The Whole Family Takes a Supermarket Through the Famine Years

When Su Wanwan woke up, her whole family had transmigrated.

Not into some household power struggle, but straight into a remote ancient town on the brink of three consecutive years of drought and total crop failure. Worse still, this was only the beginning. Over the next five years, droughts, locust plagues, scorching heat, extreme cold, and floods would take turns pushing the age toward a true apocalypse.

The good news: all twenty-two members of the family were there, not a single one missing.

Even better news: Su Wanwan discovered she could open a small, ten-square-meter supermarket stocked with modern supplies: seeds, farm tools, medicine, salt, and a little food.

The not-so-good news: the supplies were limited and couldn't be replenished. They had to conserve the diesel generator, ration the rice and flour, and remember that a single packet of cold medicine might mean the difference between life and death.

But the Su family refused to leave their fate to chance.

Grandpa, a veteran, said, “So what if it’s the apocalypse? As long as we’re together, anywhere can be home.”

Her eldest cousin, who studied agriculture, said, “Give me a plot of land, and I’ll fill a granary for the whole family.”

Her second aunt, a shrewd planner, said, “We’ll make what food we have last. Plan it right, and no one will starve.”

And so, in this ancient world beset by one disaster after another, the Su family embarked on a long struggle with modern knowledge and ancient land...

When three years of drought turned into five years of calamity, and the whole dynasty teetered on the brink of collapse, the crops in the Su family’s little valley still grew lush and green through the drought, and warm fires burned on the bitterly cold nights.

This is a story about “family”: growing food in the apocalypse, with a focus on listening to advice, standing together, and surviving.