Su Xiaoman transmigrated into the body of a farming family's daughter whose engagement had just been broken off. On the day her former fiancé passed the county-level exam, he publicly humiliated her, calling her "a coarse village woman unfit for a scholar," then flung the silver hairpin from their betrothal at her face.
She picked up the hairpin and brushed off the dust. "Fine, we can break off the engagement. Three years' worth of tuition and meals, twelve taels of silver. Pay up now."
Her former fiancé's face turned green. Su Xiaoman took the money and married Lu Qingshan, the poorest hunter in the village. Everyone laughed at her for settling for the worst.
After they married, Lu Qingshan spoiled her rotten: he plucked pheasants and stewed them for her, made her a vest from fox fur, and ground wolf fangs into a comb to brush her hair.
Su Xiaoman quietly got to work building greenhouses, making cement, boiling soap, producing glass, and opening a blacksmith shop. She earned fifty taels in three months. Her former fiancé was so jealous that he snuck into her yard to steal a chicken, so Lu Qingshan grabbed him by the legs and tossed him into the village latrine.
Then a brocade-clad guard commander came from the capital and dropped to his knees before Lu Qingshan, calling him "Commander."
Su Xiaoman stared at him. "Didn't you say you were an orphan?"
Lu Qingshan scratched his head. "I am an orphan. I just made it to commander before I retired, and I forgot to mention that my family owns eight thousand mu of forest."
Soon the whole county knew: Liuxi Village had a goddess of fortune, and anyone who crossed her was doomed. Her husband looked fierce, but if his wife said east, he'd never go west. His only little quirk was stuffing wild dates into her pockets every day.
Su Xiaoman counted her silver and sighed. "I married you back then just because you boiled me a pot of hot water."
Lu Qingshan chuckled. "Then I'll boil you some every day from now on."
