The Merchant's Daughter Takes a Son-in-Law

The Sang family of the frontier town owns a fur shop, a general store, a funeral parlor, and a two-courtyard residence. They have two or three servants, three daughters, and no sons.

Their "vast" estate has no heir.

The eldest daughter says, "A rare treasure is easy to find, but I want a man who loves me. Take in a son-in-law? No way."

The second daughter says, "The handsome scholar across the street is my childhood sweetheart. We're just one step away from pledging ourselves to each other."

The youngest daughter, Sang Mo: "...All right, then. I'll stay home and inherit our 'vast' estate. I'll take in a husband. Father, Mother, what are your requirements?"

The Sang couple count on their fingers: "Someone who keeps the household peaceful, with a small family. Once he marries into our family, he can't favor his own family. He has to devote himself entirely to being our son-in-law."

Sang Mo promptly brings home a man nine feet tall, imposing and handsome. "Father, Mother, what do you think of this son-in-law? Both parents dead, no ancestors, living in a ruined temple. He's got nowhere to put a divided heart."

The Sang couple: "Daughter, he's a good one, but his eyes are a strange color, and there's something unusual about his looks. He seems to have foreign blood."

Son-in-law Jie Sixing: "Maybe my father was foreign, or maybe my mother was."

Sang Mo, cautiously: "You don't have some hidden identity, do you? If you do, I can't take you in as a son-in-law."

Jie Sixing looks at his snow-white skin, blinks his gray-blue eyes, and swears to the heavens: "Absolutely not. I'm an abandoned baby, with no known father and a mother who didn't want me. I wouldn't deceive even a child or an elderly person."

Sang Mo is satisfied. Good. Her son-in-law should be perfectly ordinary, helping her manage her "vast" business empire. For starters, they can expand the fur shop into two storefronts.

Theme: Life requires careful tending