Liu Xiaonuan, the second daughter of the third branch of the Liu family, was eleven years old. On her eighth day in the body of a worthless girl, she had already figured it out: farming couldn't save this family. They needed to go into business.
Grandma called her a worthless girl at every turn, yet turned around and piled all the eggs into her bowl. When her aunt stole the white flour and framed her older sister, Xiaonuan made her aunt show everyone the ash on the soles of her shoes. The whole family treated her parents like oxen and horses, making them do all the work. Xiaonuan counted it all out on her fingers: to split from the family, they first had to earn enough money.
She turned lotus roots nobody in the village wanted into lotus root starch, and washed out starch from kudzu roots nobody recognized on the hillside. Later, there would be tofu, dried tofu, tofu skin, and livestock raising: chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep. Every venture brought in money. The earnings wouldn't go into the family coffers, and her father was her only ally. Her mother's background concealed a connection to an official's family, while her younger uncle was waiting to freeload off her father.
From carrying baskets to the market in town, to opening a shop in the county seat, and then taking their business into military provisions and supplies.
The whole village of the Liu family waited to laugh at this worthless girl. She had only one answer: So what if I'm a farm girl? I'll become the first wealthy head of a household that everyone knows!
