Ordinary Folks

In a nutshell: A left-behind child ends up in ancient times. Money is what she wants, and so is love. This is a story about having to get both.

Li Jianqing becomes the ancient equivalent of a left-behind child: her parents sell pork in the city, while she and her two siblings grow up in the countryside with their grandparents.

Because their grandparents are biased and selfish, all three siblings have grown up a little crooked. Their uncle's family, who study at home, are the respectable ones, while their parents, who spend all day selling pork and reek of it, are crude and annoying no matter how much money they make. And the three siblings are naturally dumber than their cousins.

Excuse me, how is Pigsy crude? How is Mr. Copper Coin annoying?

Li Jianqing rolls her eyes and shakes off all that misplaced fussiness and inferiority. She puts her years of experience to work: clay-pot rice with cured meat, Dongpo pork, charcoal-grilled pig's trotters... Nothing is more satisfying than making money. And if anything is, it's making even more.

Li Jianqing gets more and more engrossed in making money, and her business keeps growing, but she still isn't quite satisfied. Just then, the poor scholar next door earnestly invites her to start a business in the capital.

"If I pass the imperial examinations, we'll make our way in the capital together. I'll become an official, and you'll open a shop. If I fail, we won't have anyone to back us, and the capital will be a hard place to get by. Then we'll go home and live together."

"Deal." Li Jianqing thinks for three seconds, then readily agrees.

Years later, the poor scholar has achieved fame and success, while the butcher's daughter has become rich and prosperous.

One day, they happen upon a play they once saw. Onstage, a scholar and a young lady part reluctantly, promising that once he passes the imperial examinations, he will return to ask for her hand. But fate has other plans, leaving the audience sighing with emotion.

"Why didn't you say you'd come back to marry me after you made your name?"

"My wife is beautiful and capable. What if someone took advantage of my absence while I was in the capital sitting the exams? I'm not the kind of person who'd just watch an opportunity slip away."

"And why were you willing to come to the capital with me?"

"My husband is handsome and talented. What if some wealthy family in the capital snatched you up after you passed the exams? Do you think I'd just watch an opportunity slip away?"

Reading guide: The heroine has her own career arc, and the two grow stronger together.

Pigsy: Zhu Bajie, used here to refer to pork.

Mr. Copper Coin: An ancient coin, round on the outside with a square hole in the middle.

Theme: Strive for a better life