Back To The 80s: President's Doted Wife Chapter 3 Unappealing

Cheng Su huddled with her knees drawn up, staring vacantly into the crimson bridal chamber as the original owner's memories slowly engulfed her.

At the age of twenty-eight, Qi Taiguo had amassed notable military merits, rising to company commander in the Qing City Military District, cherished by his superiors with a future full of promise.

Cheng Su, however, sprang from peasant stock. Her Cheng family ancestors once counted as capitalists, though their prosperity faded across generations. She still viewed herself as from affluent lineage, blind to their deep decline; in this 1980s time, she was merely a rustic village lass, a complete country bumpkin.

Yes, the 1980s!

In her prior life, Cheng Su met her end rescuing another, plunging from a building, only for her soul to transmigrate into a body sharing her name—the Cheng Su, now twenty, teetering on the brink of a suicidal leap!

Cheng Su buried her face in her hands and sobbed bitterly. Was this the fate where the virtuous meet early ends?

Of all improbable twists, this one befell her. Mere chance, or the heavens' malicious prank?

The body's first owner proved a force: haughty and overbearing, teetering on outright bullying. How did such a figure end up bound in marriage to Qi Taiguo, whose path ahead gleamed so brilliantly?

This union marked Qi Taiguo's enduring disgrace. As a youth, laboring fields with his father, he shattered his leg but lacked funds for healing. Cheng Su's father, Cheng Liushan, flush from bandit captures before liberation, loaned the Qi family a hefty sum to mend it—the price being a betrothal of their offspring.

Back then, the Qi household languished in poverty, Mother Qi frail, and Cheng Su hailed from decent roots. In a moment's impulse, Father Qi consented, unaware it would haunt him forever. Year after year, the Chengs sank lower, while young Cheng Su's nature soured; convinced money had secured Qi Taiguo, her jealousy only deepened.

Across the years, Qi Taiguo rarely returned home amid army duties, but whenever he did and a woman neared him, Cheng Su unleashed chaos, cementing her image as vicious and possessive—a force not to provoke.

Even so, the Qi family couldn't dissolve the match, wary of repercussions from Qi Taiguo's military rank. Father Qi, ever honorable and image-conscious, never mulled ending the engagement.

Today stood as their fateful wedding day.

It was the moment Qi Taiguo could stall no longer, with Cheng Su's kin insistent and his ailing father, post-illness, dreading death before beholding his son's nuptials. He longed, of course, for Qi Taiguo wed and fathering heirs, shedding that burden.

Thus, buckling under crushing pressure, Qi Taiguo grudgingly claimed wedding leave, journeyed back to the village, wed Cheng Su, threw the banquet, and sealed their spousal bond.

In a stunning turn, that very wedding night, midway through their marital rites, Commander Qi got shoved from the bed. News of it would ignite village tongues, fodder for endless ridicule.

Qi Taiguo stubbed out his cigarette, shunning the bedroom. He settled on the front doorstep stone instead, eyes fixed on the night sky, ears catching Cheng Su's sporadic wails from within. Head shaking, he sighed deeply, heart heavy with grief and dread for the years ahead.

This woman shifted moods unpredictably, hard to fathom; far from captivating.

And must he simply bear it through the coming decades?

Qi Taiguo compressed his lips, face growing somber. He struck another cigarette, mulling his life to come with intense focus.