The Scholar’s Unconventional Little Wife - Chapter 1

In Qinghe Town, September’s autumn rain arrived without warning.

Lin Ruo’an balanced her book box on her head, her steps uneven as she trudged through the puddles on the bluestone road. The hem of her worn scholar’s robe was already splattered with mud.

I should have listened to Madam Xu’s weather forecast… she regretted for the 108th time.

The so-called “Madam Xu’s weather forecast” was actually her mother, Xu Fenggu, who had stood at the doorway this morning, broom in hand, and shouted, “Lin Ruo’an! My old leg pain is acting up again today, remember to take an umbrella!”

At the time, Lin Ruo’an—having just passed the Child Examination and now considering herself a “Xiucai Scholar”—was adjusting the tightness of her chest binder in the bronze mirror. The garment constricted her breathing, but its effectiveness rivaled modern-day black technology; so far, no fellow scholars had seen through it.

“I know, I know,” she had replied dismissively, not taking the warning to heart.

Now, she was paying for it.

The rain was so heavy it felt as if someone were pouring buckets from the sky. Her vision was blurred, limited to only three zhang ahead. Even worse, this narrow alley—a shortcut back to the restaurant—was rarely used even on good days. Now, it was completely deserted.

“I’m so stupid, really,” Lin Ruo’an muttered to herself as she walked, her inner monologue scrolling like a bullet chat. I knew ancient times didn’t have weather forecasts, but I didn’t realize the road conditions could be this deadly. If I slip and roll in the mud, that’s one thing, but what if I twist my ankle…

She shuddered, too afraid to finish the thought.

Just as she was weighing whether to push through the rain or find an eave to shelter under for a while, her foot suddenly kicked something.

Soft yet firm.

Lin Ruo’an stopped in her tracks and narrowed her eyes.

In the corner of the alley, tucked away with the piles of miscellaneous items, curled a human figure.

The rain washed over the person’s face, obscuring their features. All she could see was disheveled black hair plastered to a pale cheek, and coarse cloth clothes soaked through, clinging to a thin body.

Lin Ruo’an’s scalp tingled.

An ancient-style scam? Or… were they actually dead?

She instinctively took half a step back. The alarm about “to help or not to help” blared frantically in her mind. But the rain was freezing, and the person’s curled-up posture was so pitiful. To just walk away would be too cold-blooded, wouldn’t it?

“Hey?” she called out tentatively, her voice mostly swallowed by the sound of the rain.

No response.

Lin Ruo’an gritted her teeth, held her book-box over her head, and shuffled two steps closer before crouching down. Up close, she saw that the person didn’t look very old. Mud and filth obscured his face, but his jawline was sharp, and his long eyelashes trembled slightly under the rain.

He’s still alive.

She breathed a sigh of relief, only to immediately feel a new wave of anxiety—Alive, so what? Just leave him here? Even after transmigrating, her conscience hadn’t completely vanished (or perhaps it had grown back?).

But what if she brought him back?

The image of Xu Fenggu’s furious face immediately flashed through her mind: “Lin Ruo’an! You passed the Child Examination and became a Xiucai Scholar, and now you have the nerve to bring a living person home? Is my restaurant a charity ward?!”

Just as she was wrestling with her decision, the man on the ground stirred.

His eyelids fluttered, as if he lacked even the strength to open them. His lips were deathly pale.

The last remnants of Lin Ruo’an’s hesitation crumbled when she saw him try to shrink further into the pile of debris, looking utterly pitiful.

“Fine, fine. Saving one life is better than building seven-story pagodas,” she muttered, reaching out to help him. “Madam Xu can scold me all she wants.”

The moment her fingers touched his arm, the previously weak and lifeless man’s wrist snapped up. His five fingers clamped around hers like iron pliers! The movement was so fast that Lin Ruo’an had no time to react.

“Holy shit!” she gasped, nearly falling backward into a puddle.

The grip was crushing, sending a jolt of pain through her wrist. But the next second, the fingers holding her abruptly loosened.

The person on the ground half-opened their eyes, their gaze unfocused and vacant. They glanced at her, lips parting as if to speak, but no sound came out. Then their head lolled to the side, and they lost consciousness again.

Lin Ruo’an froze, her heart hammering against her ribs.

What was that? A reflex? That speed… that strength…

“Great,” she muttered with a wry smile. “This isn’t just any kind of trouble.”

Struggling to lift the person, half-carrying and half-dragging them, Lin Ruo’an realized they were frighteningly light. Their frame was slender, yet the force of that grip had been no illusion.

“Skinny as a rail, but strong as an ox,” she grumbled, shifting her book case to her other shoulder. She began to limp toward the Xu Family Restaurant, her steps uneven and clumsy.

The rain continued to fall.

The Xu Family Restaurant’s sign glistened wetly in the downpour. The lunch rush was over, and the place was empty except for Zhao Siniang, the waitress, who was wiping down the tables.

In the backyard, Xu Fenggu was pouring water from a wooden bucket into a large vat beneath the eaves. Her movements were crisp and efficient, the hem of her dark blue coarse-cloth dress rolled up to reveal sturdy calves. Hearing the front door creak open, she didn’t even turn around. “So you’ve finally decided to come back? Drenched like a drowned rat, I bet. Serves you right!”

“Mother…” Lin Ruo’an said weakly.

Xu Fenggu turned and saw her “son” staggering in, supporting a person who looked like a mud monkey. The wooden bucket nearly slipped from her hand.

“Who’s this?!” her voice shot up.

“Found him on the road… collapsed in an alley,” Lin Ruo’an panted, carefully settling the person onto a long bench under the eaves. “Seems sick. Nowhere to go.”

Xu Fenggu strode over. Her gaze swept over the unconscious man’s filthy face and soaked coarse-cloth clothes before landing on Lin Ruo’an’s red, swollen wrist. Her brow furrowed into a knot.

“What happened to your hand?”

“Uh… she must have been having a nightmare just now. Scratched me by accident,” Lin Ruo’an mumbled vaguely.

Xu Fenggu said nothing. She knelt, reached out, and touched the man’s forehead. It was scorching hot.

“She’s got a high fever. Zhao Siniang! Boil some water and get the side room ready!”

Zhao Siniang grunted a simple acknowledgment and scurried off.

Only then did Xu Fenggu turn to Lin Ruo’an, hands on her hips. “Lin Ruo’an, you’ve certainly grown bold, haven’t you? You go out for one trip and bring back a whole person! Do you have any idea who she is? Is she clean? Will she cause us trouble?”

The triple-threat interrogation.

Lin Ruo’an shrank back, then steeled herself. “Mother, I couldn’t just leave her to die outside, could I? A life is a life. Once she wakes up, we’ll ask her questions. If there’s no trouble, we’ll just give her some travel money and send her on her way.”

Xu Fenggu stared at the unconscious woman for a few seconds. Suddenly, she reached out and brushed aside the wet hair clinging to the woman’s cheek, revealing a delicate face.

“It’s a girl,” Xu Fenggu declared.

Lin Ruo’an blinked. “Huh?”

“I can tell by her features and her breathing,” Xu Fenggu said flatly. Her gaze then turned complicated as she looked Lin Ruo’an up and down. “Heh heh… You’ve grown up, haven’t you? Picking up girls from the street now…”

No sooner had she spoken than Matchmaker Wang’s piercing laugh echoed from the front shop. “Oh, Sister Xu! Are you in? Good news! Absolutely wonderful news!”

Xu Fenggu’s expression soured.

Lin Ruo’an felt her scalp prickle. Ever since she had passed the Xiucai examination, Matchmaker Wang had been pestering her relentlessly—first proposing Miss Zhang, then trying to arrange a betrothal for Sister Li. It was utterly exasperating.

Footsteps were already approaching the backyard.

Xu Fenggu’s gaze darted between the unconscious girl and Lin Ruo’an. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She whispered urgently, “Help her up. Lean her against you.”

“What?”

“Quickly!”

Confused but obedient, Lin Ruo’an half-embraced the unconscious girl.

Just then, Matchmaker Wang sashayed into the backyard, waving a red handkerchief and beaming with a wide smile. “Sister Xu”

She stopped dead in her tracks.

Before her, under the eaves, stood a drenched Lin Ruo’an, “holding” an equally soaked young woman. Xu Fenggu stood beside them, her expression “grave.”

Matchmaker Wang’s eyes widened instantly, her gossip-fueled curiosity burning fiercely. “This… this is…”

Xu Fenggu took a deep breath, her face instantly shifting to a complex expression of “family shame shouldn’t be aired in public.”

“Sister Wang, you’ve come at just the right time… I didn’t want to make a fuss about this,” she sighed, pointing to the girl in Lin Ruo’an’s arms. “This girl is… a child bride her father arranged years ago. Her family has no one left, so she came to us with the token. The Xu family cannot be ungrateful. Since the engagement was already set, we’ve kept her at home as a… child bride.”

She said the words “child bride” so softly and quickly, yet they struck Matchmaker Wang’s ears like a thunderclap, leaving Lin Ruo’an dumbstruck.

Matchmaker Wang’s mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg. “This… this… How old is Scholar Lin? To have already arranged a child bride? This… this isn’t proper, is it?”

Xu Fenggu’s eyebrows shot up, and her feigned “difficulty” vanished instantly. Her fiery temper flared: “Rules? What rules? In our Lin family, a word spoken is a promise kept! Since the marriage is settled, we will never change it! Besides, now that Ruo’an is a Scholar, I’ll be at ease knowing someone we know and trust is taking care of him! It’s better than some stranger with an unknown background!” She shot a pointed glance at Matchmaker Wang.

Matchmaker Wang was left speechless. She stammered, “Well… that’s true. Knowing someone’s roots is better… Sister Xu, you’re so lucky to already have a daughter-in-law…” She laughed dryly and craned her neck to get another look at the girl. “This girl looks”

“She’s sick! She can’t catch a chill!” Xu Fenggu snatched an old bedsheet drying on a nearby rack and threw it over the girl’s head. “Sister Wang, do you have other business? If not, we need to call the doctor. We’re busy!”

The dismissal was utterly curt.

Matchmaker Wang, having been snubbed and still reeling from the “child bride” news, knew she wouldn’t get anything more out of this. She could only leave sullenly, glancing back as she walked—clearly planning to spread this “explosive news” throughout the entire town.

Only after Matchmaker Wang’s footsteps faded into the curtain of rain did Xu Fenggu turn around, the smile vanishing from her face.

Zhao Siniang had already brought over a quilt, and hot water was boiling on the stove.

“What are you standing there for?” Xu Fenggu commanded. “Siniang, you have a gentle touch. Help this girl change out of her wet clothes and wipe her down with hot water. Ruo’an, go change your own clothes before you fall ill too. I’m going to brew some ginger soup to ward off the cold.”

Lin Ruo’an was still reeling from her mother’s seamless performance. “Mother, a child bride… isn’t that a bit of an overstatement?”

Xu Fenggu walked toward the kitchen without looking back. “What else was I supposed to do? Let her stay here without any explanation? With Matchmaker Wang’s mouth, she’d have eighteen different versions of the story by tomorrow. A ‘child bride’ at least gives her a recognized status. It’ll shut some people up and save us a lot of trouble.”

She paused at the kitchen door and turned back, her eyes sharp. “Besides, this girl isn’t ordinary. I felt her pulse just now. She has a severe fever, but her constitution… it’s not like a commoner’s. Let’s get her awake first. Whether she stays or goes, whether this is a blessing or a curse, we’ll only know then.”

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