Family Edge

[Blurb, August 13, 2025 edition. Exclusive to Jinjiang. This story may be revised from time to time. Reading pirated copies may cause bugs, so please think carefully before you do!]

In peacetime, every soldier who hangs up their uniform and returns to civilian life must face the many challenges of becoming an ordinary person again. Their years in the military have left a gap between them and the society and life outside the barracks. Finding a way to make a living becomes the first problem to solve.

Lin Wei, Zhou Han, and Zhao Mei are three veterans facing just such a challenge.

Fueled by their refusal to give up, the three keep pushing themselves and each other. They struggle to make their way in society while assuring their former comrades that “we’re doing fine, don’t worry about us.” Then Zhao Mei is fired for being late after stopping to help someone in trouble. By chance, she runs into Zhou Han, who has just been thrown out of a job interview. With no other options, the two turn to their former company commander, Lin Wei, who inherited the family business of making and selling wontons. Only then do they learn that Lin Wei has been conned out of her family’s wonton shop. She had been working herself to the bone without making much of a go of it, and all that apparent calm and contentment was an act.

With survival staring them in the face, the three determined women put their heads together and decide to start a high-end housekeeping business.

From then on, they bring the same sharpness they once showed on the battlefield and training grounds to the housekeeping industry.

They use military cleanliness standards as their benchmark. Wherever they go, not a speck of dust remains, not even in the hardest-to-reach corners.

In time, their distinctive style makes them stand out in the industry. Clients keep coming, and so does their trust. People are willing to let them clean places that were once off-limits, and even entrust them with their most treasured belongings. Some clients are so impressed with their work that they ask them to look after elderly family members as well...

But conflicts between housekeepers and their employers soon arise.

Their employers’ deep-rooted prejudices and sense of superiority clash with the three veterans’ quiet dignity, making people see this group of veteran women in housekeeping in a whole new light.

They, too, find their place in society. No longer struggling to fit in, they become pioneers in the housekeeping industry, bringing in more veterans facing the same challenges. As they grow their business, they become a distinctive source of light in the cities of a new era.

P.S. More completed novels and upcoming works can be found in the author's profile.

Theme: Women persevering and finding a way forward in adversity as they realize their worth.