The Lovely Beauty Marries a Brawny Man

[Rugged, tender-hearted man X sweet, adorable young woman] My new novel, [It's Hard Being the Eldest Sister], is now underway.

[Family life + farming and business + married life]

At the rice shop in Dongshui County, in the eastern part of Bianjing, Jiang Qingzhou's abacus clicked away.

She was the sharp-tongued, shrewd young shopkeeper of Dongshui County, and the prettiest third daughter of the Jiang family.

When Third Miss went out, her shoes stayed clean, her face stayed out of the sun, and she never left home without her insect-repelling sachet.

The line of young men outside the rice shop stretched beyond sight every day.

Under the blazing sun in the fields of Baiyun Village, Du Changyun swung his sickle through the early autumn wheat, sweat pouring off him.

Drops of sweat ran down his sharp jaw, and the muscles in his wheat-colored arms bulged.

He was the hardest-working, strongest and most rugged man for miles around.

No one could have imagined that these two people, who seemed to have nothing in common, would ever be brought together.

But on the auspicious day of the second Jiang daughter's wedding, as everyone drank themselves silly at the wedding feast, the youngest Third Miss was tucked into someone's arms in a dim, unnoticed woodshed in the courtyard.

One was a delicate, beautiful young lady, the other a sturdy, tall man in coarse cloth.

The prettiest third daughter of the Jiang family had smudged rouge on her lips. She lightly tapped the hard chest in front of her, watched sweat trickle down, and smiled breathlessly. "My second sister's already married. When are you going to come ask for my hand?"

Footsteps kept passing back and forth outside the woodshed. The man's gaze was heated as he drew the delicate young woman fully into his embrace and murmured, "Soon."

*

One day, the Jiang family, Dongshui County's biggest business, went bankrupt and fell into ruin. Third Miss married out of Dongshui County and into Baiyun Village.

The delicate Third Miss ended up marrying a farmer.

No one thought the marriage would work, but they forgot: fortunes always turn.

The tender love shared by a husband and wife behind closed doors left everyone else green with envy.

Reader's Guide:

1. Slow burn. Set in a fictional world inspired by the Song Dynasty. Some Song-era prices and recipes are used as reference, but not strictly, so don't scrutinize the details.

2. Married life and a loving couple. The male lead's status will rise; he won't be a farmer for the rest of his life.

3. The heroine isn't a fallen princess. Her family relationships are complicated, and the romance takes place before marriage. See the main story for details.

4. I'm bad at writing blurbs. In general, this is a warm, cozy farming story.

5. Check out the completed farming novels in my profile: [A Fortunate Wife], [The Pretty Little Farmer's Wife], and [The Lovely Cook at the Frontier]. You won't regret investing in them.

==Upcoming: [It's Hard Being the Eldest Sister]==

In the depths of winter, Chang'an was struck by the heaviest snowfall in twelve years.

As Yuan Yao walked through the empty city, draped in snow, she suddenly thought of her deadbeat husband, who had been gone for three years.

To raise her three younger sisters, sixteen-year-old Yuan Yao married a man she didn't love.

He was uneducated, crude in his ways, and taciturn, but at least he was capable, and in those chaotic times he could provide a home.

She wasn't very kind to him, and sometimes she even schemed against him.

But he had never treated her badly.

In fact, the reason she could live so freely now was all thanks to him.

Being a widow wasn't easy. Yuan Yao found herself missing that warm embrace.

"You deadbeat, it's been three years, and you still haven't come to see me..."

Yuan Yao sighed. "If I could live my life over, I'd treat you better."

That night, she once again fell asleep alone. When she opened her eyes,

Heaven had granted her wish.

Theme: Heaven rewards hard work.