Be Careful When Taking in a Son-in-Law

Jiang Jiang has a blunt, naive father who keeps advising the war-loving tyrant to let the people rest and recover. Sure enough, he earns himself exile.

From then on, the tyrant becomes Jiang Jiang's number one enemy. She curses him three times a day.

But exile has its perks. For instance, the customs in the border town are open-minded, and it's common for women to take husbands into their families.

After carefully picking and choosing, Jiang Jiang settles on a tall, handsome, stone-faced man who, like her, was exiled by the tyrant.

On their wedding night, her new husband seems ashamed of marrying into her family and shuts himself away. Since having a common enemy brings people closer faster, Jiang Jiang has a brilliant idea and starts cursing as usual: "You damned emperor! You tyrant! May you die without an heir!"

Her stone-faced husband murmurs in agreement, his gaze turning smoldering as he channels his resentment toward the exile into action, full of vigor.

The tyrant wages war relentlessly, and Jiang Jiang's husband is also drafted to put down a rebellion. With tears in her eyes, Jiang Jiang warns him, "The tyrant will be overthrown sooner or later. Don't rush to the front lines, or I'll end up like Third Sister next door."

Third Sister has married three times, and all three of her husbands died in battle.

Her husband gazes at her for a long time, then spends the whole night with her before leaving the two words "Wait for me" in bold strokes. He is gone before dawn.

The tyrant campaigns across the land. Though Jiang Jiang and her husband spend little time together, whenever they meet, they make love day and night, and their bond grows ever deeper.

Until one night, Jiang Jiang wakes to find her husband gone... In the courtyard, civil and military officials kneel in a long line. "Your Majesty, it's time to set out."

Oh, no! Her husband had rushed back yesterday, covered in dust, chopped wood, carried water, done the laundry and cooked. He said the fighting was intense and he had to leave early the next morning. She'd cursed him out: "Damn that tyrant! He's a monster. Hurry up and die!"

Her husband, the very tyrant outside who has two attendants helping him put on his armor, smiles and says, "Well said!"

*

When Xiao Yan first heard that the Xiao dynasty's only hope lay with a daughter of the Jiang family, he nonchalantly wiped the blood from his long saber. His narrow phoenix eyes were dark and sinister as he smirked mockingly. "A woman favored by fate? How noble of her."

Half a year later, he finds Jiang Jiang in the border town. He stares for a long while at the young woman smiling brightly in front of her shop, then muses, "For the sake of the Xiao ancestors and generations of descendants, I suppose I can put up with a little humiliation."

Theme: Live each day with purpose