After the heroine, a divorced woman from an angst novel, sees the light, she finds eight well-behaved younger brothers (not really) and retires to the countryside.
When her trusted maid came to report that the master had brought home a mother and son, Bai Chan was watering vegetables in the estate's kitchen garden.
After a dizzy spell, Bai Chan realized she was the heroine of an old-fashioned tragic romance novel, and the bastard in front of her was the male lead.
Thinking of all the pregnancy, miscarriage caused by misunderstandings, hair-pulling, and slapping contests between women she was about to endure, Bai Chan angrily pinched her philtrum.
How could this brainless woman be her?!
The bastard male lead, refined and composed, said lightly, "Madam has failed to bear a child in five years. Anyone else would have asked to be divorced long ago. I only asked you to be magnanimous and accept her and her child."
Bai Chan laughed in fury. "Magnanimous, my ass! If you want a divorce, then divorce me. I'm done!"
Bai Chan got her divorce papers, packed her things, and left that very night, intending to find her family and relatives in Lingnan, the land of exile.
Lingnan was a wonderful place! Sure, there was plenty of miasma, but it was rich in produce. You could die any way you liked, but you wouldn't starve!
Seafood you could never finish, game you could never cook all of, wild fruit you could never pick all of...
Thinking of how her relatives in the book had been cared for by the scumbag's people but still never had enough to eat or a good night's sleep, Bai Chan was heartbroken. She was going to Lingnan to improve their meals and fatten every last one of her relatives up!
But before she went, she couldn't still be a daughter of the Bai family.
Bai Chan's beautiful eyes shifted toward the eight well-behaved younger brothers who had come with her as part of her dowry. No, not brothers, but eight strong young guards.
The one at the head of the group had a handsome face, with sharp brows, bright eyes, and a straight nose.
A good personality, too: he was born with smiling lips, smiling at everyone he met, bright as the sun.
And a great body: all legs below the neck, with a broad waist, narrow hips, and a tight, muscular lower back.
Perfect. You're the one.
For years, Cheng Xun had coveted Bai Chan from the shadows. He watched her marry another man with his own eyes, then listened at night as she moaned softly in another man's arms, like some damp, creepy ghost.
He thought he would spend the rest of his life like that, never imagining that fortune would fall right into his lap.
[Radiant beauty x Sunshine on the surface, gloomy underneath, puppy-like wolf]
Reader's guide:
1. Important: The heroine has had sex before, the hero has not. Older woman-younger man romance, with a three-year age gap.
2. A little of the original male lead's regretful pursuit, but his ashes get scattered immediately. The devoted puppy-like wolf gets his chance and takes the top spot.
3. Lots of wilderness foraging, stockpiling, and cooking in the mountains.
Theme: Be self-reliant.
