The moment Ning Man opened her eyes, she heard her brother and sister-in-law say they were going to sell her off as a lucky bride to ward off misfortune.
She looked down at her own scrawny body, without an ounce of meat on it, and gave up on running away. She obediently climbed into the bridal sedan.
She had heard that Scholar Lu was a brilliant young man who had passed the scholar examination at an early age.
Even the county magistrate had praised his talent.
But heaven was jealous of his gifts. On his way to take the imperial examination, he fell and hit his head while fleeing bandits. Ever since, his mind had been like that of a three-year-old.
The three-year-old-like Scholar Lu was the man Ning Man was marrying.
She had thought marrying into the Lu family would be like jumping from a wolf's den into a tiger's lair. But her mother-in-law, though timid, was willing to take advice and let Ning Man make all the decisions. And her husband might be childlike, but he was considerate and caring, happy to serve her tea and water, massage her shoulders, and knead her legs.
A year after marrying into the Lu family, life kept getting better. Ning Man sighed contentedly that this was how people were meant to live, never noticing that the man she treated like a little child every day would sometimes look at her quietly with clear eyes.
One night, she suddenly woke up and saw her fool of a husband reading by candlelight. His posture was straight, and he had the bearing of a scholar. When he sensed her gaze, the man turned to look at her, his eyes remarkably clear.
Ning Man: ??? Weren't you a fool? What are you reading?!
A few months later, nobody had told her that his foolishness could be cured, and that he could take the imperial examinations too!
And when news arrived that he had come first in all three imperial examinations, everyone around her marveled at her good fortune.
But Ning Man remembered the two years she'd spent fooling him as if he were a child, sitting back and having him knead her shoulders, lying down and having him massage her legs.
She'd tricked him like he was a puppy.
Ning Man: ...Is it too late to run away now?
Lu Jingsheng: Where do you think you're going?
Blurb written and archived on 2026.8.26.
Theme: Even in hard times, flowers of happiness can bloom.
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