[Ancient-era famine, farming and business, adorable children growing up, bonds with adoptive parents, building wealth through business, false and true imperial heirs, court intrigue, young general, childhood sweethearts, duty to family and country, ensemble cast finding redemption.]
In the third year of a great drought, four-year-old Manman was pushed into an icy river by her own grandmother, who wanted the family’s last half-bowl of porridge saved for her precious grandson.
Everyone said she wouldn’t survive the night, but she opened her eyes in the arms of a poor old farmer, a handful of tender green seedlings clenched in her palm.
At death’s door, Manman awakened a secret plot of spirit farmland.
Its spring water could save withered seedlings and transform wasteland, while crops planted there matured faster.
She guarded her secret, claiming only that she could find water and identify good land. She helped her adoptive parents gather wild greens, clear fields, and cook food to sell for copper coins.
When the barren hills grew heavy with wheat, the grandmother who had once abandoned her came with the clan, intent on stealing both the harvest and their “little lucky star.”
Manman threw her arms around her adoptive mother. “I don’t have a grandma. I only have my family!”
Then she made those awful relatives lose every last coin and tumble into the mud.
But on the day the county office sent a plaque praising her for bringing blessings to the region, a carriage from the capital stopped at the village entrance.
The person inside held half of the jade lock Manman had worn at birth...
