[Historical business-building + childhood sweethearts + unrequited love + bickering couple + sweet romance]
When Su He was eighteen, she was told she had to marry Lu Yanchuan, the boy from the neighboring village she'd argued with since childhood.
She refused on the spot, and Lu Yanchuan coolly said that suited him just fine.
So their families handed the pair a long-abandoned plot of farmland, giving them from spring planting to autumn harvest to decide the marriage for themselves, based on how well they could cultivate it.
Su He only wanted to win the bet and get out of the engagement. But after selling wild greens in town for the first time and watching three hundred copper coins spill onto the table, she suddenly realized...
The wedding could wait, but making money couldn't!
Fresh duck eggs weren't worth much, so she cured them into rich, oily salted eggs. Lotus root wouldn't sell for a good price, so she ground it into lotus root starch and packaged it as a gift set. From thirty mu of barren farmland to workshops, shops, and supply contracts with three villages, Su He started calculating the cost of everything she saw. Whenever she made money, she wanted to expand the business further.
But there was always one cold-faced fiancé getting in her way as she tried to make her fortune.
When she needed water, he built an irrigation canal. When she landed a big order, he calculated the costs. When she stared a little too long at a handsome young gentleman from the prefectural city, he showed up the next day in a new outfit and paraded past her six times.
Later, Su He had fields and shops, as well as the confidence to depend on no one.
Lu Yanchuan placed the account room keys in her hand. “Shopkeeper Su, now that you have everything, are you still missing a lifelong bookkeeper?”
Su He clicked her abacus. “What would the salary be?”
“No salary.”
“Then what do you want?”
“You.”
