The Beautiful Refugee in the Famine

Shu Wanxiu was born with striking beauty, but a famine left her emaciated and her looks diminished. After great hardship, she settles in Fangyuan County. At first, her new neighbors don't find her remarkable - just a thin girl with spirited eyes.

As she regains her health, her beauty returns. Well-meaning aunties advise her: "It's hard to support a household alone. With such looks, why not marry into a kind family and let your husband help raise your nephew?" Shu Wanxiu always smiles without replying.

Who would marry a woman burdened with raising her nephew? Yet she refuses to abandon the child, regardless of the consequences.

Xun Yi is a rough blacksmith who offers help to the refugee family out of sympathy - giving them a cooking pot, lending farming tools. But when the young lady refuses further assistance to avoid indebtedness, he finds himself restless, secretly helping her farm at dawn until a village matchmaker intervenes: "If you care for this proper young woman, why not propose properly?"

The story features a rugged male lead slow to recognize his own feelings, a female lead responsibly raising her nephew without self-sacrifice, and a commoner life without official ambitions.