The Clan Elders Want Me to Marry a Widower? I’ll Buy Myself a Sickly Husband

After her grandmother’s recent death, Wan He became an orphan nearing twenty in Shangxi Village. By law, the authorities were supposed to force her into marriage. When the clan elders tried to force her to marry an old widower who had beaten his first wife to death, she ran straight to the slave market and tossed out five taels of silver. “I’ll take this one. He looks like he’s about to die.” The boy she bought was so thin he was little more than skin and bones. The village head recognized him as Lu Zhaoye, a child prodigy from the neighboring village who had passed the Tongsheng exam at fourteen. Wan He simply said, “Perfect. If he dies, I’ll be a widow, and the law can’t touch me. If he lives, at least his face is easy on the eyes.” She had no idea that the unconscious boy heard every word. Later, she overcame one obstacle after another and became a renowned imperial merchant, famous far and wide. He, meanwhile, passed the imperial exams at every level and rose to become Grand Secretary. Yet he handed over every penny he owned to her, asking only that when she stopped to rest, she would spare him one more glance.