Blurb:
Xie Miao has no home.
She is twenty-eight, an orphan and a former office drone. After saving for years, she buys a dilapidated old house deep in the Misty Mountains, planning to open a little shop selling wild mushrooms and honey and slowly pay off her debts.
But after midnight, the back door leads to another world.
There are fleeing demons, people who have lost their homeland, and mothers clutching their babies, willing to trade anything for a box of fever medicine. And then there is a taciturn general from another realm, covered in wounds and scales.
Wen Zhao once had a city. Now he has nothing. Xie Miao has nothing either, but she gives him a lamp, a bowl of hot food, and a promise: “Once you step into my shop, you’re a guest.”
Before long, wolf cubs are racing around upstairs, a bewitching ghost has taken over her mirror, a female physician is amazed by antibiotics, and Old Scholar Tree refuses to budge from the backyard. The drafty old shop gradually becomes a home for everyone.
But little by little, she discovers that every person she saves weakens the seal between the two worlds. And the previous gatekeeper was none other than her mother, who disappeared many years ago.
When shelter becomes a crack in the seal, will you still open that door?
[Orphaned woman × fallen general | Healing ensemble cast | Mutual salvation | Mystery of the seal | Save this book so you won't miss its launch]
90% plot, 10% romance
Theme: Offering the warmth of everyday life as shelter to those displaced from another world, and breaking free of fate through kindness.
