A Brocade Life on the Farm

Agronomy PhD Su Wanqing woke up to find herself in an imperial-examination novel, cast as the disposable ex-wife who despised poverty and wealth and would eventually be cast aside.

A leaky thatched cottage, a thin, cold scholar for a husband, and the whole village waiting to laugh at her. In the original story, once the male lead, Zhao Qingyun, came first in all three rounds of the imperial examinations, he would divorce her, leaving her despised by everyone.

But Su Wanqing had no intention of following the original plot.

She calmly proposed a deal to Zhao Qingyun: she would earn money to support the household and pay for his studies, and the day he passed the highest examination would be the day they parted by mutual consent. Zhao Qingyun thought it absurd, but silently agreed.

From then on, Chenqiao Village had a new “madwoman.” While others went up the mountain to gather firewood, she dug up “weeds.” While others left their livelihoods to the weather, she used wood ash to protect the rice paddies from pests. While others mocked her wild ideas, she doubled the yield per acre by thinning seedlings. She taught the village women to cultivate wood ear mushrooms, improved the gentry’s orchards, and carved out a path to prosperity through farming in this small mountain village where everyone had pinned their hopes on the imperial exams.

At first, Zhao Qingyun watched on indifferently. But then he discovered that the woman who used to call him a “good-for-nothing” could explain farming through the principle of “investigating things to extend knowledge,” could sit up doing accounts by candlelight until late at night, and would quietly prepare food and money for him before the provincial examinations. Something inside him began to shift.

When the provincial examination results were posted, Zhao Qingyun had passed at the top of the list.

Su Wanqing smiled and handed him the divorce agreement. “Congratulations, Top Scholar Zhao. My work here is done.”

But the man who should have signed without a second thought clutched that thin sheet of paper all night.

Half a year later, Zhao Qingyun, now a rising star at court, appeared on her mountain. What he took out was not a divorce agreement, but a list of betrothal gifts.

Su Wanqing leaned against the doorway and smiled. “Want to marry me? Ask this mountain first if it agrees.”