Getting Rich Starts with Construction Site Lunchboxes [Ancient to Modern]

Pre-release: A Period Novel: After Becoming the Ruthless Male Lead's Childhood Sweetheart [The 1970s]. Please add it to your reading list!

Blurb:

Xie Hongmei died miserable and alone at the age of thirty-five.

Looking back on her life, the only things she could remember were the tall courtyard walls of the Ming family and the cramped, pitch-black room. If she got another life, she would make sure to get out.

Xie Hongmei's biological father had spent years failing the imperial exams. To curry favor with the Ming family, whose patriarch had passed the provincial exam, he sold his daughter to be the sickly Ming son's wife. Xie Hongmei became a widow as soon as she entered the household. Her father-in-law was a hypocrite, her mother-in-law was cruel, and the son she adopted for convenience was an ungrateful wolf. Xie Hongmei spent twenty years steeped in misery before finally dying of sorrow.

When she woke up, she found herself in a strange new world. It was now 1993. Her predecessor's husband had died in an accident at a construction site, and unable to bear the blow, the original owner had left behind her three-year-old daughter and followed him in death.

Afraid her in-laws would lock her away to mourn her husband, Xie Hongmei decisively fled her hometown with the child, following the person who had come to deliver the news.

Li Zifang had gone to Yangcheng to find work with his fellow villager Zhou Jiaxue. But when Zhou Jiaxue met with an accident, Li Zifang had his cousin Li Hongjun bring Zhou Jiaxue's parents, wife, and children over so they could demand compensation from the construction boss.

But the only ones who showed up were a disheveled mother and daughter. Just as Li Zifang was about to ask what had happened, the newcomer sat right down on the ground and started crying...

Xie Hongmei didn't want to return to the original owner's hometown. There were opportunities everywhere in Yangcheng. Selling boxed meals outside a construction site seemed like a good business.

To support Xie Hongmei's business, Li Zifang often brought his fellow villagers to eat at her stall.

After a while, Li Zifang started going alone, leaving the others behind.

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At first, Xie Hongmei pulled a handcart and sold just a few varieties of boxed meals. Everyone doubted her.

Later, her little restaurant opened, and suddenly every dish was in high demand. The villagers were furious: It wasn't even late! How could it already be sold out again?

Later still, the Nth Red Plum Restaurant branch in Yangcheng opened. Someone asked:

"Boss Xie, why do you always open your branches next to construction sites?"

Xie Hongmei replied, "It's what the investor wants."

"Which investor?"

Xie Hongmei glanced at the contractor beside her and smiled without answering.

[The everyday hustle of a widow raising a child and taking her business seriously]

Pre-release period novel:

After Becoming the Ruthless Male Lead's Childhood Sweetheart [The 1970s]

Ye Tingting opened her eyes and realized she had transmigrated into a revenge period novel aimed at male readers. Unfortunately, she had become the daughter of the male lead's sworn enemy.

According to the story, Ye Tingting's father adopted the male lead under a pretense of kindness. Living under someone else's roof, he suffered all kinds of humiliation at the hands of the Ye family, and Ye Tingting had never treated him kindly either.

As an adult, the male lead accidentally learned the truth about his birth and turned dark overnight. He was determined to clear his father's name and take back everything that belonged to him.

Knowing the whole plot, Ye Tingting wore an expression of pure anguish.

Her family falling apart and everyone dying? Whatever.

She didn't love anyone in this family anyway. She was just the youngest daughter, unloved by her parents and bullied by her older siblings.

But she didn't want to be dragged down with them or become a disposable pawn in someone else's revenge.

Looking at the slender young man, bullied by the Ye siblings and now huddled miserably in a corner of the flower garden behind the house, a voice rang out in Ye Tingting's mind:

While he's still a poor little thing, win him over!

Ye Tingting crouched in front of him and gently dabbed ointment on the bloodied corner of his mouth.

At the cool touch, Li Xu's knuckles clenched until they turned white.

He knew everyone in the Ye family was cut from the same cloth. But looking at the tender concern on the girl's face, he couldn't bring himself to push her away.

At first, Li Xu's life's ambition was to clear his father's name.

Later, he lost himself amid the repeated calls of "Brother Xu."

[The 1970s · Daily Life · Coming of Age] Please add it to your reading list!

Theme: Daughters should learn to stand on their own.