My Housebred Scholar

During a famine, eight-year-old A Li is sold to the Xie family as a child bride and given a four-year-old husband. Her young husband is sickly from birth and the only child of his widowed mother. He's been spoiled rotten, and he glares at A Li with a pout, clearly displeased. A Qiao ignores him. The Xie family has plenty to eat and warm clothes to wear, and her mother-in-law is kind. Apart from learning to care for her young husband, A Li raises chickens and ducks and grows vegetables. She's quite content with her life. Four years later, her mother-in-law falls ill and never recovers. The clan members grow covetous, the neighbors bully her, and her peaceful life is about to come crashing down. A Li grits her teeth, grabs a stick, and marches into her young husband's room. Xie Changling has never liked his child bride. She's one way in public, another in private, and loves to tattle. But after his mother dies, the two of them are left to rely on each other. Twelve-year-old A Li keeps their home afloat. She pokes him in the head with a stick and tells him, "Either we wait for them to kill us both, or you buckle down and study." At first, A Li doesn't expect much from him. She just hopes he'll at least pass the exam for licentiate, which would be enough to scare off the clan members with bad intentions, protect the family property, and even exempt their household from corvee labor and taxes. On the day he places third in the palace examination, A Li takes the Xie family account book and tells him that marriage can't be forced. She only thinks of him as a younger brother. Now that she's managed to save a little money, she has enough to buy him a decent house in the capital and prepare a dowry for herself. They should each find a suitable match. Xie Changling grits his teeth, sneaks into A Li's room in the middle of the night, and quietly climbs into her bed. (Blurb saved on January 1, 2026) Theme: Study hard.