“This sickly man is quite good-looking. He could still fetch a price as a male prostitute in a brothel…”
“Five taels of silver. Not a coin more.”
Su Qinghe opened her eyes to find herself inside a dilapidated, drafty thatched hut. A woman dressed in coarse cloth stood before her, speaking those words.
Hadn’t she worked herself to death from overtime at the company? Where was this place?
Seeing her silent, the woman frowned and continued, “Five taels is already generous. If I buy him, I’ll still have to pay for treatment. He’s so sick he might not even survive. If he dies, I’ll lose money.”
“Su Qinghe… you vicious woman…”
A weak male voice sounded.
Only then did Su Qinghe shift her gaze from the broker woman to the source of the voice.
A man lay on a straw mat on the floor. He wore patched coarse clothes, washed so many times they had faded white, clinging tightly to his body and outlining broad shoulders and long limbs. Even though illness had reduced him to skin and bones, it was obvious he possessed an exceptional physique beneath it all.
Looking higher, she saw a face pale almost to transparency.
High brows, a sharp nose bridge, cracked bloodless lips. Only the unnatural flush burning on his cheeks added a breathtaking sense of fragility to his already handsome features.
At that moment, the man’s deep eyes were fixed on her with intense hatred.
The instant she met that gaze, Su Qinghe’s mind buzzed.
Su Qinghe. Five taels of silver. Selling a man…
She had transmigrated into a novel!
And not just any novel—she had become the cannon-fodder female side character who shared her exact name in a melodramatic wish-fulfillment story.
The novel’s male lead, Xiao Hanyuan, was the Prince of Zhenbei, a war god who held immense power in court and commanded three hundred thousand cavalry troops. Half a year ago, during the Battle of Yanmen Pass, he had been betrayed by a trusted subordinate, ambushed, and thrown off a cliff. After losing his memory, he drifted into Qinghe Village.
The original Su Qinghe was notorious in the village—a lazy, gluttonous, gambling woman. At over two hundred pounds, no family within ten miles was willing to marry her. Three months ago, she found the gravely injured Xiao Hanyuan by the river. Seeing how handsome he was, she concocted a wicked scheme, lying to him that his name was Fifteen and that she was his wife.
She barely kept him alive with leftovers while treating him like livestock—making him chop firewood, haul water, and work in the fields. If he moved too slowly, she beat him mercilessly. She had even tried to force herself on him, and after he refused, her abuse became even worse, leaving him covered in injuries.
A few days ago, Xiao Hanyuan had fallen ill. The original owner lacked money for treatment, so she contacted a human broker to sell him to a brothel as a male prostitute.
At the brothel, Xiao Hanyuan endured endless humiliation and torment. Three months later, he regained his memories, slaughtered the entire brothel in revenge, and then returned to turn the original Su Qinghe into a human pig, torturing her for half a year before finally letting her die. Afterward, he ended up happily ever after with the novel’s heroine.
Su Qinghe shuddered.
She looked down at her round body, then at the pale, barely breathing man on the straw mat.
Right now was the moment the original owner had just called the broker over. Xiao Hanyuan had not yet been sold into the brothel.
There was still time!
She suddenly spun around and plastered a smile onto her face at the thin middle-aged broker standing by the door.
“You remembered wrong! How could I possibly sell my husband?”
The broker, Old Woman Wang, froze. “Didn’t you say you wanted to sell a sickly man? Five taels…”
“I said cow!” Su Qinghe interrupted quickly. “An old yellow ox! Our old ox got sick and won’t eat fodder anymore. Keeping it would just waste grain, so I thought I’d sell it for some money.”
Old Woman Wang eyed her suspiciously. “You’re playing tricks on me?”
“Of course not!” Su Qinghe grabbed her arm and tugged her outside. “Come with me, I’ll show you the cow!”
In the yard, a dull-colored old ox was lowering its head to chew dry grass.
Patting the ox’s back, Su Qinghe started making things up without blinking. “Just look at this ox—fat and sturdy, strong as can be! A few days ago it could still haul three hundred jin of cargo. It’s only coughed a little recently, but that’s nothing. A few days of care and it’ll recover.”
“But I didn’t come here to buy a cow,” Old Woman Wang muttered.
“Oh, but since you’re already here after traveling all this way, surely you shouldn’t go back empty-handed?” Su Qinghe laughed. “I’m definitely not selling a person, but if you like this ox, I can let it go.”
Old Woman Wang circled the ox once, feeling its legs and prying open its mouth to inspect the teeth.
“This ox is at least six years old,” she sneered. “Do you think I can’t tell quality when I see it?”
Su Qinghe’s heart skipped, but her expression remained calm. “Six years old is prime age! If you don’t want it, I’ll sell it to Butcher Li at the east end of the village. He said yesterday he wanted to buy it.”
“Butcher Li?” Old Woman Wang hesitated. “Fine. One hundred copper coins. Not a coin more.”
“One hundred?!” Su Qinghe widened her eyes. “Old Woman Wang, that’s daylight robbery! At least make it two hundred!”
“One hundred. Take it or leave it.” The broker turned to leave.
“Wait, wait! Sold!” Su Qinghe hurriedly stopped her.
One hundred coins was better than nothing. At least she could buy some rice and medicine.
Old Woman Wang pulled out a string of copper coins from her sleeve, counted out one hundred, handed them over, and led the ox away.
Clutching the coins tightly, Su Qinghe let out a long sigh of relief.
She turned back into the hut and looked at Xiao Hanyuan lying on the straw mat. Squatting beside him, she softened her voice as much as possible.
“You must be hungry. I’ll go make you something to eat.”
Xiao Hanyuan frowned, staring at her coldly. “Since when were you so kind-hearted?”
Su Qinghe ignored the suspicion and walked toward the stove to prepare rice porridge.
Then she froze.
The rice jar was empty.
The flour jar was empty.
Only half a vat of murky water remained.
Dust coated the stove, and inside the pot sat a broken bowl with a few moldy grains of rice stuck to the bottom.
Su Qinghe pressed a hand to her forehead.
Just how lazy had the original owner been? The house was this poor, yet she still spent her days trying to take advantage of the male lead?
She opened the cabinet. Inside were only a few patched coarse clothes—not even a needle or thread.
In the corner sat several empty wine jars, reeking of sour alcohol.
Taking a deep breath, Su Qinghe gripped the hundred copper coins and began calculating how to spend them.
Rice, flour, oil, medicine, doctor’s fees—everything required money.
She glanced at Xiao Hanyuan again. His face was frighteningly pale, his forehead drenched in sweat.
“Stay home and wait for me. I’ll go buy some rice and bring back a doctor,” she said.
Xiao Hanyuan closed his eyes, the corner of his mouth curling into a mocking smile.
Every time this woman got money, she either ate and drank it away or gambled it away.
The money he had earned farming had all been taken by her for gambling. Not a single coin remained in the house, and they still owed the gambling den ten taels of silver.
No matter how hard he worked, he could never fill the endless hole this family had become.
Why had he ever married such a woman?
When he first woke up, he remembered nothing. The first thing he saw was this fat face looming over him. She claimed she was his fiancée, that his name was Fifteen, and that his parents were dead and he had been gravely wounded while fleeing enemies.
He refused to believe he could ever love a woman so stupid, shallow, obese, vicious, and addicted to gambling.
But he remembered nothing, so he could only let her manipulate him.
For three months he had lived like a dog, ordered around at will. Any slight disobedience earned him a brutal beating.
Now even the money from selling the old ox would probably be gambled away, and there was no food left in the house…
Although he didn’t understand why she had suddenly changed her mind and not sold him this time, Xiao Hanyuan knew clearly that sooner or later she would sell him next.
And if he truly ended up in a brothel, it would be better to die from a knife through the chest than suffer such humiliation.
Xiao Hanyuan clenched his teeth, his nails digging into his palms.
He couldn’t stay here any longer.
He had to find a way to escape…
Even wandering outside like a beggar would be better than remaining beside this vicious woman, waiting to be slaughtered.