Siheyuan: The Barefoot Doctor’s Rise Through the Ranks

[Lighthearted comedy + a laid-back trader of goods + family life + career in government + multiple heroines]

The pacing isn't that fast, and there aren't that many fights or much bloodshed. It's a feel-good story, so don't read it if that's not your thing.

Courtyard stories may all sound alike, but their golden fingers are anything but:

Li Laifu opens a small shop selling odds and ends, a real brick-and-mortar store. After he sells a buyer a calligraphy brush, the buyer's wife storms over to beat him up. She mistakenly thinks Li Laifu sold her husband something other than a brush, thanks to a dirty pun.

Li Laifu swears up and down that it really was a brush. Then a huge bolt of lightning splits the sky and strikes him, sending him to Courtyard No. 95 on Nanluoguxiang. He was an orphan raised on meals provided by the neighbors, but now he has a fierce yet loving mother, an older sister who's married and somewhat inclined to favor her husband's family, a younger brother who's a glutton and a poor student, and a whole extended family in the countryside, including his grandparents and bachelor third uncle.

Life is tough, but luckily his little shop comes with him, and he can sell goods from the 1960s in 2025. And what's more, he can even sell services...

So what are we waiting for?

How much does a bottle of 1959 vintage go for?

What should Jia Zhangshi write in her listing to attract buyers? Would anyone want to buy a bicycle for a thousand, pickup only?