The Husband's Words

The legitimate son of the Left Chancellor was born noble. In his first life, he asked his father to petition the emperor for permission to marry the young general of the Defender General's household.

On their wedding day, an imperial edict arrived. The young general mounted his horse and rode off to the border, leaving Wen Xu to climb into the bridal sedan alone. A year later, news of his death arrived, and Wen Xu spent the rest of his life a widow.

In his second life, knowing that the emperor did not want civil officials and military generals living in harmony, Wen Xu gave up on marrying into the Defender General's household and obediently entered the Eastern Palace as the Crown Prince's consort.

But when the Kingdom of Poluo came to sue for peace in this life, the young general personally asked the emperor to betroth the princess of Poluo to him. He even joked that if the emperor refused, he would have no choice but to fake his death and elope with the princess.

Fake his death... Wen Xu sat at the head of the room, lowering his eyes to hide his dazed expression. He abandoned his plan to assassinate the emperor and Crown Prince to avenge the husband he had lost in his previous life.

Yet he never expected that on the day the Crown Prince ascended the throne, the man who had always treated him with warmth and courtesy would issue an imperial decree wiping out the Chancellor's household. It was only because Wen Xu was his principal consort, his empress in name, and he would not allow the powerful Left Chancellor to become an influential in-law.

In his third life, the Left Chancellor's legitimate son was exhausted. The night before the emperor's marriage decree was to be issued, he took poison and fell into an eternal sleep in the Bamboo Garden.

Wen Xu, who had transmigrated into the book, recalled the plot and grumbled as he snatched another imperial edict from his stepsister. He put on his wedding clothes, mounted a horse, and married the Prince Xiao, a prince of a different surname who was about to be exiled.

The day before the wedding, Chancellor Wen wept bitterly, sighing that Xu'er had finally grown sensible and learned to avoid the sharp edge.

His stepsister, dressed in the Crown Princess's wedding robes, ignored all decorum, rushed out of the main residence, and threw herself against her elder brother, insisting that she would make the Crown Prince petition the emperor to bring Prince Xiao back.

Wen Xu evaded this pair of father and daughter, who were father and daughter in name only, and resolutely followed Prince Xiao to the border, carrying his birth mother's memorial tablet with him.

The man sat in a wheelchair, his eyes covered with white cloth. He asked coldly, "The borderlands are desolate. Are you sure you want to marry me and look after two frail people?"

Wen Xu looked at the innocent child in the man's arms, then at the man who could barely move, and gritted his teeth. "It'll only be a little harder, that's all. Don't worry. As long as I have a bite to eat, you two won't go hungry!"

A long life mattered more than imperial power and riches.

Wen Xu later made good on his promise. He earned a little here and there, saving every last coin he brought in so that he and his husband could enjoy a comfortable life together in the future. Then he suddenly found out that their family was not actually that short of money. :)

One day, Gu Mingye took the padded coat his husband had brought him. After a long silence, he asked, "What do you want?"

Wen Xu, who had been busy checking his husband's private stash, answered offhandedly, "I want all the women and gentleborn in this land to be free to trade if they want to, and to become officials if they want to."

Prince Xiao: ...I see. My husband wants the throne.

And so the man, long accustomed to an idle life, walked out the door and gave his husband a prosperous dynasty and a life of riches and peace.

A resilient, determined, lie-flat shou x a laid-back gong who agrees with everything his husband says

1. Set in an invented dynasty, with many original worldbuilding details. Readers who prefer historical accuracy may want to skip this.

2. The shou is a gentleborn and can have children!

3. The political intrigue is worth about five cents. The characters' words, actions, and values do not represent the author's views. This is a fictional story, so please don't conflate it with real people or reality.

4. This is not a traditional reborn or transmigrate-into-a-book story. The shou is himself, simply returning to the era he belongs to.

[Important Notice]: Please keep things civil while reading. I hope you enjoy the story. I accept reasonable criticism, but not mindless venting. You don't need to tell me if you drop the story. If it's not to your taste, that's fine; Jinjiang has plenty of other great books for you to choose from.

My next story: Hamster Reserves. Feel free to add it to your collection if it interests you!

Zhuang Man was born in a remote star system and had no idea that people with C-rank or higher mental power had a 99% chance of developing a bonded beast when they came of age. All he knew was that he had grown up with two pets, and no one around him could see them.

To avoid being sent to a research institute to be dissected, he had his two little pets leave his mental sea and hide in his dorm during the military academy's entrance examination. So when the results came out, he was an A-rank mental-power cripple with no bonded beast.

People with bloodlines from their home planet, Huaxia, had unusual bonded beasts. There was a prophecy that each time one appeared, it would bring change to the interstellar world. Zhuang Man had no idea about that either. He only knew that his mother had died of a genetic disease, and after his father found him a stepmother, his spineless dad promptly ran off.

To make sure he had enough to eat and wouldn't be kicked out, he treaded carefully and struggled to survive under his stepmother's constant scolding.

Actually, it wasn't all that hard. When his stepmother arranged a blind date for him, Zhuang Man, completely unaware that he'd gone to the wrong restaurant, happily took the other person to register their marriage.

*

A reserve soldier who had joined the chaotic Ninth Legion just to coast through his internship was assigned to manage the legion's livestream, like a piece of trash tossed aside. Every day, he did all sorts of odd jobs.

People across the stars who followed the livestream noticed that this reserve soldier would either sneak along behind the Ninth Legion during its frontier explorations, secretly stuffing unfamiliar plants into his bonded beasts' storage pouches,

or take his bonded beast and scurry to the battlefield after a fight, picking through and dismembering the insectoid corpses.

The people of the interstellar world: Doesn't he know the legion's promotional livestream is on all the time? Why is he so suspicious?

Later, when foreign races launched a massive invasion and the reserve soldier was urgently drafted to the front, Zhuang Man held an energy rifle and stared at the battlefield, where all kinds of animals were scattered about, falling into deep silence.

Were these animals a special unit unique to the legion, trained by the military? If so, where did they keep them the rest of the time?

The livestream orb followed Zhuang Man onto the battlefield. The people of the interstellar world got their first close-up view of a battlefield and discovered one thing... no, many things.

"This reserve soldier's mental power seems really high. His bonded beast hasn't gone back into his mental sea at all!"

"Doesn't his bonded beast need mental power to sustain it? Since he got onto the battlefield, this black-and-white fluffball hasn't left his side once!"

"Am I the only one wondering why someone with such high mental power is still just a reserve soldier who hasn't even been made permanent in the Ninth Legion?"

"The Ninth Legion is terrifying indeed!"

Zhuang Man, who had opened the legion's livestream through his wrist device: Something doesn't seem right. Why can the people in the livestream see my little pets?

Later, the people of the interstellar world realized that this suspicious reserve soldier seemed to have more than one bonded beast.

The people of the interstellar world: Help! Someone's pretending to be useless so he can slack off!

#Because the ordinary population on his home planet is so large, no one knows that people with mental power have bonded beasts#

#He thought it was abnormal to have pets other people couldn't see, but it turns out he's really abnormal because he has too many pets#

#The legion's promotional livestream lets ordinary people with insufficient mental power see bonded beasts. Has that sneaky reserve soldier figured this out yet?#

Theme: Live in the present and look to the future.