The Daily Life of a Minor Official's Daughter Supporting Her Family

In a daze, Su Ruojin was born into the body of the eldest daughter of a low-ranking, eighth-rank Imperial College professor in Bianjing of the Great Yin Dynasty. She watched her mother give birth to an older brother, then another younger brother, while their little civil-servant household went from scraping by to living on borrowed money. At six years old, she’s already running the household. Standing on a little stool to reach the stove, she eats one meal while worrying about the next. How are they supposed to get by? Don’t worry… don’t worry… She’s living in Bianjing, a vast metropolis with a flourishing economy. With the cuisine of a thousand years in the future at her fingertips, how could she possibly starve? Impossible… absolutely impossible… The Imperial College, the Three Departments, Five Directorates, and Nine Courts: this is where civil servants gather. And which of them doesn’t need breakfast? She’ll start with a breakfast stall: fried dough sticks, baked flatbreads, and soy milk; sesame balls and eight-treasure porridge. Think her menu is too limited? She’ll add jianbing, soup dumplings, pan-fried tofu pudding, pocket bread, and lamb paomo. She’ll also sell cotton batting and quilts, Songjiang cloth, open an oil shop, a tavern, and a general store, and help put down rebellions and catch bandits… There’s no end to the money… absolutely no end to it… A wok in her left hand, a spatula in her right: this is the comforting warmth of everyday life. The bustling capital awaits. Here she comes!