A Young Husband in the Borderlands

[Clever, charming beauty × doting, rough-hewn man] Hua Yan was an artisan crafts blogger specializing in intangible cultural heritage. After dying suddenly, he woke up as a young man who wanted to break off his engagement and had threatened to hang himself. Wait, what? You mean this broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, model-like roughneck standing in front of me is my fiancé? Break off the engagement? Why would I do that? Hua Yan immediately got his household affairs in order and married the man without wasting a second. - Xi Huan’s family was poor. After fighting for his life on the battlefield, he had developed a vicious temper. Everyone said he was a bringer of death, a demon straight from hell. Even his husband had been won with the debt of a life-saving favor. Now that the young man didn’t want to marry him and had his sights set on a scholar in town, Xi Huan’s younger brother went to demand an explanation. Xi Huan used the excuse of looking for his brother to find out what the young man really thought. But when the young man saw him, he couldn’t take his eyes off him. He said bluntly, “When are you finally coming to marry me?” Xi Huan’s scarred face looked a little bewildered. Was this the young man who wanted to break off the engagement? How was he so different from the rumors? Only one thing was right. The young man was fair-skinned and beautiful, and his smile lit up the whole room. He really was a sight to behold. - When Xi Huan first brought him home, the villagers all laughed at his poor taste. But before long, the spoiled beauty who, according to the rumors, only wanted to marry up had flipped his hands and set up a dye vat. Plants for the soul, minerals for the bones. In his hands, unassuming indigo plants became a flowing river of blue. Ordinary safflowers bloomed into the richest rouge beneath his fingertips. At first, he only traded his wares at the market for a little money to buy meat. Later, the dowry lists of the capital’s noblewomen all included “Hua Xi Dye,” brought from the borderlands and worth its weight in gold. At first, the villagers scoffed: That little husband from the Hua family must have lost his mind. What use is all this flowery nonsense and stinking water? Later, the villagers lined up to submit petitions asking to become his apprentices: Master Hua, are you taking students? I can chop wood and feed horses, and I’ll bring my own food! Then people came to console Hua Yan, saying that such a lovely flower had been stuck in a pile of cow dung. Hua Yan only smiled without saying a word. On a winter night when no one else could see, the terrifying man everyone thought a demon wrapped his petite husband tightly in his arms. His rough hands gently stroked the cracks on his beloved’s hands, his heart aching for him. “I’ll do the hard work. You just lie down.” Hua Yan, thoroughly *spoiled and fed up* QAQ: ...No, I want to work! Please let me work! - Later, war fires blazed along the border, and refugees scattered in every direction. The court couldn’t be counted on, but Xi Huan and Hua Yan didn’t panic. They led the whole village deep into the mountains, terraced the slopes, and built homes and ponds, creating a secluded paradise in the midst of utter desperation. In a world torn by chaos, only here did the lamplight still feel like home. Kindhearted, clever beauty on the receiving end × blunt, taciturn roughneck on the pursuing end, who keeps his head down and works hard ~ The receiver has a mischievous streak but is also business-minded. He’s kind without being a pushover or overthinking things, and uses his craft to support his family and grow wealthy. Both are each other’s first. Happy ending. ~ Childbirth, farming and business, everyday family life, a very slight ensemble cast, and a few nasty supporting characters. Overall, a cozy, healing story about making an honest living. - Have a look at my upcoming novel, Fat Beauty’s Hong Kong Cafe [The 1980s] [Potential heartthrob, fiery beauty on the receiving end × obsessive, sickly, aloof top student on the pursuing end] Song Can, a glutton who was wolfing down food on a livestream, collapsed amid the comments chanting, “One more bowl!” When he opened his eyes again, the sky was a brilliant blue, and a raucous disco track was blaring from the record store on the street corner. He had returned to the late 1980s, to the darkest moment of his life. His father had died, he’d failed the college entrance exams, he weighed nearly 180 jin, and the family snack shop that they depended on for a living was being squeezed out of business. In his previous life, he’d fallen apart. He’d even returned that heartfelt love letter, leaving Shen Che to die in an accident with all the love he’d never been able to express. Staring at the face in the mirror, so swollen with fat it was hard to look at, Song Can slapped himself hard. Given a second chance, who cared about being embarrassed? He never wanted to be the coward hiding in the shadows again. He saved his father, kicked his awful relatives to the curb, and shed the extra weight. Song Can transformed completely. Taking the apron from his mother, he turned their unassuming roadside stall into the hottest Hong Kong cafe in the city. Pineapple buns with butter sold out as soon as they were made. Hong Kong-style milk tea brought in a fortune every day. Even the richest man in the city had to queue for a taste. As life got better and better, Song Can stood in the sunlight and stopped Shen Che’s bicycle. “Um, I’ve been thinking. Being gay is pretty trendy... Can I have my love letter back?” - Shen Che was famous at school for being aloof and untouchable, rational and cool, as if he’d been born to solve difficult math problems. No one knew what darkness and stubbornness lay beneath that flawless exterior. Song Can was his only connection to the everyday world. He remembered every word Song Can had ever said, and every cold detail of the day Song Can had rejected his confession. But that was fine. He’d bought a plane ticket and brought along a Coke laced with sleeping pills. He planned to trick that insecure little pig onto the plane and take him abroad, where he’d keep him locked by his side forever. Who could have guessed that the beauty, now thin as a rail, would reach out to stop him and ask for his love letter? ~ Mutual devotion, childhood friends, mutual secret crushes, both each other’s first, happy ending Theme: Work hard and fight for a better life