What an embarrassment! He Li, a child-bridegroom, had actually been rejected!
Just like that, he became the laughingstock of all the surrounding villages. Rumors ran wild. Some said he couldn't have children, others that he was lazy and greedy. Either one would be a major red flag in a farming family.
Even though he was beautiful, no one came to propose anymore.
He Li had just transmigrated, and he wanted to applaud the villagers. As it turned out, the original owner had indeed been rejected for being mean, lazy, greedy, and for throwing himself at another man.
But that was great! Why should a grown man get married? Making money was what mattered!
But someone went charging straight into the danger. His name was Yu Zhuang, and he was a scholar.
He was also the younger brother of He Li's former child-husband.
Yu Zhuang first met He Li when he was eight, and thought the other boy was both stupid and bad.
His older brother was sickly all year round. Following the advice of a wandering Taoist, Yu Zhuang's father decided to find his son a child-bride with a strong birth chart, to drive away the little ghost haunting him.
When word got around, He Li ran to their home to cry that his family treated him badly. But at the time, he still had white sugar crumbs around his mouth!
But He Li's birth chart really was strong, so he became Yu Zhuang's little brother-in-law.
Whenever the family stewed chicken, He Li could eat more than half of it by himself. Even with his belly round from eating, he would still steal Yu Zhuang's older brother's milk to wash it down.
When they sent He Li to the fields to gather leftover wheat, he was nowhere to be seen all afternoon. A villager eventually came by and said they had seen him sprawled out asleep on someone's wheat pile.
Being lazy and greedy was bad enough, but as he grew older, He Li often talked back to Yu Zhuang's father. Once, when the man told him to chop pig feed, He Li picked up a stool and threw it at him!
After Yu Zhuang passed the county-level examination, He Li bragged to the villagers that his little brother-in-law had connections at the county office, then secretly collected protection money from them!
But for the sake of Yu Zhuang's older brother, who had stayed healthy and free of misfortune all these years, his father was willing to give He Li one more chance.
Then he happened to discover that He Li had fallen for some strange man. At last, his father agreed to break off the engagement.
Who knew that after the engagement was broken, He Li would seem like a different person? He opened a sweet soup shop and helped the He family collect their debts. He still threw his weight around in the He household and remained hot-tempered and outrageous, but he was so captivating that Yu Zhuang couldn't look away!
Theme: Hard work creates a better tomorrow.
