“There’s no place for girls to study.” The person who spoke was Wang Shijing who came out from the kitchen. Shao Yunan’s mouth twitched. He had forgotten about it. The little girl who he called ‘Xiao Ni’ shrank shyly into her brother’s arms.

Wang Shijing sat down on the small bench and said, “The water will take a while to boil. Take some eggs and cook them if you are hungry. I will go to the county tomorrow and do some shopping.”

“Let’s go together.” Shao Yunan looked at the two children dressed in patched rags. “I haven’t been there yet.” The two children looked at their father expectantly, but with some caution, making Shao Yunan quite puzzled. Making him wonder if Wang Shijing was not a competent father. Wang Shijing nodded, “Let’s go together. We will have to get up early tomorrow.”

“All right.”

Wang Ni grabbed her brother’s hand with unconcealed joy on her face. Wang Qing pursed his lips, but there was also unconcealed happiness in his eyes. The two children looked like they were abused. Shao Yunan skimmed his mouth at Wang Shijing, got up and went into the house. He hasn’t seen what his dowry has yet. The ‘dowry’ of grass!

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Shao Yunan was a typical rich and handsome man. His parents are both only children. Perhaps because of it, they would rather be fined than have only one child. Shao Yunan also has a brother and a sister, and his grandparents of both sides were also living with them. It could be said that he was extremely favored at home. Father Shao started his own business early, while mother Shao was a fashion designer. By the time Shao Yunan was born, the living conditions of the Shao family could be regarded as rich.

Shao Yunan grew up with the love and affection of his grandparents, brother, and sister. After graduating from high school, he was sent by his family to study abroad and came back after four years. Thanks to his childhood hobby, he then opened his own tea house, wineries, and restaurants thanks to his friends’ investment, so his life was quite unrestrained. The Shao family’s only concern for him was his sexuality. Shao Yunan was born a gay or a pure zero. If not for the fact that he lacked feminine flavor, father and mother Shao might have cried themselves to death.

Shao Yunan has never been short of money since he was a child and he could also make money himself. He had no pressure to inherit the family business and his elder brother and sister were not interested in his small business. His elder sister also spoiled him while married to a tycoon husband. Shao Yunan thought he was quite rich, but in his sister’s eyes, he was just a poor man that needed to be given ‘subsidies.’ His elder brother and sister always competed in making money and his sister would often buy this or that before sending it to him. He himself was also able to earn money, so it resulted in his philosophy of life that money should be earned to make life more enjoyable.

Noble or vulgar, as long as Shao Yunan thought he would enjoy it he would go and try it. He would go to stay in a seven-star hotel or carry a big bag on his back as he hiked in the mountains. His attitude towards life became even more unscrupulous after his eldest brother and sister got married and had a baby one after another. After that, since the Shao family could not ‘cure’ his aptitude, they let him do whatever he wanted.

Living recklessly until the age of 26, Shao Yunan did not expect that his life would have such a big turnaround. He was just going to buy a bottle of water when he ran into a firefight in the street. He didn’t know who had the guts to use a gun on the street, but the bullet hit a wall and bounced back, right into Shao Yunan’s body.

Shao Yunan died, but was now alive again. Now he is an ancient man who had the same name thousands of years ago. Even their appearance was similar. The only thing was, that he shrank from the height of 180 cm to less than 170. His age also changed from 26 to 16, but it was not bad. The problem was that he was married… married to a man.

The State of Yan, was not the same State of Yan Shao Yunan learned about in history books, so he understood it could be another dimension with a different version of the history of a Chinese dynasty. In this State of Yan, men could not only marry women, but also men. The difference was that women had a higher chance of conceiving than men and women could give birth more often than men. Many men who choose to marry other men could not have children in their lifetime. Even if they were able to, they would have at most two children in their lifetime. But even such men were a very small minority and the vast majority could only conceive one child. Therefore, although both men and women could marry, most people still preferred to marry a woman.

In this life, Shao Yunan was the second son of the Shao family, with an older brother Shao Dahu and a younger sister Shao Zhen. The Wang family’s side had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son was Wang Shijing, the second son Wang Tianyan, the third child was a daughter, called Wang Chunxiu, and the youngest child, Wang Zhisong, had just turned fifteen. There was a difference of two years between Wang Shijing and Wang Tianyan. Wang Shijing was 26 years old this year and was ten years older than Shao Yunan here, the same age as Shao Yunan from modern times. It could be said that old lady Wang was very capable of giving birth. Wang Chunxiu was seventeen this year and was not yet engaged, but old lady Wang decided to choose one carefully. Now that Wang Zhisong was on the road to becoming a scholar, although Wang Chunxiu was a bit older, her bride price also rose.

The story goes that when Wang Zhisong was thirteen years old, he got a strange disease and the family spent a lot of money to heal him, but nothing worked. Later, old lady Wang found a witch doctor from nowhere and the other side said that Wang Zhisong was suffering from an evil disease and they needed to find a person with the same birth date as his for marriage to get rid of evil spirits. Old lady Wang was eager to save her child. Not to mention that he was the most promising son of the Wang family, so she asked around for someone with the same birth date as Wang Zhisong. Looking around she found the Shao family. Shaojia Village was not too far from Wangjia Village, so when she learned that Shao Yunan, the second son of the Shao family, had the same characters as Wang Zhisong, old lady Wang came to their door.

The Shao family refused at first. Although a man could marry a man, it was still not as good as marrying a woman. Besides, Shao Yunan was still young and the Shao family’s situation was not worse than the Wang family’s. Old lady Wang gritted her teeth and asked the Shao family to make an offer for Wang Zhisong’s betrothal. Old lady Shao stated 50 taels of silver. Old lady Wang at that time had already spent a large amount of silver for Wang Zhisong’s medical treatment. She also sold five mu of land and gathered more money from the clan before she finally made the engagement with Shao Yunan. Oddly enough, Wang Zhisong gradually got better after his engagement to Shao Yunan. After a year of rest and recuperation at home, Wang Zhisong was completely cured. But by this time, old lady Wang started to have problems with the marriage. Her son was going to be a scholar in the future, how could he marry a man from a farming family? Not to mention that the other side was a year older than her son?  Of course, there was also no lack of hatred for old lady Shao who took advantage of the fire.

Old lady Wang didn’t like it, but old lady Shao was also not easy to mess with. Coupled with the whole Shaojia village, old lady Wang didn’t dare to do anything about it. But when Wang Zhisong was formally admitted as a student and stepped into the door of examination, old lady Wang could not quieten the discontent in her heart any longer. She did not like this marriage! No one knows who gave old lady Wang the idea that Shao Yunan’s eight characters were false. The Shao family’s head Shao Min had taken his wife and children outside for work for seven or eight years and when he returned Shao Yunan was already five years old. Shao Dahu and Shao Yunan’s sister Shao Zhen were born in Shao family village, but not Shao Yunan. Old lady Wang concentrated on this point and said that the Shao family cheated the eight characters, because no one could prove that Shao Yunan was born at that time.

Wang Zhisong also rejected the marriage in his heart. He and Shao Yunan were just engaged. He didn’t even see the other person, so when his mother said that she wanted to withdraw from the marriage, he immediately agreed. Old lady Wang wanted to withdraw from the marriage but old lady Shao didn’t agree. Wang Zhisong grew up smart and since he was five years old he attended a private school. The teacher from the private school said that he was intelligent and would be able to gain fame in the future. Everyone thought that Wang Zhisong may be able to become a scholar in the future, so how could such a good marriage be withdrawn.

The Shao family didn’t agree and neither did Shaojia Village. If you wanted to marry the people in their village you could, but if you wanted to withdraw, how can their village girl or boy get married later? It was simply too humiliating. The patriarch of the Shao family and a group of Shaojia villagers followed old lady Shao and Shao Dahu to the Wang family house. Old lady Wang accused the Shao family of cheating on the eight characters, but the Shao family could not come up with the household registration certificate issued by the county government when Shao Yunan was born. Without the civil registration certificate, there was no birth certificate stamped by the government at the time of birth, similar to the modern birth certificate.

Neither side would give in, so when the both side were at an impasse, Shao Yunan tried to commit suicide by jumping into the river. This time human life was involved, so old lady Wang became scared. The good thing was that he was saved and the patriarchs on both sides came forward. Finally both sides reached an agreement that Shao Yunan would still marry into the Wang family. Not to Wang Zhisong, but to Shijing, the eldest son of the Wang family. Wang Shijing had two children, but his wife had run away with another man. This was the first marriage for Shao Yunan, so old lady Shao proposed that if Shao Yunan married him, that son should be in charge of the family. Accordingly, the Shao family would prepare a generous dowry.

Old lady Wang had her own ideas. When someone gets married, can he take charge of the family just by saying so? The same goes for the married son, as well as the married daughter. When the time comes, the family would have more labor force, not to mention a rich dowry so she agreed. The dowry was private property and even the husband couldn’t take it, let alone the mother-in-law. But old lady Wang didn’t care. If you married into the Wang family, you became part of the Wang family. So there was no private property, only public property. Old lady Wang had met Shao Yunan several times and did not believe that she could not hold down that soft-tempered man.

Old lady Wang agreed, but did not ask her son Wang Shijing for his opinion. Wang Shijing immediately said he would not marry. No matter how much old lady Wang scolded him, he didn’t change his opinion. It would be the second marriage for Wang Shijing, so there was no matchmaker’s words from his parents. If he didn’t want to marry, no one could force him to. Because of this, old lady Wang tried to force him in all kinds of ways. Finally, Wang Shijing agreed on the condition that he could separate from the family. As long as he could separate, he would marry. No matter how old lady Wang called her son unfilial, heartless, and so on, Wang Shijing made up his mind to marry only if he can separate from the Wang family.

Edited by: Jaisland

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