农女青荷（穿书） NU link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-green-lotus-peasant-girl/ Raws: https://www.shubaow.net/89_89785/ The MTL: https://www.mtnovel.net/index/51/ Description: In her previous life, Li Qinghe married into the Xu family with pomp and splendor but was treated coldly and ignored by everyone in the household she married into. She eventually died of an illness to make way for her husband’s white moonlight. However, she woke up again, this time with prior knowledge of herself being just a cannon fodder in a sweet romance novel. In the original novel, Qinghe had saved the male protagonist’s life and then asked him to marry her as repayment. She then made the lovers’ lifetime a hell because of her jealousy. Now that she had returned to the past and been given a second chance at life, Li Qinghe decided to change her way of living. She resolved to stay away from the male and female protagonists. It was still important to save his life for the story to continue, but that kindness would be exchanged for silver, and she would leave instead. But unexpectedly, the original male protagonist was not reconciled to this and rushed to become entangled with her ruthlessly. She had a violent temper and rolled up her sleeves, intending to hit him. Another man beside her saw this and felt very distressed. Hurriedly taking her hand and squeezing it gently, he said, “Be good. If you’re not careful, your hand will hurt. You should stand aside and let me do such menial work.” … In his last life, Zhou Chengkang had built and maintained a large tombstone in front of Li Qinghe’s grave for his entire life after her death. He regretted not expressing the feelings in his heart to her many times. He then died, still carrying that regret. When he opened his eyes again, he found that he was reborn and had returned to the time before she had gotten married to Xu Changjie. The beautiful lady was again alive and graceful, drawing at his heartstrings. He couldn’t help but want to take her into his arms. This time, he won’t miss his chance again. Double rebirth; a story of a husband and wife farming together and living with scums.
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I’m picky about most drama chinese novel but this one doesn’t seem bad it’s already completely MTLd and the mtl is readable and understandable
Sounds fun. Double rebirth is unique and tbf the title made me think of a fusion of a green tea bitch and a white lotus
Oh I remember reading this sometime ago. It's not as bad as those typical romance cnovels out there, plus the Mc and ml are awesome.
Well, no one’s asked after this one for a while, but I felt like giving a rundown of the end of several of the side characters. This is actually what most of the story consists of. I’ve enjoyed the story, but the ML and MC get together quick and have a rock solid relationship, so most of the narrative is them doing their own thing and observing everyone else’s drama. Spoiler: MC’s stepmom Mrs Qian, and MC’s dad Mrs Qian is basically the poster child for causing her own problems. Basically her failings come down to A) falling into the trap of believing that being connected to an official ranked scholar is most important regardless of anything else and B) wanting to live a coddled life of relaxation regardless of practical concerns. Her brother and another relative were being given money from the family to study which they took as free money for prostitutes and booze. Eventually her brother murdered their parents for the funeral money when his usually subsidies started to go down, with the cousin coming out as also being involved later. Obviously he’s sentenced to death, so there goes all her immediate family. Wanwan (her daughter and MC’s stepsister) marries a scholar studying to take the exam and she wants the MC’s dad to completely finance them since scholar, which he eventually puts his foot down on and refuses. She also tries to just sit around the house and not work in the field or in general since she’s jealous of how easy MC’s bio mom’s life is. The husband starts putting his foot down about this as well, letting her suffer consequences. She tries to get back at him by giving him the silent treatment, haranguing him, and refusing to do even the barest of housework like cooking or sewing clothes. Among her unreasonable requests that slowly chip away at his affection for her is wanting to adopt a son that can be registered as her patricidal brother’s kid? Because he was going to be pass the exam you know. The last straw is when he once again refuses to subsidize Wanwan’s husband and she full on moves out, leaving him and moving back with the Qian family. This was supposed to make him come crawling back to her, but instead MC is checking in on him and he mends fences with his parents. His mom sees he’s stuck trying to take care of the fields and house by himself (MC’s helping but she’s married out with her own family now) so arranges him a new marriage. She’s got a distant relative who’s a widow and her life sucks as her late husband’s family mistreat her and her daughter. So the two get married and it all seems to work out great for them. New wife is just happy to be in a better situation and is all for taking care of the house and everything, and he doesn’t exactly miss being punished for not giving unreasonable handouts. He’s got a new stepdaughter, though they marry her off fairly quick. But they all seem to have a pretty good relationship among themselves and with the MC. Mrs Qian is obviously not happy about any of this but what can she do, she left him. What’s left of her bio family isn’t crazy about her presence since they had long been tired of subsidizing the family scholars that she’s obsessed with. She winds up joining Wanwan in her 1st husband’s household, and has to deal with all the fallout of his issues as well. Spoiler: MC’s mom Wanted to go over MC’s mom after the stepmom because they just make a really good case study against each other. Her whole back story is basically that after having a kid and moving out to be a wet nurse she hears about her hubby moving his childhood sweetheart in. Rather than throwing a fit she calmly goes to him and goes “so, obviously our marriage isn’t going to work out, but I’ll be fine. I’ve got another option that I can lock down, so I’m good. Let’s just split in good terms.” Which for the times is a baller and practical way to handle it. Through the story she isn’t a huge part as she’s very constrained by her place as a concubine. But she just focuses on doing what she can for the MC and raising her son. Towards the end of the story she stays with the MC for a long time when she’s pregnant. We learn some hints that her husband’s back courtyard is actually really messy. By the end he basically tells her to make herself scarce for a while when his newest young concubine is pregnant. She’s insulted at the implication that she might go after the unborn kid, but isn’t heartbroken. Like before, she basically goes “well, looks like this relationship is over”. She buys the empty house of the OGFL’s family (I’ll say what happened to them later) to live in. A bit later her husband comes by, turns out the pregnant concubine did have an “accident” and lost the baby and the legal wife wants to clean house. MC’s mom pretty much goes “yeah, I get it. No hard feelings, just make sure my son gets the inheritance he deserves.” And he basically cuts her a pretty generous check. MC’s brother chooses to stay with his mom as apparently the backyard is super messy, and being a concubine born son doesn’t put him in a good position. His dad agrees to it for that exact reason. So in the end MC’s mom is living next door to her daughter and grandsons, in a nice house with a decent financial situation, and her son with her who seems likely to actually pass the civil exams. All because she never tried to reach too far and didn’t pin all her hopes on depending on a dude. Spoiler: Wanwan This one’s a bit sad as there was hope for Wanwan at the beginning. She has real affection for MC and her stepdad and is aware that her mom was more than a bit ridiculous. Then she falls into her mom’s trap of ‘most important thing is being attached to a ranked scholar’ and marries a guy studying to do so. First she works herself to the bone in secret at a hotel, while her husband lives leisurely as it wouldn’t look good for a scholar to be associated with trade. Which while not smart, is at least respectable. But then it turns out that he’s stringing another woman along, assuring her that the two are going to divorce and then them two will get married and by the way could you buy these things for me? Wanwan knows and tacitly approves, but it’s put to a stop by the MC when the woman comes by MC’s dad’s house (where they’re staying) to ask about the pending divorce. There are several instances over several years where Wanwan and her husband show up empty handed and expects MC’s dad to put them up and feed them while the husband just sits around being refined. After the thing with the strung along woman MC’s dad goes “hey, you keep saying that experiencing the pure country life will help center you for the next exam. I bet experiencing the noble pursuit of working the fields will help even more”. After having to actually work for their keep they quickly find another option. This isn’t the only time they show up on his doorstep though, the last time being during a freaking drought/famine. He insists they need to contribute to food costs because famine, which Wanwan throws a fit about because that’s the money for his next exam fee. After that they move in with Wanwan’s bio dad, a drunken wastrel deadbeat. Two things to note. One, there’s no explanation on why they’re not living with her husband’s family, which by the norms of their society is where they should be. MC’s dad notes several times how he’s not receiving any filial piety that would be expected of a married daughter and yet he’s being expected to support his son in law. Secondly, Wanwan’s husband is kinda scummy. MC specifically notes that he’s wanting/expecting all these unreasonable things but it wouldn’t look good for a scholar to stoop to that level. So he sits back and let’s Wanwan stoop that low. It’s only after she’s made herself look terrible that he’ll step forward and act gracefully either acknowledging the help or accepting the rejection. Moving in with her bio dad pretty much broke the bond between her and MC and her dad. Later they ask for money again and get soundly rejected. Near the ends of the story the husband finally passed the exam. Mrs Qian is super smug about it. But then it turns out Wanwan is having trouble conceiving. It seems like they’re finally living with her husband’s family as her mother-in-law takes her to a doctor where they figure out she’ll need a few years and meds before she can have a kid (I think it’s implied the issue is when she was working herself to the bone at that inn). Well mother-in-law figures the much simpler option is to divorce her and get a new fertile daughter-in-law. So Wanwan has no choice but to move back in with her father as she burnt her other bridges. And remember, this guy is the worst. He got caught trying to burgle MC’s fish pond and was given the choice between jail and a big fine. He obviously chose the fine, and decided to get the funds by upping it to armed robbery. He was a little more successful this time around but then it all fell apart and he was sent to jail with an even bigger debt for his household. Meanwhile he’d redeemed a prostitute and his new concubine gave birth to a son. So after this went down she booked it, leaving the baby and debt all in Wanwan and Mrs Qian’s hands. Spoiler: OGFL’s family, her and OGML A lot of the general drama comes from OGFL’s family. They had their fall and had to move to the countryside as per the OG narrative. The main problem is they try to keep acting as lofty and wealthy merchants without the cash to back it up. They use most of the last of their cash to build a needlessly fancy house not too far from MC’s. (Paralleling their actions with MC’s is actually a big thing in the story, mostly because they’re often outright copying her. Except they don’t get why her moves were successful and therefore just dig themselves deeper in debt.). When the OGFL wants to marry the OGML they take out loans to build her a house near MC’s as well (because MC lived separately and it went well for her), and when planting season came along they hired workers and paid in IOUs (Mc paid her employees up front and fed them). They made more IOUs for their daughter’s wedding, which fun fact happened much later than in the OG timeline when MC supposedly cruelly separates the lovers. Eventually people start looking at them sideways with all these IOUs and no payment in sight. Their son, another “scholar” who just lazes around while collecting studying money, can’t take living more frugally and enters into a conspiracy with Wanwan’s bio dad and a rival fishmonger. The three hop over their wall to try and clear out the lake and get caught. I believe the son gets chased down by the dog and bit. They stand trial but the family of the guilty don’t want them to have a record, so the official basically brokers an agreement with the MC and ML that they all pay the injured party and they won’t press charges. OGFL’s family want to pay by IOU but they don’t accept, so the family has to go further afield to borrow even more money. Tensions rise as villagers are practically rioting about their back pay. Then all of a sudden the family calls a bunch of their creditors over and repay a good bit of what they owe. And it just so happens to coincide with the ML’s oldest brother (who had moved into the city and come into money) getting assaulted and burgled. I wonder what happened? This one was a much bigger conspiracy, with the family’s father taking part along with Wanwan’s bio dad and others. They get arrested and sentenced to jail time, on top of needing to pay back the stolen cash. Which isn’t easy considering some of it was spent and not everybody involved was caught. (Somewhere in all this I think the son dies as a result of hanging out with disreputable people, but can’t quite remember the details.) So the family is in ridiculous debt and the patriarch is in jail. To save the OGFL’s dad and help out the OGML steals the money his mother had set aside for his siblings’ marriages, which she actually takes him to court for. They obviously can’t pay up so almost all their worldly possessions get signed over to her. OGML is really proactive in trying to help his in-laws, but they’ve really dug themselves in deep. OGFL is completely helpless, only able to turn the waterworks on and playing pitiful, particularly targeting guys. Which tanks her reputation because said guys are largely married and the wives aren’t happy. She goes from sweet and loving to a harpy with the OGML when he can’t just magically wave his hands and make everything better for her. The family continue to try and copy MC, building a fish pond and planting medicinal herbs like her (though she plants them in a fertile forested area where they can grow well and do all the necessary research with a pharmacist. They don’t think that far.). Obviously no one’s willing to work for them since they still haven’t paid back all their IOUs. But they manage to get a group of workers from elsewhere to live in a shed on the premises. These guys are super schetchy and start causing issues in the village. Everyone goes to the family and particularly OGML’s mom as she owns the land and is their official employer, but she just brushes everyone off. Finally one night there’s a rash of burglaries with several of these workers getting caught. Turns out that while sketchy they are also partial victims. Basically they’d met OGFL’s dad in jail while he was being processed in and they were being processed out. He (and the OGML’s mom through letters) promised them good jobs if they went to work for his family. Then they got there and were given a shed to live in and bedrolls, no money, and barely fed. They complained to OGML’s mom, but she threatened to accuse them of theft and have them thrown back in jail if they didn’t accept the basically slave labor. That’s when they started causing trouble and eventually decided ‘screw this, let’s snatch what we can from the village and run for it’. The authorities weren’t happy with them (they did all burgle the neighborhood) or the two families since they orchestrated this obvious bad idea. In order for the dad to not get his head chopped off since he’s already in jail, the OGML basically takes the fall and is sent off to prison as well. Both families are completely fallen and all their properties are basically confiscated. Here my memory’s a bit spotty, but I want to say the OGFL divorces him since he can’t support her. Regardless, both sides meet their doom at their own hands Spoiler: Yu Yan and Min Rui These two make a good dichotomy with the OGFL's family as well. Yu Yan comes to the village via slave trader as goods. She has a fever and the trader decides to cut his losses and just leave her behind. MC's neighbors are a childless couple and the woman feels sorry for her and takes her in. When she gets better they basically adopt her as their goddaughter. Turns out Yu Yan has some embroidery skills and actually starts bringing in good money, which makes her the most eligible bachelorette. Several families with scholars who need to be financed try to reel her in, including the OGML and his mom. MC lets her know about OGFL, which puts a stop to that. Mrs. Qian starts acting as a spy for her relatives so their last scholar leech can be constantly "accidently" crossing paths with her. Yu Yan basically puts a stop to all of that, stating she has very high appearance requirements and announcing that she's only interested in marrying in a son-in-law to take care of her godparents in their old age. Time passes and another slave trader comes by and is quickly chased off, but on the way out he nearly fatally beats one of the dudes and leaves him on the side of the road for MC and Yu Yan to find him. Yu Yan's hot guy senses start tingling and she brings him home to heal, pretty quickly deciding that this is the guy she's going to marry. Min Rui isn't too much of a presence, but he seems well born and is just as in to Yu Yan and is cool about marrying in. The home life gets awkward fast as her foster parents have nephews and cousins and such who had previously expected to inherit their lands and everything and aren't happy about these new people getting it. Yu Yan is done with it (and its also socially awkward for a dude to be in the household when they're not married), so she buys some land and pays to have a house built so she and MC will be neighbors. The timing isn't the best as its at the start of the drought, but she bites the bullet and spends a lot of money to get herself properly settled and married. She's basically done all the prep so her foster parents can move in with her once they finally can't stand the rest of their relatives. There's some drama with the OGFL as she keeps coming around and approaching the ML and Min Rui, but they both politely and cheerfully tell her to buzz off. They're basically the only two men in the village to do so (everyone holding her on a bit of a pedestal because of her former high standing), hence why she keeps trying. She tries to go to MC and Yu Yan with puppydog eyes but they tell her to buzz off as well, outright telling her that they don't like her and she has no reason to come by and chat up their men. For the most part they're just there, occasionally coming by from next door to be friendly and supportive. Near the end a fancy carriage and well-to-do man shows up looking for Min Rui. Details are sparse, but Min Rui actually comes from a high background, but bad luck and cutthroat family politics saw him sold. Now that the family's fortunes have improved his dad is guilty and wants him back like nothing ever happened. They refuse, Yu Yan privately sharing with MC that her backstory is similar. The two do head off at the end of the story, but only so that they can settle accounts and make the separation formal. It may take a year or two, but afterwards they're coming right back to live well with those who were good to them at their lowest. These two are a really good foil for the OGFL's family. The two of them fell even farther that the family did, and probably had more to complain about. Instead of bemoaning their fate or trying to act like nothing had changed, they just rolled up their sleeves and did what they needed to to live well within their new circumstances. Spoiler: ML's family On the mom, there really isn't much to say. She has her portion of lands she lives on and just does her thing as matriarch of the family. She isn't perfect, there are occasions where she missteps like trying to subtly warn the MC against letting her mom move in when she's pregnant the 2nd time and it seems likely the moms being abandoned, or wanting the MC and ML to pretend nothing happened when the eldest brother accuses them of getting rid of their nephew. But in these instances the MC puts her foot down and lays down some boundaries, and the mom doesn't choose to be unreasonable and cause more strife in the family. The woman was widowed early and had to raise 5 small children in very poor circumstances and she did her best. Overall she's generally helpful and doesn't cause problems. ((One thing that is kinda always there and underlying with the brothers is that when their father died and their mother was about to give birth to #5 things were very difficult. So the 1st and 3rd brother took little ML out into the mountain and "accidentally" lost him. If a mountain man hadn't come across him and taken care of him then he would have definitely died. The whole family largely tries to just never speak or think of this occasion, but the text all but says the two brothers decided things would be easier with one less mouth to feed and decided to make that happen.)) Spoiler: Brother and SIL 1 The most drama fueled brother. So he marries a widow who has her previous MIL in tow. They make this work for a bit by everyone stepping on eggshells. And then SIL1 gets pregnant. Turns out that on top of them two promising to take care of her and handle her funeral, they'd also secretly promised that SIL1 wouldn't have a kid for like a decade (Maybe the old woman thought she'd be gone by then?). So she's not a good person and insists they have an abortion, which they obviously don't want to do, but she threatens to just sell the SIL's tofu recipe and live on that money (the business was something the SIL inherited from her parents, not her former husband). With a push from ML's mom they basically go "fine, do it" and break ties with her. Things go on, SIL1 gives birth but complications mean the baby's not in the best health and will be an only child. The old mil does sell the recipe to a few people and buys herself a house in the county seat. Things stay at an even keel with them until word comes by that the old mil is dieing. Turns out just watching SIL1 working means she didn't have the complete recipe, and one of the buyers isn't happy about it. They have an argument in an alley and the old woman gets pushed. Well, Brother1 and SIL1 had officially promised to take care of her in her old age and arrange her funeral, so they move into her house to fulfill the agreement. And when she dies a few months later, well who else is going to inherit the place and all that money she stashed away? So they make the move permanent and keep up the tofu business. A little drama as they basically forget about the rest of their family, not coming back to fulfill filial piety for the mom or even seeing the family for like a year until the ML brings the mom to them. Also, they've let all the extra money go to their head, wearing fine new clothes and jewelry, putting on some airs, and just generally not being as circumspect as would be wise. I don't think they're really malicious, but the brother in particular is a bit dim and grasping and it seems to genuinely not occur to him that there's a problem with his behavior. Well, you really shouldn't advertise that you've got a lot of money in the house. One night they wake up to like a dozen+ hooded dudes demanding the cash. The brother puts up a fight and takes some hits but when they threaten the kid the two hand everything over. They move back into the main house while things are being investigated, and its revealed that it was a conspiracy among WanWan's bio dad, OGFL's dad, and some local ne'erdowells. Even though a bunch of people go to jail they don't get all the money back. They choose to stay in the main house and let Brother1 just commute for the tofu business. Next time Brother1 comes into focus is when OGFL's and OGML's families' sketchy workers decide to burgle the neighborhood and make a run for it. Apparently at least one of the criminals got scared of being captured with stolen loot and just dumps it on the side of the road. Brother1 finds it and doesn't see how picking up this mystery bag of cash could cause any problems. The whole village is swarming with cops and it obviously does. He's initially suspected of being in cahoots with the criminals and spends some time in jail. During the trial they eventually manage to convince the judge that he's not a thief, just stupid. He returns skinny, scared, and embarrassed. They'd also spent a good deal of money on his defense, which paired with their previous burglary I think puts them back at the financial situation they were in before old mil died. The last bit with the two is during the family new years celebration. All the kids are out in the yard playing, and since the gate's closed they're not being watched too closely. Then FL notices she can't see Bro1's kid. The whole family start rushing around trying to find the toddler. Brother1 freaks out and accuses ML of taking and disposing of his kid, because ML has obviously been holding a grudge over him and #3 doing the same to him. Never mind how this makes no sense and he hadn't had the opportunity or anything. FL is furious and basically goes "If that's how you feel, then we should just have nothing to do with each other from now on" and they head back home. The kid's then pretty much immediately found because he was napping under a bush (because toddler live for giving adults heart attacks). The mom tries to mend fences but FL puts her foot down, stating they'll still be cool with the rest of the family but they're done with that brother. Brother and SIL 2 These two are pretty drama free. Brother2 marries the MC's childhood friend and actually marries into her family rather than marrying her into his (an option that sometimes happened when a couple only had a daughter). Much like the MC and ML they just live practically doing their own thing. They come back and help out the brothers' mom with her stuff as needed and make themselves scarce when drama pops up. The mom is very conscious that he married out, so doesn't have any more filial expectation on him than she will on the daughter that gets married out. They just continue to have a good relationship with the MC and ML and live their lives. Spoiler: Brother and SIL 3 There's a lot of drama here, but it mostly comes down to SIL3 being constantly unpleasant. She's a spoiled daughter of wealthy city merchants and for some reason married a super poor village guy while expecting to still maintain the lifestyle to which she was accustomed. She's pretty much constantly picking fights and causing general strife, and is unbearably smug when she's the first of the recently married to have a kid. While her presence makes everyday a bit more annoying, there isn't really a huge thing as she's also not all that hard to put in her place. The turning point with her is during the drought. Several business people from the city decide to move out for greener pastures, including SIL3's maiden family and MC's mom's husband's household. Even a few years into her marriage SIL3 isn't content with being a simple village girl and wants her and Brother3 to move with her family. Now MC's mom had hung back to see her 1st grandchild borne, with her husband to fetch her later. Well Brother3 and SIL3 had this ongoing fight about the situation and SIL3 seems to have gone "Well, I'm going with or without you. When MC's mom leaves I'll catch a ride with her", and it seems sent word to her family to appraise them of this fact. So the baby's born and the carriage arrives to pick up MC's mom, who stops by the main house on her way out. SIL3 comes out expecting to hop on but MC's mom relays that the maiden family essentially said "We don't want you back". SIL3 has a freakout on the side of the road, but doesn't have any choice but to accept it. Before this point SIL3 always had the attitude that she'd massively married down, and they should be grateful that she condescended to accept Brother3. After this... well she never really becomes a pleasant person, but she becomes a lot more bearable. Spoiler: #5, the Sister With the sister all the drama is around securing her a husband since she's at that age. Nothing wrong with the sister, she's a bit of a wallflower and meek being the youngest with 4 older brothers, but a generally helpful and thoughtful person. At first she kinda puts off the marriage talks because she's got a crush on a young guy who's poor even when compared to her own family, with dead parents and a bedridden sister who could kick the bucket at any moment and requires a lot of expensive medicine. She approaches the MC about this, who points out all these difficulties she'd be setting herself up for, so she thinks it over and drops the idea (When MC's dad marries his 3rd wife the new stepdaughter marries this guy, since her starting circumstances aren't really any better and she's prepared to work hard so long as the guy's nice). First meeting with a dude set up by her mom and a matchmaker is a bust. The guy's actually got a different girl he's interested in, but he's very upfront and open about it with the sister and breaks things nicely. She lets her mom know, and while the mom is annoyed at the neighbor who set up the meeting everyone shrugs it off and goes looking again. 2nd try is also a bust, her mom feels out the prospective groom's mom vis-a-vis the lifestyle she could expect and they mutually agree that the two aren't a good fit. 3rd time's the charm, they find a nice boy and when the two take a walk they seem to hit it off. The one bit of drama is that he'd previously been interested in another chick who wound up marrying his cousin since he had better prospects. This other chick is very much like OGFL, white lotus being weepy and leaning on men and insisting on being "special" to everyone. Some rumors start going around about the two, which upsets the sister and her mom, but he comes by and lays everything out. He had been interested in her, but later figured out that she was just trying to keep a back door open so he could be used and he wants nothing to do with her. Then speak of the devil and she appears, literally showing up at the same time to "explain", basically doing to equivalent of knocking on your neighbor's door just to let them know that you know they're missing stuff out of their shed but it definitely wasn't you and anyone who saw you poking around there is just mistaken. Everyone nips that in the bud, practically chasing her off and going "we know you guys have nothing to do with each other, and since that's the case maybe you shouldn't be running over and bothering him". I don't think the wedding happens before the story peters out, but every indication is that the two are going to have a great relationship and marriage. One thing that’s fun to note is that the story is basically endorsing the MC and her family just being practical and taking care of their own stuff. There are so many instances off the narrative calling out people for giving everything to “scholar” family members on the maybe promise that they’ll be repaid when they pass the exam. Even when the men in question are obviously fckboys just wasting the cash. And it’s not that the pursuit of officialdom is bad, as it’s pretty clear that that’s the route MC’s brother is going for. But placing more importance on being an examinee than in personal virtue, or even practical concerns like eating in the moment, isn’t going to do anyone any good. The OGFL’s family would have been fine if they just re-evaluated their circumstances and not tried to live it up as the big fish in a little pond. Later when they’re copying the MC people go up to her wondering if she’s mad at them, but she just brushes it off like “it’s not my business if they want to make their own fishery, it won’t stop me from selling”. She just takes care of her own business, whereas several people try to copy her because they are jealous, and then do a poor job of copying as they were more focused on the results than how she got there. She and her best friend are also compared to figures like Mrs Qian and the OGFL, who intend to get through life by depending on and charming men. Obviously depending on a guy isn’t wrong in and of itself, but only having that is. MC works just as hard as the ML to make sure they live a good life. Her friend has a way to make her own money and rejects a lot of guys before marrying one she likes despite him having nothing (she literally picks him up off the side of the road). They chose their men based on their character rather than what they could get out of them, and they’d be fine without them. Meanwhile other parties lose everything. They attach themselves to guys that just aren’t dependable, because they focused on what they could get rather than if the guy would be willing to support them. They ask more than their man can reasonably do, as no matter what there are limits to what even the best guy is capable of. Either the man in question isn’t willing to destroy himself to please them and breaks it off, or they completely drag him down and he’s actually destroyed. Weeping and crying only works so long before it just becomes irritating to everyone. In the end the MC becomes A)wealthier than a lot of people who were desperately scrambling for wealth, B) more well respected and in higher status with the government than any of the wannabe scholars via her agriculture work with potatoes (seriously, she even gets a subsidy since they were really invested in the cultivation of sweet potatoes) and her supplying medical herbs.
Anything in particular you were wondering about, or anything you wanted more detail about? I read ahead in MTL so I’ve mostly got broad strokes, but I think I covered most of the major events. A little on the MC and ML’s success. OG timeline the MC used saving to OGML to leverage for marriage of course, but this time around she asks for cash. This is way at the beginning, but it is also the start of a trend where the MC recognizes that getting a cash windfall is equivalent of a hot potato and she needs to offload it quick. Mrs. Qian starts trying to dictate where it should be sent and a good amount of other people start leaning in and making suggestions that would just so happen to benefit themselves as well. Which is why she buys the trash land on the mountain. Cash can change hands any number of ways, but the land’s in her name and there really isn’t anything anybody can do about that. She uses the last of her money practically to get the land cleaned up and make herself a little farmstead with a fish pond. On the ML’s side, in the OG timeline he stayed away from her and never revealed his affections because he didn’t think he had anything to offer her. Then he saw her marry the most eligible guy around and she had an absolutely bad ending, so the 2nd go round he determines that “hey, being sincere isn’t nothing” and openly courts her. It gets a few side eyes, but in the end it’s not like they come from completely different spheres, so everyone just kinda shrugs it off once it becomes a done deal. Spoiler: Sweet Potatoes On the sweet potatoes, the MC just happens to see them in town and decides to buy them. Now take the rest of this as me extrapolating, but between the Mandate of Heaven and how often China fell apart it seems like a lot of emperors were particularly aware that all that stood between them and a dynasty change is whether or not the peasantry were pissed enough to revolt. And the tipping point of that has generally been famine. Well natural disasters happen and you can’t really prevent it, but the government seems to have really high hopes for sweet potatoes as being a high yield produce that can survive unfavorable conditions and tide over the peasantry in lean times. The only problem is that the farmers weren’t biting. Understandably, they were looking at these unfamiliar crops that hadn’t been tested, that they would have to buy and devote a percentage of their fields to, and if it turned out the potatoes were no good then they’d still owe their granary tax aka ‘I hope you weren’t planning to eat those crops’. But for the MC, she’d lived long enough in the OG timeline to know the potatoes would take off and had a general idea of how they were planted. This is very much a small countryside story so the court and nobility never enter into view, but the MC does get several visits from a small time local official because of her seemingly being the first to bite the bullet and give the potatoes a go (presumably he’d been getting a lot of pressure from above to get the farmers to start planting the stuff). Her first crop works out well, so he takes a look to check out her methods. And once it goes well for her a lot of the other farmers were willing to give them a shot. This guy gets pretty invested in her as an example for others to follow, to the point that a couple of times when they’ve got a lot in their plates and may not be able to do all the planting they’d done previously the official brings in workers to help them out. End the end the potatoes do their job, when a drought hits the MC’s village largely takes it like a champ compared to other nearby villages. This in turn gets neighboring villages interested and verified the government’s high hopes. As a reward for being the one to really get the ball rolling the MC and her family are rewarding with having their granary/land taxes waved (I wanna say for like 50+ years), which is also one of the big rewards for passing the official exam. Spoiler: Fish and Medicinal Plants The fish pond is always kinda just there, providing them a good income. It does mean that MC’s interacting with the townsfolk a lot as they’re coming over to buy fish. The main things with the fish pond is a couple of instances when people try to steal from it, which I went over in my last spoiler. (One detail I left out was that by this point there were 2 workers living on the property, a couple from a neighboring village that hadn’t weathered the drought well. They’d come by when the MC needed to hire workers for the spring planting and they came to the agreement that it would be a permanent deal since the two were pretty desperate for a new situation and the MC and ML really did have too much on their plates between all the land and young children for just them to take care of). As soon as the culprits’ families hand over the restitution money the two immediately turn to the governor and go “so we want to buy the trash forested mountain land back behind what we already own”. Again, having a pile of cash on hand is just asking for trouble, so they get it off their hands as soon as possible, not even going home with it. Which considering that once they get back there are literally people standing by the road waiting to ask for a hand out, was really prescient on their parts. So they had all this land, but this really was trash land. Her initial land was at least cleanable and able to be turned to farmland, but clearing out a bunch of forest on uneven ground wouldn’t be worth it. It’s when she’s trying to think of things the land could be used for that she comes up with growing medicinal plants. At some point everyone needs medicine, but for the most part no one was producing the raw materials. Doctors often have small gardens, but they’re not devoting that much of their time to it, and otherwise people just go into forests hoping to find something. Since she’s got the sort of land where the stuff grows naturally it isn’t that big a leap to actively cultivate the stuff. Again, she’s smart about it. She goes to the doctor in town to sound out how feasible it is, and makes a deal with him to provide some initial seedlings in return for a cut of profits and future discounts. He also sends his grandson to their place to brush up the family’s literacy and teach them just enough on medicine to recognize which plants are useful and how to help them grow etc. the family is genuinely studious about this, even if the older son tries to play hookie and run off from his studies. Because they knuckle down and made sure they were doing things right the business took off and they became the main medicinal plant supplier around (as opposed to the OGFL’s family who try to copy but instead of planting in loamy soil under tree cover just plop their plants on practically the cliff side to be buffeted by the wind and rain). Like I kinda said before, the MC and ML mainly just focus on taking care of their own shit that’s right before them. It just so happens that when they have their own affairs is order it happens to improve the well-being of those around. Spoiler: MC and her parents In the original timeline the MC has some resentment against her parents, feeling like her mom abandoned her and her dad always put his wife first in front of her. After experiencing death and rebirth she takes a small step back and views things more objectively. For her mom, she did kinda abandon the MC. She married a relatively rich guy, but as a concubine she’s still basically a servant. She needs permission to leave the house and doesn’t personally own much, so she quite literally just can’t be there for her daughter a lot of the time. But what was she going to do when her husband moved his sweetheart in? And she does what she can for her daughter, even if it’s jumping through the hoops so she can take a carriage out to her ex’s house and threaten him if he tries to force a marriage the MC doesn’t like. Even later when the MC has her first kid and her mom is looking at her household being moved far away the mom approaches her and basically says “look, if you need me to stay around then tell me and I’ll figure something out.” As far as her dad goes, yes what he did to her mother was objectively shitty. But he’s still her dad, even if he’s susceptible to Mrs. Qian’s honey trap. And she doesn’t have full control over him. A lot of Mrs. Qian’s past manipulations and wins were possible because the MC was (arguably justifiably) petulant. When the MC started taking the high road Mrs. Qian had a lot less of a leg to stand on. And while the MC’s dad was initially blinded by affection, when it came down to it he was ready to stand on the MC’s side when what his wife wanted was objectively not in MC’s interests. He put his foot down on the MC handing over her money and not having her marry Mrs. Qian’s relative. For the most part all MC has to do was not sink down to Mrs Qian’s level and make sure her dad knew what was going on for him to start setting boundaries with his wife. He respects MC’s autonomy and her opinions. One kinda funny the is when his 3rd marriage is getting geared up almost everyone goes to MC to ask her opinion. Her dad full on asks for permission. Her grandmother and aunt who set the whole thing up do the same. Everyone just like “look, you just got rid of one stepmom. We get it if your not crazy about another one. As his closest relative and the one front and center helping deal with all the previous mess, if you don’t think this is a good idea we’ll just figure something else out”. In the end the MC is on good terms with all her family, including the half-brother and her new stepmom and sister.
Thank u so much!! You really did summaries everything. I appreciate it very much. BTW can you recommend some novels to me ? Thanks again