Xu Shuyue wakes up one day to find herself transmigrated into the body of a poor village girl. Her parents died early, and her aunt sold her off for three taels of silver to marry into another family as a “lucky bride.”
Her groom? The eldest son of the Qi family, Qi Siming, who joined the army three years ago and hasn’t been heard from for six months.
The Qi family believed that marrying their unlucky son to someone equally “unlucky” would cancel out their bad fortune. And who was the unluckiest girl in the area? None other than Xu Shuyue, who was rumored to have “cursed her parents to death.”
So, Xu Shuyue ended up marrying… a rooster, in place of the absent groom.
But on the day of the wedding, news arrived: Qi Siming had died in battle.
The festive wedding quickly turned into a funeral. Not wanting to waste the money spent, the Qi family insisted on a ghost marriage, officially marrying Xu Shuyue to their deceased son.
Xu Shuyue, now stuck in this strange situation, thought: Fine. A wife is a wife, whether the husband is alive or not. I’ll just make the most of it.
Luckily, her in-laws were wealthy and owned several fertile fields. Since she was now part of the Qi family, she figured, Marry a man, eat his food. The man’s dead, but I’ll still eat.
Soon after, Xu Shuyue began managing the fields and even cleared the barren land to plant oranges, apples, and watermelons.
When the harvests grew larger than they could handle, she turned the farm into an agricultural tourism hotspot, where visitors could pick fruit, barbecue, and relax. Nobles and officials came from miles away just to enjoy the experience.
As her wealth grew, she renovated the house into a grand estate, even adding guesthouses and hot springs to attract scholars to drink tea and compose poetry.
One day, her mother-in-law tearfully held Xu Shuyue’s hand and said, “My child, you’ve worked so hard these years. It’s time for you to remarry.”
Just as Xu Shuyue was about to politely refuse, someone came running with shocking news: “Qi Siming is alive! He’s returned as a general and is coming home!”
Xu Shuyue: “???”
Now completely flustered, Xu Shuyue thought: How do I deal with a husband I’ve never met and who’s supposed to be dead?
Qi Siming, tall, handsome, and full of heroic energy, arrived and gently said to her, “You’ve suffered all these years. From now on, I’ll make sure you live a life of comfort, free from hardship.”
Xu Shuyue, dripping in gold and wearing silk, awkwardly replied, “…T-thank you… but honestly, life hasn’t been that hard. I got so tired of eating pork knuckles yesterday I couldn’t finish them.”
