The Poor Widow's Guide to Getting Rich

Ye Zhaohua, a third-year college student, died suddenly while saving someone and transmigrated into the body of a beautiful young widow in the Great Chu Dynasty, whose soldier husband had just died.

An old widower from the village is waiting to take her in, while her in-laws are a pack of awful people who torment and bully her. Faced with a new life that is hell from the start, Ye Zhaohua knows one thing: as long as she has no morals, no one can use theirs to blackmail her. Rather than make herself suffer, she'd rather go berserk and deal with the troublesome lot!

After all, she's no delicate pushover. She's got plenty of strength to beat people up and plenty of ways to make money!

She slaps her sister-in-law, kicks her father-in-law, deals with her mother-in-law, beats up her brother-in-law, and even castrates a hooligan who was asking for trouble. With Ye Zhaohua's reliable madness and her three-foot butcher's knife, the world becomes a better place.

Three months later,

At the Ye Family Milk Tea Shop, her lazy sister-in-law has become the milk tea shop's star. With her dainty hands, she brews milk tea and proves capable and obedient, praising her sister-in-law every chance she gets.

In front of the Ye Family Food Stall, her grandmother-in-law, now fifty, minds the shop. The former troublemaker has become an advertising pro: "Sweet milk tea, fresh wontons, a whole spread of braised snacks. We have spicy chicken, grilled meat skewers, and five vegetable or three meat options, just take your pick."

Her sickly brother-in-law studies for the imperial exams while working. At the Deer Cry Banquet, the newly crowned top provincial graduate, Gu, writes a poem in thanks to his sister-in-law: "Her nature is gentle, her character noble; she serves her elders and raises the young, tireless in her care."

Her useless father-in-law has become head of the kitchen and a diligent part-time bodyguard, praising his daughter-in-law to everyone he meets.

Her weepy mother-in-law has become the spearhead of their public relations campaign and even designed a one-of-a-kind anti-counterfeit logo for the Ye family's food business.

The villagers, too, follow Ye Zhaohua into a good life, with meat on every table and money in every household.

*

The following year, Ye Zhaohua's food franchise reaches the imperial capital. She creates slimming meals for the wealthy and donates armor to the frontier troops returning home. She is honored as an imperial merchant, and her reputation for helping those in need spreads throughout the country.

The women workers revere her as a goddess: If a bodhisattva descended to earth, she would look like Boss Ye.

The daughters of nobles and officials are proud to be her friends: Sister A Zhao is a role model for all young ladies like us!

The new top scorer in the imperial examinations writes a poem praising her noble character: "Her golden needle embroiders courage into women's hearts; her iron armor cherishes the innocent."

The crown prince offers to make her his secondary consort: "Miss Ye is a heroine among women. I have fallen for her."

Even her brother-in-law, who placed third in the imperial examinations, suddenly drops to his knees before his late elder brother's memorial tablet: "I beg my late brother to grant his blessing. I will respect and cherish my sister-in-law all my life and never take another wife."

Just then, Ye Zhaohua's supposedly doomed husband returns with the seal of the Great General Dingguo. Seeing that the little bride whose veil he'd never lifted has become the object of everyone's desire, the Great General panics...

Reading Guide:

1. The author's not good at writing blurbs. This is a feel-good food and farming story about getting rich.

2. A power fantasy with a strong female lead. Her golden finger is her modern outlook and knowledge of food. The focus is on her career, with romance as a secondary plot.

3. The heroine is somewhat of a heartthrob, and she deserves it!

4. All the awful people get what's coming to them.

5. The male lead is her late husband. The Great General Dingguo isn't the endgame.

Theme: A rose of a heroine