The Hated Fake Heiress Wins Back the 1980s with Gourmet Food

[Food-focused story + beachcombing + no awful relatives + no golden finger + cozy everyday life + family drama. Everything in the plot serves the food.]

Xia Xiaoyu stays up all night reading a novel and dies suddenly. When she opens her eyes again, she’s become the same-named fake heiress in the book: a 200-jin girl who took her own life.

She can’t swim and nearly dies again, but a kind stranger rescues her and takes her home, then offers to take responsibility and marry her.

She refuses without a second thought.

After all, she still has an elderly grandmother and a young brother to support. All she wants now is to earn money for her family.

She figures she can live off the mountains and the sea. If she can catch a big haul out at sea, she’ll be able to make a fortune.

But her family has no boat, only two rakes like Zhu Bajie’s, so all she can do is dig for seafood and comb the shore to make ends meet.

Today’s menu: sea urchin steamed egg, stir-fried clams, and braised turbot. Tomorrow’s: pan-fried rock crab, marinated octopus, and oysters with garlic...

The kids next door are drooling with envy.

Xia Xiaoyu simply sets up a stall to sell seafood in savory sauce and small hot pots with porridge broth...

Business takes off, and she works so hard she loses a whole lot of weight. When she can barely keep up, she has no choice but to hire some help.

She’s just put up a hiring notice when someone tears it down the very next second.

Xia Xiaoyu: Gu Yan, what are you doing?

Gu Yan: I’m courting my future wife.