A Chronicle of Food and Goods in Great Wei

[About this story] A historical Cao Pi/Guo Nuwang fanfic, with a female lead who transmigrates. One-on-one romance from beginning to end, so no need to worry. An old story. When I wrote it, I was still immature, and I only gave the female lead a transmigration setup so it could be categorized as historical transmigration. In reality, that setup has almost nothing to do with the plot. Looking back on it now, I'm not entirely satisfied with it. So instead, I recommend my more [historically grounded] Cao Pi/Guo Nuwang story, "On the Bronze Sparrow Terrace" (currently updating). ↓↓↓ Please note that the passage below is [not] this story's blurb. Guo Nuwang lost her family when she was eight. Her courtesy name was Nuwang, meaning "Queen," but after being reduced to a servant just to survive, she spent her whole life keeping her head down. The first time she saw Cao Pi, the young lord sat high upon the throne, his noble bearing impossible to ignore. She was nearly thirty and could only smile along from the lowest seat, never daring to dream of him. Yet in the depths of the night, on a sudden whim, he drew close and asked, "Have you ever married, elder sister?" Guo Nuwang became his strategist and favored concubine, as well as the elder sister he could turn to for affection when no one else was around. For ten years, she accompanied him as he rose from young lord to heir, Prince of Wei, and emperor. She, too, rose step by step from servant to lady, then noble consort, and finally empress, all the while remaining as cautious as a subject before her ruler. The entire court called her a lowborn woman who had risen to power. They said that, as a childless woman, she was unfit to become empress, and that His Majesty must not let love make him disregard propriety. Over those same ten years, she saw his devotion as no more than a ruler's means of keeping his subjects in line. Love alone was nothing. How could it be considered eternal? The ninth day of the ninth month. Atop the Wei palace tower, Cao Pi stubbornly clasped the new empress's hand, his spirits even higher than hers. "Do you believe me this time?" Cao Pi had seen many beautiful women in his life, and in the end he had let them all down. But life is as fleeting as morning dew. He only wished that the one woman in this world who understood his heart would believe him one more time. He said he did not seek a name that would endure for ten thousand generations. He only wished to remain by her side even in death, sharing a pillow through the ages. If she would not forsake him, that would be the eternity he sought. [Bonus Scene] Many years passed. The ruler and subject who had weathered hardship together in the Eastern Palace became an emperor and empress who could tell each other anything. By lamplight, she reread the love poems he had written in his youth, still unable to believe in everlasting love. He bent over his writing, composing his "Ode to the Vast Sea," and no longer angrily corrected her doubts as he once had. He said his love for her was like the surging waves, because "the sea is never calm for long. The storming waves will soon return." Guo Nuwang had never seen the sea in her life. Yet somehow, she thought she knew what it looked like. * *An explanation of the title: It was inspired by Records of the Three Kingdoms: Food and Commerce, a text about society and the economy during the Three Kingdoms period. "Food and commerce" doesn't mean "foodie." The title is still rather abstract, but I chose it simply to clarify that this is not a food story. Theme: True love lasts forever.