The chipped clay bowl on the stove was still steaming. Qiusui’er gazed up at the thatched roof that let in the wind, then touched her little brother Tiedan’s dry, scraggly braid. A modern accountant had become the youngest daughter of a farming family in ancient times. Ten people were crammed into three leaky rooms, but the roasted chestnuts in Grandma’s pocket were always warm, and Grandpa always saved the juiciest leg from the pheasant he brought home.
“Uncle! These wild berries are worth twenty coins with honey!” Sui’er ran around the mountain holding up muddy fruit. Her cousin Chunxing’s bamboo basket had carried both candied hawthorn and live fish, while her brother’s old schoolbag had become a hot item at the academy. The third time Young Master Qi, in his indigo robe, “happened to be passing by” and brought river mud to enrich their fields, Sui’er narrowed her eyes at the calluses on his fingertips. What kind of merchant could carry a shoulder pole more steadily than a sword?
From walnuts to brown-sugar frosting, their drafty thatched hut became a sugar workshop with blue-brick walls. Grandma’s pickle jar attracted stray cats, her cousin’s abacus drove away the roosters, and her little sister toddled after the sugar jars. Then, one day, red silk covered the threshing ground. Sui’er held up a piece of crystal-clear rock sugar and smiled. “The heir’s carriage has carried sugar scraps and duck eggs. Is it going to carry a bride now?”
Qi Zhao plucked a bit of sugar from her hair. Behind the ten carriages loaded with the prince’s betrothal gifts came twenty carts fragrant with sugar. Tiedan scattered wedding candy and shouted through the village, “The sugar my sister makes is even sweeter than the prince’s!”
[Story highlights]
★ A heartwarming farming story without toxic relatives, featuring the whole family rolling up their sleeves to make money
★ The heir’s pursuit of his wife: from hauling mud to delivering cotton, his secret identity was exposed ages ago
★ Practical, hard-core techniques: save fuel with bamboo tubes, plant rice in tung-oil pants, and teach an unruly kid to use an abacus
★ Foodie moments: candied hawthorn so hot it burns your mouth, chili sauce that makes kids cry, and a tofu beauty who raises a picky eater
The Kindergarten Director Keeps Finding Kids at Night
My Hades King Dad: The Little Prince Has Gotten into Trouble Again
A Snowy Night Pact: Raising Sacred Beasts on the Frontier
The Su Men Reverse Scale: Sevenfold Crown
Working Hard to Earn Merit at the Manor Today Too
The Beloved Little Tigress: Luoluo’s Everyday Life in the Valley