The Scholar’s Substitute Husband

Synopsis: Wen Liu, Wen Xi’s older brother, had landed himself an enviable marriage. Everyone in the village praised Wen Liu for his good fortune. Not only was his future in-laws’ family comfortably well-off, but his betrothed, Yan Feng’an, was a scholar—and a handsome one at that. Wen Xi, however, had not the slightest fondness for his future brother-in-law. On the surface, Scholar Yan was unfailingly polite. In truth, he was a petty, sharp-tongued man. In private, he often joined Wen Liu in disparaging Wen Xi’s looks, laughing at him for being an ignorant fool who could barely recognize a single character. Wen Xi hated him. Then, just as the wedding date drew near, Yan Feng’an fell on the mountain and injured his head, turning into a complete simpleton. When Wen Liu cried and carried on, refusing to marry him, their partial and selfish parents decided to placate the Yan family by tying Wen Xi up and sending him to the wedding in his brother’s place. On the night of the wedding, Wen Xi wept beneath his red bridal veil until he was a mess of tears, his eyes swollen like walnuts. The man who had always treated him with cold disdain lifted the veil, gently wiped the tear tracks from his face, and softly called him, “Xi-ge’er.” Wen Xi stared at him, dumbfounded. The Yan Feng’an who had injured his head was staring blankly back at him, unable even to speak. Then who was this man calling him Xi-ge’er? The scholar’s foolish enough to hit people. His parents are fierce and shamelessly partial. His older brother and sister-in-law are penny-pinching and calculating. Everyone in the village thought that after Wen Xi married into the Yan family in his brother’s place, his life would be worse than death. Wen Xi himself had accepted his fate and prepared to fight for survival in the cracks. Unexpectedly, married life turned out not to be nearly as terrible as he had imagined. His seemingly fierce mother-in-law was actually straightforward and refreshingly forthright, with a clear sense of love and hate. On the second day after the wedding, she not only gave Wen Xi a red wedding gift but also told him that she would treat him as one of the family. His stern, taciturn father-in-law was fiercely protective of his own. Whenever Wen Xi was bullied, he would step forward without a second thought to stand up for him. Even the sister-in-law whom outsiders considered stingy and calculating did not hesitate to share her skills, patiently teaching Wen Xi embroidery and clothes-making and giving him a craft he could use to earn money. And even that crazy, addle-brained scholar seemed to undergo a complete change after the wedding. Not only did his mind recover, but he also began treating Wen Xi better and better. He taught Wen Xi to read and write, paid for needles, thread, and fabric for him, and introduced him to the young men and women of the city, guiding him step by step toward a better life. Watching Yan Feng’an, who seemed to have become an entirely different person, Wen Xi silently prayed in his heart: Whoever the man standing before me is, please, Heaven—don’t ever let him leave this body. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Scholar’s Substitute Husband — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠