Jade Beneath the Apricot Blossoms

Wang Xing's family were nouveau riche, having benefited from the gains of the Reform and Opening Up.

Wang Xing had never known hardship in the first half of her life. She spent money like water and had a carefree, rather airheaded personality. She fell for Liu Yu, who came from a scholarly family, as soon as she started high school. Just as she was about to confess, something happened to her family.

After graduating from college, Wang Xing received a letter from the village head back home, asking her to return and teach the children for a few years. Wang Xing agreed.

On her first day back in the village, she saw someone she hadn't seen for four years: Liu Yu.

After asking around, she learned that Liu Yu had come to volunteer as a teacher.

Liu Yu went to teach, and Wang Xing went along to teach too. In her free time, she helped the villagers come up with ways to make money.

One day, the village held a celebration.

Wang Xing got drunk and went home. They say alcohol gives you courage. Seeing Liu Yu getting ready for bed, she sat down beside her. Just as she was about to kiss Liu Yu on the cheek, Liu Yu took the initiative and kissed her instead.

Liu Yu chuckled: "You've got quite a lot of self-control."

Wang Xing: ...?

Reader's Guide:

1. Airheaded, henpecked Wang Xing × flirtatious beauty Liu Yu

2. The final volume before the ending is a prequel set in the Republican era! Strongly emphasized: a semi-alternate history.

3. A rural poverty-alleviation and prosperity story: building roads, teaching, growing crops, starting businesses, everyday life, a slow-burn romance, mutual pining, and ten years of weathering every storm together.

4. Young women shouldn't travel alone to remote areas unless they have family there or are capable of protecting themselves. This is just a novel, so don't take it as reality.

5. The author is a devoted yuri fan!

[Cover art by artist Tang Jiu Xi, thank you!]

Theme: Encourage mass entrepreneurship and targeted poverty alleviation