Wen Zhaoyun transmigrates and goes from twenty-eight to eighteen, gaining a five-year-old daughter in the bargain. She becomes a mother without even giving birth. Congratulations!
But when she looks into her background, she finds that the original owner was sold to the Cui family as a concubine. Within three days, both the master and his wife died, and she inexplicably became the second wife. Before she could turn her fortunes around and sing of liberation,
she was thrown out by her husband's cousins from another branch of the family, with only twenty taels to her name and a little girl in tow.
A widowed mother and daughter, penniless and alone: how are they supposed to get by in the wealthy city of Nanjing?
It doesn't get much worse than a start like this.
Fortunately, Wen Zhaoyun had been doing business since she was eighteen in her previous life. It looks like she'll have to tread the same path again in this life.
Starting with a load of goods from the countryside and a stall by the roadside...
When restaurants need fresh produce, she supplies it. When wholesalers band together to force prices down, she stands her ground. When the authorities want a marketplace, she builds one.
Ten years later, half the canal boats and carriages traveling through Nanjing are using her routes.
Bonus scene:
The year she first arrived in Jinling, she set up a stall at a street corner. When some hooligans gave her trouble, she outsmarted them and turned the tables.
Among the onlookers was a spoiled young man dragged to his studies by his father. For the first time, he saw that a woman could live like this, and that someone could be so carefree!
Two years later, he climbed over a wall and accidentally tumbled from its top into a peach grove. When he looked up, he saw her laughing and teasing him without a hint of feminine reserve.
Yet she was the first person to make him realize that someone's heart could beat so fast.
The young man hid his feelings among the pages of his books, keeping them secret for another two years. But no matter how many times he tried to get closer, she turned him down. Frustrated, he could only keep growing and strive to catch up with her.
Later, after placing on the imperial examinations, he came to ask for her hand in marriage, only to be rejected once more.
This time, he had learned his lesson. He didn't get upset; he only pleaded softly, “Sister, if you think I can still be useful, I can make myself even more useful.”
Wen Zhaoyun raised an eyebrow. “Useful how?”
“You're the best businesswoman there is. You know that you should make full use of everything.”
And so she made use of him for ten years.
A few things to know before you dive in:
1. An everyday story about striving and building a business from the ground up, with a small ensemble cast.
2. One-on-one romance, with a younger man.
3. Set in the Ming dynasty, but don't expect rigorous historical research.
4. Updated daily at six in the morning.
Theme: Never give up in the face of adversity.
