The Fishing Girl's Fortune by the Sea

Coming soon: After Being Exiled, I Became a Han Merchant in Dunhuang. Please add it to your reading list. “Haizhu, I’m leaving Dongzhu and Fengping in your care. Your Uncle Yu will only agree to take one child with me.” Qi Haizhu had barely regained consciousness when she heard those words. Confused and dazed, she nodded. Only after the woman left with the child did she realize she’d been left with two children to raise. Her father was dead, her mother had remarried, and she’d been left with two burdens to care for. That was the family situation of the body Qi Haizhu had transmigrated into. All right. She’d borrowed the original owner’s body to stay alive, so raising her younger siblings was only fair. They were on the coast, and she had a Spirit Pearl from another world that let her breathe underwater. She could manage to feed two kids. After repairing the fishing boat left behind by Qi’s father, Haizhu took the helm and went out to sea. While others cast nets and hauled in fish, she jumped straight into the water and scooped them up with a net bag. Lobsters, swimming crabs, green crabs, flower crabs, and brown crabs… She was going to savor every flavor before autumn ended. She made soup with dried scallops and clams, cooked shrimp balls, fried rice with crab meat, and porridge. She steamed crabs, made wine-soaked crabs, crab roe casserole, and orange-pickled crab… Haizhu couldn’t get enough, but her younger siblings looked miserable. “Big Sis, are we eating these hard shells again today?” Dongzhu had had enough. She’d been eating them for eight years and was sick of them. Again? Haizhu heard the disgust in her sister’s voice. Was she seriously bragging? In the era Haizhu came from, fish and shrimp in the sea had all mutated. She’d drooled over videos of them and could only go without. “Just one more meal. Tomorrow I’ll save a few sea fish instead of selling them.” She’d already decided what she was making today. She’d be upset if she didn’t get to eat it. During fishing season, she dove into the sea to catch seafood. During the closed season, she ran a small restaurant, making delicious food for the neighbors. In her spare time, she cleaned barnacles off sea turtles’ shells and rescued dolphins, seals, and manta rays being tossed around like balls by orcas… Haizhu was living the sweet life by the sea. [Note 1] There is a male lead, but the romance develops later. [Note 2] The leads live by the sea right up to the end. There’s no rebellion and no connection to the royal family. They’re simply wealthy landowners in one province, so please don’t read more into it. Coming soon: After Being Exiled, I Became a Han Merchant in Dunhuang “Listen to Auntie. Once you’re dead, everything will be all right. Don’t be afraid. Auntie will come with you.” The moment Sui Yu regained consciousness, those words appeared in her mind. She struggled and fell from the white silk noose. A pair of embroidered shoes dangled before her eyes. She hadn’t been strangled to death, but nearly died of fright instead. When she looked up, she saw a terrified little boy sitting on the bed. The original owner’s family had been implicated in a clan scandal and faced confiscation of their property and imprisonment. In despair, the original owner’s concubine mother had hanged herself along with her daughter. The original owner died, and Sui Yu took her place and survived. Just then, the northwest won a major victory, and the court ordered people to migrate there to farm and guard the frontier. Sui Yu’s entire clan was exiled to the northwest as penal slaves to build city walls. She walked all the way from Jiangnan with her terrified, dazed little brother, only to be assigned to a frontier soldier as his wife before she’d even found her footing. The man didn’t like her. He wore a cold expression every day, like a living King of Hell, and went to battle whenever war broke out, acting as if he didn’t care about being hurt or dying. When he was away, Sui Yu could relax. But since she depended on him, she worried he might die. Even staying home to raise camels and farm gave her no peace. Fortunately, the man had a conscience. She worked herself ragged running the household, and he used his military achievements to free her from her status as a slave. From then on, with the whole world open to her, Sui Yu put together a camel caravan. She crossed deserts and the Gobi, traveled beneath snow-capped mountains, and followed great rivers. She slept to the sound of camel bells and woke to the cries of eagles. She took silk, tea, and porcelain to the Western Regions, then returned with fine horses, gold and silver treasures, and precious medicinal herbs. Along the Silk Road, she left a trail that was hers alone. Her life was going wonderfully, while the man who was as hard to keep at home as a falcon began returning night after night as if answering roll call. Coming soon: Eloping with a Concubine Dansu was a wealthy merchant’s concubine, doing a concubine’s work while bearing the title of a maid. The merchant was sickly and clearly didn’t have long to live. Once he died, she’d either be toyed with by his wastrel son or dismissed and sold off. With her looks and no one to protect her, she was bound to end up in the sex trade, a plaything to be tormented. So while the merchant could still breathe, she buzzed around like a headless fly, looking everywhere for a new protector. One day, a new guard joined the household. They said he was a wandering swordsman. Exceptional martial arts skills = he could take her and elope. A decent income = he could buy her legal status. No fixed home = no need to worry about gossip. He was the one. Dansu began figuring out how to win him over. ** Hei San was a wandering swordsman with no home. He’d cut ties with all his relatives and friends, had a cold heart, and lived as he pleased, spending freely when he earned a lot and cutting back when he earned less. When he passed through Cangzhou, his money had run out, so he casually took a well-paid job as a guard for a cloth merchant. But the master of the household took a liking to his martial skills, while the concubines in the rear courtyard took a liking to his body. One after another, they hinted that they wanted to wander the martial world with him… He found them utterly tiresome, especially since a beautiful young woman kept showing up to watch the excitement, apparently unaware that she was surrounded by wolves herself. The rabbit laughs at the wolf for falling into a fox’s den. What a fool. Previously completed works: The Farmer Girl’s Reborn Rise to Prosperity After Fleeing to the Grasslands The Pig Farmer and His Widow A Fugitive’s Life in the Mountains Raising Kids and Planting Trees in the 1970s Theme: Fix the dock, and the boats will come.