Chapter 1: Joyous Sedan Ride on a Winter Night
Deep winter, in the village of Liuxi.
As dusk settled, an old-fashioned red sedan chair hurried along the frozen riverbank path towards the west side of the village. Beside the sedan chair walked a middle-aged woman whose appearance was striking, though her eyes were slightly upturned at the corners and her thin lips gave her a distinctly unkind look.
At this moment, she appeared visibly uneasy and anxious. The dim lantern in her hand swung violently as she frequently urged the aging sedan bearers to quicken their pace. However, these bearers were elderly and frail; despite her urging, they were already panting heavily and could hardly move any faster.
On the other side of the road, someone opened a gate to pour out slops, curiously glancing at the passing group. After a brief look at the sky, the onlooker thought it was far too late for a wedding procession. Moreover, there was no groom riding ahead on a horse, nor the usual entourage of musicians. Despite these observations, the passerby decided not to meddle and simply shut the gate tightly.
Meanwhile, the woman by the sedan chair continued her urgent prodding, occasionally resorting to rude murmurs and curses directed at the bearers.
Seeing her insults grow more cutting, the bearers could only endure silently. They were already past their prime and struggled under the weight of their load. Having already been paid, they could only obey her commands and attempt to move faster.
They were all drenched in sweat despite the freezing winter weather, their cotton robes soaked through several layers. Their one stroke of luck was the absence of snow in the past few days, which made the road less slippery.
The sedan chair’s windows and doors were tightly covered with cloth curtains, and amidst intermittent scolding, no one noticed inside the sedan as the person closed his eyes. His complexion quickly turned ashen, and blood flowed from the corners of his mouth silently, exhaling their final breath in this world.
The journey from the town to Liuxi Village was not short; even robust young men would struggle. Just as the sedan bearers were about to give up and ask the woman for a break, the burden on their shoulders suddenly lightened considerably, as if the sedan had suddenly become weightless.
The head bearer’s face showed surprise. He glanced at the woman beside the sedan, intending to say something, but she glared fiercely at him and cursed, “A bunch of useless old fools!”
The head bearer immediately shut his mouth, shook his head at the other bearers, and continued forward in silence.
With the sedan lighter, their steps quickened. Before long, they arrived at a neatly kept wooden door on the west side of Liuxi Village by the riverbank. The woman beside the sedan finally showed relief on her face, tidied her clothes, and stepped forward.
She tapped the door and raised her voice, “Open the door, Master Wang! The bride has been delivered to you!”
As her voice fell, the sound of the door opening came from the courtyard, followed swiftly by the sound of brisk, steady footsteps.
The bearers bent down, preparing to lower the sedan to the ground. Although the sedan swayed as they moved, there was no sound from inside—it was eerily quiet.
The head bearer exchanged a glance with the others and then looked at the woman knocking on the door. They had carried sedans for many years and had encountered strange occurrences. They knew all too well whether there was someone inside the sedan or not.
Others might not know, but these sedan bearers could tell that when the bride was carried out from her home earlier, her face was covered and she seemed weak, completely limp, clearly forced into the sedan.
The woman had been pushing them hard all the way, probably out of fear that something might go wrong halfway. Moreover, despite not being from Liuxi Village, the head bearer had heard enough about the family behind this door to know that no young girl willingly married into it from miles around.
When they eventually opened the sedan curtain, who knew if the person inside would still be the same lively person?
If trouble arose, this harsh woman might even drag them to the authorities. The head bearer didn’t want to be implicated and had insisted on receiving the full payment upfront from her, which now seemed a wise decision.
The steady footsteps in the courtyard stopped at the door. Just as the sedan was about to touch the ground, the head bearer’s expression suddenly changed. His waist involuntarily bent, and the other bearers stumbled.
With a loud thud, the sedan nearly crashed down, saved only by its proximity to the ground.
As the woman at the door turned to glare at them once more, the head bearer lowered his head in fear, hiding his shock.
At the moment the sedan touched the ground, unexpectedly, the weight inside the empty sedan suddenly increased. The bearers were almost knocked down by the unexpected load.
A cold wind blew by, causing the head bearer to break out in goosebumps, and his sweat turned cold, chilling him to the bone.
The wooden door creaked open. The head bearer instinctively trembled as he raised his head to look. A particularly tall figure stood in the doorway.
At this moment, it was pitch dark outside. Qingyan could barely see the man’s face, but his figure was tall and straight, with broad shoulders and slender legs, standing there like a handsome towering mountain.
As soon as they faced each other, the woman hurriedly approached him joyfully, chattering away explanations, “It’s all because these few sedan bearers couldn’t handle it, delaying everything.”
She gestured towards the sedan, “This kid was too happy, drank too much wine, and passed out. Dear, please forgive him!”
The man glanced in the direction she indicated. Though Qingyan couldn’t see his face, the old sedan bearer could still sense his piercing and calm gaze.
The thought of running away vanished completely from the old sedan bearer’s mind.
He bowed deeply, avoiding eye contact, and heard the man speak in a low, deep voice, but couldn’t make out a single word.
Using his peripheral vision, he saw the woman eagerly reach out and receive a heavy cloth bag the man handed her. She peered inside one corner of the bag, and her face lit up even more brightly.
The old sedan bearer caught a glint of silver and watched as the woman tucked the bag into her sleeve, making space for it.
Footsteps approached, steady and composed.
At last, the man stood before the sedan.
He appeared to hesitate for a moment, but then decisively reached out to pull back the sedan curtain.
The woman hurried over, carrying the lantern to shine inside. Seeing this, the old sedan bearer’s eyes widened in shock and he took a few steps back. Despite himself, he couldn’t resist peeking into the sedan.
In the dim light of the lantern, a frail figure slouched inside the sedan. His frame was much slimmer than an average man’s, almost delicate even for a young boy.
A bright red cover hid his face completely, while loose bridal robes draped over him, revealing pale skin at the collar. A faint scent of alcohol mingled in the relatively warmer air inside the sedan, giving him an ethereal yet weak demeanor.
Although fragile, the figure inside the sedan seemed completely human, not some terrifying specter.
But when the old sedan bearer’s puzzled gaze traveled from the figure’s face down to his feet, he was taken aback. He distinctly remembered the bride wearing embroidered shoes when she boarded the sedan. The robes were new, but those shoes were old. The difference was striking, etching a deep impression.
Yet now, those shoes were nowhere to be seen inside the sedan. As the man pulled back the curtain, the old sedan bearer saw him bend down effortlessly, lifting the groom from the sedan.
Afterward, all the old sedan bearer felt was a gust of wind as the man carried the bride away, striding confidently toward the courtyard gate as before.
From his vantage point, the old sedan bearer could only see the bride’s feet clad in white socks.
Amid the woman’s chatter of congratulations and wishes for many children, the man entered the gate, and the wooden door closed behind him.
In the final moments before the door shut tight, the old sedan bearer glimpsed a delicate, slender hand reach out softly, grasping at the man’s slender waist cinched by a belt, then clutching at the fabric there.
Startled, the old sedan bearer forgot everything else. He quickly called the other sedan bearers, and together they lifted the sedan like flying, fleeing the scene regardless of the woman’s calls, pretending not to hear her, heading straight out of the village.
She had planned to have them take her back home, but seeing them flee, the woman stomped her foot in anger, regretting having paid them too early.
However, when she felt the weighty cloth bag in her sleeve, her smile returned, and she walked back along the path, light-footed yet anxious.
…
Qingyan’s head ached terribly, and his body felt miserable.
His last memory was leaving the bar, walking along the main road, with a heavy truck roaring towards him, carrying the scent of diesel in the wind.
Qingyan’s initial reaction was to dodge, but he had drunk too much, and his limbs wouldn’t respond. He barely lifted a foot to run when he stumbled and fell to the ground.
Then, the truck collided.
It was painful, excruciatingly so, but thankfully it was over in an instant.
After that, he knew nothing.
Qingyan thought he was done for.
He hadn’t had an easy life since childhood, and just as things were looking up, he trusted the wrong person and lost everything, ending up in a sorry state.
Despite this, he was still young, with hope for better days ahead. After venting his frustrations with a big drink, he planned to continue living normally. But now he was dead.
He couldn’t accept it, but he was helpless.
Yet he couldn’t have imagined he would wake up again.
Qingyan opened his eyes and saw first the crimson bed canopy illuminated by candlelight, and sitting at the bedside was a man dressed in a red robe, his head bowed, examining Qingyan.
It wasn’t a hospital, nor was it his home. It looked more like a scene from a historical drama on TV.
“You…”
Qingyan moved his lips, trying to ask about the situation, but just as he spoke, the man sitting on the kang suddenly moved. He stood up and walked towards a weathered wooden table in the room, leaning over to extinguish the red candle burning on it.
In that moment, as the man approached the candle, Qingyan’s eyes widened in horror.
Until the candle went out and footsteps drew nearer to the kang, Qingyan’s mind was filled with the terrifying profile he had just seen.
How a “kang” looks like
The grotesque scars seemed to cover every inch of the man’s skin, protruding and uneven, radiating a chilling crimson hue, like a demon clawing its way out of hell.
The footsteps stopped at the bedside. The terrifying-faced man stood there, and after a long silence, he climbed onto the kang in the darkness, gradually approaching the person lying on it.
Qingyan couldn’t see anything, he almost held his breath, feeling the other’s hot breath spraying on his face, rough fingers resting on the buttons of his collar.
Qingyan shivered all over, unable to stop himself from gasping in surprise.
But the hand didn’t move further, just stayed there.
The warmth from the fingers spread to his neck, and with the curtains tightly drawn, the room was pitch black.
Qingyan’s heart raced inexplicably.
At that moment, he heard a deep, hoarse voice ask, “Your father said you agreed, is that true?” It seemed like a final confirmation.
Qingyan paused for a moment, only then realizing the man in front of him was speaking to him. But he didn’t understand what the man meant at all.
Subconsciously wanting to ask for clarification, in that instant, a flood of memories that didn’t belong to him rushed into his mind. The short and tragic life of an ancient person who shared his name and surname flashed through his mind quickly.
On the eve when the original host departed for the imperial examination, he was drugged by his wicked stepmother and sent to the bed of a poor blacksmith as ugly as a ghost. From then on, he had to marry the man.
Despite the blacksmith’s innocence in the matter, the original host could never let go of the resentment. He turned a blind eye to his husband’s kindness and tenderness, even repaying his kindness with malice. In order to climb higher socially, he falsely accused her husband, leading to his imprisonment.
Though the blacksmith knew it was all a conspiracy by his wife, he still silently walked towards the guillotine as she wished. The original host himself did not fare well for long, eventually meeting a shameful end.
As it turned out, he had crossed over, and it felt like flipping through a book, witnessing the pitiful and sorrowful life of the original host.
Qingyan, whose heart had been deeply wounded by deceit and betrayal in the modern world, eyes brimming with tears, thought to himself, “If you don’t appreciate him, let me cherish him.”
Qingyan had never been indecisive. Having been given a second chance at life, he naturally cherished this hard-won opportunity.
His head still hurt, and his body ached. Qingyan’s breathing became increasingly rapid, his body heating up uncontrollably. He knew it was the effect of the drug administered by the original host’s stepmother.
He struggled to lift his hand and grabbed the rough neck of the man whose face he couldn’t see in the darkness, pressing his momentarily stiffened body down. His lips brushed against the man’s ear, and he caught a faint scent of soapnut. Somehow, this brought a sense of calm to his heart.
Then, obediently, he softly uttered, “Hmm.”
Only then did the buttons on the collar finally start to undo, one by one.
The room was very dark, but once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could vaguely make out the silhouette of the person.
There was a slight coolness on the exposed chest skin. Qingyan turned his head away, feeling the heat from his body spreading to his face.
Unconsciously, he let out a soft moan.
Spoiler for the Next Chapter:
Qingyan leaned softly against him, his breath fragrant, and coquettishly said, “Husband, can you help me wash it?”
Sleepyblue’s corner:
New project, start🎉!! Hi guys, by the time you may have read this, I might be currently drowning in my schoolworks but don’t worry as I’ve prepared a lot in store for you ^^ I’ve spent a huuuge amount of energy into this new work, so I hope you guys enjoy the sweet (and snusnu~ hehee) moments between our beloved transmigrator Qingyan and our lovable blacksmith Qiu Henian 💛
Want faster releases? An additional chapter is posted after 3 ko-fi donations☕! (I’d like to thank you guys in advance for any kind of help, it means a lot now that we’re gonna have a lot of expenses in the lab T__T)
🧧For benefactors who would like to access advance chapters (7 chapters ahead Novels Space’s monthly releases for 10 dollars), you may donate the amount on ko-fi and mention “eAFMUH” for me to share the gdrive link with you!🧧
