The Overachieving Little Husband of the Top Scholar’s Household - Chapter 1: Transmigration

A dilapidated thatched cottage.

The walls were plastered with mud, the ground was uneven, and the window was half-broken.

A young man of seventeen or eighteen lay on the kang, his face pale. He had delicate features, a small crimson mole between his brows, and his eyes were tightly shut—his breath faint, barely coming in but not going out.

By the kang, a boy and a girl were sobbing.

“Brother Hua, Jiujiu was wrong. Jiujiu will never eat candy again. Please wake up.”

“Brother Hua, Eldest Brother will be back in half a month. You must hold on!”

…

Qiu Huanian was woken up by the crying beside his ears. When he opened his eyes, this was the miserable scene of destitution that he saw.

What was going on? Wasn’t he filming materials in the mountains on a rainy day when he stepped into thin air and fell off a cliff? His last memory was of the world spinning around him and the sensation of plummeting toward death…

Qiu Huanian tried moving his body, and a searing pain shot through the back of his head. At the same time, unfamiliar memories flooded into his mind, as if billions of megabytes of information were suddenly implanted into his brain.

Enduring the pain, Qiu Huanian worked hard to make sense of it all.

After falling off the cliff, his soul had come to another world, reincarnating in the body of a seventeen-year-old youth who was also named Qiu Huanian and bore a seven-to-eight-tenths resemblance to him.

This world was currently in the Yu Dynasty, a dynasty Qiu Huanian had never heard of before. However, from the original owner’s memories, he judged that the Yu Dynasty’s society and technological development were roughly equivalent to that of the late Ming Dynasty, except that its resources were more abundant and its social customs more open.

The original owner lived in a small village in the northeast region. His mother had died when he was young, and his father had never cared for him. During a famine years ago, he had been exchanged for two dou of sorghum and became the child bridegroom of a family in Du Village.

Yes, a child bridegroom. Upon receiving this memory, Qiu Huanian almost grimaced.

In this world, besides male and female genders, there was a third gender commonly known as “ge’er.” They appeared similar to males but, like females, could conceive and bear children. They also had a small red “mole” between their brows.

The number of ge’ers was not large, but they were an undeniable part of society. After thousands of years, their existence had long been integrated into everyday life. In rural areas, it was common for a ge’er to be married as a husband.

Qiu Huanian had now transmigrated into a ge’er.

The family that had exchanged two dou of sorghum for him was not well-off either. In the early years, they had some surplus and sent their eldest son to study. However, after the family’s patriarch, Du Baoyan, died while performing corvée labor, everything fell apart.

Du Baoyan left behind three children. The eldest son was Qiu Huanian’s nominal husband, a so-called prodigy who had been taken to the capital to study under a great scholar nine years ago. The original owner had never even met him.

The youngest daughter was nine years old, and the posthumous youngest son was six. Both were too young to support themselves. Now, they were crying beside Qiu Huanian’s kang.

Their mother, Widow Li, had been a capable woman, but after her husband died, she fell into depression, and her health deteriorated day by day. Two months ago, she passed away.

The original owner had lived a life of hunger and cold in his birth family, never knowing a day of comfort. But after coming to the Du family, he had found warmth and truly regarded Widow Li as his mother and the two children as his own siblings. He had endured all hardship without a word of complaint. Unfortunately…

Qiu Huanian quickly sorted through the key points of his inherited memories and attempted to sit up. When the two children saw him awake, their faces lit up with joy.

“Brother Hua! You’re awake!”

“Brother Hua!”

Qiu Huanian tried to smile at them but accidentally pulled at the wound on the back of his head, contorting his face into a bizarre grimace. The commotion inside was loud enough that people outside noticed, and immediately, discordant voices drifted in.

“I told you it wasn’t a big deal. See? He woke up! The village chief went out of his way to call so many people over. If you ask me, he’s a grown man—how could one fall take his life?”

“Baoquan’s wife, say less!”

“Tch—It was clearly their Jiujiu who stole my Fubao’s candy. He’s a grown man helping to bully a child. Fubao just pushed him, and he fell. village chief, even if you’re biased, you can’t twist the truth!”

“Exactly! We all know you’re hoping for their eldest son to pass the imperial exam and become an official. But the messengers already said that his teacher was imprisoned, and he had to leave the capital. He probably won’t even be able to take the exam. What future does he have?”

“I don’t think Hua ge’er is that kind of person…”

“When people go mad from poverty, who knows what they’ll do? Their eldest son has never come back. Hua ge’er is still young. Who’s to say if he can remain faithful…”

…

The people outside were shouting without a care that those inside could hear them. Their words stabbed into the thatched cottage like knives, mixing with the dim sunlight that fell upon the three children, who depended on each other to survive.

“Brother Hua…” Jiujiu’s lips trembled, and her eyes filled with tears.

Qiu Huanian patted the little girl’s head and said in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid.”

With that, he tried moving his body again. Perhaps because his soul was entirely new, the pain seemed to subside the more he exerted himself. At the very least, he no longer felt so dizzy that he couldn’t stand.

Good, Qiu Huanian thought.

He grabbed a one-and-a-half-foot-long hatchet from the corner of the room, kicked open the door, and charged outside.

Gripping the hatchet with both hands, he swung it down with a loud crack against a wooden stake in the yard.

The impact sent a sharp pain through his palms, but Qiu Huanian suppressed the urge to shake his hands and instead swept his cold gaze across the stunned onlookers.

“Hua ge’er, what are you doing?” Qiu Huanian had always been known for his silent and docile nature. No one had ever seen him act so fiercely before.

Now, with a different soul inside, Qiu Huanian let out a cold chuckle and spoke in a calm, icy voice. “Some people think they can bully orphans and widowed children, plotting against us for profit. If I don’t make it clear that I’m not to be trifled with, I might just die in silence, and no one would even notice.”

The woman who had spoken first grew anxious. “What nonsense are you talking about? You—”

Qiu Huanian turned to the woman, who was nearly fifty years old. She was the wife of Du Baoquan, known by her maiden name, Zhao. In the past, she had always been at odds with the original owner’s mother-in-law, Widow Li.

“Aunt Zhao, your son Fubao ambushed my Jiujiu at the village entrance and bullied her. When I tried to fix her hair, he shoved me into the ditch. Instead of apologizing, you’re here twisting the facts? Isn’t that a bit inappropriate?”

He threw her exact words back at her.

The villagers in the courtyard had different expressions. Compared to the always honest and reserved Qiu Huanian and Jiujiu, it was much more likely that Baoquan’s spoiled and unruly son, Fubao, was the one who did this.

Previously, when Qiu Huanian fainted, Jiujiu had cried uncontrollably beside her brother. Everyone had only heard Fubao’s side of the story, so they had somewhat believed it.

Madam Zhao was in a bit of a panic. At the time, she had been sleeping on the heated brick bed at home when Fubao ran back, crying to her. She had immediately believed her youngest son’s words and, full of aggression, stormed over to Widow Li’s house—someone she had never gotten along with—to demand justice.

Now that she had calmed down and thought about it, there were indeed inconsistencies in Fubao’s words.

But so what? Widow Li was already dead. Could her three half-grown children still stir up any trouble?

With that thought, Madam Zhao became even more fearless. “Hua-ge’er, you’re still young and don’t understand things, yet you speak such nonsense. Just lower your head and admit your mistake, then boil a few eggs for Fubao to calm his nerves. Auntie will take it as your repentance.”

Qiu Huanian sneered, “I call you Aunt, and you really think you’re someone important?”

“You—”

“Hua-ge’er, you must not speak to your elders like this.” The village chief, leaning on a cane, frowned and spoke up.

Qiu Huanian turned his gaze to the village chief, his expression restraining somewhat as he spoke sincerely, “Village chief, it’s not that I disrespect my elders, but if those in a position of seniority act dishonorably, and we keep retreating for the sake of peace, it will only lead to greater trouble.”

Seeing the village chief’s expression shift slightly, he added meaningfully, “Our Du family village has dozens of households. If everyone behaved this way—harming others and then falsely accusing them to gain benefits—the village would be in utter chaos before long.”

The village chief gave Qiu Huanian a deep look. Because of Du Dalang, who was studying outside, he had always taken special care of this family, but his attention had only been on Dalang.

Now it seemed he had misjudged. This little husband, raised in the household since childhood, was no simple character either.

“Go bring Fubao here.”

“Village chief—” Madam Zhao panicked. Fubao was her dearest child, born to her in her old age, pampered beyond reason. He had already gone to bed after being frightened.

The village chief tapped his cane and ignored her. Two villagers obediently went to fetch Fubao from Baoquan’s house. In a rural clan society, the village chief’s authority was immense.

Compared to the pale and skinny Jiujiu, Fubao, who was about the same age, was nearly twice her size, his arms thick like lotus roots. His plump little face drooped with saliva stains.

Madam Zhao called out “my dear heart” and rushed over to hug Fubao in her arms.

Qiu Huanian looked at the child who had caused the original owner’s death, a faint smile on his lips. “Fubao, why did you push me into the ditch from behind?”

Fubao was nine years old this year—no longer at an age where he knew nothing. His eyes darted around as he said, “It was because you and Jiujiu were trying to steal my candy! I only pushed you a little, and you lost your balance and fell in yourself!”

“Yes, yes, Fubao is right.” Madam Zhao wiped the corners of her son’s mouth.

“Oh? Then where is the candy?”

“It got dirty, so I threw it away on the road.”

Qiu Huanian said half-jokingly, “What a pity. Candy can only be bought in town, right? Your mother wants me to compensate you, but even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to buy any right now.”

Hearing this, Fubao immediately exposed Qiu Huanian’s supposed lie. “Your family still has some! You have more than ten pieces left!”

Qiu Huanian’s smile deepened. “Fubao, you said Jiujiu stole your candy, so why do you know exactly how many pieces of candy my family has? Also, the candy sold in town is malt candy wrapped around little wooden sticks. Where did this ‘pieces of candy’ come from?”

Fubao had intended to show how clever he was by picking out flaws in Qiu Huanian’s words, but instead, he had fallen into a verbal trap. He suddenly stammered and couldn’t speak.

At that moment, Jiujiu also stepped out of the house. Qiu Huanian gave her a gentle look, reassuring her that she had nothing to fear. Encouraged, Jiujiu mustered up her courage and walked into the courtyard.

“It…it was the person delivering a letter for Big Brother who gave us the candy. It was wrapped in paper, in pieces. Fubao snatched my candy by the river and pulled my braid. Hua-ge’er drove him away, then squatted down to help me redo my hair. But then Fubao suddenly, suddenly pushed Hua-ge’er from behind!”

Jiujiu was timid and introverted. The surrounding crowd made her face flush red, and she nearly lost her words several times. But Qiu Huanian’s calm and confident smile gave her immense courage, and in the end, she managed to tell the story with relative clarity.

The youngest brother, Chunsheng, ran into the house and grabbed a few pieces of candy from a basket on top of the cupboard. He ran back to the courtyard and opened his palm, glaring fiercely at Fubao.

“It’s these! Wrapped in oiled paper, with peanuts inside. We still have our good candy. Why would my sister steal your malt candy covered in your saliva?”

Seeing the candy in Chunsheng’s hand, combined with the statements from Jiujiu, Qiu Huanian, and Fubao, the villagers finally understood what had really happened.

Madam Zhao still wanted to argue, but Qiu Huanian directly asked her, “I’m a seventeen-year-old adult. If I had been on guard, do you think Fubao alone could have pushed me into the ditch?”

As he spoke, he pulled a chopping knife from the wooden stake and waved it in front of Madam Zhao and Fubao, scaring them stiff.

Ge’ers were physically weaker than normal men, but they were still stronger than children and elderly women.

“This matter is settled.” The village chief struck the ground heavily with his cane. “Baoquan’s wife, send Hua-ge’er nine eggs to nourish him, and discipline Fubao well. A child left unchecked will bring disaster!”

Madam Zhao looked unwilling, but she didn’t dare oppose the village chief’s authority.

However, Qiu Huanian did not intend to end things here. This incident had led to the original owner’s death—it had to be properly accounted for.

“Fubao, we had no past grudges. Why did you ambush me and push me into the ditch? How can a child be so cruel and malicious?”

Fubao struggled in Madam Zhao’s arms and shouted, “Stop pretending! I pushed you because you’re a vixen! If it weren’t for you, Second Brother, he—”

“Slap!” Madam Zhao suddenly smacked her youngest son and covered his mouth. “Fubao was frightened and is speaking nonsense. I’ll take him back to sleep first.”

Qiu Huanian memorized this newly revealed clue in his heart. He knew now wasn’t the time to dig deeper, but he wouldn’t let them leave so easily either.

He held the chopping knife horizontally in front of the anxious Madam Zhao, speaking slowly, “Nine eggs will do as an apology to Jiujiu, but I was injured so badly—I won’t recover in ten days or half a month. Aunt, shouldn’t you at least kill a chicken to help me regain my strength?”

Madam Zhao wanted to curse Qiu Huanian, saying he was clearly lively and energetic, yet had the audacity to ask for a chicken. But Fubao was still fussing in her arms, and she was desperate to leave. The village chief wouldn’t help her, so she could only reluctantly agree, “Fine, let me go back first. I’ll send it to you later.”

Qiu Huanian smiled, leaving no room for retreat. “village chief, could I trouble you to send someone to accompany Aunt home to retrieve the items? I’m afraid she might get busy and forget.”

The village chief looked at the chaotic scene in the courtyard and sighed. “Baoshan’s wife, go with Baoquan’s wife.”