Chapter 1 Alas! Open the door! Don't hide inside and keep quiet!
In the autumn of the eighth year of the Baoyuan era, in the alley behind the Imperial College.
Just as the clapper sounded at dawn, and the sky was about to brighten, the sound of schoolchildren reciting their lessons could be heard loudly from some nearby house in the alley.
"Grrrr-"
"How perilous and high! The road to Shu is more difficult than ascending to heaven!" [Note 1]
"The silkworm comes from...from...from what again?" The voice paused awkwardly, then began roaring again, "Alas! Alas!"
Yao Ruyi was awakened by a groan, rubbing her eyes as she sat up.
Several baskets filled with dried vegetables hung from the low beams with hemp ropes. The bamboo lattice windows were covered with moldy, rough-edged paper. Inside the small room, everything—the earthen bed, the wooden table, the low cabinet, the oil lamp—appeared old and worn, exuding an air of meager poverty.
Yao Ruyi stared blankly at the quaint house in front of her. Even though she had been traveling for more than ten days, she would still be startled every time she woke up.
When she first arrived, she was still in shock, and her body had been poisoned by "coal smoke," leaving her drowsy and nauseous all day. She was also confused, and every now and then a middle-aged woman with a blue headscarf would bring her soup and medicine while cursing. She was dizzy, had tinnitus, and was weak in her limbs. For several days, she was completely at the mercy of others, which frightened the woman so much that she dragged in an old doctor carrying a medicine box in the middle of the night. The doctor then forced her to take medicine and performed acupuncture, keeping her busy for half the night.
Yao Ruyi was in excruciating pain from the stabs and finally let out a sob.
The pain felt so real that she finally accepted the fact that she had traveled back in time after her death.
It's not that she has a weak ability to understand things; it's just that this time she transmigrated into a book. That day, tossing and turning in pain after the surgery, she randomly clicked on a light novel called "Bianjing Noodle Shop" to pass the long night. As she read, she saw a familiar name and couldn't help but exclaim in the comments section: "I actually share the same name as the granddaughter of that customer who blew up the kitchen. What a coincidence!"
Unfortunately, she hadn't finished reading the extra chapters of the book when she passed away a few days later due to postoperative infection and liver failure.
When she opened her eyes again, she had truly become the "granddaughter of the diner who blew up the kitchen" in the book—although her broken life was only a short twenty years, most of which was spent struggling to survive in the hospital, she never thought she could time travel. Putting aside how absurd the idea was, she still had a grandmother who loved her very much, and for her grandmother's sake, she still wanted to live, even if it was just for another year or half a year, she would stay with her for as long as possible.
Now look what happened, they didn't even let her leave a word, they just threw her into the book with a "whoosh".
This book is a fictional Song Dynasty food business novel. It tells the story of Shen Miao, a modern chef who transmigrates into the body of a divorced woman and starts her business with a small pancake stall in Bianjing (Kaifeng). Since falling ill, Yao Ruyi has particularly enjoyed reading about the mundane daily life of cooking, petting cats, and raising dogs. In particular, there are many delicious foods in the book that she can't eat due to her illness, so reading about them is a treat for her eyes.
I was just killing time because I couldn't sleep, so I wasn't really paying attention. Who knew I'd get hooked so suddenly!
Now all she can do is try to recall how the book described the original owner—"Since you're already here, you have to live, right? You didn't even think about dying in your previous life when things were so tough, how can you give up now that you're healthy?" If her grandmother knew how spineless she was, she would probably throw her slippers at her.
"I refuse to die; I insist on living."
This is a famous saying of my grandmother.
However, the book's content had absolutely nothing to do with the original owner. She wasn't even a background character in the book; the original text only briefly mentioned the original owner's grandfather, Yao Qizhao, without providing any detailed description of her life trajectory. To make matters worse, the memories the original owner left in her mind were as if they had been shredded. Yao Ruyi had been piecing things together for the past ten days or so, and she had finally managed to get some clues.
The original owner, "Yao Ruyi," was from Tanzhou, Jinghu South Road. She lost both her parents and lived with her grandfather.
As an only child, she was pampered by her parents while they were alive. After both parents died of an epidemic, her grandfather, Yao Qizhao, doted on her even more, gradually raising her to be as fragile as a porcelain vase. In the book, he briefly recounted how, when Yao Qizhao was serving as the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, he caught his fiancé, Deng Sheng, philandering with a male prostitute, broke off the engagement in the street, and even knocked out two of the prostitute's teeth.
While it was satisfying to hear, it became the beginning of the Yao family's troubles.
Yao Qizhao was an upright and honest official. During his tenure as Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, he consistently refused gifts of ice and charcoal, severely punished bribery in examinations, and even refused to accept preserved meats from his students during festivals. Such impartiality was so unsociable that Yao Ruyi guessed he might have offended many of his more congenial colleagues in the bureaucracy.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been attacked by the censors for assaulting someone.
The Deng family, having lost face and ruined their future, took advantage of the situation like mad dogs biting someone. They not only bribed a bunch of idlers to spread rumors on the street that the original owner was destined to bring death to her parents, but also slandered the Yao family for having men from other families frequently visiting, and that Yao Qizhao was condoning his granddaughter's affair.
Despite the rampant rumors and his isolation, Yao Qizhao continued to petition the emperor, impeaching the Deng family for their lax family discipline, marriage fraud, and slander, demanding severe punishment for Deng Sheng without backing down. In the end, Deng Sheng, that lowly official, was dismissed by the emperor, and Yao Qizhao, for assaulting a high-ranking official, was demoted from a fifth-rank scholar to a ninth-rank scholar, a settlement achieved through appeasement.
The original owner was timid to begin with, and amidst the rampant rumors and gossip, he became even more like a snail hiding in its shell, refusing to see the light of day again.
Perhaps overwhelmed with guilt, Yao Qizhao became even more indulgent and cautious towards his granddaughter after this huge uproar. Since the original owner of this body remained secluded at home, he would get up early every day to prepare meals for her; if his granddaughter refused to speak, he would write her messages daily to communicate with her. Although rumors swirled outside like knives, Yao Qizhao kept them at bay, and the original owner's life gradually calmed down.
Just as she was recovering, the government added extra imperial examinations every year, and Yao Qizhao was ordered to participate in setting the questions and supervising the examinations. He had to stay in the examination hall for two months. He was worried about her, so he had to entrust his granddaughter to the only relative of the Yao family in Bianjing: his cousin Yao Ji, who was a minor official in the Kaifeng government.
Unexpectedly, this brief period of living under someone else's roof brought the original owner back to reality: Yao Ji's family dared not complain in front of Yao Qizhao, their elder, but they were already full of resentment towards the grandfather and grandson. Yao Yunniang, the daughter of the original owner, was troubled by the original owner's broken engagement and found it difficult to find a husband, so she vented her long-accumulated resentment on the original owner.
Although there was no beating or scolding, Yao Ji, her cousin, and his wife, Wu, often ridiculed and mocked her: "Ruyi, with your gloomy and awkward personality, it's no wonder that young master Deng goes to brothels."
"Tsk, she's not born into a noble family, yet she's raised a bunch of pretentious people."
"Your grandfather was also impulsive. Why did he have to beat someone up in the street? It would have been better for everyone if he had quietly broken off the engagement. Even if he had beaten her, he could have reconciled properly and wouldn't have lost his official position and ended up like this! Look at your sister Yunniang, she's been rejected three times for marriage because of you! And you, you act like nothing happened, you come home and give me a cold face every day, never saying a kind word. Do you think our family owes you anything?"
The original owner became increasingly depressed after returning home.
To make matters worse, last month, while grading assignments, Yao Qizhao was so enraged by the nonsensical essays written by several dissolute students that he collapsed. Fortunately, the students were carried to the clinic in time to avoid being taken by the King of Hell, but he has since suffered from leg problems and become confused.
Now things have really gone wrong. The original owner's world has collapsed. She saw that her grandfather's mouth was crooked and he could hardly walk with a cane. He often didn't even recognize her. After weeping for several days, the usually timid and cowardly person resolutely closed the doors and windows and took her grandfather to die by burning charcoal. All of this was actually what Yao Ruyi deduced after she arrived. In the original owner's memories, the day of her suicide was completely blank. She didn't know what exactly happened that day.
Because Yao Ruyi suddenly woke up amidst the smoky atmosphere of the room.
When she woke up, she coughed and vomited incessantly, and her muscles and bones were weak. Although she did not know where she was or what she had encountered, she was a warrior who had been fighting cancer for eight years and had an extremely strong will to live. She immediately crawled out with her hands and feet, and after catching her breath, she turned her head and was surprised to find that there was still someone moaning softly in the room. She held her breath and gritted her teeth to crawl back and drag Yao Qizhao, who was half-conscious from the smoke, out as well.
Looking back, Yao Ruyi had no idea how she could have had such strength.
Just then, the door creaked open, and a middle-aged woman wearing a headscarf entered.
"Now that you're better, get up and move around! What kind of behavior is it to stay cooped up in bed all day!" The woman's eyes flashed with disgust as she saw that Yao Ruyi could sit up. She said irritably, "Don't always wear that mournful face, as if the whole world owes you something! If you could have stood up earlier, you wouldn't be in this state! Enough! What's the point of me talking to you, you blockhead? It's a waste of breath. Listen carefully, I've already done more than enough by taking care of you and your grandfather for half a month. I'm going home today. Good luck to you!"
The woman before them was none other than Wu, the original owner's aunt. She was also the one who had been taking care of Yao Ruyi and Yao Qizhao these past few days. This woman was quite strange; she hated and loathed her, never saying a kind word, yet Yao Ruyi and Grandpa Yao remained refreshed after being bedridden for many days, which showed how meticulously she had cared for them.
She tried to speak, but Yao Ruyi remained silent. She snorted and slammed the door shut as she left.
Listening to the receding footsteps and the sound of the courtyard gate being opened and closed, Yao Ruyi took a deep breath. Although what Wu Shi said was harsh, it was not wrong. Now she should make good plans for how to live her life in the future.
She turned around, found a pair of embroidered shoes by the bedside and put them on, then found a set of everyday clothes at the foot of the bed and clumsily put them on by instinct.
The Yao family wasn't wealthy; in fact, they were quite poor. The original owner's clothes were all made of the most ordinary fine cotton cloth. Today, she was wearing a slightly worn light green cotton jacket with embroidered plum blossoms, a narrow-sleeved front opening, and a blue ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress). Her hair was styled in a simple double-loop bun, and that was all she was wearing.
The story of this book is set in a Song Dynasty that is full of loopholes and lacks rigor. The author may have been overwhelmed by research or not very bright when writing it, so some regulations and customs from other dynasties have been mixed in.
However… Yao Ruyi scratched her head somewhat awkwardly. She couldn’t really tell the difference. Due to poor health, her schooling had been intermittent since junior high school, which was her biggest regret. This also meant that all her historical knowledge came from the various period dramas she watched with her grandmother, or the online novels she read to pass the time when she was sick, making it difficult to rely on as a basis for her life experiences.
She pushed open the door and saw a narrow, long courtyard, so small that it was completely visible: a brick wall, only about half a head taller than an adult, enclosed four and a half rooms, with a front porch in a straight line. The gabled gray tile roof was somewhat dilapidated, and the polished bluestone slabs on the ground were full of cracks.
The wall was made of bricks and stones, and the gaps were covered with moss and weeds, clearly indicating that no one had time to clean it. At the foot of the east wall was a small, low, round well, with a round wooden lid covering the opening, and a wooden bucket tied with a thick hemp rope on top of it.
That's all.
Now that it was daylight, a square table and two long benches were set up in the courtyard. On the table was a pot of half-cooked millet porridge, a dish of pickled cucumbers, and two slightly burnt sesame seed cakes. These must have been prepared by Madam Wu that morning. Her cooking skills were mediocre, and she seemed to be too tired from taking care of the two patients to put much effort into it, since Yao Ruyi had been eating the same thing for the past few days.
It was still early, and Grandpa Yao hadn't gotten up yet; the courtyard was quiet.
As the autumn winds blow, the only sounds are the chirping and hopping of the birds kept by the neighbors in their cages.
The Yao family only had two rooms that were habitable. The main room was where Yao Ruyi slept, the left wing was Dr. Yao's room, and the right side was the kitchen.
There was a narrow passage between the back of the house and the wall, with a locked side gate in the corner. Next to it was a woodshed with some firewood and half a basket of coal briquettes. Yao Ruyi was surprised to find coal briquettes. She squatted down and looked at them for a long time. The coal briquettes were flat and round, without holes, and solid. Each one weighed about one or two pounds and varied in size. They looked like they were shaped by hand, but they must have been mixed with yellow clay to increase their stickiness, otherwise they could not have been shaped like this.
That's quite advanced. Yao Ruyi even counted how many coal briquettes were left; there were probably about twenty. If even a poor official's family like the Yaos could burn coal, then coal must have been quite common in Bianjing (Kaifeng). [Note 2]
This is a good thing. Yao Ruyi looked up at the sky. Although the autumn heat was still fierce, coal was essential for getting through the winter.
She went around from the back of the house to the front yard. Near the left side of the gate, there were two low huts built against the wall, like illegal structures. One of them was cluttered with miscellaneous items, while the other housed Grandpa Yao's books, letters, and some old articles, which were piled up in boxes. It was the Yao family's storeroom.
There was a large water vat at the entrance to the kitchen, covered with a round wooden lid, and half a gourd ladle was placed on top of it.
Yao Ruyi turned her head and looked at the small well again. It was probably the most satisfying feature in this courtyard. Having a well in the house made washing clothes and cooking much more convenient.
She thought she'd go fetch water to wash her face first. Several toothbrushes with wooden handles made of pig bristles were placed on the stove, slanted into bamboo tubes. Tooth powder was also there; opening the earthenware jar released a scent of mint and menthol.
The people of Bianjing are quite advanced.
After washing up, Yao Ruyi splashed some water, sat down, scooped out half a bowl of porridge, and ate it slowly with pickled cucumber. Although she was hungry, she was still feeling a little nauseous, so she didn't dare to eat too much.
After finishing her meal, she cleaned up the dishes and stove, put the unfinished porridge back into the cupboard, washed the bowls with water, and then placed them upside down in a winnowing basket under the windowsill to dry.
After finishing all this, she picked up the broom from the corner and slowly swept the yard, taking the opportunity to familiarize herself with the surroundings. But the more she swept, the more desperate she became: the firewood and charcoal were gone, the rice jar was empty, and there were only a few cabbages and half a bag of fine flour left in the cellar... How could an official's family be so poor!
Is this reasonable? Even if it's a transmigration story... Yao Ruyi silently leaned on the broom, her face calm, but inside, a little devil was tearing her hair out and screaming: Money! Where did all the money go!
Just as he was about to break down, he heard someone knocking loudly on the door knocker: "Yao Tanyue! Open the door! Don't hide inside and keep quiet! This monk knows you're home! It's only right to pay back debts. You're a person with official status, do you want to take a monk to court? Your house deed is still held at the temple, open the door now!"
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Must-read before meals:
1. Daily updates, except for VIP chapters which update every Saturday at 12 PM.
2. The writing style is slow-paced and detailed. The male lead appears late in the story, around the one-third mark. The early part mainly focuses on the female lead's efforts to make a living and some group stories, but the whole story emphasizes both management and romance.
3. Due to illness and family background in her past life, the female protagonist will gradually mature after transmigrating. She is not a typical career-driven female lead. Please forgive any shortcomings that may not meet your expectations. Happy reading this spring! Love you all!
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This chapter cites references for illustrative purposes only.
Note 1 is quoted from Li Bai's "The Road to Shu is Hard".
Note 2: Coal was already in widespread use during the Northern Song Dynasty. There were over 20 coal mines near Bianjing (Kaifeng). Zhuang Chuo wrote in his *Chicken Ribs Compilation*: "In the past, millions of households in Bianjing relied entirely on coal; not a single household used firewood." During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, an imperial edict was issued ordering the Three Departments to provide 400,000 jin (a unit of weight) of coal at half the market price to aid the poor. The court provided 400,000 jin of coal, selling it to the poor at a preferential price of 100 wen per jin. One jin is equivalent to 6 kilograms, so 400,000 jin is approximately 2,400 tons. This demonstrates the astonishing coal production during the Northern Song Dynasty.
There were also "coal briquettes mixed with yellow clay." According to the "Brief Report on the Excavation of the Han Dynasty Iron Smelting Site in Guxing Town, Zhengzhou (Issue 2, 1978)," coal briquettes have been unearthed at the Han Dynasty iron smelting site. They are nearly round, 18-19 cm in diameter and about 7-8 cm thick, mixed with clay and shaped in a standardized manner, indicating that they were mass-produced molded coal briquettes. By the Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu's "Record of Returning to the Fields" states: "Incense cakes are made of coal, used for burning incense. The fire of one cake can burn all day long." Song Dynasty coal merchants not only mixed clay and rice husks into the coal to reduce costs, but also added spices to make it fragrant when burning. There were also different coal molds: plum blossom-shaped, cylindrical, square, and spherical. It seems that the Song people wanted to carve on the coal briquettes.
This article will reference the above historical facts and adapt them for later plot developments. Please be aware, dear readers! [heart emoji]
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