The Contract Bride: A Tough Chef’s Darling

To save her sick daughter, Shen Nian'an signed a contract, selling herself into service to Lu Chen, the cold-faced chef feared by everyone in Xinghua Village.

He was tall and burly, with a murderous air about him. By day, he chopped bones so fast his cleaver was just a blur. The whole village said this delicate flower had fallen into the hands of a villain and wouldn't last three days.

The village women waited to laugh at her, while her former scholar husband waited for her to come crying back.

Who could have guessed that the man fierce enough by day to stop children from crying at night would, come evening, wrap her in his large, fire-warmed hands and coax her over and over in a hoarse voice: “Be a good girl, Sui'er. Say something sweet for me... I'll give you my life.”

Everyone thought she had fallen into a den of wolves, but who knew she'd landed in a nest of good fortune? The food she ate was wild game he hunted in the mountains and fat fish he caught in the river, with the best of everything saved for her and her daughter. The clothes she wore were new cotton fabric he had worked hard to earn, soft and warm. When her cold-hearted former scholar husband saw how well she was doing, he regretted it bitterly and came to claim her: “Shen Nian'an, you are still my lawful wife!” Before he could finish, a bone cleaver embedded itself in the door with a thud. Lu Chen pulled his wife into his arms, his gaze chillingly cold. “She eats my food and sleeps in my bed. Who the hell are you to come here and claim my woman?” Later, the couple's kitchen fires lit up the whole region, and they opened one restaurant after another. Shen Nian'an held her recovered daughter by the hand and carried her chubby little boy, gazing at their vast fortune as the tall man behind her wrapped her in his arms. Resting his chin beside her ear, he murmured warmly, “Good wife, I'm tired of the restaurant's meat. Tonight... I want to eat you.”