“Cough cough cough cough——”

Xu Huaiqian leaned against a wooden bed, his veins bulging without a trace of blood and flesh. He held a handkerchief in his hand, bending over and almost vomiting out his heart, liver, spleen, stomach and kidneys.

He cursed the heavens in his heart.

He just saved two drowning children on his way to the countryside to help the poor, and he traveled through time!

What if he traveled through time? Now, TV dramas and novels are full of time travel themes. Not to mention turning him into a prince, aristocrat, or a wealthy person, he would be considered fashionable if he was turned into a healthy ordinary person.

Who knew that the heavens would directly turn him into a sickly person with only one breath left!

Good people are really unrewarded.

If he was in a novel written by some damn author based on him, forcing him to travel here, he would definitely turn into a fierce ghost after he died and scare the author every day.

 While Xu Huaiqian was complaining, the old woman who had been next to him since he woke up was also talking: “Look at you, why did you jump into the river for no reason? It’s better to be someone’s son-in-law than to live half-dead now.”

“Besides, Chen Liejiu is a bit fierce, but he is handsome. There is no one more handsome than him in the surrounding villages. Besides, his family is rich. Look, when you jumped into the river, he came to save you and called a doctor. They were afraid that you would have no taste in your mouth, so they specially brought you a cup of candied fruit.”

“Goodness me, Grandma Hong has been a matchmaker for most of my life, and I have never seen a husband so considerate. Isn’t it good to be a bought husband for such a beautiful and considerate person.”

“Look at yourself again. Your parents are dead. Your grandparents and uncle’s family don’t like you. You are a sickly person, and your family doesn’t have much money. It’s not that Grandma Hong hates you and wants to abandon you. You who have no relatives, no money, and poor health, let alone marrying a wife, it is even difficult to marry a husband. Now there is a ready-made bargain, it would be a waste not to take it, right? “

“Think positively, with Chen Liejiu, you will have a husband, relatives, and support, how good it is,” said matchmaker Hong. Seeing that Xu Huaiqian stopped coughing, she hurriedly picked up the candied fruit on the table and handed it to Xu Huaiqian, “Listen to grandmother, eat some candied fruit to sweeten your mouth, and the hard days in the future will have nothing to do with you. You can enjoy happiness in the Chen family in the future. Don’t listen to those gossips outside saying that marrying in a husband is a crooked spine. “

“They really–” said the Grandmother Hong while shaking the handkerchief in her hand, with a disdainful look, “They are jealous of your good fortune!”

If Xu Huaiqian, who was coughing up blood did not have a sore throat, he really wanted to ask her, if this blessing is given to you, do you want it!

 As expected of a matchmaker, she can turn white into red, dead into alive, and any bad thing into good with her mouth.

The body that Xu Huaiqian traveled through is a farmer’s son from an imaginary dynasty. Due to premature birth, he was born with all kinds of injuries and was weak and thin.

He was unable to do farm work. In order to maintain his health and to have a way out in the future, his parents sent him to school early.

The original owner was also very hardworking. He passed the Tongsheng examination at fourteen years old. He only needed to pass the examination to be a Xiucai and change his family lintel so that his parents could live a good life.

But before the original body passed the Xiucai examination, his parents went up the mountain to chop wood and were both bitten to death by wolves.

When the original owner heard the news, he vomited blood in a state of anxiety, and he collapsed. He had no way to handle his parents’ funeral, so he could only ask his uncle’s family for help.

Thinking that his parents were his biological brothers, he would not be too foolish.

Who would have thought that just after his parents were buried, his uncle’s family used the excuse that he owed ten taels of silver for the funeral to pawn him off to Chen Liejiu, a bully from the same village, as a bought husband.

This world is different from the world that Xu Huaiqian knows. In addition to men and women, there is another gender – gers.

They look the same as men, but they can get pregnant and give birth to children just like women, but they can’t have many children. They may only be able to give birth to one child in their lifetime, or they may never be able to give birth in their lifetime. Their status is inferior to that of women.

Nowadays, men generally don’t choose gers when choosing a wife, unless they like gers, or their family is too poor to marry a wife, and they will marry a ger when they have no choice.

 This Chen Liejiu is a well-known bully in the village. He dared to go out and travel around with the escort company at the age of ten. At the age of seventeen, he returned to the village and built a house. He settled down in the village. He thought he was settled, but he didn’t expect that he would lead people to collect debts again.

As long as he came forward to collect debts, there was no debt that he couldn’t get back. He was more arrogant than men and was regarded as a bully by the villagers.

Although the original body was born in a farming family, he had a few years of education. In his expectation, he would never choose a ger as his wife, let alone let him be a bought husband to a bully.

In a rage, he jumped into the river and ended it all.

He was relieved, but left all the mess to Xu Huaiqian.

 First of all, Xu Huaiqian is not against gers. He is poisoned by all kinds of BL dramas and BL novels. In his opinion, gers are natural bottoms. This is not surprising to him who is not very straight.

What makes him resist is that he does not like arranged marriages.

Or this kind of arranged marriage under forced buying and selling.

Born in the spring breeze, raised under the red flag, and also a civil servant, Xu Huaiqian can never accept that his future partner is a bully who was born in ancient times, has pedantic thoughts, believes in imperial power, and makes a living by collecting debts.

Whenever he thinks about those brutal gang bosses on TV who go to the door to collect debts, throw paint on the debtor’s door, send wreaths to the debtor, and chop off people’s fingers as his future wife, he feels a chill in his heart.

He felt uncomfortable especially when he thought about the fact that most people in this era were hungry and cold, and they were all skinny, covered with lice, dirty, and patched up like beggars. He didn’t have mysophobia but at least had to keep clean.

So no matter how the matchmaker Hong praised the old strong wine, he remained unmoved.

As a person of the new era, he had no objection to being a bought husband, but he would not agree to be a husband to a muscular man with bad character, beard and fat face!

Besides, the idea of a bought husband was a farce of a forced marriage. How could an uncle owe a debt and ask his nephew to repay it with his body?

When the original owner’s parents were still alive, although the family was not very rich, they were not so poor that they could not even afford the funeral money, and needed to borrow ten taels of silver.

 Xu Huaiqian sorted out the original owner’s messy memory and knew that ten taels of silver was not a small amount. Some poor families could not save ten taels of silver in their lifetime, let alone organize a funeral of ten taels of silver.

This money was not borrowed by the original owner, so Xu Huaiqian would certainly not recognize it.

But the other party did not ask for the money, and it was understandable that he was detained now.

After thinking it through, Xu Huaiqian did not take the candied fruit handed over by matchmaker Hong. Instead, he wiped the blood from his lips with a handkerchief and planned in his mind how to make it clear to Chen Liejiu to let him go.

Matchmaker Hong talked for a long time, and her mouth was dry. Seeing that Xu Huaiqian was still unmoved and didn’t even bother to pay attention to her, she pursed her lips in dissatisfaction, took two candied fruits, and went out.

He deserved to be bullied for being so stubborn, and jump into the river out of anger!

Outside the house.

 Chen Liejiu, who was bright and sleek, with fair skin, thin waist, long legs, and a high ponytail, was dressed in a bright red robe. He rolled up his sleeves and stood in front of a white-bearded old man. He looked arrogant and uneasy, which made the white-bearded old man look hunched.

The matchmaker’s eyelids twitched. She didn’t know how a good ger could develop such a temper.

No wonder he couldn’t find a husband at the age of 20. A family was willing to mortgage a man to him as a son-in-law, so they took him home eagerly, provided him with good food and drink, and asked her to persuade him for fear that he would have any accidents.

After a ger turned 20, he would have a few days of estrus every year. Many gers were burned to death because they couldn’t find anyone to relieve their estrus.

It’s no wonder that Chen Liejiu was so hungry and panicked that he quickly found a man to bring back. It would be so embarrassing if he died during estrus. 

Thinking of this, matchmaker Hong looked at Chen Liejiu with both sympathy and gloating. It was indeed better not to be too different from the others. Otherwise, no matter how good-looking or rich he was, he would still be a loser.

Chen Liejiu didn’t know what matchmaker Hong was thinking. He was concentrating on listening to Doctor Sun’s words.

The old man with white beard, Doctor Sun, stroked his beard and said slowly: “The pulse is as weak as clouds, which is due to congenital deficiency. The pulse is as deep as water, and the cold air enters the body. Excessive worry and thinking make the qi and blood weak, and the six internal organs are all injured…”

He spoke and shook his head. Chen Liejiu frowned when he heard it and interrupted him directly: “Speak human language.”

Doctor Sun, who was talking enthusiastically, was suddenly interrupted. He looked up at Chen Liejiu unhappily. Chen Liejiu’s bright and untouchable face gave him a look: “——Hmm?”

Doctor Sun put his hand to his lips and coughed, changing his tone: “He was born with a disease. He fell into the water recently and was overly worried. All the accumulated disease in his body was stimulated. If he wants to live, he can only be raised in wealth and luxury in the future. He can’t be stimulated by anything else.”

Doctor Sun almost said it directly, prepare for the funeral, there is no cure, but Chen Liejiu said again: “What do you mean you can only be raised in wealth and luxury?”

Doctor Sun’s beard was a little crooked with anger: “Ginseng and bird’s nest. Give him whatever is expensive and take good care of him!” It’s not in vain to live in this world even if he dies.

After hearing this, matchmaker Hong felt nervous. It would take a lot of money to provide ginseng and bird’s nests. Only a very rich family could afford this disease.

Matchmaker Hong shook her head. Chen Liejiu had traveled all over the country with the escort agency in the early years. He had also helped people collect debts in recent years. He had indeed saved some money and looked richer than the villagers.

But he was only richer. After all, he had a younger brother and a younger sister to support. In the past few years, he also gained a younger sister-in-law. Now there was Xu Huaiqian who he couldn’t afford to support even if he emptied his family’s savings. Not to mention whether he was willing or not, his younger brother and sister would not agree.

Sure enough, as soon as Doctor Sun finished speaking, Chen Xiaomei, who had been standing behind Chen Liejiu and eavesdropping, frowned unhappily with resistance written all over her round face.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier? You stuttered and said something that people couldn’t understand.” After hearing this, Chen Liejiu relaxed his brows and paid Doctor Sun.

 Doctor Sun’s hand trembled as he took the money. He wanted to argue with him, but Chen Liejiu had already turned his head to one side and asked matchmaker Hong: “Did you persuade him?”

Dr. Sun left angrily, and matchmaker Hong put away her grumbling in her heart and replied to Chen Liejiu: “He didn’t try to commit suicide again, but…”

“What is it?”

Matchmaker Hong said with a stiff face: “I think he is still not willing to be your husband.”

Although Xu Huaiqian didn’t say anything, and even ignored her, matchmaker Hong’s feeling after observing people for so many years was not wrong.

Originally, before his parents died, although his health was not good, he was still a serious scholar. Ordinary families that were slightly better were unwilling to marry a ger, let alone a scholar becoming a gers’ bought husband.

 When Chen Xiaomei behind Chen Liejiu heard that Xu Huaiqian was still unwilling, she waved her fist with a puffed face. She wanted to tell her brother, if he didn’t want to, then forget it.

There are many two-legged men in the world, there is no need to hang onto this man. If it really doesn’t work, they can save some money and find a young waiter. (T/N: I wrote waiter but it’s not towards a prostitute.)

After hearing this, Chen Liejiu nodded lightly and waved away matchmaker Hong: “Okay, you can go back.”

As for whether to release the person, he didn’t say, and matchmaker Hong didn’t dare to ask.

Her duty was to help Chen Liejiu persuade the person to stay, and she couldn’t control the rest.

As soon as matchmaker Hong left, Chen Xiaomei came up to her brother and asked nervously: “Brother, you don’t really want to keep that sickly person, right?”

It’s unlucky to keep him, we can’t afford it.

 Chen Liejiu’s face was no longer as ferocious as it was in front of outsiders. He glanced at the tightly closed door, shook his head, and said ambiguously: “Let’s wait and see.”

He was not sure either.

Chen Xiaomei tilted her head: “What does it mean, let’s wait and see?”

Chen Liejiu did not answer her again. His robe swayed and he walked out of the fenced yard.

When Chen Xiaomei came to her senses, Chen Liejiu was almost at the end of the road in front of the door. She shouted: “Brother, where are you going?”

“I’m going out to do something. Please take care of him.”