The Scheming Minister’s Sweet, Cherished Bride

Xie Rong transmigrates into the Great Jin Dynasty, a fictional feudal kingdom, as an older woman working as a cook in the Prince of Cheng’s household. Her original master is a favored imperial princess whom she can’t afford to offend, so she decides to lie low by sticking close to the old madam of the household. She puts the culinary skills she brought from the future to good use, dazzling the arrogant nobles of the Prince of Cheng’s household. She gets them hooked on her food, earns plenty of silver from them, and collects their rewards, then leaves in style, so they won’t be able to stomach a meal for the rest of their lives... But before she can carry out her plan, the Minister of Rites, the man Chengning County Princess has been pining for, personally brings a matchmaker to the Prince of Cheng’s residence to ask for her hand. Before she can even respond, the household’s second, third, and fourth young masters all jump up to object. Even the heir, who already has a wife, steps forward with a cold expression and declares, “Xie Rong is no longer a cook in the Prince of Cheng’s household. I intend to take her as my concubine.” “Pah!” Xie Rong sneers. “Whose concubine?” The old madam of the Prince of Cheng’s household announces before everyone, “I have already taken Rong Niang as my adopted daughter. From today on, she is the aunt of all you younger generation!” The Zhao brothers are still dissatisfied. They keep disparaging Xie Rong’s lowly status, brazenly claiming that being a concubine in the prince’s household is more glorious than being the proper wife of Lord Jiang. Xie Rong gives the fools, whose brains must have been kicked by a donkey, a sidelong glance. “I’d rather be a poor man’s wife than a prince’s concubine!” After their wedding, Lord Jiang wraps an arm around her slender waist and grins like a fox who’s stolen a chicken. “My dear, we’re not poor. There are so many account books to get through... I’ll have to trouble you with them!”