Xie, Why Are You Like This?

1.

When Yan Niang was sixteen, her parents planned to find her a husband.

At first glance, she picked the best-looking man in the village, Xie Anchen.

After they married, she worked the fields and tended silkworms to support his studies for years. Then, one day, he passed the imperial examinations and became the third-place graduate.

Everyone said she was lucky and would enjoy wealth and splendor for the rest of her life.

But on the way to take up his post, they were caught in a flood.

Her husband saved his childhood sweetheart and let her fall into the water.

He gets promoted and rich, and his original wife dies.

Tsk!

Luckily, fate took pity on her and let her be reborn on the eve of the palace examination.

She was still a married woman, but back in a young girl's body, with everything just as it should be.

2.

When they married, Xie Anchen had fallen on hard times, but he still had his sights set high. He made up his mind: Giving her a wife's title was repayment for her kindness. As for anything else, she was just a village woman and didn't deserve it.

But when she asked for a divorce, he, cool and self-possessed as ever, stood firm on principle:

He wouldn't be a heartless ingrate. The Xie family had never divorced anyone, so she might as well give up.

On the day the examination results were posted, the people hoping to catch him as a husband fought tooth and nail beneath the notice board.

Then his thrifty and virtuous wife took the opportunity to publicly auction off their divorce papers to the capital's noble ladies.

"?!"

Ahem, here's the silly blurb! The novel itself has a normal writing style, as above.

After getting a generous divorce settlement, Yan Niang returns to her hometown.

She launches her pig-farming business and becomes an unremarkable little farming genius.

The good news:

The fields she casually sows yield a thousand jin per mu. Her sows can not only climb trees, but give birth to piglets. All the melons she grows are grateful to her, and even locusts steer clear of her crops.

She also grows a high-yield new crop that saves people from famine and earns her the title of county princess.

A woman who has no man in her heart is a natural at farming.

The bad news:

Something strange happens. Her former husband leaves behind a perfectly good career as a corrupt official and insists on following her, working like an ox and a horse.

He picks corn, digs sweet potatoes, catches river shrimp, cuts pig feed... and takes care of all the housework.

A ridiculous chase-your-wife-to-the-crematorium story:

Day 1 after the divorce: Him: ...Fine, if you want a divorce, have a divorce. Don't come crawling back.

Day 10: Has my wife regretted it yet? Huh, what? She's gone pig farming?

Day 100: Ahem, um, are you raising pigs? Could I come help?

Day 250: Wife, look at me! Don't just look at the pigs! Don't I look better than they do?

Later, the books he writes, Complete Guide to Postpartum Sow Care and Handicrafts from My Life in the Countryside, become bestsellers in bookstores everywhere.

His fellow examinees from back in the day compete to grab his hands and ask: Why is the third-place graduate Xie like this?

One-sentence summary:

After divorcing her husband and returning home to farm, she finds her ex following her and working like an ox and a horse.

Reading guide:

The reason she fell into the water is a misunderstanding. Both leads have only ever been with each other, and that won't change.

After the divorce, the story focuses on farming in the mountains. The dog of a man gets put through a double crematorium, mentally and physically, with endless work to do like an ox and a horse!

Theme: Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets