Elder Sister of the Farming Family: A Guide to Supporting the Household (Food)

The blurb for my upcoming food-and-infrastructure novel, "Exiled to Lingnan, but Lychees Are All You Can Eat", is below this one. Please give it some love! I expect to start posting in late February~

Shen Zhihe, an all-around food blogger who took the internet by storm, went to sleep and woke up in the Great Ye Dynasty, two thousand years in the past.

From the start, she was greeted by freezing weather, dead parents, a younger brother with a fever that wouldn't break, a neighbor who was not what he seemed, not a coin to her name and not a single grain of rice in the pot, plus greedy relatives from the main branch of the family eyeing her possessions.

Shen Zhihe: ...All right, so this is how we're playing it?

But if she'd given up right then and there, her fans never would have nicknamed her a born hardhead.

Three days later, a little street stall full of homey charm appeared in a remote town on the northern frontier.

Silken tofu pudding and golden, crispy fried meatballs drew long lines of customers to her stall.

With her first earnings in hand, Shen Zhihe expanded her menu. She pickled mustard greens, braised offal, and made rice noodles. Her business thrived, drawing crowds of customers.

Before long, Shen Zhihe had a little shop of her own.

When the weather grew chilly, she added hot pot to the menu! Sour broth, tomato, spicy: there was nothing she couldn't make, only dishes she hadn't thought of yet! Add a series of healthy little desserts like red date milk pudding and pearl-and-tremella dumplings, along with an assortment of nourishing medicinal dishes, and it was the very best of earthly pleasures.

Shen Zhihe's business grew bigger and bigger, and her fame spread far and wide.

From high-ranking officials and imperial nobles to peddlers and laborers, countless people crossed mountains and rivers to visit her restaurant, having heard of its reputation. They spent fortunes just to savor this rare taste of everyday life.

Behind a beaded curtain stood the proprietress in blue, politely turning down the palace eunuch who had invited her to the palace to celebrate the Empress Dowager's birthday.

She reached out and stroked the soft hair of her little brother, who clung tightly to her clothes with eyes full of adoration. “Big Sister isn't going anywhere. Don't worry.”

There was only one thing that gave her a bit of a headache...

Shen Zhihe turned to look at the handsome man in lavish purple robes, leisurely sipping tea by the window, and said with some exasperation, “You're a noble heir, and you've recovered from your injuries. Why waste your time hanging around here?”

Lu Jinyu set down his cup. “My lady, are you trying to break off our engagement?”

#Chasing your wife? Being shameless isn't shameful.

#A historical take on "A Bite of China"

#Business-focused, lighthearted daily life, sweet progression

#Also known as "Making a Fortune by Conquering the Street-Stall Scene"

Reader's Guide

1. The leads are each other's first and only.

2. Prices and tax laws are based on the Song Dynasty, but this is a fictional setting. Don't scrutinize the ingredients and such.

Upcoming novel: "The Little Cook Is Beautiful and Daring"

Lin Shuwan is the thirty-seventh-generation inheritor of Cantonese cuisine, the current head chef for state banquets, and the power behind the leading industry in Province G.

But when she closed her eyes and opened them again, her soul had transmigrated into the body of a young lady named Lin Shuwan three thousand years in the past. At the time, her original body's fiancé had not only climbed the social ladder by finding a better match, but had also turned around and spread rumors that she had been captured by bandits and had her chastity ruined.

The original owner failed to take her own life, while her father, Lin, an esteemed Investigating Censor, was framed by villains and demoted to Lingnan.

Back then, Lingnan was desolate and impoverished, with starving people everywhere. It was renowned throughout Great Qian as a land of hardship.

Father Lin, his face full of despair, flung down his hands and murmured sorrowfully, “In a place this poor, I'm afraid our Lin family will never get back on our feet.”

The Lin family's eldest daughter was dazed and vacant, as if she were a fool.

Seeing her like that, everyone thought the strain had made her lose her mind. They sighed in pity, never imagining that Lin Shuwan was gazing at the green lychees weighing down the trees on the mountain, pointing at them with wide eyes and dancing with joy.

We're going to be rich!

When fortune smiles, even gold falls from the sky.

Everyone watched as the Lin family's eldest daughter pulled her hand free of Madam Lin's and ran to the lychee trees, crouching down to pick up the lychees with reddish skins.

A few people couldn't bear to see her like that and reached out to help her up.

“What do you want those things for, miss? Even the vagrants around here won't eat them.”

“These lychees are wonderful. They're perfect for making wine.”

At that, everyone shook their heads, thinking the Lin family's eldest daughter had suffered a shock and lost her senses, which explained her strange behavior. They sighed over the pity of it, but gave it no further thought.

To become the richest person in another world, she would start by helping the locals escape poverty! Whether the land was barren or wild, any land that could help the people survive was good land!

History records that in the fifty-third year of Great Qian, an Investigating Censor and his family were exiled to Lingnan. Within a few short months, his daughter Lin Shuwan turned the green lychees that had troubled the people of Lingnan for centuries into silver by the cartload, and brick by brick, the region traded its earthen homes for tiled roofs.

Then one day, the rich, mellow aroma of wine drifted out of the Lin residence, carrying for miles.

“Miss, what is this?”

“Lychee wine. Please, have a taste.”

She developed all sorts of novel delicacies, including candied lychees, lychee wine, lychee drinks, lychee shrimp, and lychee ribs.

They even reached the ears of the emperor. Rumor had it that the extremely particular imperial consort ate three hundred lychees every day before practicing her dance.

As the saying went, “Lingnan's finest lychees, a dance that moves the world.”

At some point, Lingnan no longer needed the court to send relief grain. It had transformed into a prosperous region famous far and wide.

So much so that the second son of the Minister of Works bitterly regretted his choice. He rushed from the capital and knelt outside her home for days, no matter the weather, begging her to change her mind.

“Wan Niang, I was wrong to mistake a pearl for a fish's eye. Only after you left did I realize...”

“I swear by the sun and moon that my love for you is true. You...”

Before he could finish, a young man shoved him aside with a hard shoulder check.

The young man was strikingly beautiful, with gold and jade ornaments in his hair and jade pendants chiming at his waist.

Yet he wore the incongruous clothes of a hired hand. Pushing his way to Lin Shuwan's side, he wheedled, “Big Sister... I've finished moving everything. Aren't you coming home yet?”

#A heaven-blessed heroine x an imperial noble?

#No, no, a clever money-maker x her clingy puppy of a sweetheart

#What could be a more perfect match?

Blurb written July 25, 2024, screenshot saved.

Theme: Food heals the heart.