After decades of turmoil, the new ruler of the Great Xia Dynasty issued a decree allowing refugees to form households and reproduce. Zhou Xing, a woman who had died in her previous life after being betrayed by her husband and his mistress, transmigrated into the body of a starving refugee girl named Zhou Axing. She woke up in the middle of a wedding ceremony, married to Xie Yuan, a poor scholar who had fled north with his two young nephews, Xiao Zong and Xiao Yao. The Xie family was destitute, living in three mud-brick rooms with barely enough grain to last two months. Xie Yuan had chosen Zhou Xing because she appeared capable of managing a household without causing trouble.
Zhou Xing accepted her new reality and focused on survival. She managed the meager rations, cooked thin porridge with wild vegetables, and quickly won the affection of the two orphaned children, who were sensitive and eager to please. Her modern knowledge proved invaluable when she identified wild yams in the mountains, a food source the locals had overlooked. The discovery provided enough food to sustain the family through the coming winter. Xie Yuan, who had been reborn after dying in regret in his previous life, recognized Zhou Xing's value. He had previously failed to save his family and died in disgrace after being implicated in an exam scandal. In this life, he aimed to provide for his nephews and achieve a measure of peace, though he still harbored ambitions to pass the imperial examinations.
As the family settled into Dashi Village, they received land allocations from the county government. Zhou Xing insisted on acquiring paddy fields to grow rice, a skill she claimed to have learned from her aunt, and introduced rice-fish co-culture techniques to neighbors Aunt He and her daughter Lin Shan. Her knowledge extended to food preservation and preparation, including making soy sauce, pickles, and fermented dough for steamed buns. She also discovered sugarcane growing in the mountains, which Xie Yuan had found during his hunting trips. Recognizing the potential for profit, Zhou Xing designed a wooden press to extract sugarcane juice, planning to make sugar and fruit jam to sell in the county town.
The couple worked as partners, with Xie Yuan handling manual labor and construction while Zhou Xing managed the household and culinary innovations. They hired local men to help plow the fields, treating them to meals that showcased Zhou Xing's cooking skills. The improved diet and stable food supply boosted the family's morale. Xiao Zong and Xiao Yao, once gaunt and timid, began to thrive under Zhou Xing's care. She also arranged for the children to receive an education, believing that knowledge would protect them from being deceived in the future.
Xie Yuan prepared for a dangerous trip into the deep mountains to harvest ginseng, a valuable treasure he knew the location of from his past life. He crafted bows and arrows and prepared realgar powder to ward off snakes, understanding that failure was not an option. Meanwhile, Zhou Xing continued to expand their agricultural and culinary projects, cultivating yeast and experimenting with new recipes. The family's situation improved steadily, moving from near-starvation to a state of cautious optimism. Their partnership deepened as they shared goals and plans, with Xie Yuan finding renewed purpose in providing for his new family. The story follows their efforts to build a stable life in a harsh environment, leveraging Zhou Xing's modern knowledge and Xie Yuan's determination to overcome the challenges of poverty and social instability in the newly unified dynasty.
