My Husband Is Pretending to Be Good Again

[Outgoing on the outside, cold within, and shameless top x Crazy in public, obedient in private bottom]

Farming, told from the top's perspective, one-on-one romance, mutual healing.

* There is more to the marriage swap, and it will be revealed in the main story. The top and bottom are each other's only romantic and physical partners. They barely knew each other before being reborn, but are inseparable afterward. Marriage before love.

* This is a preview blurb. The title and blurb may be adjusted before the story begins, but the overall framework will stay the same (minor revision on October 14, 2026).

[Blurb]

Zhao Chang'an discovers that he is the disposable villain in a storybook. The protagonist is the poor scholar Lu Yiming, who married into the landlord Wen family's household on the very same day as him.

Lu Yiming is gracious, refined, and elegant. He marries the learned and well-mannered second son, Wen Xiaoyuan: a talented man and a lovely lady, perfectly matched.

As the foil, Zhao Chang'an is an ignorant, vulgar lout who marries the mad and foolish eldest son, Wen Xiaoyu: a cracked pot for a cracked lid.

In his previous life, Zhao Chang'an fell to his death. People said he had secretly sold off his in-laws' property and spent his days carousing, and that taking his own life out of guilt when he was found out was only what he deserved. But Zhao Chang'an knew that Lu Yiming was the one who had pushed him!

Lu Yiming was the treacherous villain who would stop at nothing to climb the social ladder. He and Wen Xiaoyuan had an affair and schemed to switch their marriages. He plotted at every turn, and ultimately succeeded in taking the Wen family fortune for himself, becoming immensely rich and keeping a household full of wives and concubines.

Zhao Chang'an had simply been made a stepping stone to serve the plot.

Before he was reborn, he had watched Wen Xiaoyu die from poison after his own death, while his parents perished in a fire.

When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the day of the marriage swap.

After drinking the tampered wedding wine and consummating their marriage, Zhao Chang'an looked at the little ger sleeping beside him. His mind, freed from the story's influence, had become clear again.

In his previous life, he'd resented the marriage swap and kept his distance from his mad husband. They barely spent any time together and had no feelings for each other. How had he known that after his death, Wen Xiaoyu would be dragged down with him and meet a terrible end?

This time, he was determined to keep his family safe and personally send Lu Yiming to his doom.

If it was all an act, then so be it.

He'd play along to the end.

--

Wen Xiaoyu suffers from madness. At times, his head aches so badly that he lashes out and harms himself. He loses his mind, and even his memories grow blurry.

For years, he has been locked away in the inner courtyard, barely clinging to life and unable to get even a hot meal.

One day, after he has an episode and is forced to take medicine, he wakes up to discover that he has become Zhao Chang'an's husband.

Believing he is bound to be hated, he decides to act obedient and naive even when lucid, pretending to be harmless so he can protect himself.

He doesn't dare die. He wants to live.

As expected, Zhao Chang'an likes him obedient.

When he's home, he combs Wen Xiaoyu's hair and feeds him, coaxing him to take his medicine with candied fruit.

Even in the freezing winter, he brings him fresh charcoal and new bedding, and makes thick clothes for everyone in the courtyard.

Wen Xiaoyu thinks he's putting on a convincing act, never realizing that Zhao Chang'an has seen through him all along.

During yet another sudden episode, Wen Xiaoyu injures Zhao Chang'an, leaving a wound in his palm so deep that the bone is almost visible.

Now Zhao Chang'an sits in front of him, his face pale and his expression cold.

Wen Xiaoyu expects his husband's patience to have finally run out. But instead of being scolded and locked away, he feels a gentle hand stroke his head and hears a soft, comforting voice.

"Xiaoyu, don't be afraid. This isn't your fault."

At the same time, Wen Xiaoyu discovers an earth-shattering secret: his madness is caused by poison, not illness.

After that night, the way Wen Xiaoyu looks at his husband begins to change.

He thought he was destined to die in a side courtyard, undiscovered until his body rotted and stank.

Instead, Zhao Chang'an first uncovered the truth behind his little father's death and Wen Xiaoyu's poisoning, then made the guilty face the consequences of their crimes.

Afterward, he cured Wen Xiaoyu's "madness," allowing him to take up a knife and a brush again.

A year of famine arrives, turning the land barren for miles, but the Wen family has already stockpiled provisions and can spare enough to provide porridge for the poor.

When war breaks out and everyone is thrown into panic, Zhao Chang'an has already built houses deep in the mountains and armed his servants to the teeth. He safely leads his trusted people into the mountains, ready to weather the crisis.

All the actions that outsiders called Zhao Chang'an's reckless waste of money turn out, in hindsight, to have been careful preparations made in secret.

Before long, the two are famous for miles around.

"Benefactor Zhao and Young Master Wen are like immortals reborn! They save the suffering and the needy, and they're a match made in heaven!"

What little pretty boy from the Zhao family? What little madman from the Wen family?

Never heard of them! Don't know what you're talking about!

Theme: Never bow your head to fate.