Born to Be Cherished

#You all have golden fingers. So what?#

A fortune-teller said A Fu was born with a noble destiny, the noblest of all: the destiny of a phoenix.

She would enjoy endless blessings and be blessed with good fortune from birth.

Her life would be smooth sailing, with a son and a daughter, and she would be a golden phoenix perched on a parasol tree.

But right now, A Fu is merely the child bride of a fool from an impoverished scholar's family. She's up earlier than the chickens and works harder than an ox. What's noble about that? What's precious?

And to top it all off, with a life this miserable, her future mother-in-law sells her the very next day!

Plot synopsis:

Xie Fu is abandoned by her birth parents as a child, then kidnapped and sold. She becomes a child bride and later a servant girl. After finally returning to her adoptive father, her life starts going smoothly, and she steadily prospers. Eventually, she earns the trust of the Emperor and Empress, is made a commandery princess, and becomes immensely wealthy. She transforms into the most precious young woman in the capital. Even the Empress tries to find her a match, but Xie Fu chooses a young hunter for her husband.

The hunter is as handsome as they come, and has an excellent temperament. He gives her his whole heart, but he's a little lazy, hunting for three days and leaving his bow to gather dust for two. He also keeps talking about going to his mother to scrounge for money.

Xie Fu reclines on a couch, lazily lecturing her husband: "As children, we have hands and feet. We shouldn't always be coveting our parents' money. What parents give you won't go as far as what you earn yourself."

Young hunter: "But my mother has tens of thousands of acres of good farmland, a storehouse full of gold, a storehouse full of silver, a storehouse full of gems, a storehouse full of pearls... The hill where you caught rabbits yesterday belongs to my mother, and so does the forest where you hunted the day before. I'm her only son, too!"

Xie Fu, who had fought tooth and nail to earn her own little patch of land, clutches her chest. "Who is your mother? How is she so outrageously rich? Quick, help me up. I have to go pay my respects to my mother-in-law!"

The young hunter shyly replies, "Yang Qing, the founding princess."

Just as Xie Fu is waiting to meet her mother-in-law, the Emperor runs from the palace to the Chancellor's residence, his crown askew, and grabs the young hunter's hand. "Son! You're the Crown Prince I've been separated from for years!"

Xie Fu: ...Fine. I'll follow my husband's lead and make do with being Crown Princess, then Empress. We'll make it work. What else can we do, get divorced?

Theme: Go with the flow, defy fate