The Delicate Beauty in the 1980s [Through the Book]

Wen Xin and her best friend had a falling out, turning from close companions to bitter enemies. In an act of revenge, her former best friend wrote her into a cliché-filled period novel as a tragic side character. In the novel, the character bearing Wen Xin’s name was a pitiful cannon-fodder supporting role. Not only had her parents caused the downfall of the male lead’s family, but after they were reinstated to their former positions, they feared retaliation and forcibly sent their daughter to serve as the male lead’s unpaid “little maid.” Watching the female supporting character—modeled after herself—get tormented physically and emotionally by the cold and ascetic male lead, only to devel...