[1980s + wicked stepmother + personal space + military marriage + raising kids + getting rich + face-slapping + strong female lead and entrepreneurship]
The moment Jiang Wantang opens her eyes, she’s become the wicked stepmother everyone in the 1980s loves to hate.
Three children orphaned by fallen heroes are so hungry they’re gaunt. Xiao Ci is unconscious with a raging fever, Tuantuan hides potato peels in their arms, and Xingye stands guard at the door with a kitchen knife. Her cold-faced military officer husband, Lu Haichuan, comes home with a notice summoning him to a meeting with the organization. The whole village is waiting to see her thrown out of the Lu family.
But Jiang Wantang isn’t the muddleheaded woman who owned this body before her.
She opens her personal space and saves Xiao Ci with a drop of spirit spring water and half a fever pill. Then she gets the three starving children to eat again with a bowl of savory sauce over rice.
Her awful aunt-in-law tries to steal the grain ration book? She brings out the accounts on the spot.
The village chief pockets their subsidy? She lays the ledger with its missing pages right on the table.
A fake sweet and virtuous woman wants to take her place as the children’s stepmother? Jiang Wantang tears off her mask.
Others laugh that running a business is beneath a soldier’s family? She starts with a street stall, then a little shop, consignment sales, and trade fairs, step by step turning Tangji Savory Sauce into a household brand across the region.
At first, Lu Haichuan suspects her of abusing the children. But then he sees with his own eyes the three kids eating their fill for the first time, dressing warmly for the first time, and daring to call her Mom for the first time.
She doesn’t coast to victory on the strength of her personal space.
With a hot meal, clear books, and a group of people willing to move forward with her, she brings warmth back to a family that had grown cold.
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A very wonderful period piece with rich characters.
The plot is exquisite and exciting, and the sense of survival is extremely well written. It has a sense of the times and is not a brainless piece of writing!