Chapter 2 – Master

As soon as the word ‘wife’ comes out, the man’s entire body freezes as he stops and stares blankly at Shen Yanbei. He had suspicions in his head as he looked down, only to find the other person was staring straight at him with a burning gaze.

Those gaze are not one of disgust or loathing. Rather, it was full of joy. For a split second, the man thought he was hallucinating.

A few days prior, the man was taken by traffickers and brought to the foot of the mountain. Afterwards, he was sold to the Shen family. 

It is said that the Shen family was originally a wealthy household. However, with the withering number of males in the family and also bad management, it was thoroughly in its decline by Shen Yan’s father’s generation. 

When it rains, it pours.

Shen Yan’s parents unexpectedly died and left Shen Yan as the only child of the Shen family. 

Shen Yan is a scholar, so he didn’t understand the basics of life’s necessities. It was hard for him to overcome the days and became depressed. Later, he was infected with a common cold and actually fell gravely ill. 

As one of the very few individuals that has become a Xiùcai¹ in the village, nevertheless, the people from the village were relatively concerned with Shen Yan. An uncle from Shen Yan’s family proposed an idea to Shen Yan; let Shen Yan take a wife as a chōngxǐ. But Shen Yan was left with only four walls for a home.

^{(1. xiù cai- a person who has passed the county level imperial exam (historical); scholar; skillful writer; fine talent.)}

Added to it, he was also gravely ill and looked like he’s dying. Therefore, absolutely none of the family was willing to let him marry their daughter or shuāng’er. It just so happens that traffickers brought people over to sell and Shen Yan thought of buying one. 

Shen Yan can’t afford the good-looking ones and dislikes the cheap ones because they are too repulsive to look at. After some careful consideration, Shen Yan decided to buy a tall and strong man. 

As a shuāng’er, the appearance unexpectedly looks like a man that it attracts disgust. Moreover, the clearly shown pregnant mole is dull and it indicates that he can’t bear children easily. However, his body is very strong and it is easy to see that he’s capable of enduring hard work. 

At present, this is exactly what Shen Yan needs. A person that is strong and can work to take care of him. As for beautiful or ugly, so long as the lamp was extinguished, wasn’t it all the same?

Wait for him to pass the Provincial Exam and became a Jǔrén²! Regardless of sweet, cute and delicately pretty or a frail beauty or shuāng’er, they will all voluntarily come to visit! As for this ugly and shameful shuāng’er, just give him some work and a bowl of food to live! 

^{(2. jǔ rén- a successful candidate in the imperial provincial examination. This is what other people will call a person that managed to get first place in the exam. )}

Shen Yan calculated this very well and cheerfully dug out the money. Then, he led the man home. 

There is no correct etiquette to follow when getting married. Just a piece of red veil, two red candles and the both of them paying respect to each other and the parent’s memorial tablet. That is considered as finishing the rite of marriage. 

After the rite of marriage is completed, they have to enter the bridal chamber but Shen Yan’s illness simply gets in the way of human affairs and he is unable to continue. After he bought the man, worship heaven and earth and each other³, the torment was too much that it made him lie down from exhaustion.

^{(3. bài táng- ritual kneeling to heaven and earth by bride and groom in an old-fashioned wedding ceremony; same as 拜天地 – worship heaven and earth, like what you saw in dramas.)}

Shen Yan was sick for the past few days and was looked after by the man. Clothing, eating and feeding medicine, not a single thing was not satisfactory. Shen Yan nevertheless are not fond of this very hard and wooden-faced shuāng’er. 

Shen Yan orders him about, let the man eat his cold leftovers. There’s not even a bed for the man to lie down and he lets the man sleep on rice straw in the woodshed… 

Now, this ‘wife’ truly scares the man. Normally, Shen Yan would call him ‘ugly person’⁴ whenever he called him around. 

^{(4. chǒu bā guài – ugly person. Now you can call people you hate with this hahahaha.)}

‘Does the illness make him muddled and confused?’

The man panicked in his heart and still holding Shen Yanbei, he quickly said, “Master, don’t be afraid. We will go find a physician right away!”

Although Master treats him badly, they have already worshipped (married). After the worship, Master is his husband and it is for a lifetime!

“No, no, I’m fine!” He is very fine that he can sing a whole song, where is it useful to find a physician?!

“You⁵ need not be anxious to spend money to visit the physician. I can go to the dock, carry more bags of goods and earn money to bring home,” the man comforted him. 

^{(5. nín – this is a formal ‘you’ in Mandarin. Meaning our ML is respectful to our MC.)}

‘What? Going to the dock to carry more bags of goods?’

Shen Yanbei hastily checks up the original owner’s memories and promptly scolds the original owner in his heart. Turns out, it took a large sum of money to buy a man and the original owner was extremely distressed. He told the man bluntly to quickly earn back the money or he would be sold to a low-grade flower house⁶!

^{(6. T/N: Low-grade brothel is the worst! I read that all types of low class people like thieves, rapists, murderers and all kinds went there.)}

How absurd! 

Shen Yanbei huffed, “Who let you go to the dock to work?”

‘He let his newly wed wife go work as a coolie⁷, but he was lying down at home and waiting for food? Is this tè me⁸ still a man?’

^{(7. kǔ lì- bitter work; hard toil; (loanword) coolie, unskilled Chinese labourer in colonial times)}

^{(8. TM – Shortformed and derived from Japanese tè me, which means ‘bitch’ or ‘asshole’.)}

The man’s footsteps paused from when he moved forward and his expression turned gloomy for a moment. 

Master indeed didn’t agree to him working at the dock. After all, the people that work there are mostly men. He’s a shuāng’er and mixing with the men will make his reputation bad. But he had a burly physique. He can neither do embroidery nor weave cloth. How can he provide what Master wants, then?

Shen Yanbei just realised that the tone he used a moment ago was extremely easy to misunderstand when he sees the man’s taciturn attitude. There’s desolation on his face. He barely thought of an explanation when he heard the man speak.

“Sorry⁹, Master. I will not go again in the future,” Since he can’t go to the dock to carry goods, he’s forced to enter the mountain and see if it’s possible for him to go hunt anything. 

^{(9. bào qiàn- to be sorry; to feel apologetic; sorry!. This is sorry in its highest form. Just like 感謝 (gǎn xiè) was for thanks. More formal, you see?)}

Although the injury on his body is still not healed, as long as he doesn’t encounter a ferocious beast, he’ll be unimpeded.

Shen Yanbei felt like a part of his heart was somewhat sore and the other somewhat glad. 

‘Why is my wife so obedient? I had indeed picked up a huge treasure!’

“Let me down,” Shen Yanbei looked him in the eye as he spoke. For a man, being picked up, in a princess carry, nevertheless, is straight up embarrassing. 

The man hesitates to put him down but still complies with Shen Yanbei’s words. He’s anxious that Shen Yanbei can’t stand properly so he places Shen Yanbei next to him. 

His body still felt somewhat weak, so Shen Yanbei leaned against the man next to him. But like this, he is fully surrounded by the man’s musk and simply can’t speak properly. He had no choice but to bear the pain and move back a few steps and leave the encirclement of musk and masculinity.

Shen Yanbei raised his head to face the man and speak to him properly. But lo and behold! Shen Yanbei’s heart was once again shaken.

He was aware that the man looked quite tall when he carried him for a period of time, but taking a closer look now, the man was at least 1.8 metre in height. 

The person’s muscles are sexy and full of strength, wide shoulders and narrow waist. This stature could be called a good one! The most important point is……

Shen Yanbei’s gaze dropped to the man’s outstandingly plump behind and his slender and strong leg and felt heat coming from his nose. 

“Master!” The man turns pale with fright.

“Don’t panic. I’m fine.” Shen Yanbei covered his nose shamefully. There’s an incomparable disdain in his heart towards himself. 

‘Shen Yanbei, you little chicken! You just saw him and you can’t stand it already. Then, when the time comes, how can you pull your gun, huh?!’

Shen Yanbei’s hands were covered in blood and the man couldn’t find anything to help him wipe it off. So, he directly uses his hand to help wipe the blood on Shen Yanbei’s hand on his own clothes. 

Seeing the bright-coloured liquids on the man’s plain and coarse cotton clothing, Shen Yanbei can only stare blankly.

After he had transmigrated and changed body, both of his ears are no longer deaf and he didn’t expect that even his blood-phobia was gone!

Seeing Shen Yanbei once again staring blankly at him, the man was anxious and it became more important to carry Shen Yanbei and go to find a physician. 

“I am the Master, listen to me!” Shen Yanbei said.

The man’s movement went rigid and he lowered his head, melancholy, and responded with a low, “Yes.”

Shen Yanbei’s brows gently knitted in confusion. Where did he speak wrong? What’s with this man’s expression?

^{(T/N: Edited as of 4th of Feb ’24) (and edited again as of 29th May ’24)}

~honeybee_bun

chapter 1

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chapter 3

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