1. The Lin family has never split up, and three generations live under one roof.
Fourteen people from one big family are crammed into five narrow rooms beside the outer city gate.
Lin Er and his wife are both around thirty, and they've added another mouth to feed.
Having a son in one's later years should be a happy occasion.
Unfortunately, it's a little girl, and she's a night-cryer who wails every night.
Her crying keeps the whole family awake.
Her grandparents, uncles, and aunts can't sleep because of her.
Old Madam Lin says with drooping eyelids that they should ask Daoist Ma to come have a look.
Two taels of lamp oil and ten copper coins later, Daoist Ma tells the Lin family they need to split up.
A mud wall goes up in the cramped courtyard.
Lin Er's family gets only one room and half of a long, narrow passageway.
Counting the night-cryer in her mother's arms, five people are penned together like chicks in a coop.
But at least,
the family has finally split up.
2. Lin Zhijing is born into this world, but forgets to drink Granny Meng's soup.
An adult soul is crammed into a child's body.
She cries from infancy onward, and is sickly too.
Luckily, in this life she has both parents, and her family gets along.
“Wailing Baby! How come you get malt candy again?” Lin Er, the second son, drools as he gazes at the amber-colored candy in his little sister's hand.
Lin Zhijing, a tiny bundle, sighs helplessly. She cracks the malt candy into three pieces.
One goes to her second brother, who is watching her with hungry eyes. One she saves for her eldest brother, who works at the oil workshop with their father.
She eats the last piece herself. She's craving it too!
Lin Zhijing stands up and compares her height with the persimmon tree in the yard.
Hmm, by the end of this winter, she'll be four feet tall.
Then she'll be able to reach the family stove!
In her previous life, she was at least a food blogger with a million followers.
Cold noodles, rice noodles, fermented goose feet; meat pies, stuffed dumplings, soft lamb noodles...
She knows the flavors of both north and south.
She refuses to believe
that she can't make a place for herself in Bianjing, ahem, the outer city!
Shen Sui is a notorious loafer in Saltwater Alley. He drifts around without parents until he's sixteen or seventeen.
Fortunately, he has an uncle by marriage who works as a clerk.
So the loafer puts on a black uniform and pins on an official badge,
becoming a patrolman at the tax office, responsible for collecting commercial taxes.
When stallholders and small merchants see him,
the smiles on their faces are painfully forced.
Shen Sui understands.
After all, he's there to take money out of their pockets.
When they see him, who doesn't smile to his face and curse him under their breath?
Until one day,
he meets the young Lin family's daughter, selling food in the West Ward's entertainment district.
She greets him with a bright smile. “Young Master Shen, on duty today? Let me treat you to some vegetarian bamboo-shoot buns?”
Note:
1. The customs and setting are inspired by the Song Dynasty, but the story is entirely fictional.
2. A self-reliant, resilient, and optimistic older sister x a laid-back but obedient younger brother (older woman-younger man romance).
3. A warm, everyday story of life among ordinary folk, following two little people's struggle to make their way. No court politics or powerful nobles.
Coming soon: From a Household Servant to the Great Zhou Dynasty's First Female Official
Jiang Shuyi had just celebrated her twenty-ninth birthday. In the time it took to blow out a candle,
she became a hereditary servant in the Earl of Yongning's household in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The masters of the Earl of Yongning's household can be ranked first, second, and third.
The hereditary servants can be ranked in all sorts of ways, too.
Unfortunately, the family she'd entered
was exactly the sort that had failed to secure a powerful patron, and that anyone could bully.
A mother who died young, a father who gambles, a brother who drinks himself senseless, and her own shattered life.
When she arrived,
her gambling father was preparing to send her off to bring good luck to the dying son of the carriage-house manager.
Should she kill herself? Maybe she'd wake up back where she came from.
Jiang Shuyi looked at her gambling father, whose face said he had every right to treat her like an object to be disposed of.
Suddenly, she thought the road to the underworld might be a little lonely.
She'd better take a few people along as company.
The eldest daughter of the Earl of Yongning's household has been blessed with extraordinary luck.
Ambitious, she wants to become the most exalted woman in the world: the Empress Dowager!
Jiang Shuyi shakes her head and says softly, “My lady, the most exalted woman in the world is the empress...”
Notes:
1. Inspired by the story of Shangguan Wan'er judging poems from a raised pavilion and weighing the worthies of the realm.
2. The heroine has a substantial career arc; the male lead is mostly in the background. There is a golden finger.
3. This is a fictional world modeled on the Tang Dynasty, with many invented details. Please don't overanalyze the history.
Theme: Good food, every season, and living well.
Didn't his father entrust the family property to his aunt along with him? Is the tea cool when people leave?
Ah? Why has there been such a big change? I remember that his family was in a good financial situation. Could it be that all his family property has been cheated?
Obviously, Chef Zhao lost power because her opponent had penetrated all the joints, including the palace servants around her, and this palace servant was quite capable.
If Mrs. Huang can't break up with her mother's family, the two of them won't be able to live together for long.
I really can't stand it when I see this. The male protagonist has good intentions, but he is treated coldly and hurt by the whole family, including the female protagonist. The male protagonist can't take charge of the house matter, but now he sincerely wants to help the female protagonist, but he still hates and refuses to listen to the male protagonist's words clearly. Anyone with a bit of intelligence will know to focus on the big things and let go of the small ones. This section is too frustrating. (I'm not talking about the mother of a baby boy)
The heroine's family is sick and a child can't make the decision. Why blame him? This chapter makes me really hate the heroine's eldest brother. The heroine is also very annoying. Everyone knows that he can't be the leader. He is also a child and yet he is so cruel. I blindly guessed that this is the male protagonist. I abandoned the article. I hate the heroine's family. Why are you pretending to be soft to the real evil people and so powerful to a good kid who relies on the heroine's family? It's really disgusting and rubbish.
The Cheng family is greedy for money, and my uncle and aunt are unreliable.
Isn't it difficult? It's fine if their natal family doesn't recognize them. Don't talk about filial piety in ancient times. There were many unfilial people in ancient times. What's more, who can say anything about those natal families? In my opinion, if you treat evil people rationally and get entangled with them, then they are no different from evil people.
One is really a child, and the other has become mature 😂
My aunt and uncle are bad guys.