li family’s estate.

Bai Yurou’s nagging continued, “If it weren’t for Old Master Li’s deteriorating health and Tangtang being attacked by haters and becoming autistic and unable to marry, how could you have gotten such an easy and profitable opportunity to earn five million? This is like a job for you, but you haven’t taken it seriously. If this were in the workplace, your work attitude would only lead to one outcome— getting fired!”

In her past life, Jiang Rao had parents who favored boys over girls and a brother who couldn’t be helped no matter what. 

Disappointed by her family, she lost the ability to feel emotions and became someone who only cared about her own life, appearance, wealth, and future. Nothing and no one could stir up any ripples in her heart.

Her way of thinking was extremely rational, and the purpose of her actions was only to serve her physical and mental pleasure.

“In that case, please fire me.”

“What did you say?”

“Madam Bai, you’ve said these things to me more than once, but have you seen me improve? No. But have I tried? Absolutely. I’m obviously unable to handle this job anymore.”

Jiang Rao continued, “Instead of you being stressed out and me being troubled, why don’t we just terminate our contract? Otherwise, you’ll have to come and teach me how to handle things so that Young Master Li can avoid touching me, and our relationship won’t be so strained.”

Although she spoke in a soft and gentle tone, her words were unusually impolite.

As two pampered women, the original female lead was spoiled by her family when they were still alive, while Jiang Rao had spoiled herself.

The former was weak-willed and submissive, while Jiang Rao lived as she pleased. Although she found it tiring to discuss things with others, she couldn’t tolerate being bullied.

As she finished speaking, Bai Yurou suddenly snatched Jiang Rao’s phone from the table.

This was an old-fashioned story, and the phone in the story was naturally a style from before 2010.

As Bai Yurou pressed the buttons on her knock-off phone, resembling a Nokia but with a Vertu logo, the device made a series of clicking noises. She eventually tossed it over to Jiang Rao, who lowered her head to glance at the screen.

With just one glance, her expression became difficult to describe.

***

Meanwhile, at the airport of a neighboring province, the little assistant who had just arrived and promptly opened the CEO’s phone hurriedly stepped over to his side after seeing a new message. “President Li, Madam sent you a message.”

 “Read it,” replied Li Jueyan.

Clearing his throat, the little assistant read aloud, “Madam says: I miss you.”

Li Jueyan’s footsteps abruptly halted.

He reached out and took the phone from his assistant, but before he could examine it closely, a new message appeared on the screen.

[Jiang Tang: Sent to the wrong person.]