My Paper Effigy Shop Connects Past and Present, and I Command the Wind and Rain for a General

[Past and present connected + infrastructure and stockpiling for wealth + sweet romance, devoted couple + paper effigy art]

After inheriting the paper effigy shop her grandfather left behind, Sang Ning discovered that the nameless deity enshrined in its altar could actually speak.

On the other side was the earnest prayer of a general.

Born into a turbulent age, he had been driven by the imperial court to become an outlaw. Now, besieged in his mountain stronghold, he had little food or water and no strength to resist the imperial army. He begged the deity for mercy.

Sang Ning pondered for a moment, then boldly made a paper dragon and burned it as an offering.

The paper dragon landed in the ancient world and instantly came to life. With a mighty roar, it shot into the sky. Dark clouds gathered, and blessed rain fell upon the earth!

The general offered gold, silver, and jade in gratitude.

Sang Ning's eyes lit up at the pile of genuine antiques, and she threw herself into making paper effigies with even greater enthusiasm.

And so...

While other paper effigy shops made traditional items like lanterns, cranes, mountains of gold and silver, pavilions, and towers,

Sang Ning was laboriously folding rice, flour, cooking oil, firearms, and even cars and airplanes.

From then on, the general was invincible on the battlefield, while Sang Ning escaped the fate of being forced by her father into an arranged marriage and rose to become the richest person around.

She thought that once the general returned victorious, their connection would end, and they would each go their own way in peace.

But one day, the general's shy, nervous voice echoed through the altar: “M-My lady, could you fold one of yourself and send her to me?”

Sang Ning: “?”

What a greedy general, never satisfied.