She Brings Her Cooking Skills to the Capital, and the Chaste Professor Is Starving for More

[Period setting + both leads are chaste + love grows over time; clearheaded, independent ray of sunshine vs. aloof, abstinent professor; eight-year age gap; older, guiding lover] Her father is hopelessly muddleheaded, her stepmother is wicked, and her childhood sweetheart and fiancé has broken off their engagement. Armed with her family’s heirloom imperial-cook skills, Song Qingzhi strikes out for the capital and becomes a housekeeper for the Zhou family in a residential compound. Though she’s only a housekeeper, she earns thirty yuan a month, with room and board included. When the family isn’t home for dinner, she even gets paid time off. It couldn’t be better. At first, everyone in the Zhou family is busy, and they rarely come home to eat. But one day, after they happen to taste her cooking, the family dining room suddenly fills to capacity------ Father Zhou, who works overtime at the office all year round: “I eat in the canteen every day, and everything tastes the same. Xiao Song’s cooking is the only thing that really suits my palate.” Mother Zhou, who avoids eating too much to maintain her figure: “Whoever says you can’t eat staple foods if you want to stay in shape is talking nonsense. Xiao Song’s beauty-enhancing meals are delicious and won’t make you gain weight. She absolutely deserves a raise!” Their pregnant daughter: “Let’s face-slap those obstetrics experts! Who says morning sickness can’t be cured? After eating the meals our Zhizhi makes, I not only stopped throwing up, I can eat anything with gusto.” Their picky younger son: “Ever since I started eating Sister Zhizhi’s cooking, I feel like everything I ate before was grass.” As for the workaholic who used to stay away from home for ten days or half a month at a time, now he can barely stand to leave the house for even a moment. Professor Zhou, usually so aloof and abstinent, cornered her one quiet night, his eyes reddening: “Zhizhi, marry me and become Mrs. Zhou.” “You can do whatever you want.”