The Borderlands Food Stall

[The first book has plenty of shortcomings, so thank you, dear readers, for being so understanding! (Bows in gratitude)]

[My next period novel, "The Delicate Beauty's Daily Life with the Northwest Army," is now underway. Please add it to your collection, dear readers!]

Food blogger Gu Chuchu transmigrates and finds herself a young widow from a prominent family in a border village despised by everyone.

Her father and elder brother vanished without a trace in the war. Her mother is frail and near death, her little brother is still tiny, and her sister-in-law is being talked into remarrying by her family.

[Late-Night Food Stall System: Late-Night Snacks No. 7, serving you from every corner of the land.]

To survive, Gu Chuchu has no choice but to return to her old trade. Armed with a spatula and carrying her wares on a shoulder pole, she sets up a food stall at the border town's night market and sells late-night snacks.

With the System on my side, I've got all the late-night snacks I need!

From then on, this unlucky young widow, despised by the townsfolk and villagers, starts making all kinds of late-night snacks that send out irresistible aromas, drawing people into lines they can't help joining.

Everyone: What is that irresistible smell? My feet are moving on their own!

The food stall becomes an instant hit, and its barbecue, skewers, and sizzling clay-pot dishes soon make their way into ordinary households.

As Gu Chuchu watches her family's life grow more and more comfortable, she also brings the kind-hearted widows from her village to set up food stalls at the town's night market, so they can earn money to support their families.

Grilled fish with tofu pudding, crawfish, deep-fried bullfrogs, salt-and-pepper mantis shrimp...

She teaches them every late-night delicacy she knows, hoping they can all prosper together.

Through hard work, these down-on-their-luck women support one another and build happy, thriving lives through their own efforts.

Reader's guide:

1. Most of the recipes in this story come from online sources. Any recipes taken from cookbooks or other publications will be clearly cited in the author's notes.

2. This is a fictional setting! A fictional setting! Everything eaten in the story exists here, so please don't nitpick the historical details!

3. A lighthearted slice-of-life food story about family matters. The golden finger isn't powerful, and the story starts slowly as the heroine grows. One-on-one romance, both characters are virgins. The heroine is serious about her career, and the male lead appears late and has very little screen time.

Theme: Push against the current. My fate is mine to command, not heaven's!