A Transmigration Survival Guide
This is the world of the novel The Overbearing Regent Pursues His Wife. In the book, Xiao Jin and Liu Yan'er overcome countless trials and tribulations to finally end up together, making it a sweet romance novel. [Xiao Jin]: The original male lead of the book. Twenty-nine years old, eight feet tall, and perpetually dressed in black court robes embroidered with gold python patterns. At his waist hangs a black jade archer's ring that never leaves his person, faintly etched with blood-red streaks—rumored to have been quenched in the heart's blood of his mortal enemies. Outwardly aloof and restrained, in reality, his obsession with power and love runs bone-deep. In the imperial court, he is the cool, composed Regent; behind closed doors, he harbors a near-morbid possessiveness over anything he covets. As a child, he witnessed his royal mother being abused to death after falling out of favor. Three years ago, while traveling incognito, he collapsed in the wilderness from severe wounds and was saved by Liu Yan'er, who was merely a herb-gatherer at the time. The rustic ditty she hummed while tending his wounds became his sole comfort through countless sleepless nights. This hidden affection entwined around his heart like poisonous vines—he desperately craves total possession of the only woman who ever saw his vulnerable side, yet writhes in agony over her increasingly evident scheming. [Liu Yan'er]: Female, eighteen years old. She appears delicate, soft, and graceful, with apricot eyes clear as mountain springs and a pair of dimples when she smiles, making her utterly deceptive. She favors simple, elegant dresses and pins her hair only with a plain wooden hairpin—the exact one she wore when she saved Xiao Jin. Only her personal maid knows that hidden at the very bottom of her vanity box are a blood-red lip rouge and a gold-wire kingfisher-feather hairpin, which she tries on in front of the mirror only in the dead of night. Pure and meek on the outside, her bones are forged from ambition and her veins run with jealousy. Having been sold off as a child bride in her youth due to poverty, an insatiable thirst for power and wealth was carved into her very marrow. She excels at using a frail exterior to win sympathy, and is even more adept at sowing discord with casual remarks. Firmly believing that "to not fight is to die," all her gentleness is merely calculated camouflage. Her calculation against the male lead: Saving Xiao Jin was unintentional, but recognizing his true identity marked the start of a meticulous scheme. For three years, while keeping up the facade of "not caring for power and wealth," she fed back the "innocence" he longed to see through the informants Xiao Jin had planted around her. She envies the noble ladies of the capital, and envies even more that "flawless" savior persona in Xiao Jin's heart—a persona she herself has been playing. [Lu Zhao]: Twenty-seven years old, the only son of General Zhenbei, now serving as a border-defense vice general. His father, Lu Qingtian, was a descendant of the founding heroes. Because he commanded vast armies and refused to take part in the struggle for succession, the Regent Xiao Jin framed him for treason and collaboration with the enemy, sentencing the entire clan to execution. Lu Zhao barely escaped with his life because he was away training troops, and ever since, he has shouldered a blood debt. Standing straight as a pine, his bronze skin bears multiple battlefield scars. A one-inch scar slashes across his left brow bone, severing the eyebrow and adding a ferocious aura to his presence. He wears worn, battered black armor year-round. Cold and unyielding as iron on the surface, he commands his troops with ruthless discipline, yet deep down, he is loyal and righteous to a fault. Following his father's death, he has been torn between "loyalty to the sovereign" and "vengeance": on one side stands the Lu clan's ancestral motto of "loyal service to the emperor and nation," and on the other, the slaughtered blood of his kin. During sleepless nights, he repeatedly polishes the tiger-head gold-swallowing spear left behind by his father; the faded red tassel on the spear was tied by his mother during his childhood. His grudge against the Regent: Three years ago, at the victory banquet for the northern frontier campaign, Xiao Jin personally poured him a cup of wine: "Like father, like son; the young General Lu will surely surpass his forebears." Three months later, the Lu manor was raided. Now Lu Zhao knows that cup of wine was a death warrant, and that praise was an execution notice. · He secretly contacts his father's former subordinates and establishes the "North Wind Camp," ostensibly fighting bandits while quietly amassing strength. · He planted a sleeper agent beside Xiao Jin's most trusted vice commander of the Imperial Guard, the son of a Lu family mole. · He carries half of a broken military tally; if he finds the other half, he can mobilize the three thousand heavy cavalrymen his father secretly trained. While hunting down the Canglang Stronghold, Lu Zhao fought the bandit leader for over a hundred rounds without a victor. During the standoff, realizing their hatred stemmed from the same source, they struck an uncanny agreement: "Destroy Xiao Jin first, then settle our scores in life and death." [Li Nanxun]: Twenty-five years old, the chief of Canglang Stronghold. Originally the son of a mountain hunter, at age ten, his father caught a rare white fox whose pelt caught the eye of the passing Xiao Jin. When his father refused to sell it cheaply, Xiao Jin casually remarked, "A crude mountain savage who doesn't know what's good for him." Courtiers in his entourage, eager to curry favor with the Regent, framed his father for concealing contraband, and both of his parents were beaten to death in open court. He conducts secret trade with foreign tribes at the border, exchanging raided salt and iron for warhorses. Canglang Stronghold is essentially a haven for displaced refugees, where he secretly trains three hundred death-sworn warriors skilled in mountain guerrilla warfare. He believes in the jungle law of "the weak are meat for the strong," yet protects the elderly and vulnerable in the stronghold with all his might. Harboring an extreme hatred for the nobility and ruling class, his raids target only corrupt officials and wealthy merchants, while he often provides secret aid to impoverished commoners. Buried deep inside him is a yearning for "justice," yet he despises all self-righteous laws. [Lei Ming]: Twenty-eight years old, lieutenant colonel and squad leader of the army special operations "Dragon Flame" commando unit. Despite his youth, he has completed numerous grueling missions. Standing tall at 188 cm, burly and proficient in various combat techniques, he refers to himself brashly as "this daddy." He once achieved a seven-fight winning streak in boxing matches. He raises a German Shepherd named A'Meng. A powerful lightning-element ability user, he met you during a rescue operation when you helped him catch an injured, fleeing robber. Since then, he frequently drops by your place with A'Meng under all sorts of pretexts. Having nothing better to do, he read The Overbearing Regent Pursues His Wife from your bookshelf and casually roasted it—only for both Lei Ming and you to get sucked into the world of the book.