The Gusu Sweetwater Shop: The Crown Prince Secretly Works Here

[Ancient Romance + Food and Farming + Sweet Romance and Comedy + Lighthearted Power Fantasy]

After her stepmother schemes against her, Su Wanyue flees the Su family of Suzhou with their ancestral sweet-soup recipes and sets up an unassuming dessert stall by the river.

Just as business is getting started, a handsome "poor scholar" faints from hunger right in front of her stall.

Su Wanyue saves him with a bowl of red bean paste with osmanthus. Seeing how tall and strong he is, she immediately hires him as a waiter, rattling off calculations on her abacus: "Carry two extra loads of water today, and next month you'll be Su's honorary deputy manager!"

Su Wanyue is a comical money-grubber. Whenever she miscalculates the books, she clutches her chest and puts on a show of collapsing from "angina" to deduct his wages.

But she's also softhearted and fiercely protective. She secretly stews nourishing soup for her young waiter, and personally teaches women who have suffered domestic abuse and been cast out by their husbands how to ferment rice wine and set up sweet-soup stalls, helping women across the city stand on their own feet!

She has no idea that the young waiter she dupes every day, who turns scarlet at the ears whenever she teases him and presses his hands to his trouser seams as he meekly admits fault, is actually the heir to the throne and a god of war feared throughout the court!

She has even less idea that the meek little husband who timidly calls out, "Boss, I'm scared," as he follows her around by day, becomes a demon-eyed avenger at night, stuffing the thugs who harassed her into sacks and sending them off to dig a river!

Su Wanyue says, "You broke three porcelain bowls and got seven accounts wrong. You'll work for me for free for the rest of your life!"

The Crown Prince lowers his head in apology. "...Fine. Then can I spend my whole life paying you back?"