The Fake Couple’s Farming Life

Lin Chunlai transmigrates into the body of Si Niang Lin, whose uncle has seized her family property, and finds herself with a coffin from the start.

After finally crawling out of it, she has no strength left and is about to die a second time.

Just then, a woman happens to pass by. She offers to save her, but only if she pretends to be the woman’s daughter-in-law.

To stay alive, Lin Chunlai agrees.

She takes the name Hu Xijun, the woman’s deceased daughter-in-law, and follows her back to the village.

Once there, she discovers that the woman’s family is desperately poor, often unsure where their next meal will come from.

What can she do?

Lin Chunlai reassures herself that she’s lucky to have survived. She has two hands and two feet, so she can always find a way to make a living.

After that...

She rolls incense sticks, sells drinks, raises chickens, and farms the land, gradually building a home of her own.

But just as everything starts to settle into a routine, her husband, Feng Changgeng, who has supposedly been stationed on the border for years with no return date in sight, comes back.

*

Qin Mengshen once took Feng Changgeng’s name by chance.

He thought he would never have anything to do with the Feng family again. Who could have expected that after the war ended and he returned home, the old family servant would tell him his house had been sold?

And that wasn’t all. The servant also told him he had found him a wife.

Qin Mengshen: ?

It wasn’t until he met the buyer that Qin Mengshen realized that, by a twist of fate, the buyer was the woman Feng Changgeng had been betrothed to years ago.

A friend’s wife is off-limits. How could he pretend to be a fool and take another man’s wife?

He shook his head like a rattle drum.

But then, by a stroke of bad luck, the Feng family came into the city and ran right into him.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth and go back “home.”

What could he do?

Qin Mengshen decided to keep pretending for now. But as he went on pretending, he discovered that his nominal little wife was a fake too!

Reader’s guide:

1. The male lead will make an early appearance, but his proper entrance comes much later.

2. The story is set in a fictional world, but prices, tax laws, and government systems are based on the Tang dynasty. Tang units of measurement are complicated, with large and small dou and shi, making conversions troublesome. For convenience, the story uses the standard units common in farming novels. For example, one dou is simply one dou, without distinguishing between a large or small dou. I’ve also roughly adjusted prices, some based on historical records and others set at reasonable values.

Coming next: Cousin Qi Is No Angel

When she hears that the Taichang Earl’s residence in the capital is about to be granted a higher title, Qi Yurong follows her mother north without hesitation.

As a poor relative of the earl’s family, she hopes to use its growing reputation to arrange a suitable marriage for herself.

Once her marriage has been settled, Qi Yurong goes to the inner courtyard to say her farewells.

On her way out, she accidentally collides with someone.

Qi Yurong apologizes repeatedly, but the other person merely says, “Once you’re married, you mustn’t be so careless.”

Frightened, Qi Yurong softly agrees, but the other person says nothing more.

Before long, her wedding day arrives.

Qi Yurong waits happily for the wedding ceremony to begin.

But just as the ceremony is about to start, that person arrives.

Fortunately, nothing happens in the end. He does nothing at all.

That night, after drinking the nuptial wine, Qi Yurong waits in her room. When the candles go out, the mandarin ducks entwine, and the red silk quilts are tossed aside.

The next morning, the person beside her wakes and makes a teasing remark.

Qi Yurong is horrified. How could it be him?!

*

Shen Yingjia is as bright and noble as the moon. At a young age, he not only inherited his family’s title but raised it by one rank himself.

The Shen family is all the rage, with countless people clamoring to attach themselves to it.

When he hears that a young cousin has come to seek refuge at his estate, Shen Yingjia makes no comment.

He doesn’t like disobedient people, but as long as she behaves, he doesn’t mind letting her sponge off him for a while.

But when he first meets the young cousin, Shen Yingjia realizes she isn’t obedient.

What should he do?

Shen Yingjia decides to teach her a little lesson and signals to a servant to deliberately leave a handkerchief behind.

Whether she’s accused of theft or an affair, either charge would be enough to drive the young cousin out.

But she picks up the handkerchief and runs straight to him, loudly announcing that it belongs to him.

Things are getting interesting.

Shen Yingjia can’t help thinking of an even more devious plan: she came here to find a husband, so he doesn’t mind arranging an excellent match for her.

Theme: Encourage farming and sericulture, so people may live in peace and prosperity