The Young Lady is a Bit Unruly [Fragrant Harbor] - Chapter 1: Salted Fish and Greens

Chapter 1: Salted Fish and Greens

The pleasant ding-ding-ding sound of a tram echoed from outside the window.

Even before opening her eyes, Ye Baoling caught the rich aroma of braised pork knuckle and ginger stew.

The thick, savory scent of meat lingered in her nostrils, completely chasing away any lingering drowsiness.

She, who usually slept until 9 a.m., scrambled out of bed in one swift motion.

Who would have thought that one day, Ye Baoling would be so thrilled over a bowl of pork knuckle and ginger stew?

Just a week ago, Ye Baoling was a golden-collar professional at a well-known investment firm. As the reigning champion of office politics, she had been appointed as the Marketing Director at a young age. But during her promotion celebration, she had one too many drinks, and when she sobered up, she found herself in a completely different world.

She had returned to Hong Kong in 1987.

It wasn’t a case of time rewinding or a journey through time and space—she had been transported into a script.

A month ago, her boss had forwarded her a horizontal short drama script titled *The Appraisal Prodigy*, which the company was planning to invest in.

Ye Baoling knew full well that this was her wealthy boss’s pet project, tailor-made for a certain young heartthrob she fancied.

So, when her boss asked for her opinion, Ye Baoling put on a bright smile and joined her colleagues in singing its praises: This is absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime script!

Out of professional dedication to her boss, Ye Baoling still offered a few relatively fair suggestions for the script.

But the moment she turned away, she couldn’t resist complaining to a close friend: It’s all childish, brainless, idiotic plotlines.

What made it even more infuriating was that there was a seemingly wealthy but actually pathetic and miserable supporting character who shared her name. She couldn’t help but wonder if the colleague responsible for liaising with the scriptwriters had done it on purpose.

Perhaps her harsh criticism had come back to haunt her, because after that drunken night, she woke up inside the very idiotic script she had looked down upon.

She had become that pathetic and miserable cannon-fodder cousin, an insignificant figure standing next of the female lead.

At that moment, her cousin, the female lead Gu Man’er, looking like a pretty doll, stood drowsily in front of the sink, toothbrush in mouth, brushing her teeth.

Man’er looked at Ye Baoling’s reflection in the mirror with surprise. Cousin, why are you up so early?

Ye Baoling was too embarrassed to say it was because she wanted to go downstairs and eat meat.

I was woken up by the tram outside.

The original host came from the Ye family, an old-money elite clan in Hong Kong. Her mother had given birth to only one daughter and never had another child. Using this as an excuse, her father had an affair with his secretary, and her parents eventually divorced.

Her maternal grandmother’s family, the Gu family, had also been prosperous, running multiple fabric shops in Hong Kong. At the peak of their business, three out of ten Hong Kongers wore fabric from the Gu family.

Unfortunately, after her grandfather passed away, her uncle, who took over the family business, was young, impulsive, and inexperienced. He recklessly leveraged to expand the business, just as ready-made clothing began to dominate the market, leading to the fabric shops’ eventual bankruptcy.

The Gu family mansion and other properties were all seized to pay off debts. Ye Baoling’s mother used her private savings to buy this three-story Western-style house for her maternal family to live in.

Twelve years ago, ten-year-old Ye Baoling moved in with her divorced mother.

After the bankruptcy, her uncle fell into despair, spending his days either drowning his sorrows in alcohol or gambling in Macau. To support her good-for-nothing brother, the original host’s mother nearly exhausted all her alimony.

Two years ago, her mother passed away after a serious illness. With no one left to rely on, her uncle finally woke up to reality after being scolded and cried at by his daughter, the original female lead, Gu Man’er.

He started over, finding a job managing a garment factory for someone else, and only then did this family finally stabilize.

In the mirror, Ye Baoling appeared thin and gaunt, her complexion sallow and bloodless. Fortunately, she had good bone structure—her features were symmetrical, and her gaze remained clear. With proper nourishment, she would undoubtedly blossom into a beauty.

After washing up, Ye Baoling followed the enticing aroma downstairs to the kitchen, where the housekeeper Pingjie was making fried rice.

Has the young mistress awakened?

Pingjie beamed at her. As the Ye family nanny who had accompanied Ye Baoling since childhood, she cherished the girl like her own heart’s treasure. I’ll make longevity noodles for you right away.

Mary, take over the fried rice—it hasn’t been salted yet. Pingjie handed the spatula to the Filipina maid before retrieving pre-prepared noodles from the refrigerator.

The longevity noodles came in a large steaming bowl, topped with a generous slab of pork hock, two golden-brown trotters, a halved marinated egg, and sprinkled with scallions and cilantro. It was placed before Ye Baoling.

Today marked her 23rd birthday.

Yesterday, her grandmother had asked what she wanted for her birthday meal, instructing Pingjie to prepare it. In previous years, Ye Baoling would simply request a bowl of longevity noodles, usually with just one egg added.

But this year was different. Having transmigrated a week ago without tasting even half a liang of meat, Ye Baoling unhesitatingly declared she wanted braised pork trotters with ginger. The day before yesterday, when neighbors stewed the dish, its rich fragrance had made Ye Baoling and her cousins drool with longing.

She craved it.

The current Gu household was an eccentric extended family.

Wealthy? Hardly. With over a dozen members, they typically shared just three dishes per meal: one pickled vegetable, two vegetable dishes, and occasionally a meager portion of shredded meat stir-fried with copious vegetables. If you managed to pick one strand of meat, securing a second was nearly impossible.

Perhaps due to excessive staple foods and sugar consumption, most family members—except Ye Baoling and Gu Man’er—remained overweight. Thus, the aunt often claimed they lacked no nutrients.

The food was poor, and so was the clothing. With many children in the household, clothes were shared indiscriminately. The younger girls went years without new outfits, only inheriting hand-me-downs from older sisters—sometimes dressing worse than the domestic helpers.

Yet poverty? The family employed two Filipina maids and a chauffeur besides Pingjie. Every evening, the house blazed with lights, and the girls never conserved bathwater. Monthly utility bills alone amounted to significant sums.

They also frequently attended movies as a family, each carrying a bucket of popcorn and a large bottle of soda. Leftovers were casually discarded without a thought to waste.

After returning from cinemas, the usual three dinner dishes shrank to two: salted fish and greens.

Bizarre, perplexing, and contradictory.

Ultimately, it boiled down to poverty—the kind worsened by financial mismanagement.

The household’s income sources included the uncle’s salary and living expenses from Ye Baoling’s father. Additionally, the grandmother dipped into the dwindling inheritance left by Ye Baoling’s mother to subsidize household costs.

They could only hope the children would grow up quickly and shoulder the burden of this declining family.

Ye Baoling devoured her trotter noodles with gusto. The pork was tender and glutinous, the noodles springy. Each bite filled her with contentment. She wished for world peace and national prosperity…

No—she wished for meat every single day.

Over the past week, while acclimating to her surroundings, Ye Baoling had constantly pondered survival strategies. A life where one only tasted pork trotters on birthdays was unacceptable to her generation, unaccustomed to hardship.

The fried rice was ready, heaped on the table as the Filipina maid went upstairs to summon everyone for breakfast.

Soon, a large round table filled with people.

Aunt Shen Yue’e saw Ye Baoling eating pork knuckle and ginger stew alone and remarked half-jokingly, Baoling, eating pork knuckle first thing in the morning—isn’t that too greasy?

Hungry. Not greasy.

Ye Baoling, usually timid as a quail, never talked back. Shen Yue’e was slightly taken aback and reached out to press her hand against Ye Baoling’s forehead.

No fever.

Seeing the pitiful fried rice with few eggs in her bowl, the second cousin muttered softly, I want pork knuckle too.

Me too.

I want some as well. The children clamored one after another.

You’re not having birthdays. This was specially made for Baoling. None of you can have any—look how chubby you all are! Shen Yue’e had a slow metabolism and gained weight easily, even from drinking water. At this moment, she particularly couldn’t understand the children’s gluttony, so she scolded them loudly. Anyone unaware might have thought she was deliberately saying it for Ye Baoling to hear.

Moreover, the money for the pork knuckles had been given by the old lady, so Shen Yue’e didn’t dare to freely distribute what was meant to be stewed for Ye Baoling.

Gu Man’er gently nudged her younger sister, signaling her to act cute and beg their cousin.

Little sister really wants pork knuckle! Cousin!

This was Hong Kong in 1987!

Hong Kong, one of the Four Asian Tigers!

What kind of script had the original screenwriter written, reducing the maternal family of the female lead to such a miserable state?

Honestly unbelievable.

Ye Baoling, who hadn’t planned to hog the food to begin with, couldn’t stand the pitiful, longing looks in her cousins’ eyes. She instructed Sister Ping to serve the remaining pork knuckles and eggs from the clay pot, giving each of them a portion.

Gu Man’er playfully led her younger siblings in bowing and laughing, Thank you, cousin. May you enjoy happiness as vast as the Eastern Sea and longevity as enduring as the Southern Mountains.

Cousin, can you have a birthday every day? Little sister looked up and asked innocently.

Ye Baoling couldn’t help laughing. If I aged one year each day, I’d be 365 years older in a year! Then I’d become an immortal.

Everyone burst into laughter—it turned out their usually quiet cousin could crack jokes.

After finishing a full bowl of longevity noodles, Ye Baoling sat contentedly at the dining table, listening to her cousins chat.

It was the weekend before summer vacation, so there was no school. They discussed going out for shaved ice to celebrate Ye Baoling’s birthday.

Grandma said yesterday she’d give us money.

Ye Baoling also felt like going out for a walk, so she went back to her room first to change clothes.

Unlike her cousins, the original owner had quite a few clothes, all brand new and seemingly barely worn.

Unfortunately, the styles were exaggerated and the colors garish, not really suitable for everyday wear.

She learned from her cousins that these clothes had all been bought by the original owner’s stepmother.

Makes sense—showing concern for her yet being impractical, full of scheming, fitting the character of a secretary who climbed her way up by seducing her boss.

Ye Baoling picked a relatively low-key chiffon maxi dress to change into.

A voice came from the doorway—her youngest cousin. Cousin, Grandma is calling for you.

Ye Baoling went to the second floor to find her grandmother.

Old Mrs. Gu was advanced in years and mostly stayed on the second floor, rarely coming downstairs unless necessary.

She had been the lady of the house in a wealthy family all her life, but in her old age, her incompetent son had dragged the whole family into hardship.

At that moment, the old lady had just finished her milk and oatmeal. Seeing Baoling enter, she first asked her to offer incense.

In the corner of the room stood a small shrine with photos of Ye Baoling’s grandfather and mother.

After Ye Baoling finished offering incense, Old Mrs. Gu asked her, Did you eat the longevity noodles?

Ye Baoling plopped onto the sofa, grabbed a cushion, and leaned back. Ate a full bowl. Had the pork knuckle and ginger stew too—it was absolutely delicious.

You never said you craved meat so much before. You’ve been holding back. In recent days, Granny Gu could clearly sense the child had matured—no longer as timid as before, now bold enough to speak her mind.

It was a heartening development.

I said I’d save you a bowl, but Sister Ping claimed you don’t like meat, so the younger cousins divided it all. Granny, did you pretend not to like it just to let us have more? Ye Baoling, wise beyond her years, knew exactly how to charm.

Granny Gu beamed at this. Whether she ate the meat mattered less than feeling understood and remembered.

I loved meat when I was young too, but my teeth can’t handle it now. I just scolded your aunt—we shouldn’t be so frugal. We ought to prepare more fish and meat. You know how she is: only cares about mahjong, clueless about managing a household. With a big family, expenses pile up everywhere, and your uncle’s salary is pitifully low. It’s like an old woman counting coins at the market—no matter how you tally, it’s never enough.

Mention of money gave Granny Gu a headache.

Having so many children without the means—what a curse.

Your uncle… he’s here to collect debts.

He’s squandered the entire Gu family fortune.

Ye Baoling muttered under her breath, Isn’t that because you spoiled him, Granny?

Granny Gu froze again. Ye Baoling had never spoken to her like this before.

But upon reflection, the child wasn’t wrong—it was an honest remark, treating her grandmother as family.

She couldn’t help sighing, You’re right. I wish I’d never had him.

The Gu family might have declined, but they wouldn’t have faced ruin.

Ye Baoling teased abruptly, I’m telling Uncle.

Granny Gu shot back, You wouldn’t dare!

How about two roast chickens tomorrow? Two chickens, and I won’t tell Uncle. Watching her grandmother’s stunned expression, Ye Baoling swiftly backtracked with a sly grin: One is fine too. You’re getting a bargain, Granny.

The old woman was cornered.

Strangely, being outmaneuvered left her oddly pleased.

I’ll buy you a roast chicken leg tonight. Come eat it in my room—don’t let your aunt find out, or she’ll accuse me of favoritism.

Ten years ago, Ye Baoling would have been thrilled, but with the mind of a 27-year-old, she’d scheme for a million, not a chicken leg—that felt beneath her.

She shook her head. Better to trade one roast chicken for two pounds of pork. We can stir-fry it for everyone tonight.

Two pounds would make two large plates.

Joy shared is joy doubled.

Granny Gu patted her granddaughter’s hand fondly. Too selfless, and you’ll end up shortchanged.

Ye Baoling smiled without replying—being shortchanged wasn’t in her nature.

It wasn’t that she was selfless; in her past life, her cousins had sacrificed much to avenge her. Sharing blessings was the least she could do.

By the way, you remember Granny Tan, the fortune-teller from the next street? She read your fortune once.

Ye Baoling had no recollection of the woman but humored her.

Last night, Granny Tan called me. Said there’s a wealthy young man whose birthdate aligns perfectly with yours—she wants to matchmake. I figured even if I agreed, your grandfather and father might not, so I declined politely. But she called again this morning, insisting the boy’s family is eager to meet you. When I asked which family, she was cryptic, only saying they’re no less prominent than your Ye family’s main branch.

In Hong Kong, few families rivaled the Ye main branch. Granny Gu didn’t want to waste such an opportunity.

The old lady tentatively suggested, How about… meeting him?

Author’s Note:

Long time no see, my darlings.

I originally planned to launch She Kills first—it’s already fully written, not too long, but I’m not entirely satisfied with some parts of the plot and want to refine it further.

So I’m starting with this one first. Most likely, after this book is completed, I’ll seamlessly begin She Kills.

The female lead of this story is Ye Baoling—sharp-tongued, clever, cunning, and never one to suffer losses. I hope you’ll like her.