Chapter 1

"My Little Husband Was Born Lucky" by Yu Lai Chi [Complete + Extras]

Synopsis:

Xie Ning accidentally fell into the water. After he was rescued, his skin cracked and his face was covered in dead skin, making him the village's notorious "ugly ger." Being rejected and having Zhou Wenshu break off their engagement was bad enough, but his whole body was dry and itchy, too. The torment was killing him!

Xie Ning's stepmother sent him off to become Zhou Jinian's study attendant. If he couldn't get married, he could at least earn his own living!

What? The Zhou family didn't want a study attendant? They wanted to marry him in as a lawful spouse?

Zhou Jinian spent his life wielding influence at court, only to let his guard down in his later years and be poisoned by a political enemy. In the end, Ninglang, his childhood study attendant, saved him by exchanging his blood for Zhou Jinian's. Ninglang was strange: his wounds healed extraordinarily fast, unlike a normal person's. After Zhou Jinian took him to bed while drunk, the Zhou family kept him confined in the rear courtyard. Ninglang sacrificed his life, and Zhou Jinian lived out his days in regret.

Reborn, Zhou Jinian calculated the timing. This was just when the koi had begun parasitizing Ninglang. He had to hurry and marry him, then keep him in water...

He would keep Ninglang safe throughout this life!

Koi-blood merchant shou × reborn gong who rises through the imperial examinations

PS: 1.

Male pregnancy

Fiction! Male pregnancy fiction! Male pregnancy fiction!

2. An ancient-setting story of marriage first,

love afterward,

mainly a slice-of-life story about earning money, building a fortune, and doting on a little husband in ancient times.

3. The shou remains in human form throughout. There are original setting elements. (If you really can't keep reading, don't force yourself. The world is beautiful; may you and I be so, too.)

Content tags:

Farming

fiction

Sweet romance

Imperial examinations, business

Search keywords: Main characters: Xie Ning, Zhou Jinian ┃ Supporting characters: ┃ Other:

One-line summary: Koi-blood merchant shou VS reborn, husband-doting imperial-examination gong

Theme: Protecting marine life starts with us.

Brief review:

This story follows two young men as they move forward hand in hand. Born into a poor family, Zhou Jinian opens his eyes again to find himself back at eighteen. He seeks out Xie Ning, who saved his life in his previous lifetime, and works hard while repaying that kindness. As it turns out, there are never any shortcuts in life, and the problems he faces in this lifetime are always new. He cuts his way through the obstacles on the imperial examination path, step by step, with Xie Ning beside him through every advance and retreat. Ultimately, Zhou Jinian passes the imperial examinations and enters officialdom, rising from a practical local official dedicated to the people to prime minister at court; Xie Ning, striving to have enough to eat, grows from a street vendor into an imperial merchant. With its plain, unadorned prose and smoothly flowing plot, this story features two positive, motivated protagonists who support each other through ordinary daily life, actively confronting and resolving difficulties until they finally reach their goals.

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Chapter 1

When he opened his eyes again, a thick wooden beam stretched across the ceiling. Beneath him was a solidly built earthen kang bed. A battered wooden screen stood directly opposite the bed, and a solid wooden desk sat by the wooden window. These were the surroundings Zhou Jinian had lived in during his youth.

His breathing was light and easy. Clenching both fists, he could feel strength filling his body, a sign of youth.

For three days running, Zhou Jinian had tested himself like this upon waking. He simply could not understand why he, a dying man, had closed his eyes only to open them again in the year he turned eighteen.

Still, he could count himself as having died without unfinished business. He had rooted out his treacherous enemies, using bloody hands and an iron fist to spare not a single one. Sadly, all their blood could not restore Ninglang's vibrant life...

Voices outside the door interrupted Zhou Jinian's thoughts.

"I won't agree to it! Mother, that Ning from the Xie family has a strange illness with no cure! Eldest Brother's family broke off the engagement. Even if he's to become a study attendant, he should serve my nephew Wenshu!"

It was his dad's voice. Zhou Ji-

-nian got out of bed

and walked silently to the door.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Doesn't Wenshu need to avoid suspicion? I've already agreed to this with the Xie family. Jinian will be going to town for the prefectural examination next year. Where will the money come from? Be sensible."

This time, it was Zhou Jinian's grandmother speaking. The old woman had always held to the saying, "the eldest grandson and the youngest son," so her eldest grandson, Zhou Wenshu, and her youngest son, Zhou Liufeng, were the apples of her eye.

As for her third son's family, being caught in the middle already made them easy to overlook. Moreover, some years earlier, Zhou Sanfeng and Zhou Liufeng had met with an unexpected disaster while away from home, leaving Zhou Sanfeng with a bad leg. Among people who worked the fields, no one was looked down on more than those with impaired legs or hands.

Long accustomed to his grandmother's excessive favoritism, Zhou Jinian felt no sadness.

His straight brows were striking, his narrow black eyes held a hidden sharpness, and his thin lips were lightly pressed together. Standing tall and slender behind the door with his hands clasped behind his back, he radiated an overbearing forcefulness.

Alone in the room behind the closed door, he went unseen. Had anyone else been there, they would surely have noticed that this bearing, born of long years in a position of power, was nothing an eighteen-year-old youth should have possessed.

"Money for the prefectural examination? Mother, Wenshu, Sixth Brother, and my son are all going to take the examinations together. That money should come from the family to begin with!" Zhou Jinian's dad was named Lin Jin, and he was Zhou Sanfeng's husband.

In Great Qing, besides men and women, there were also shuang'er, called gers, who could bear children as well. Lin Jin was one of them.

He stared at his mother-in-law in disbelief. He could not understand how she had the nerve to threaten him with his son's examination travel expenses.

"Yes, our household should pay, but! Third Son has a bad leg, and all you do is cook at home. Your family spends without bringing anything in. Have I ever shortchanged you as head of this household? Now that you're needed, how do you have the nerve to make excuses?" Grandmother Zhou brushed her sleeves without even looking her third son's husband in the eye.

Lin Jin gritted his teeth in anger. His husband Sanfeng had broken his leg saving Sixth Brother! And did he do nothing but cook at home? Who washed the dirty clothes, quilts, and bedding of the more than twenty people in this family, if not him? Was there a day when he did not sweep the floors?

As the ancients said, while one's parents lived, the family should not divide! Had Zhou Sanfeng done any less work in the fields on his lame leg? His bad leg slowed him down, so while everyone else went home for a midday rest, Zhou Sanfeng was still toiling in the fields beneath the blazing sun. How had his mother-in-law made it sound as though his family were living off everyone else?

Three feet of ice did not form in a single cold day. His lips trembling, Lin Jin said, "Divide the household..."

"What did you say? I'm not dead yet!" Grandmother Zhou truly was a vigorous old woman. She raised her hand high, ready to slap Lin Jin.

"Stop!" Zhou Jinian opened the door, strode over, and caught his grandmother's wrist. In his previous life, his dad had taken that slap. Back then, he had not dared defy his elders and had been powerless to protect his family. But things were different now!