Abducted and Forced to Repay My Brother's Debt [Dream of the Red Chamber]

[The blurb has been screenshotted] Also known as "The Golden Hairpin's Mistake [Dream of the Red Chamber]"

Her older brother buys a maid by force in the street, then lets his servants beat someone to death. To protect the family's reputation, Baochai grits her teeth and goes to clean up the mess.

As if fate were mocking her, she too falls prey to kidnappers.

A few days later, she hears that the Xue family fled to the capital overnight to preserve their family line.

Miss Xue is consumed by despair. Then, unexpectedly, a young man climbs over the wall and enters.

He has neither father nor mother. A Jinling bully broke his leg, and his clan relatives stole his land. He lives in more wretched circumstances than a dog.

Yet this very man, who clawed his way back from hell, reaches out to Baochai. "Take my hand."

People around town sigh that Feng Yuan was spared by fate, blessed by Heaven's mercy. Though he is poor, at least he has warm clothes to shield him from the winter cold, and a solitary lamp waiting for him when he comes home at night. And the younger sister he took in is gentle and obedient, with the serene expression of a bodhisattva.

The once skinny, gloomy youth gradually transforms into a tall, taciturn, rough-hewn man. He protects the delicate, fair-skinned foster sister at home with painstaking care.

Only Xue Baochai knows that she stole this peaceful life.

Feng Yuan's leg was broken by her own brother, Xue Pan. The Xue family is also to blame for him losing his life as a young master and becoming an outcast among his clan.

She may never be able to repay this debt of blood and human life.

How can she deserve to be Feng Yuan's sister?

Feng Yuan, later on: That's right. She's not my sister.

[Reader's Guide]

1. A rough-hewn man and a fallen young lady, one-on-one romance, happy ending.

2. Faux step-siblings. The leads initially live together as "foster siblings"; the romance is a slow burn, sweet but with some twists and turns.

3. The male lead is down on his luck and disabled at first, with a quiet, gloomy personality. Later, he becomes a rough-hewn man, and his possessiveness and obsession with revenge erupt.

4. A heavily reimagined Dream of the Red Chamber. Yinglian and Baochai accidentally swap lives, but Yinglian does not become Xue Pan's concubine. There will be a happy ending, with only a brief mention of her.

5. This story is mainly about enjoying the premise in the blurb. It's best read as a historical romance about a rough-hewn man, without bringing expectations from the original novel. The Xue family will not be whitewashed or saved. The main focus is the leads' interactions.

6. Baochai's character is changed from the start: she loves her family and is loved by them. An unfeeling clay bodhisattva unexpectedly falls into the mire. Two unfortunate souls go from being guarded and at odds to supporting one another.

Theme: We are all fellow sufferers in this world; when we meet, why dwell on whether we knew each other before?