Changxia was taken into the Pei family as a child bridegroom, where he finally had enough to eat and warm clothes to wear. Most importantly, he was tasked with learning how to take care of his five-year-old “young master.”

Five-year-old Pei Yao no longer wore open-c*otch trousers. Lifting his double-chinned face, he scrutinized the slightly taller Changxia with clear displeasure. What “husband” and “child bridegroom” nonsense? He didn’t understand a word of it—he only wanted to play.

Changxia couldn’t control Pei Yao. Though three years younger, Pei Yao had the strength of a little ox—running everywhere, jumping around, impossible to hold back. Driven to tears, Changxia could only run home to complain to his father, which ended with Pei Yao getting a beating. From then on, Pei Yao resented him.

Clumsy with words and slow-witted, Changxia knew Pei Yao disliked him. But since the Pei family had bought him, this was his home now. Aside from caring for Pei Yao as his child bridegroom, he also had to work hard in the fields and vegetable plots, praying with all his heart for good weather and bountiful harvests each year.

Pei Yao, precocious since childhood, had always been fond of pretty people and things. With his sweet mouth, he called everyone brother, sister, little brother, little sister. Fair-skinned and plump, he was naturally likable. By the time he was thirteen or fourteen, he had shot up in height, his long arms and legs making him every inch a handsome young lad.

Changxia, meanwhile, kept his head down and only knew how to work. Over the years, his hands inevitably grew rough, his looks plain, his manner lacking cleverness—hardly the sort Pei Yao favored. Pei Yao’s father saw it all and thought: fate cannot be forced. Since the family had now saved some money, better to arrange separate marriages for the two before resentment turned into hatred.

Yet before any discreetly arranged match could even take shape, Pei Yao’s father happened to overhear Pei Yao coaxing Changxia into giving him a kiss—his vision went black on the spot.

Notes:

Ancient setting. At the time of the kiss, Pei Yao is 16, Changxia is 19.

Contains child-rearing/offspring.

Slice-of-life, slow-burn story.

The protagonists are not written as flawless characters.

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