Lin Wan turned thirty and lost her job.
When the company's layoff list came out, she'd just finished working through the night. Before she could even get her severance pay in hand, her ex-boyfriend started complaining that she had no future. Her landlord was demanding rent, her mother was pressing her to get married, and the balance in her bank account reminded her that an adult's dignity was often just a matter of holding on by a thread.
With nowhere else to turn, Lin Wan dug out the snack recipes she'd been researching in her spare time, pushed a secondhand food cart to the night market, and started selling. She thought the stall would be a temporary way to make ends meet. But from choosing what to sell and setting prices to calling out to customers, winning repeat business, building a reputation, and securing a spot, she gradually rediscovered what she was truly good at.
From an unemployed woman others looked down on to the most popular stall owner in the night market; from spending her nights hunched over a pot to owning her own shop, team, and signature dishes, Lin Wan finally understood that turning thirty wasn't the start of being left behind by life. It was the starting point of a comeback she would make with her own hands.
This time, she wouldn't rely on anyone to save her or wait for anyone to take pity on her. She would turn her wretched circumstances into a warm, thriving life through her own efforts.
