His Husband Is a Little Firebrand

Zhang Yuming wasn’t pleased with the husband his family had found for him. The man was a widowed ger who had fled disaster. Though he was beautiful, with skin as fair as snow, he was sharp-tongued and fiery-tempered, getting into fights with Zhang Yuming’s stepmother every day and throwing the household into chaos.

So, a year after the wedding, Zhang Yuming left.

Under the pretense of going on a trading trip, Zhang Yuming rescued a nobleman along the way. He helped the man achieve his goals, and continued helping him for more than a decade.

After all those years, he had become a powerful duke. When the emperor offered to arrange a marriage for him, he declined, saying he already had a husband back home.

Having seen with his own eyes how his subordinates’ wives and children were mistreated, he kept his marriage secret for more than a decade. At last, peace came to the land, and he could return to see his husband.

But when he did, he discovered something shocking.

During the years he was away, his husband had been driven out by his stepmother and forced to leave with nothing. He lived in a leaky thatched hut, scratching a living from the fields, raising two children alone and even putting his eldest son through the imperial examinations until he became a provincial graduate.

Zhang Yuming could hardly imagine how much hardship this small, thin man, who barely reached his chest, had endured over the years.

He approached his husband again. At first, the man smoothed his faded clothes and briskly told the children to heat water for tea. But when he recognized Zhang Yuming, he went mad.

Jiang Yu was gaunt, with hair half turned white. Only his eyes were startlingly bright as he stared fixedly at Zhang Yuming.

For the first time, Zhang Yuming understood the look in Jiang Yu’s eyes.

It clearly said: Zhang Yuming, I hate you.

Then Jiang Yu died in his arms, leaving Zhang Yuming no chance to make amends.

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Given another chance, Zhang Yuming got to know his husband all over again and cleared up the misunderstanding early. He spoiled his husband until he became a notorious little firecracker, known far and wide.

Back in the village, if Zhang Yuming sneaked off to drink, Jiang Yu would grab him by the ear and drag him all the way home.

Later on,

The usually dignified and proper people of the capital were left gaping at the newly arrived duke and his husband.

The duke’s pampered, plump husband hitched up his clothes, grabbed a feather duster, and chased the military-born duke for two whole streets.

Zhang Yuming was only glad he was tall and long-legged, so Jiang Yu couldn’t catch him. But he never expected Jiang Yu to learn the five-word curse that made a man’s hair stand on end.

Panting, gritting his teeth, and full of bluster, Jiang Yu shouted:

“I’m counting to three!”

Zhang Yuming shuddered, then stood up straight again. He wasn’t henpecked; he was just indulging the man. Jiang Yu’s thighs were thinner than his arms, so what could “I’m counting to three” possibly do to him!

After years of bickering and making up, one day Jiang Yu lay across Zhang Yuming’s back, his lips close to Zhang Yuming’s ear as they headed home in the setting sun.

For the first time, Zhang Yuming heard his usually fiery husband speak with shy tenderness.

He said, “Zhang Yuming, I love you.”

P.S. Content warnings are at the end of Chapter One, everyone.

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Currently serializing, please add to your reading list:

"Reborn to Dote on the Wicked Little Ger"

Synopsis:

The day Gu Chengye married, he knew his husband was trouble.

And sure enough.

After moving in, Liu Xia was either fighting with Gu Chengye’s sister-in-law or arguing with his mother. Sometimes even his five-year-old nephew got beaten until he bawled.

Gu Chengye swallowed his anger and put up with him for three years. He couldn’t take it anymore. Those three years had driven a wedge between him and his parents, and made the whole family unwelcome in the village.

One day, they had an unprecedented argument. Liu Xia called Gu Chengye foolish and honest, the kind of man anyone could kick around. Gu Chengye called Liu Xia mean and vicious, and said no wonder his former fiance, a scholar, had dumped him.

That did it. Liu Xia went mad and scratched several bloody marks across Gu Chengye’s face. Gu Chengye cursed him as a crazy ger and told him to get out and go back to his parents’ home!

Not long afterward, the court issued an order for conscription.

Before leaving, Gu Chengye flung divorce papers at Liu Xia’s face.

Four years later, Gu Chengye returned with a crippled leg. None of his family members were willing to care for him. Only his former husband came to see him every day, unfailingly, with a basket on his arm. Gu Chengye watched him coldly.

That man had always enjoyed kicking someone when they were down. Gu Chengye wanted to see what he was after.

But he waited and waited, and Liu Xia never kicked him while he was down. Instead, the man awkwardly said, “Since nobody’s looking after you now, why don’t we join forces and get by together?”

He was a cripple. What could he possibly offer Liu Xia in a partnership?

Once they put the past aside, the two of them really did make a good life together. Gu Chengye gave all his government compensation to his husband, but from that day on, his husband disappeared.

He searched for many years. Only when he was old and bedridden did his nephew finally tell him the truth.

It turned out that Liu Xia had been pregnant back then. His nephew feared that if Gu Chengye had a child of his own, he wouldn’t inherit the family property. So he had someone kidnap Liu Xia and throw him into the river to drown.

After decades of misunderstanding his husband, Gu Chengye finally went mad when he learned the truth. He set a fire that killed both himself and his nephew.

When he opened his eyes again, it was the winter of their third year of marriage, just after he had flung the divorce papers at Liu Xia.

Liu Xia cried and cursed him for being a monster. Gu Chengye thought, He was right. I was blind and foolish, and I caused my husband and child to die in the freezing river, their bodies never recovered intact.

How could he call himself human? He was worse than an animal.

With red-rimmed eyes, Gu Chengye pulled his husband into his arms and kissed his dry lips fiercely, ignoring his cries.

Thank goodness he hadn’t returned too late. There was still a chance to make things right.

Theme: There’s no shame in giving in to the person you love.