My Husband Is the Trash My Wife Picked Up

A sickly, obsessive little beggar who doesn't know her place VS a proud, unyielding young nobleman fallen on hard times

A gentleman will die rather than betray his principles. After Senior Grand Secretary Zhang died, a host of petty men rose up against him. In less than four days, the Zhang clan was purged and their estate confiscated. The eldest son gave his life for the cause, taking his own life in prison.

Then a beggar looking to profit from the Zhang family's downfall broke into the prison, raided the imperial jail, and abducted the eldest son, making him her prisoner.

He hated the lunatic who had crippled him, ruined his face, disgraced the Zhang family, made his father bear the name of a traitor, and had his corpse exhumed and mutilated. He drugged her and personally sent her to another man's bed. He hit her, insulted her, and when she was at her weakest after being injured, forced her to...

She was a cowardly lunatic with not a single bone in her body. It took only one time for her to surrender.

That night, trapped beneath him, she cried and begged for mercy without stopping. When she woke, she put on her torn clothes, got out of bed barefoot, and said she would wash herself clean before coming back.

Once she walked out that door, the young master never found her again.

Many years later, the young master was over thirty and still unmarried. He still remembered: "Yu is the beauty of stone; Ying is the light of jade."

Meanwhile, that girl was enjoying a happy marriage and a house full of children. When she ran into him again, she was holding a baby and squinting with a smile like a little mouse that had stolen some rice.

"Young Master, it's been so long. I hope you've been well. You're still as charming as ever, as elegant and distinguished as you were back then..."

The young master studied her familiar features, his face grave. In a low voice, he said, "Yingying, you forgot that you gave me the name A Yu."

A real hero doesn't brag about past glories. Gao Ying has turned over a new leaf!

"Young Master, I'm sorry. I know I was wrong back then! I'll apologize, prostrate myself, and get down on my knees! Please spare me, considering I've got elders to care for, children to raise, and one more in my belly. You're the bigger person, so please forgive a nobody like me!"

The young master's vision went black. His head throbbed and his heart felt as though a knife were twisting in it. He wanted to grab that woman's neck and ask if she had any bones in her body at all!

Reader's Guide:

1. Both leads are each other's first and only from beginning to end. Every time it looks like they might not be, it's just a love-and-hate trope.

2. Both leads have flaws. The heroine is obsessive, sickly, and a little crazy. She doesn't always act logically or reasonably and stays slippery throughout. She lies to the hero about being pregnant; the other children are all adopted.

3. The hero is a stubborn, old-fashioned Confucian scholar. He turns dark later on, but never quite succeeds in going over to the dark side.

Theme: There is no need to fear death, nor to fear living