The Male Lead’s Villainess Stepmother

Yan Shuyu, an avid reader of cliché CEO novels, finds herself transmigrated into one such story. She now embodies the villainous stepmother of the wealthy male lead. This character, in the original narrative, feigned kindness while mistreating the young male lead with her own son. Her ultimate goal was to seize the inheritance after separating the father and son. The novel revealed the father's manipulation; he used the stepmother and her son solely to temper his son's character. Ultimately, the stepmother and her son were imprisoned by the male lead after he assumed control of the family business. Yan Shuyu awakens as this reviled stepmother, but crucially, before these events unfold. The male lead is still an innocent child. Realizing her predicament, Yan Shuyu attempts to escape, glancing at her seemingly oblivious husband. However, a meager $250 balance and her son's dependence force her to reconsider. She yearns to return to her former existence, to become the very "whetstone" for the male lead she once read about.