After arriving in the prosperous Northern Song era of Jiayou, Cheng Miaoyi lived with her family in the countryside of Yuezhou, far from Jiangling Prefecture. Through sheer determination, her father had built up a nest egg from his days as a street peddler, then moved his wife and children to Jiangling Prefecture.
Just as he had finally managed to hold his head high before his two half-brothers, an epidemic struck and he suddenly collapsed.
To pay for medicine and treatment, the family spent all their savings and sold their house, but he still failed to recover fully.
The family of four squeezed into a cramped, dark room in Dishui Alley, separated by a curtain: the parents on one side, the children on the other.
By day, Miaoyi cared for her father, washed clothes, and prepared dinner while waiting for her mother and brother to return from work. At night, she sat beneath a weak oil lamp, pasting paper boxes together and making silk flowers.
She had wanted to think up some way to earn money, but her father's health kept getting worse.
Knowing they couldn't put it off any longer, she suddenly recalled the conversation she'd overheard during the day: Qiao Erniang of the Xiang Meat Shop had mentioned that the Xie family, the prefectural governors of Jiangling, were hiring maidservants.
Even the lowest-ranking servant maid earned thirty strings of cash.
Miaoyi thought it over. A five-year contract, plus her brother, would mean sixty strings between them. And if they could put some skill to use...
Theme: Strive upward without yielding
