Planting Spring Waters with You

[Blurb]

On the day the family split up, Shen Liao Qiu chose several thin plots of land that flooded every year.

People said she was a fool. She turned down good farmland and chose a patch of land overgrown with water plants instead. But she crouched by the bank, pinched the soil between her fingers, counted the cargo boats passing by, then turned around and bought an old boat.

The fields could be farmed, vegetables could be sold, and she could even save on the cost of boats to transport them later.

It was a fine plan.

Until the night she moved in. The sky sprang a leak, the boat sprang a leak, and a woman demanding her wages was sitting in the cabin.

The woman rolled up her sleeves, revealing a stretch of cool, pale wrist, and asked, "Settle the accounts first, or save the boat?"

Holding her bedding, Shen Liao Qiu answered without hesitation, "Save the boat. We can settle the accounts later."

And so the accounts went on being settled through spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Lu Boheng had met all kinds of people.

Some disliked how little she spoke, some thought she was too particular, and some laughed at her for giving up a good livelihood over a few unsuitable planks for a boat.

Only Shen Liao Qiu treasured the desolate water bay that others looked down on, and kept her there, too.

At first, she said they would settle the wages once the boat was repaired.

Later, she said the floating fields needed someone who understood carpentry, the vegetable deliveries needed someone who knew the waterways, and the new house still needed a window and a table.

Lu Boheng agreed to it all.

Until one night, Shen Liao Qiu was flipping through the ledger when she suddenly fell silent.

"What are we short of this time?" she asked.

Those eyes, usually bright with a shrewd smile, lifted to her, unusually evasive.

"We're short of... someone who won't need to be paid wages from now on."

Raising seedlings in spring, moving the fields in summer, filling the boat with water chestnuts and lotus roots in autumn, and gathering around the stove to tally the accounts in winter.

In time, the desolate bay became a stretch of floating fields, and the old cargo boat carried on its decks the trade of an entire river.

Shen Liao Qiu finally saved enough money to settle Lu Boheng's old account.

But Lu Boheng held down the ledger and asked her:

"Shopkeeper Shen, once the money is paid, where am I supposed to live?"

A sweet-talking farming girl who's good with accounts but gets bashful when she truly falls in love × a taciturn, decisive female boatwright who becomes quite the tease once you get to know her.

Reader's Note:

1. An alternate ancient setting where women can establish households, do business, and enter into marriage contracts.

2. Both protagonists are adults. There is no transmigration or pocket dimension. They use their skills and business sense to gradually build a better life.

3. The main story focuses on farming, business, and the development of their relationship. There is pregnancy between women in this alternate setting. The extras include a secondary couple and everyday child-rearing; the rules of reproduction are explained in the main story.

4. Warm and lighthearted, with mutual devotion and a happy ending.

Theme: Create a life through hard work and wisdom, and grow together through mutual respect.