Ordinary Families in the Great Song Dynasty

Master chef Ye Zhan travels back to the Song Dynasty. The world is peaceful, and the people are prosperous, but her situation starts off disastrous:

1. The people of this era are very smart, so relying on her “time-traveler” status to gain an advantage is just a dream.
2. She was kidnapped as a child and only now reunited with her family, just in time for her fiancé to break off their engagement.
3. The prices in Bianjing City are exorbitantly high, with houses costing a fortune.
4. Her family is poor and part of the despised lower classes: her father is a stall owner, her mother is a matchmaker, her elder brother is a notorious idler, her elder sister works in a tavern, her second elder brother is a local fire inspector, and her younger sister studies witchcraft with a local shaman.

Ye Zhan rolls up her sleeves and sets a few small goals:

1. Help her family escape the lower classes.
2. Redeem their original farmland and houses.
3. Lead the whole family to prosperity, living a blissful life with “land in the countryside, a house in the city, and counting money until her hands cramp.”

How to achieve these goals?

Ye Zhan decides to start by opening a small food shop.

Pei Zhao is transferred to the Kaifeng Prefecture’s Left Army Inspection Department to handle a case.

A colleague patting his belly in satisfaction says, “Lady Ye’s sweet and sour pork is unparalleled. The outer coating of Prince Jiaqing’s sauce is both sour and sweet, making me almost forget about the pork.”

“The transparent pigeon at Ye’s is truly like glass. One bite and it’s crispy and fresh!”

A suspect confidently provides an alibi, “At the time of the incident, I was in line to buy the crispy dry pot ribs from Lady Ye’s shop!”

Even the prisoners in custody mutter, “If I could eat Lady Ye’s spicy and savory chicken intestines again, I would die happy.”

Pei Zhao: ? Is it that good?

But after finally tasting it, he thinks: It’s really delicious!

One day, a colleague says, “After we finish this case, let’s have a big meal at Ye’s food court. The two-cooked fish with perilla is fresh and fragrant, the rotary-cut lamb head is satisfying, and the pepper-slicked sliced meat can be dipped in anything… Would you like to join, Lord Pei?”

Pei Zhao responds with a low, hoarse voice, then turns to Ye Zhan, “I brush the pot every day. When will you give me a title?”

(Note: This is a slow-burn ensemble story. The female lead eventually marries a seventh-rank official, with no emperors or generals involved.)

References: “Research on Prices in the Song Dynasty,” “Monetary History of the Two Song Dynasties,” “Royal Relatives and Politics in the Song Dynasty,” “Dream of Splendor in the Eastern Capital,” “Clothing of the Great Song,” “Wu’s Culinary Records,” “Research on Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty.”

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