Fang Jinzhu is a recent college graduate who inherits a massive debt and a failing five-hundred-mu farm after her parents die in a car accident and her uncles abscond with the liquid assets. Facing a deadline to harvest her crops before a predicted rainstorm ruins them, and desperate to sell the property to reduce her five-million-yuan debt, she discovers two starving children dressed in ancient Hanfu clothing in her chicken coop. The children, Rui Rui and Shu Shu, claim to have emerged from a shed door that leads to a fish pond, revealing that Fang Jinzhu’s farm serves as a portal to the past. She learns they are from the Tangwu Dynasty, specifically from the besieged Northern Liao City, where fifty thousand soldiers and civilians are facing starvation due to a severed supply line from the imperial court.
Rui Rui and Shu Shu are the nephews of Chu Ye, the General of the Northern Garrison, who is desperately trying to protect his people from starvation and potential cannibalism. Upon learning of the portal, Chu Ye sends the children with a plea for help. Fang Jinzhu, moved by their plight and the general’s desperate letter, decides to use her modern resources to aid them. She sells a calligraphy and painting sent by Chu Ye to an antique dealer, who appraises it as a rare artifact from the obscure Tangwu Small State and pays her two million yuan. This windfall allows Fang Jinzhu to not only save her own farm by hiring harvesters and buying grain but also to purchase five hundred thousand catties of rice and flour for Northern Liao.
The story follows Fang Jinzhu’s logistical efforts to transport the grain across the dimensional barrier. She purchases mechanical arms and conveyor belts to facilitate the movement of heavy supplies, while the children act as couriers between the two worlds. In the Tangwu Dynasty, the arrival of the grain brings immediate relief to the starving soldiers and civilians, bolstering General Chu Ye’s ability to hold the border. The narrative explores the growing bond between Fang Jinzhu and the ancient family, as well as the stark contrast between her modern abundance and their historical suffering. As Fang Jinzhu navigates her financial recovery and the mysterious connection to the past, she becomes the savior of Northern Liao, balancing her own survival with the monumental responsibility of sustaining a city across time.
