On his way to collect debts, Boss Wang of the tea shop was ambushed and killed by bandits. That very night, his fifteen-year-old only daughter, Wang Zhuangyi, put on mourning clothes and took charge of the household.
She handled the funeral, managed the estate, took over the tea shop... and took in the orphaned son of a paternal uncle who had also been killed.
Fortunately, Wang Zhuangyi was clever and capable. The tea shop, which had been on the verge of collapse, flourished in her hands and came back from the dead.
As life got better day by day, the brat she had taken in, Tao Ruizhi, inexplicably seemed to hold a grudge against her and picked fights every day.
Tao Ruizhi sulked and refused to eat. The next day, the meal meant for him went into the dog's bowl...
Tao Ruizhi angrily threw mud into the house. Wang Zhuangyi turned around and dunked him in the lotus pond...
Tao Ruizhi fought back again and again, and lost again and again. After one prank left them both worse for wear, they finally called a truce.
Although the fighting had stopped on the surface, whenever he got the chance, Tao Ruizhi still couldn't resist making snide remarks, calling her rough or mocking her for being an old maid who still wasn't married.
But one day, after all that teasing, he heard that Wang Zhuangyi was going on a blind date with a successful candidate in the imperial examinations who had returned to his hometown in Hangzhou, and Tao Ruizhi inexplicably panicked.
"You really are going to marry that old man?"
Wang Zhuangyi picked out two bolts of red silk and gave him a sidelong glance. "What nonsense are you talking about? He's an imperial examination graduate."
The sight of the red silk stung Tao Ruizhi's eyes. His blood surged, and he snapped, "I could be one too!"
Reading Guide:
1. Set in a fictional world.
2. Younger man and older woman, bickering frenemies, puppy-love romance.
Theme: Puppy love is still love
