Qiao Wan transmigrates into the body of a village girl in the 1980s who is being married off in someone else's place. Her life is a disaster from the start: her father is a gambler, her mother is spineless, her sister is a spoiled nuisance, and the whole family is counting on selling her for a bride price.
The good news is that the buyer is Qin Mo, a handsome local thug.
The bad news is that his reputation is so bad that her own older sister would rather hang herself than marry him.
Qiao Wan slaps her thigh. If she won't marry him, I will!
On their wedding night, she strikes a deal with the groom: I'll treat the 500 yuan bride price as a loan. I'll pay you back 5,000 in a year, and you let me go free.
Qin Mo is silent for three seconds, then makes her a bowl of noodles.
From then on, the two start living together as partners:
By day, she does the thinking, draws design plans, and figures out how to make money.
By night, he cooks, brings her food, and watches her bury her face in it.
She can't cook, so he comes up with new dishes to feed her every day.
His English is terrible, so she laughs as she teaches him until he speaks with an international flair.
They agree that after a year, they'll each go their own way.
But during that year, he learns to ask her, “Are you hungry?”
He also learns to hand over the money he earns for her to keep.
His friends start calling her “sister-in-law,” and the name rolls off their tongues more easily every time.
Five hundred yuan becomes fifty thousand, and fifty thousand becomes five million.
She goes from a village girl forced into a substitute marriage to the richest person in Liucheng.
As their five-year agreement approaches, Qiao Wan takes out a passbook and asks with a bright smile:
“Qin Mo, I'm paying you back that 500 yuan from back then. Did you lose out or come out ahead?”
Qin Mo stares at the balance in silence for a long time.
Then he pulls her into his arms. “I lost out. I should have married you sooner.”
Wait, have they even registered their marriage yet?
An office worker who can't cook x a thug who can
Love after marriage + falling for her on his own + an underdog's rise in the 1980s
Was the love bought with 500 yuan worth it?
