Zhou Xiaoman transmigrates into an imperial-examination novel and becomes the male lead's sickly child husband, destined to die young.
In the original novel, the male lead, Xie Linxu, comes from a poor family but is strong-willed and hardworking. He eventually lives up to his family's hopes and places among the top three in the highest examination tier. After that, his career takes off. In just sixteen years, he rises to Grand Secretariat and serves three generations of emperors.
At twenty-two, he marries the daughter of a Minister of Rites. She is his only wife, and he never takes a concubine. The only exception is a child husband from his early years, who dies young because of poor health.
When people hear about it, they simply say the child husband was unlucky.
Zhou Xiaoman arrives just as the original Zhou Xiaoman, that very child husband, has run away, gotten lost, and been brought home by the ger from next door.
Now that he knows the plot, he decides to take things as they come and focus on getting healthy first.
As for being a child husband? The future Grand Secretariat already has a destined match in the book. Why be his husband when he could be his sworn younger brother instead?
So he takes out the black goji berries he picked along the way home and says pitifully, "Mother, I went up the mountain to gather herbs. I wasn't trying to run away."
With a new soul inside him, Zhou Xiaoman settles down. He helps his new family make money while nursing his health and building a little nest egg. Starting with a street stall and moving on to a shop, he puts the family craft he learned in his previous life to use and thrives in this new world.
Xie Linxu resents his family for arranging a child husband for him without his consent, so he spends two consecutive ten-day breaks copying books in the study.
But how can a man of courage shy away from life's challenges? He resolves to go home and face the matter.
On the way, he considers how to persuade his parents, listing his arguments one by one. But when he gets home, he is dumbfounded.
The little ger has not only become cheerful and won over his mother and sister, but has also started a food business in town. Even his usually thrifty grandmother has given him money from her private savings, telling him to buy the little ger some pastries the next time he comes home!
Xie Linxu: ?!!
Gradually, the once scrawny little ger grows into his looks, and the red mole between his brows becomes strikingly beautiful.
At last, his grandmother and mother stop insisting and even say they'll find the little ger a suitable match before long.
Xie Linxu won't stand for it. He grabs the little ger and, face flushed, declares that this is his husband!
Reading Guide:
1. One-on-one sweet romance, no children in the main story.
2. In his previous life, Grand Secretariat Xie was a driven striver. He and his wife treated each other with respect, but had no love between them. Also, what does the Grand Secretariat Xie in the book have to do with me, Xie Linxu? I, Xie Linxu, only love my husband!
3. The male lead's mother has her reasons for buying a child husband. The family is poor and has no grown man to help with the labor, so she raises a husband early, who will be stronger than a woman in a couple of years. Most importantly, she happened to meet this honest, pitiful child, who only cost half a sack of grain. Her son is devoted to the imperial examinations and has no interest in marriage at eighteen, which worries his mother. Since he doesn't like girls, she thinks she can keep a ger by his side and let them grow fond of each other.
Added on 2025.12.26
Theme: Both life and love need to be nurtured with care
