Bai Lusheng was only five the first time she met Xu Huai’an.
She hid by the back door of the village schoolhouse, listening to the children recite their lessons. He spotted her and smiled. “What kind of little thief are you, sneaking around to listen to us study?”
Bai Lusheng flushed with anger. While he wasn’t looking, she slipped a caterpillar into his book.
Later, Bai Lusheng and Xu Huai’an became pupils of the same teacher. He became her senior fellow disciple and declared, “I’m your senior, so you have to show me respect.”
Furious, Bai Lusheng swung her little fist and knocked out one of his teeth.
When they grew up, Xu Huai’an went to the capital to sit for the imperial examinations and returned as the top scholar.
Looking at her, he wore a smug smile. “I’m the top scholar. Naturally, I’ll marry a delicate beauty someday.”
But Bai Lusheng no longer acted as fierce and unruly as she once had. She simply turned away quickly, her eyes reddening.
The next moment, she was in the familiar embrace of his arms, and a voice sounded beside her ear:
“So, Shengsheng, will you marry me?”
After they married, Xu Huai’an took Bai Lusheng to a banquet. The young and promising new top scholar drew admiring glances from many women, both openly and discreetly.
He looked at her with a faint smile. “Wife, look how popular your husband is. You should feel a little threatened.”
Bai Lusheng clenched her fists and, that night, sent him straight to the study.
The top scholar, so dazzling in public, stood outside the door and knocked, pleading in a low voice, “Shengsheng, I was wrong. Please let me in?”
Xu Huai’an had kept a secret for many years: he had loved his childhood sweetheart since they were little.
They had grown up together, bickering and playing, sharing countless wonderful moments.
When they were a little older, she said she wanted to marry a top scholar someday.
From that day on, Xu Huai’an studied late into the night, neglecting food and sleep.
His goal was to return to their village in glory on the day he became the top scholar and bring his little sweetheart home as his bride.
And in the end, he did it.
In her old age, Bai Lusheng would tell anyone who would listen that she had been lucky in only three ways in her life.
First, someone had willingly let her bully him for a lifetime.
Second, the person she loved had loved her for a lifetime, too.
Third, she had known him since childhood, loved him when they were young, and stayed by his side in their old age. They had walked through life together.
(All my good fortune has been tied to you.)
[A possessive, spirited young woman × a gentle, refined top scholar]
(The leads do not transmigrate or get reborn. The heroine’s teacher is a transmigrator.)
(Blurb revised on 2023.01.30)
Theme: We grew up together in Changgan Lane, two children with no secrets between us
