[Farming and business + making a fortune with food + hidden identity + fake relationship turns real + political schemes and revenge]
After transmigrating as an orphan whose parents are dead, Su Wan says, “I’m not afraid. I’ve got brains and two hands, so I can still make a beautiful life for myself.”
Her uncle and aunt seize her ancestral home and land, then try to marry her off to a good-for-nothing so they can take her property?
Su Wan sneers, finds their weak spots, gets them to sign an agreement, and reclaims her inheritance in public. Her wicked relatives slink away in disgrace.
The villagers gossip that she and the man living under her roof aren’t proper?
The cousin she picked up herself steps forward and announces, “She and I have been engaged for a long time.”
Once the fake engagement is in place, the rumors fall apart, and her wicked relatives’ plans come to nothing.
From then on, Su Wan focuses on building her business.
She makes compost and raises seedlings, stores produce in a cellar, makes ice with saltpeter, and uses chinaberry to kill pests. While everyone else depends on the weather, she uses her knowledge to get rich.
Her mushroom paste fills the air with its aroma as soon as the jar is opened. Her crispy fried cicada nymphs are in such demand that she can’t keep up. Her handmade soap cleans well and leaves a lovely scent. She crossbreeds three-colored corn to develop a sweet, chewy new variety, grows bamboo fungus known as the “queen of mushrooms,” and grinds sweet potatoes into starch to make sweet potato sheets that sell out every winter...
From a stall at the village entrance to a shop in the capital, the name “Zhuxi Workshop” becomes part of everyday life throughout the Great Jing Dynasty.
It’s just that the man who’s supposedly her fiancé is becoming harder and harder to read.
He’s a dab hand at chopping wood and hunting, knows more about picking horses and driving carriages than the horse traders, and can even quote laws and military strategy at will.
Then assassins attack at night. Covered in blood, he steps in front of her and draws his long sword, his voice cold as ice:
“Whoever dares lay a finger on her will answer to me.”
Only then does Su Wan learn that the man she casually picked up is a noble heir whose entire family was executed, and who has been living under an assumed name.
