[Female Lead's Version]
In her previous life, Hua Rong worked herself to death from overwork. When she awoke, she had transmigrated to the Xiling Dynasty. As a concubine-born daughter, she resolved to put an end to the rat race and embrace doing as little as possible.
So while her sisters studied the virtues and arts expected of women to win favor with their future in-laws, she tinkered in the vegetable garden.
While her sisters diligently visited households to make connections in the capital's circle of noble young ladies, she harvested vegetables in the fields.
By the time her sisters had found the men they loved, she'd already prepared a banquet fit for an emperor.
Later, as her sisters one by one became engaged and married, she remained quietly unknown.
Just when everyone thought marriage was out of the question for her, she casually pointed at a man and chose Xiao Chi, a penniless scholar.
So, amid the pitying looks of her sisters and neighbors, Hua Rong made a humble marriage into the Xiao family.
At the time, the Xiao family had only a ramshackle hut, along with two scrawny younger in-laws who were constantly crying for food.
Anyone else would have looked down on such in-laws, but Hua Rong was thoroughly satisfied. With a grand sweep of her hand, she shed her fine young-lady's clothes, wrapped herself in a coarse headscarf, and changed into rough cloth garments. Then, with two little ones in tow, she set off with her husband to enjoy an easygoing and novel life in the countryside.
Just as she thought life would carry on smoothly, with nothing but the same old days ahead, her birth family, who had already disowned her, suddenly showed up in great fanfare to announce that her poor husband had passed the palace examinations and become the new top scholar.
The very culprit who was about to derail her plans to take life easy stood at the door dressed in red, a red flower pinned to him, smiling brightly at her.
Later, she went from being the top scholar's wife to the magistrate's wife, then leaped several ranks to become the prefect's wife.
In the end, as the chancellor's wife, Hua Rong gave up struggling altogether.
Oh well. No matter how hard she tried to take it easy, she couldn't keep up with a husband whose ambition was through the roof.
[Male Lead's Version]
It is said that the renowned chancellor Xiao Chi was a master strategist, unmatched in wisdom, yet he had only one wife in his entire life. They married young, rose together from poverty to wealth, and remained devoted to each other until their hair turned white.
People assumed that Chancellor Xiao had simply repaid her affection out of a sense of loyalty.
But they did not know that all Xiao Chi had ever done, diligently and conscientiously, was try to please his sweet and kind wife.
So, when Hua Rong was old, bedridden, and nearing the end of her long life, he resolutely abandoned the emperor he had worked so hard to support and the countless people of the realm.
On a bright morning, he clasped the hand of the one person he had loved above all others, and together they closed their eyes for the final journey to paradise.
A renowned chancellor, born for love and dying for love.
[Please Note]
1. This is a cozy slice-of-life story with a farming-life feel.
2. The couple are each other's one and only, and there is no angst.
Theme: Face life with a smile and flourish.
