New story launching August 20: "A Commoner's Household in the Northern Song Dynasty." The blurb is at the end. Please add it to your to-read list!
Blurb for this story ↓
Lin Zhi transmigrates from the modern era to ancient times, going from a harmonious home with both parents to an orphan trying to survive under her stepmother's roof.
The good news: she has the golden finger every transmigrator needs.
The bad news: her golden finger is an unimpressive sign-in System. It can't make her rich overnight or provide high-yield seeds and useful recipes to help her make a name for herself.
As Lin Zhi gets older, it's time for her to marry.
To keep her stepmother from marrying her off to some scoundrel, she plays the villain and forcibly takes a man for herself.
The good news: she has a good eye. The man she picked has decent character, a small family, and respectable values.
The bad news: his family has fallen on hard times, with no surplus grain from year to year. Their few acres of poor land can barely feed the eight people in the household, let alone support her husband as he studies for the imperial examinations.
Fortunately, her husband lives up to expectations. Lin Zhi becomes the wife of a provincial graduate and follows him to the capital for the examinations.
But at his first exam, he gets caught up in a case of cheating in the imperial examinations.
The good news: he survives and even becomes a county magistrate.
The bad news: it's a remote, impoverished border county, where a crowd of gaunt people stand on dry, yellow earth.
What can they do?
Life has to go on. Gritting their teeth and pressing ahead, they build bridges and roads, lift the county out of poverty, and rebuild a Peach Blossom Spring.
New story launching August 20: "A Commoner's Household in the Northern Song Dynasty." Please add it to your to-read list!
1. The Lin family hasn't split up; three generations live under one roof.
Thirteen members of the extended family are crammed into five narrow rooms beside the outer city gate.
Lin Laosan and his wife, already in their thirties, have added another mouth to feed.
A child born in their later years should be cause for celebration.
Unfortunately, it's a little girl, and a night-cryer who wails every night.
Her crying keeps the whole family awake.
Her grandparents, uncles, and aunts can't sleep because of her.
Old Madam Lin lowers her eyelids and says they should ask Madam Ma to come take a look.
After two taels' worth of lamp oil and ten copper coins change hands,
Madam Ma tells the Lin family they need to split up.
A mud wall goes up in the narrow courtyard.
Lin Laosan's family gets only one room and half of a long, narrow passageway.
Including the night-cryer in her mother's arms,
five people are packed together like chicks in a cage.
But at least,
the family has finally split up.
2. Lin Zhijing is born into this world, having forgotten to drink Granny Meng's soup.
An adult soul is crammed into a child's body.
She cries from infancy to adulthood, and is always sickly.
Fortunately, in this life she has both parents and a harmonious family.
"Little Crybaby! How come you have malt candy again?" The Lin family's second son drools as he gazes longingly at the amber-colored candy in his little sister's hand.
Tiny Lin Zhijing sighs helplessly. She breaks the candy into three pieces:
one for her second brother, who's watching her with drool running down his chin; one for her eldest brother, who's gone with their father to work at the oil workshop;
and the last for herself. She craves it too!
Lin Zhijing stands up and compares her height with the family's persimmon tree.
Well, by the end of this winter, she'll be four chi tall.
Then she'll be able to reach the family stove!
In her previous life, she was at least a food blogger with a million followers.
Lengtao, rice noodles, marinated goose feet; meat pies, dumplings, soft mutton noodles...
She knows dishes from north and south.
She refuses to believe
she can't secure herself a fine home in Bianjing, cough, in the outer city!
Shen Sui is a well-known loafer in Saltwater Alley. With no parents, he drifted through life until he was sixteen or seventeen.
Fortunately, he has an uncle by marriage who works as a clerk.
So the loafer puts on a black uniform and a waist badge,
and becomes a patrol officer at the tax station, collecting commercial taxes.
When small stallholders and peddlers see him,
the smiles on their faces are forced.
Shen Sui understands.
After all, he's there to take money out of their pockets.
When they see him, who wouldn't smile to his face and curse him in their heart?
Until one day,
he meets a young lady of the Lin family selling food at the West Ward's amusement quarter.
She greets him with a bright smile. "Young Master Shen, are you on duty today? Let me treat you to some vegetarian bamboo-shoot buns."
Notes: 1. The customs and setting are inspired by the Song dynasty, but the story is entirely fictional, with many invented details.
2. A self-reliant, resilient, optimistic older sister × a laid-back but obedient younger brother (an older-woman/younger-man romance).
3. A warm, everyday story about life among ordinary people, and the struggles of two little nobodies. No court politics or aristocratic lords.
Theme: Be self-reliant and build a better life.
""Can it be done? "Tao Tao covered his hands with roasted sweet potatoes, thinking about the kind but extremely smart and perceptive lady. If he could get her help, he might not be able to accomplish anything. With the blessing of someone with profound blessings, he would also be lucky. "Catch a big bug for the author~
What a regretful ending, so well written. I feel like the ending is too sudden 🐰
I can't bear to leave the cute little system
Can anyone discuss with me what's wrong with Tao Tao's business? It's just an introduction to the family caravan to cooperate with others to transport food. Where can it be criticized?
It was understandable in that era to pass on male rather than female. Women are relatively disadvantaged. Once they get married, the skills will definitely spread, and the mother's family will not be able to make money.
I didn't expect there would be a side story.
Ah, is it over? I feel like I can write another two hundred chapters. Very well written, keep it up
Come on, author, wait for updates
Come on, original poster, come up every day to see if there are updates [Like]
I read it in one go. It's very well written. Come on, author. The plot is interesting and the writing is smooth