Silver-Tongued, Cunning Woman vs. Upright, Righteous Man
Song Jin transmigrates into the body of Mancang, a little maid in the Great Ming. When she opens her eyes, she discovers that she is still a hereditary servant, doomed to spend her whole life in bondage. So she sets her first goal: escape her servile status and gain her freedom.
She offers her services to the lady of the house, promising to help the family make money through business and prevent the Bai family's relatives from dividing up its property. The sharp-tongued, miserly matriarch agrees.
So Song Jin puts up her hair and dons men's clothes, transforming from Mancang, a hereditary servant, into Wen Zijin, a distant relative of the lady of the house.
She helps the matriarch make money while secretly stashing away her own savings, waiting for the day she can escape her servile status.
At last, she saves enough money to buy back her contract, but her request is rejected.
If she can't buy her freedom herself, she'll have to find someone to help. And so Ji Shubai, the famously upright and incorruptible official, catches her eye.
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Ji Shubai despises Wen Zijin from the bottom of his heart.
They first meet on the day the Bai family home catches fire. Watching Wen Zijin, dressed in plain clothes, take charge of the situation from start to finish, he thinks the man is clever but poor, and asks whether he has ever studied. Wen Zijin promptly recites The Great Rhapsody on the Union of Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang.
Clever, poor, debauched, and shameless: that is Ji Shubai's first impression of Wen Zijin.
The next time they meet, Wen Zijin has transformed into the proprietor of Suzhou's renowned Shidinglou Restaurant, with superb culinary skills. Ji Shubai reflects that although this man never studied the classics of the sages, he certainly has a gift for cooking.
Later, they meet outside the prefectural office. Wen Zijin stands beside his sedan chair and threatens him with earnest words.
"Please do me a favor, Your Honor. If you agree, things will go well for both of us. If you refuse, I'm afraid you'll be in grave danger."
Ji Shubai thinks he's gone mad and ignores him. But several days later, he storms into Shidinglou Restaurant with his men and has Wen Zijin thrown into prison.
"I've never wronged you. Why are you doing this to me?"
Wen Zijin replies, "Whether a person is killed by a human or a ghost, what difference does it make who kills them? If I'm to spend my whole life as a servant, at other people's beck and call, I'd rather die at your hands, Your Honor."
She gives him a terrible tongue-lashing, but he still helps her escape her servile status.
Later, a woman named Lu Jin searches all over Suzhou for a husband. He must be a young, handsome successful candidate in the imperial examinations.
Lord Ji, who is thirty and still stubbornly single, also searches the whole city for a bride. She must be a woman, and she doesn't even have to be gentle, but he never receives a matchmaker's card from anyone who takes his fancy.
One day, Lord Ji knocks on the Lu family's door and asks, blushing, "Would you consider an older jinshi... like me?"
Reader Advisory:
1. The heroine is no saint. Early on, she causes a lot of trouble trying to escape her servile status.
2. The heroine is in business, while the hero is an official. Neither is all-powerful, and both act with great caution.
3. The story is set in the Great Ming. It draws on relevant historical records, but takes liberties, so please don't scrutinize it too closely.
4. A few historical figures make cameo appearances. The story will try to respect the course of history and not alter it.
5. Before transmigrating, the heroine and hero were about the same age.
A similar story is now available next door: The Years I Spent as a Litigator in the Great Ming
Not Much of a Scholar vs. A Fearless Tavern Keeper
Modern salesperson Lu Yuanliang transmigrates into the body of a young scholar in the Great Ming.
The good news: the scholar has a wife and child, as well as a father-in-law with some money to his name.
The bad news: he's a live-in son-in-law, his child takes the mother's surname, and his father-in-law plans to kick him out.
But his biological father is even worse.
Lu Yuanliang immediately decides to placate his wife and father-in-law and take care of the child, determined to stay in the family as a live-in son-in-law.
So he abandons his old bad habits, works hard to earn money, and turns over a new leaf. Thus begins the career of a master litigator.
He writes legal complaints, argues cases, and earns money to support other people's wives, children, and fathers-in-law. He becomes the money-grubbing litigator everyone talks about, but also the good son-in-law, husband, and father his family sees.
Reader Advisory:
1. The child really is the original owner's. The hero will raise the child in his place and eventually accept the original owner's wife as well.
2. The hero will not become fantastically wealthy, pass the highest imperial examination, or change the course of history.
3. This is not a suspense story. There aren't many murder cases, so don't expect elaborate, mind-bending mysteries.
4. The story focuses on the daily lives of Great Ming literati and running a small business, with an emphasis on earning a little money and living well.
Theme: Love life and freedom
The part about deportation is more touching, but the subsequent plot is a bit depressing, the career line is messy, the emotional line is awkward, and the male and female protagonists are also a bit contradictory [laughing]
It's a compliment... I thought... It was a sarcasm [bursts into tears] Maybe it was influenced by the female competition novel
The second brush is over 🙏 🌈 Their story will continue 😭
… Can you chop this feudal daddy into pieces🦅?
Ahhhh, so sweet and seductive 🤩
The cover, introduction and main text of this article are in three styles. Looking at the cover and introduction, I would never have imagined that the main text would be in this style. I have been in a literary drought for a long time and finally found a masterpiece. I have to read it slowly and cannot read it all at once. The author has a good grasp of the plot rhythm, but the introduction and cover are not very juicy.
The heroine feels so awkward...
Ah? Why don't you just go to the heroine's house to propose marriage? This would be too tedious.
Oh yeah, it's over, let's spread the flowers
As long as I can save my life, is there any extra story? Da Da 🤩 The heroine has always been misunderstood by others. It's so pitiful. Fortunately, Lao Ji trusts her.