I Picked Up a High-Maintenance Mistress for Famine-Fleeing and Farming

Next up: Black Lotus Wife Comes with a Baby. If you like it, please add it to your favorites!

Zhang Muchun, the third daughter of a butcher's family, put down her cleaver after listening to some gossip and went to work as a maid for the Liu family in town.

She had barely been working there for a few days when the Liu family went bankrupt. After their downfall, the family fell apart, and everyone found somewhere to go, except for their pampered young lady, Liu Yunhe, who had no one to care for her.

That was because this young lady was even harder to please than a fairy in the celestial palace. Wearing the wrong clothes gave her a rash; eating the wrong food upset her stomach. She couldn't let the sun touch her face or lift anything with her hands. To make matters worse, she was fussy and affected. Though she was more delicate than a flower bud, she had become a hot potato everyone avoided.

Muchun had planned to run off with the money she'd saved, but seeing the young lady sitting nearby looking so pitiful made her feel sorry for her. On impulse, she took the beauty away with her. But it's easy to invite a god in and hard to send one away. Now the beauty was her problem...!

She thought that once she returned to the village, got two acres of land and a thatched cottage, and picked up her butcher's cleaver again, life would be manageable. But plans never keep up with fate. Before the house was even repaired, they were hit by the worst flood in a century. With no other choice, Zhang Muchun relied on her strength and her cleaver to lead the delicate young lady and the entire village on a desperate flight...

Ever since something happened to her family, the pampered Liu Yunhe had suffered from a strange illness. At night, she sometimes had strange dreams. Even more frightening, those dreams would come true after some time. She was terrified.

Just as everyone was abandoning one another in the face of disaster, the maid doing the hard labor outside the courtyard said she would take her away. Liu Yunhe didn't even dare look up at her, because in her dreams she had seen the two of them entwined in passionate intimacy. Those rough hands, capable of chopping through a large bone in one blow, were far too bold. Every time she saw the maid, her heart pounded like a drum.

(Character descriptions, with a touch of an ensemble cast!)

Delicate, soft-hearted little troublemaker x butcher girl who's clever but plays dumb

Vicious, scheming white lotus x domineering Lord of Wancheng who takes what he wants

Loyal younger hunter x gentle, alluring young widow

Surviving natural disasters + everyday farming + food and a touch of infrastructure building + a little golden finger

(Fictional setting, with plenty of original details.)

(Blurb saved at the time of writing.)

Theme: There is always a way when you reach the mountain, and a boat will naturally find its way beneath the bridge.