Selling Wine Beneath the Pear Blossoms (Street Life)

. By the bridge where the stream flows, a blue banner hangs; in the apricot-blossom rain, spring bamboo shoots simmer. Pheasants and pork, summer melons and autumn pears, plus crabs and little fish. Set up an iron pot, build a roaring fire, and Lin's Eatery is open for business! * The Lin family is a small country merchant household. The husband died, the son passed away, and the daughter-in-law remarried, leaving the widowed mother to raise four daughters and a grandson. Lin Ying is the fourth daughter. Her eldest and second eldest sisters both married badly and often complain about their lot in life. With the third sister and Lin Ying reaching marriageable age, their mother secretly vows to choose their husbands carefully this time. Unfortunately, the family has little money, and their choices are either sour-faced scholars or brutish ruffians. Just then, a letter arrives from Bianliang. A distant relative of Lin's mother has been dead for years with no heir, and has specified that the property in the capital be given to her. Delighted at this unexpected inheritance and tempted by the many eligible young men in Bianjing, the family travels day and night, arriving in the city covered in dust and frost. Good heavens, what a vast city! There are countless households and roads leading in every direction. Even the live pigs entering Nanxun Gate number in the tens of thousands. But the distant relative's property is a ramshackle house full of clucking chickens, barking dogs, and people crowded together. Kick it once and three rotten boards fall off. The mother and daughters are dumbfounded. Lin Ying, however, acts decisively. She rolls up her sleeves and sets up a stall by the bustling Bian River Bridge. Living in the capital is no easy matter, but life goes on. Theme: Be independent and self-reliant