Zhong Xiaoxiao shivered uncontrollably from the cold, thinking to herself, "When I buy a house in the future, I must buy one that faces south. The heating in this north-facing house is just too bad."
"Mom, mom, it's too cold, turn on the air conditioner for me!"
After calling for a while with no response, she had no choice but to open her eyes and get out of bed. When she did, she was stunned. Where was this place? The room was pitch dark as if it were a clay house. She found herself lying on a hard kang bed, icy cold. There was a small table on the floor with two red candles burning on it. The windows seemed to be papered, adorned with red 'happiness' characters. There were no unnecessary decorations in the room.
She had clearly been sleeping at home—could this be a dream? She considered this over and over, then silently laid back down, closed her eyes, and chanted in her mind, "This must be a dream; it has to be a dream."
Xiaoxiao fell into a drowsy sleep again, yet unexpectedly, the door creaked open, and in walked a man with a clear brow and handsome eyes. He approached the kang and shook Xiaoxiao with no sense of tenderness. She was jostled to the point of a headache and slowly opened her eyes only to see a man glaring at her. "Just as the rumors say, it's bad enough you're ugly, but you're truly the epitome of laziness!" The man expressed his anger with his face. Before Xiaoxiao could regain her composure, the man spoke again, "As you wished, I married you, but don't expect me to touch you. Prepare yourself to be a widow for the rest of your life!" With that, he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
Xiaoxiao was stupefied. The man who had just left seemed to be wearing an ancient Chinese red wedding robe. Looking at the candles on the table and the 'happiness' characters on the windows, she glanced down at herself and was shocked—she was wearing a wedding dress, too. Had she joined the ranks of time travelers? Was that man some kind of time-travel bonus? A cheap husband?
"I just want to be alone, don't ask who 'alone' is. If I really did travel through time, I truly don't want to live anymore. It's alright for others to time travel, but I'm simply not cut out for this. I can't farm, can't manage household affairs, I'm not fierce, nor educated. This time travel trope really isn't for me. I'm just a modern Taobao shop owner, only good at playing with the computer, typing, selling bras and underwear—that's it. I'm an idiot! Oh God, let me die again!"
Lying in bed, Xiaoxiao felt like crying but had no tears. Still unable to digest the fact that she'd traveled through time, she thought to herself: just lie down, keep lying down, it's absolutely unbelievable! Don't think about it, don't think about it, and she drifted off to sleep again in a daze.
Outside the house, after leaving the bridal chamber, Yang Ming headed straight to his younger brother Yang Dong's room.
"Big brother, why are you here? You aren't planning to sleep here, are you? Leaving your bride alone in the room!"
"From now on, I'll be sleeping here!" With that declaration, he lay down on the kang and went to sleep.
Inside the main house
"Husband, it seems our third son went to our fourth son's room."
"Ah! Children and grandchildren will have their own luck; let's not interfere. Though that girl from the Zhong Family doesn't have the best reputation, rumors are just rumors after all, no one really knows what she's like. Let's just wait and see. You should guide her more. If it really doesn't work out, we'll let our son decide."
"Whether she's good or bad, what can we decide? Could we divorce her if we wanted? If we could decide, we wouldn't have been forced to agree to this marriage in the first place. Our third son is suffering! He might as well become a monk for life," the old lady said, wiping away tears with her hand.
"Stop thinking about it, let's take one step at a time. Life goes on."
On the other hand, Xiaoxiao was completely unaware of the situation. She was still trying hard to sleep, hoping to somehow travel back!