Chasing Jade

[Original Title: “The Madame and the Butcher Knife”]

After her parents passed away, her childhood sweetheart broke off their engagement, and greedy relatives sought to claim her family’s inheritance. To protect her five-year-old sister, Fan Changyu decided to take in a husband by marriage.

She set her sights on a man she had rescued—his body covered in wounds, possessing nothing of value, except for a handsome face. The two quickly struck a deal: she would take him in while he recovered, and in return, he would pretend to marry her to help protect the family estate.

Once the family business was secure, Fan Changyu, as promised, prepared to write the divorce papers. But just as she was about to do so, the court called for soldiers to fight in the war, and the man was conscripted as a foot soldier, disappearing without a trace.

When she saw him again, he was covered in blood, lying in the injured soldiers’ tent. His face, still strikingly handsome despite the bloodstains, while his soldier’s uniform was slashed to tatters. Seeing how hard his life in the military had been, Fan Changyu’s eyes filled with tears. “Stop serving in the army, come home. I’ll raise pigs to support you.”

The man squinted weakly, coughing up blood, “But you wanted to divorce me…”

Fan Changyu, eyes brimming with tears, replied, “I don’t want to anymore, I won’t!”

*

[Side Story]

The Marquis of Wu’an, Xie Zheng, became famous at a young age, earning military accolades. By his twenties, he had been granted a marquisate through his war merits, unmatched in the entire Dayin Dynasty. His methods of military governance were notoriously strict and brutal.

Lately, however, the soldiers had noticed something odd about their marquis.

He no longer stayed in his command tent but instead squeezed into the small, shabby tent of the injured soldiers. He had sustained a wound that normally would have healed in two or three days, but this time, after ten days or more, he still hadn’t recovered.

After visiting him, the camp’s know-it-all strategist clicked his tongue and remarked, “When someone is constantly being cared for and fed medicine while lying in bed, it’s no wonder the injury heals so slowly!”

That was until the Marquis’s wife—whom none of them had ever met—fearful that her ailing “live-in husband” might die on the battlefield, secretly donned his ragged soldier’s uniform and went off to fight in his place. Only then did their “gravely injured” marquis suddenly jump out of bed, shocked, don his armor, and rush to lead his troops in pursuit.

The setting sun was blood-red, and the cries of geese filled the sky. Fan Changyu, holding a butcher’s knife, chopped off the enemy general’s head and glanced into the distance at the friendly forces raising a cloud of dust as they charged toward her.

She squinted her eyes. Pulling a nearby soldier over, she asked, “That general up front, wearing the Kirin-shouldered armor and leading on horseback—why does he look a bit like my husband?”

The soldier: “… Is it possible that he is your husband?”

*

Naive but fierce Little Sunshine (Female Lead) vs. “That woman is so crude” to “Why doesn’t that woman like me?” Marquis Xie (Male Lead)