Reeds

Xu Jia had always been her mother's pride and the white moonlight of her male classmates. Despite her poor family background, she got into the best high school and the best university. In her junior year of college, she did the most outrageous thing of her life. To pay the 300,000-yuan bill for her mother's surgery, she sold herself to a man she had never met. She thought he would be middle-aged, greasy, and potbellied, with nothing to his name but money. She never expected him to be young, refined, handsome, and rich. Everyone said he was cold, ruthless, and possibly impotent. She never expected him to be gentle, considerate, and passionately affectionate, the kind of man anyone could easily fall for. That winter, they unexpectedly met again in a snowy little town in southeastern Germany. The dancing flames in the fireplace were reflected in Xu Jia's eyes. The corners of her eyes were red, but her expression was stubborn. She asked in a deliberately casual tone: "Zhou Luchen, do you think I'm a gold digger?" Zhou Luchen's gaze was deep. Xu Jia couldn't see through that ocean in his eyes. She only heard him say, "No. You're not. You're the light of your mother's life." "And you're my light, too." People said that Zhou Luchen was born into a wealthy family, had an undergraduate degree from the country's top university and a master's from an Ivy League school, and had founded his own publicly listed company at a young age. He was a talented young man and a model heir to a wealthy family. No one knew that he had fought through every obstacle and walked alone, pushing himself beyond his limits, all to reclaim everything that should have belonged to his mother. Until the night of his thirtieth birthday, when he got drunk and his useless cousin dumped him into a woman's bed. In the endless darkness, he caught sight of a sliver of light. [Everyone says you and I are sixpence and the moon. Only I know that you are the moon, lighting the way through a life that looks dazzling but is utterly devoid of joy.] Please add my upcoming novel to your reading list: Widow Sister-in-Law (Modern Woman Travels to Ancient Times) Song Xiaoxiao transmigrated into a book she had read. The original owner was a woman bought by the village butcher for ten jin of pork to bring good luck to his son. The butcher's son was short-lived. The good-luck ritual didn't help, and he died on their wedding night. The original owner became a widow overnight. The butcher went hunting in the mountains the next day, fell off a cliff by accident, and died too. That left only the original owner and the butcher's seven-year-old younger son in the household. The original owner was vain and foolish. Not only did her own elder brother, who had sold her off, trick her out of the butcher's meager estate, he also persuaded her to sell her brother-in-law. For the sake of a pretty dress, the original owner sold her brother-in-law into servitude at a wealthy household. Wearing that pretty dress, she was sold by her elder brother once more, this time as a concubine to a seventy-year-old landlord, supposedly so she could enjoy a life of luxury. The old landlord was a pervert, and the original owner's life became unbearably miserable. Ten years later, her former brother-in-law, now the mighty General of Weiyuan, returned home in glory and did just two things: married the daughter of the wealthy family where he'd once been a servant, and killed the original owner. When Zhao Xiaoxiao arrived, the original owner was just about to sign her brother-in-law's sale contract. She tripped, and when she looked up, Song Xiaoxiao said: "I'm not selling him! I'm not selling him!" You've got to be kidding. He's going to be General of Weiyuan in ten years. She had no intention of being beheaded like the original owner! Song Xiaoxiao got the family estate back from her wicked brother. Song Xiaoxiao opened a dumpling shop and earned money to send her brother-in-law to a private school. Song Xiaoxiao sent her brother-in-law into the army... Years later, Fu Yanci, now General of Weiyuan, returned home in glory, but couldn't find his sister-in-law. The villagers said that a flood had swept through that year, drowning fields and homes and killing many people. Fu Yanci built a tomb with no body in it, cut his finger, and wrote the inscription in blood: "Tomb of Lin Ahe, my sister-in-law." Then he returned to the capital, heartbroken. One day, General Fu tasted dumplings in the capital that reminded him of a distant memory. He followed the familiar flavor and found a bright-smiling woman. Tears streamed down his face as he dropped to his knees and embraced her, choking out: "Sister-in-law..." The child he'd once been had grown into a tall, powerful man, handsome and distinguished, with a fearsome reputation. Yet in his enormous manor, he had no wife or concubines, not even a maidservant to share his bed. They say an elder brother's wife is like a mother, so Song Xiaoxiao began arranging a marriage for her brother-in-law. The capital's noblewomen came in droves, but he rejected every one of them... Song Xiaoxiao: "Then what kind of woman do you want?" Fu Yanci's gaze was deep as he walked toward her, one step at a time. "Someone like you, Sister-in-law." "Huh?" Song Xiaoxiao tried to understand. Fu Yanci put an arm around her slender waist and pulled her into his embrace: "I want you to be my wife, Sister-in-law." Song Xiaoxiao: ...The original story never said the male lead was a sweet-on-the-outside, dark-on-the-inside type! Theme: Love gives you courage.