From Republican-Era China to Here

[Coming next: I Transmigrated to Ancient Times to Be the Tyrant's Cat] Jiang Yicen was born into a feudal family at the end of the Qing dynasty. He studied the eight-legged essay and the Four Books and Five Classics under his grandfather, and was engaged from childhood to a young lady from another family. But his fiancée, who had studied abroad and embraced modern ideas, broke off the engagement. She tactfully explained that he was too rigid, old-fashioned, and boring, and that she could never be happy with him. Later, he lived through the chaos of war, giving away his entire fortune to save people from danger. Later still, he joined an organization and died during a mission. He thought death was the end, but it turned out to be a new beginning. He had returned to a family that was both feudal and open-minded. The feudal part was that his family sent him to marry for political reasons. The open-minded part was that his intended spouse was a man. - Nan Shuyi was a free spirit who did whatever he pleased. He made the headlines every day for one reason or another, and calling him a playboy wouldn't be an exaggeration. To rein him in, the Nan family forced him into an arranged marriage. Before the wedding, he scoffed to his friends, “Tch, there's no way in hell I'd sleep with a man in this lifetime.” On their wedding day, his intended spouse sat before him like a young gentleman from the Republican era. He smiled with his lips slightly curved, never showing his teeth, and every inch the picture of propriety. He softly addressed Nan Shuyi as “Sir.” Nan Shuyi paused, then straightened the collar he'd tugged crooked in annoyance and stood up ramrod straight. Jiang Yicen thought that, after finally making it to a peaceful era where he could live in safety, he was willing to do anything. What was the harm in calling his arranged spouse “Sir”? He had come from the Republican era. It had been a very, very long journey. What he didn't know was that Nan Shuyi would later work hard to become a worthy “Sir.” Years later, Jiang Yicen realized that his former fiancée had been wrong. His life hadn't been all that boring after all. - A story about a man from the Republican era transmigrating to the modern day and meeting his love interest. They marry first and fall in love later. ---------Coming Next--------- I Transmigrated to Ancient Times to Be the Tyrant's Cat Lu Mian was a modern-day wage slave. After working for forty-eight hours straight, he still had to accompany a friend to a museum exhibition about an emperor from a certain dynasty. “Xiao Yujin was brutal and cruel, killing without batting an eye. He was arbitrary, overbearing, and stubborn. During his reign, he executed hundreds of civil officials. In the end, his own brothers usurped the throne, and he was sentenced to the most gruesome death in history: dismemberment by five horses...” As a tour guide in the next room gave an impassioned lecture, Lu Mian suddenly died. When he awoke, he discovered that he had transmigrated to a dynasty called Great Jin. The good news: he was a minor official with a meager salary, so he didn't have to sleep rough. The bad news: he turned into a cat every night, and his owner was Xiao Yujin, the future emperor of Great Jin who would be dismembered by five horses! Lu Mian: ... I'm doomed. - To ease the new emperor's headaches, the chief eunuch specially found him a cat. The cat was rather peculiar. It slept all day but was full of energy at night, scampering around the new emperor. His dull, dreary days became much more interesting. If the emperor stayed up too late reading memorials, the cat would tug at his clothes and lead him toward the imperial bed, reminding him to go to sleep early. If assassins came in the middle of the night, the cat would wake him up before they could strike. If he fell ill, the cat would go to the Imperial Medical Bureau to fetch a physician. He thought the little thing was quite intelligent. It wasn't as if the palace was short one bowl of food, so he might as well take good care of it. Until one day, the little thing disappeared without a trace and never came back... The new emperor flew into a rage, searched the entire palace, and punished a group of servants! - At the same time, he noticed that the new junior official at the Ministry of Justice had a pair of lively catlike eyes, and looked a lot like his new pet. The new emperor asked the junior official, “What's your name?” Lu Mian's knees trembled. “...” I'm done for. Xiao Yujin ordered several officials executed yesterday. Am I next? Fortunately, the new emperor let him go. That night, Lu Mian hurriedly turned back into a cat and returned to the palace, carrying a note in his mouth to deliver to the emperor. [Lu Mian is a good official. Don't kill him.] The new emperor gripped him by the scruff of the neck. “Could this Lu Mian be your master out in the world?” Theme: Remember history.