Du Cunxun, a young major general of the Northern Frontier cavalry, angered the emperor and was stripped of her rank and status. Her land and property were all confiscated, leaving her to scrape by with odd jobs in the city.
At her busiest, Du Cunxun worked three jobs in a day. Before dawn, she went to the butcher's to slaughter a few cows. After lunch, she went to a restaurant to bow and scrape, pouring tea and water for the customers. Once night fell, she pulled on a dark outfit and vaulted across rooftops, stealing or robbing whatever she could.
She also checked the government bounty notices every day. She ignored those without rewards, but whenever she found someone with a bounty, it was like finding money on the ground.
Luckily, fortune favors the persistent. A windfall finally fell into her lap, along with a man named Ji Zhuang.
Word had it that Ji Zhuang had felt up the bandit chief's wife while taking her pulse, and the jealous chief was now hunting him down. He urgently needed a bodyguard, and the pay was a hundred taels for a month.
Day one.
Ji Zhuang: Bandits are cunning and vicious. This job is dangerous, young lady. Please think it over.
Du Cunxun: Not only will I tie up the chief's wife, I'll bring the chief along too, so you can feel them up to your heart's content. How's that?
Ji Zhuang: ...Young lady, that absolutely will not do.
Du Cunxun: What's all this talk about what will or won't do? Just pay me more.
Half a month later.
At night, Ji Zhuang caught Du Cunxun in her dark outfit, a short sword glinting faintly at her side. He was startled.
Du Cunxun reassured him: Don't be scared, Doctor. The Prince of Duan has been found guilty of treason and is surrounded by soldiers in his mansion. I'll sneak in and grab some gold and silver while things are in chaos. I'll be right back.
Ji Zhuang, by now used to it: ...Go and come back quickly.
Not long afterward.
Ji Zhuang arrived with all his savings, hoping to propose, while Du Cunxun was heading out with everything she owned.
Ji Zhuang, quietly falling apart: Where are you going?
Du Cunxun: The border is in crisis. I still want to be a general. The pay's good, and I can earn more. Want to come with me?
Ji Zhuang, hesitating: ...Wait a minute.
Ji Zhuang had no grand ambitions. He only wanted to live a peaceful, steady life.
He would learn a trade that could support him, save a little money, and, if he met a girl he loved, spend the rest of his life with her.
He had been studying medicine since he was three, and was now a fairly well-known young doctor in the capital. He lived frugally and had managed to save enough to keep himself fed and clothed for the rest of his life.
Only one thing remained: to spend his life with the girl he loved.
But Du Cunxun had never thought of settling down with anyone. She only thought that if she could help Ji Zhuang climb higher and higher, all the way into the court,
perhaps he could change some of the things she could not.
A driven heroine who gently coaxes the hero out of his comfort zone to make use of him × a lovesick hero who willingly turns ruthless for love, then discovers he's still not ruthless enough
Two equally strong leads, alternate history, many original details
Theme: Fortune favors the persistent
I've been too busy during this period, so I finally found the time to read the updates.
💪 💪 💪 Author, come on, update, stop updating, so sad? 😭 😭 😭