Ancient Times, New Careers: I Skim Profits in the Back Hills

Food blogger Lin Wan opened her eyes to find herself the unlucky daughter of the Lin family. Family fortune? None. Anyone to rely on? Not a chance. What could she do? Five mouths to feed, and not a grain of rice in the pot.

How could she survive? By putting her skills to use, of course! Her grounding in traditional Chinese medicine hadn't gone to waste. She grabbed a hoe and headed straight for the hills behind the village. What others saw as a slope overgrown with weeds, she saw as a gold mine! She dug up medicinal herbs and earned her first string of copper coins, then started gathering those inconspicuous wild Sichuan peppercorns and local chilies. Spices were expensive? She'd harvest her own riches from the hills!

Pig offal? Even restaurants thought it was too filthy to take for free? Lin Wan's eyes lit up. What a treasure! Combined with the spices she'd gathered, a pot of bubbling red oil and heady, numbing fragrance produced a fearsome new delicacy. She started by supplying a restaurant to test the waters. The owner slurped duck neck and slapped the table: "That's got a kick! Bring more tomorrow!"

The spicy braising business took off, and the whole family moved to the capital. Her eldest brother Lin Yan, a Hanlin Academy scholar, nearly choked after one taste of his little sister's cooking. "Wan... are you trying to make money or take lives?" The noble Lord Xiao's face turned red from the heat. "Miss Lin, does your family... also run a gunpowder shop?" Her second brother's comrades from the army sneaked over to buy some. "Xiao, your sister's braising sauce... goes down with three bowls of rice!"

Soon came the jealous ones, along with those who complained about the strong smell. Lin Wan weighed the clink of coins in her purse and glanced at the untouched treasure trove on the hills behind the village. Her spatula clanged against the pot: turn offal into gold, harvest riches from spices, and Lin Wan would carve out her place in the capital's food business! Anyone who wanted to cut off her livelihood could ask the spicy braise bubbling in her pot if it agreed!