Becoming the Villain's Husband and Supporting the Family

Lin Xiaojiu was a national first-class chef who died in a plane crash and transmigrated into a ge'er in an unknown dynasty. The original owner of the body was spoiled by his parents, who had rescued a man named Shen Lian from a river and married him to their son. The original Lin Xiaojiu never liked Shen Lian and even found a lover, but his parents died in an accident shortly after the marriage. Shen Lian, despite being sickly and disliked, handled their funeral and continued to support the family. The original owner then drowned during a secret meeting with his lover, and Shen Lian rescued him, worsening his own health. Lin Xiaojiu took over the body after the original died from the drowning. He was gay in his past life and accepted being a ge'er, which allowed him to be openly with men. Now, he woke up to find the family penniless with only a few spoonfuls of rice left and Shen Lian bedridden with a severe fever. Lin Xiaojiu immediately took action: he cooked vegetable congee, applied cold compresses to reduce Shen Lian's fever, and planned to find a doctor. Shen Lian, however, had been reborn with memories of his entire previous life. In that life, he was a ruthless official known as the Jade-Faced Asura, who rose from a near-death experience after being attacked by his stepmother's assassins, rescued by the Lin couple, and married to their son. The original Lin Xiaojiu in that life had conspired with his lover to burn Shen Lian, scarring half his face and leaving him weak. Shen Lian later took revenge on his father and stepmother, but found the original Lin Xiaojiu dying in a brothel from a dirty illness. Shen Lian had no intention of saving him and only watched him die with unclosed eyes. Disoriented by his return, Shen Lian tested Lin Xiaojiu, noting his clear eyes and gentle care, a stark contrast to the petulant, scheming ge'er he remembered. Lin Xiaojiu pawned his mother's silver bracelets and the jade pendant Shen Lian had given him as a betrothal gift, raising fifty-five taels. He used three and a half taels for a house call and a week's worth of strong medicine, securing the doctor's assurance that Shen Lian could recover fully with proper nourishment. Lin Xiaojiu felt relieved but worried, and resolved to start a small business with the remaining money to support them and eventually redeem the pawned items. He also planned to dissolve the nominal marriage with Shen Lian once he recovered, feeling the debt of gratitude was repaid. Shen Lian, seeing Lin Xiaojiu pawn his own mother's dowry to save him, was deeply shaken. He had assumed Lin Xiaojiu would remain indifferent, but this man spent money freely on his treatment and even promised to redeem the jade pendant. Shen Lian's past skepticism began to crack; he decided to observe whether this Lin Xiaojiu had truly changed or was merely playing a new role. Lin Xiaojiu, for his part, was anxious to earn money quickly and began thinking of low-labor businesses suited to his weakened body. He had no idea that Shen Lian carried memories of a brutal future and was now watching him with guarded but evolving intentions. The story set up a second-chance dynamic: a professional transmigrator trying to rebuild a life from poverty using his modern knowledge, while a reborn strategist from a tragic timeline grapples with whether this new version of his husband is genuine or another trap. No final resolution was reached in the provided text, only the beginning of their uneasy coexistence and Lin Xiaojiu's determination to survive and redeem the past debts.