★ One of the three flagship IPs of Zhihu’s Yanyan Story platform, known as the “Three Great Tragic Romances of Zhihu.”
★ Over 10 million reads on Zhihu. Published as a print novel in mainland China in 2021, and a traditional Chinese edition followed in 2022.
★ Adapted into the hit costume drama Scent of Time, produced by Yu Zheng’s team and starring Zhou Ye and Wang Xingyue, which aired on Youku in 2023 and was released internationally on HBO Go. A 2024 audio drama adaptation made it the first Yanyan Story IP to span text, screen, and audio.
★ Selected for the 2023 China Online Literature Influence List (IP Impact Category). The author served as screenwriter for the drama adaptation.
★ “I woke up inside the novel as the villainess everyone loves to hate. Corrupt father, spoiled brothers, a lifetime of bad deeds. Can I turn this losing hand into a winning one?”
★ Rights sold: Traditional Chinese. More languages in negotiation.

A college student, after staying up all night to finish a novel, wakes up to find herself inside the story. She has become Hua Qian, the villainous second female lead—notorious for her schemes, with a corrupt father and a reckless brother. Worse, she is the one who tore apart the male lead Zhong Yelan and the female lead Mu Yao.
She has transmigrated at the worst possible moment: her wedding night to Prince Zhong Yelan. She knows exactly how her story ends—rejected by the male lead, her family destroyed, her own death. Armed with omniscient knowledge but zero protagonist luck, she begins a desperate struggle to rewrite her fate.
Step by step, Hua Qian sets her survival plan in motion: distance herself from the male leads, repair ties with the female lead, rein in her father, clean up her brother’s messes. She evolves from a lovestruck fool into a clear-eyed, independent woman. The calculating Emperor Zhong Xiwu, the loyal bodyguard Hua Rongzhou, and her guilt-ridden ex-fiancé Zhong Yelan—three men enter her life, but her final choice is anything but predictable.
“Truth reveals itself when the gilding is stripped away”—this is a story about how a so-called “villainess” turns the tables and carves out her own survival.

July Li (Qiyueli) is a Chinese screenwriter and bestselling online fiction writer. Her works are known for their fresh perspectives and distinctive storytelling, earning her a devoted readership and over 1 million views on Zhihu.
She began publishing on Zhihu in 2019, releasing hit series including Washing Away the Lead, Warm Water Boils the Frog, and Tumi Doesn’t Compete for Spring. Among them, Washing Away the Lead has accumulated over 10 million reads and is hailed as one of the “Three Great Tragic Romances of Zhihu.”
In 2021, the novel was published in print. In 2023, its drama adaptation Scent of Time, produced by Yu Zheng’s team, aired on Youku—marking her first work to be adapted for screen. In 2024, the novel was selected for the China Writers Association’s 2023 Online Literature Influence List (IP Impact Category). She also served as a screenwriter on the hit costume drama The Double, and is currently head writer/final-draft screenwriter for the xianxia drama Linjiang Xian.

1 Survival Guide, Part 1
2 Survival Guide, Part 2
3 Are You Really Hua Qian?
4 Wounded Body, Fragile Heart
5 I Will Never Presume to Guess Your Thoughts Again
6 Knowing Right and Wrong, Yet Choosing Silence
7 One Person’s Effort Is Futile
8 Why a Villain Is a Villain
9 Lingering Thoughts
10 I No Longer Have… Him
11 It Was Always You
12 I Always Preferred to Overlook Him
13 I Want Someone to Disappear
14 A Childhood That Must Have Been Brutal
15 Guilty or Not?
16 You Don’t Trust Me. You Never Did.
17 Finale, Part 1
18 Finale, Part 2
19 Bonus: Zhong Xiwu
20 Bonus: Hua Rongzhou
21 Bonus: Zhong Yelan