Chapter 23: The Heartless Scholar Who Abandoned His Wife and Child (1)

To Xie Hui’s surprise, the Supreme God did not stingily withhold the storyline of this world until after the mission was completed.

As soon as he arrived, the plot appeared in his mind.

The original storyline of this world followed a modern woman who transmigrated into an ancient world. The moment she opened her eyes, she received a divorce letter from her husband.

She had painstakingly taken care of the entire family and given birth to a child for her husband, yet she was heartlessly cast aside just because she exchanged a few jealous words with a love rival.

By chance, she discovered a medical book. Since she had been a surgeon in the modern world, she studied diligently according to the book and became a renowned doctor.

Later, she cured an illness plaguing a prince of the imperial family. When the prince ascended the throne, she entered the palace as his concubine despite being a remarried woman. After the empress passed away from illness, she became the second empress.

Although the emperor chose to overlook her past, her ex-husband, Xie Mo, faced inevitable ostracization in the political world. Eventually, someone seeking to curry favor with the empress pushed him off a cliff, leading to his death.

The perpetrator was merely punished with a two-month salary deduction. The empress sent a single incense paper for his soul, and the world praised her as kind and virtuous.

This time, Xie Hui’s mission target was precisely that heartless scholar who had abandoned his wife after passing the imperial examination.

However, while the plot dictated this course of events, the past in the original host’s memories was entirely different from the narrative.

It was true that the woman had suffered in Xie’s household—her hands were as rough as an old woman’s, which, in the original plot, was evidence of her revealing her ex-husband’s callousness.

However… that woman had originally been nothing more than a slave bought from a human trafficker.

The original host’s father had died early, leaving his mother alone to raise him and his younger brother.

Even biological children could be subject to favoritism, let alone the fact that the original host and his younger brother were half-siblings.

When the original host earned some money, he noticed his aging mother struggling with household chores and decided to buy a maid to help.

The maid, Qi Niang, was the daughter of a criminal who had been executed, and her female relatives had been reduced to slavery. The original host bought her simply because she was cheap.

When Xie Mo passed the county-level imperial exam and got drunk while celebrating with his peers, who would have thought that this slave would climb into his bed and become intimate with him?

At the time, the original host’s mother was gravely ill. Fearing that her sons wouldn’t care for each other after her death, she expressed her dying wish: for her grandson, Xie Mo, to settle down and start a family.

She repeatedly claimed that Qi Niang had served her for years, was honest and dependable, and that she felt reassured entrusting her grandson’s future to her.

In reality, the elderly woman believed that because Qi Niang had fallen into icy water as a child, she would struggle to bear children.

Even if Xie Mo had a bright future ahead, no noble family would accept a former slave as his wife.

No matter how outstanding Xie Mo was in the imperial examinations, he would ultimately be paving the way for her younger son’s future.

In this era, it wasn’t unheard of for someone to marry a courtesan as their official wife, but no one had ever taken a slave as a legitimate spouse.

Slaves could be bought for a few taels of silver. Masters could transfer, beat, or even kill them at will—who in their right mind would take one as a wife?

Yet, bound by filial duty and pressured by his father and the elders of his clan, Xie Mo had no choice but to marry Qi Niang after completing the mourning period for his grandmother.

Thus, the youngest county-level scholar of Songqi County, full of promise, had his wings clipped by a slave wife.

At first, Xie Mo simply thought he had made a mistake in a drunken stupor. Though he suffered ridicule for marrying a slave, he never blamed Qi Niang for it.

Xie Mo originally had feelings for his teacher’s daughter, and his teacher had intended to betroth her to him. But upon learning that Xie Mo had married without consulting him, the teacher was so furious that he disowned him, declaring that all the years of education he had given him were wasted on a dog.

Severing ties completely would have been fine, but Qi Niang, after marrying Xie Mo, deliberately sought out the teacher’s daughter to flaunt her status. In a moment of carelessness, she even pushed the frail girl into the freezing winter lake.

That same night, the teacher’s daughter, who had always been weak, developed a high fever and lost her life.

During an argument, Qi Niang accidentally admitted that she had climbed into Xie Mo’s bed on purpose. Enraged, Xie Mo immediately wrote a divorce letter.

The original host, instead of supporting his son’s decision, was furious that Xie Mo had gone against his mother’s dying wish. He beat Xie Mo harshly.

Despite this, Xie Mo remained firm and refused to compromise. In the end, he left Songqi County alone, disheartened, and immersed himself in his studies elsewhere.

When he later passed the highest-level imperial examination and became the top scholar, the emperor, upon learning he was still unmarried, decided to grant him a princess in marriage, as part of an initiative to support scholars from humble backgrounds.

Meanwhile, the transmigrated female lead was fixated on her belief that she had toiled for the family for decades, only to be abandoned over a minor dispute with a love rival. To her, Xie Mo was the epitome of a heartless, unfaithful husband.

In the Great Qing Dynasty, slaves had an extremely low status. They were usually the families of convicted officials; those guilty of crimes themselves were either executed, exiled, or forced into labor camps under government control.

In rural areas, slaves were often treated no better than livestock, sometimes even sleeping in pigsties.

The Great Qing Dynasty was in a period of reconstruction, and after suffering under the excesses of the previous corrupt officials, the common people despised them deeply. As a result, they also harbored great resentment toward the families of those disgraced officials who had become slaves.

After marrying Qi Niang, Xie Mo not only endured ridicule from his peers but was also ostracized by the villagers, who believed he was trying to align himself with the corrupt aristocracy.

The original host was a thoroughly foolishly filial man. He obeyed his stepmother unquestioningly and even forced his own son to endure the same hardships, making him toil for his stepmother and half-brother like a beast of burden.

Xie Mo’s academic achievements were entirely his own doing. His exceptional talent allowed him to study without paying tuition, and he occasionally copied books for extra income. Only because of this did his grandmother reluctantly allow him to continue his studies.

The original host died one winter after his son left. While out gathering firewood to keep his younger brother warm, he fell and broke his leg. His younger brother not only refused to hire a doctor for him but also took all the savings he had accumulated.

In the end, the original host starved to death.

After death, his soul did not reincarnate but instead continued to “exist” as a spirit.

He watched helplessly as the younger brother he had always loved cursed him for bringing bad luck upon seeing his corpse.

Meanwhile, the son he had always thought was not obedient enough, Xie Mo, returned from the capital to collect his remains, performed the funeral rites, and erected a tombstone for him.

Even later, when Xie Mo was forced into a desperate situation by Qi Niang and could barely survive in officialdom, he still returned every year on the original host’s death anniversary to pay respects and burn paper offerings.

The days after death as a spirit were dull and lifeless. Many memories that should have faded resurfaced in the original host’s mind.

He recalled Xie Mo as a well-behaved and sensible child, wiping sweat off his brow and helping with chores at just four years old.

From the moment he slapped Xie Mo for drinking a sip of porridge meant for his grandmother, the child had never been close to him again.

The opportunity to change things came because, in his past life, the original host had been a renowned physician who had saved countless lives, accumulating great merit.

As for why he chose to have Xie Hui complete the mission instead of reincarnating himself, the original host explained:

He was certain that even if he were reborn, he would still submit to his mother’s will and remain soft-hearted toward his younger brother.

He was barely literate and had spent his life working the fields—no rebirth would make him any smarter.

Thus, he was willing to exchange all the merit he had accumulated in his past life to turn back time and give his son a good father.

Inside the system space, an elderly man dressed in coarse cloth sat on a bench and said,

“In this life, I don’t ask for Mo’er to achieve great success—only that he may live a peaceful and happy life.”

Xie Hui gave a quiet “hmm” in response, agreeing to the request. Soon after, the system’s notification sounded:

【Host, today happens to be the day the mission target celebrates passing the provincial exam with his classmates. Just an incense stick’s time ago, he returned to his room and was about to sleep.】

That meant the household slave, Qi Niang, was about to commit that act tonight.

Xie Hui quickly put on his shoes, pulled open the door, and strode outside. As he reached the courtyard, he saw that the candle in Xie Mo’s room had already been extinguished.

Rushing to his son’s room, he kicked the door open. Inside, Qi Niang was sitting on the bedside step, having already removed her outer robe.

Startled by the sudden intrusion, Qi Niang hesitated for a moment before regaining her senses and lunging toward Xie Mo, who was lying on the bed.

Xie Hui, his face cold, walked over to the table, poured some cold water from the teapot into a teacup, and carried it to the bedside. Without hesitation, he splashed it onto Xie Mo.

The shock of the cold water made Xie Mo open his eyes. He was momentarily stunned when he saw Qi Niang close to him. Then, noticing his father standing in the room with a grim expression, a sense of panic rose instinctively.

“Father, I…”

Qi Niang also realized what had happened and immediately burst into tears. But before she could cry out, Xie Hui kicked her, knocking her unconscious.

Xie Hui felt no sympathy for Qi Niang. Her father had embezzled funds meant for building dams, leading to a flood that drowned countless people. If Qi Niang deserved pity, what about those innocent victims?

“I just stepped out for a drink of water and saw her sneaking into your room. Didn’t you say you were only attending a gathering with your classmates and wouldn’t drink too much?”

Xie Mo rarely heard his father speak so much to him. For a moment, he even felt a little overwhelmed. After a long pause, he lowered his head, much like when he was a child, and admitted his mistake.

“I got carried away and had a few extra drinks…”

Worried that his father would be displeased, he hurriedly added,

“Father, I didn’t spend any money recklessly—it was my classmates who treated me, celebrating my success in the exam.”

Having read the original story, Xie Hui looked at his “new son” and noticed the flush on his face—he was probably not just drunk.

According to the original plot, this was when Xie Mo’s mentor asked if he was interested in his daughter.

The mentor had never hidden his favoritism toward Xie Mo and even considered making him his son-in-law and final disciple. His classmates had likely guessed as much, and it was common to joke about drinking an early wedding toast at such gatherings.

Seeing his father remain silent, Xie Mo grew even more uneasy, his face betraying his anxiety.

Before he could explain further, his father spoke first.

“Oh? So it was only to celebrate your success in the exam?”

“You and Miss Li have absolutely nothing to do with each other?”