My Husband Is Obedient and Capable

Blurb: Yao Muer is a pitiful girl. After her mother died, her father remarried, and her stepmother tormented her for years. When she reached the age for marriage, she could no longer stay home and slave away, so her stepmother married her off to the Shen family in the neighboring village for five hundred wen. The Shen family is dirt poor. They live in a leaky thatched hut, use chipped pottery bowls, and have only one hard plank bed to sleep on. The Shen family's only son, Shen Jiqing, is eight chi tall, with a terrifying long scar over his brow. He looks fierce and wicked. They say he has just returned from the battlefield, with the blood of countless people on his hands. When he furrows his brow, he looks like a god of death. Everyone says Yao Muer has escaped the wolf's den only to enter the tiger's mouth. His small frame couldn't withstand even one punch from that grim reaper. Yao Muer is trembling with fear. He doesn't even dare sleep on the hard plank bed, afraid of angering the grim reaper and being punched off to join his late mother. He thinks he'll have to spend the rest of his days in the woodshed, slaving away for the Shen family. But Shen Jiqing takes him back to his bedroom, lays out a warm, thick quilt for him, and even shares half of the only old cotton blanket he owns. Later, he treats Yao Muer like a treasure, giving him more meat than he can eat and more new clothes than he can wear. He even uses his savings to open a little food stall for him in town. Later still, the stall becomes a restaurant, the restaurant becomes an inn, and the Shen family grows from a family of three into a thriving household of four generations under one roof. Shen Jiqing served as a soldier on the battlefield for eight years. After finally making it back to his village alive, he finds himself with a little husband whose biological father despises him and whose stepmother has tormented him. From then on, the stone-faced but warm-hearted man has someone in his family he must protect. He gets his husband a padded jacket, rescues his younger brother from a living hell, raises rabbits and opens a food stall, and is the first to step forward when disaster strikes... Shen Jiqing carefully raises his husband until he's plump and rosy-cheeked, and holds him close every night, reluctant to let go. [Reading Guide] 1. A slice-of-life story. Both leads are locals, and the golden finger isn't overpowered. 2. Family life, daily necessities, and petty relatives. Enter with caution if you dislike unpleasant relatives. 3. An alternate setting, partly inspired by the Song dynasty. Please don't nitpick the history. Theme: Even ordinary townsfolk are doing their best to live.