The Dowry Bridegroom's Pastry Shop [Gourmet]

[Everyday cooking and shopkeeping, young constable x pastry shopkeeper]

Su Luo's family was part of the dowry of the Second Madam of the Rong residence.

His mother helped in the kitchen, his father guarded the gate, and his elder brother was the Third Young Master's attendant. His little sister served the Fifth Miss.

Su Luo was skilled at making pastries. The widowed Second Madam was short on money and struggling to get by in the Rong residence. Remembering that one of her dowry properties was a failing pastry shop, she sent him out to manage it.

Everyone in the Rong residence sneered, waiting to laugh at the young master's failure. But who could have guessed that Su Luo would put the shop in perfect order, inside and out?

He could keep the books, buy stock, hire staff, and handle social calls. He also created a whole host of delicious pastries that took the city by storm:

Sweet treats included jade-leaf cake, plum-blossom cakes, flaky butter pastries, and cherry cakes served on ice.

Savory treats included goose and duck rolls, dragon's beard pastry, crab roe biluo, and sesame scallion pancakes.

In less than two years, the once deserted shop had been transformed. Business flowed in without end, and even the young ladies of the Provincial Administration Commissioner's household ordered food from it for their banquets.

The servants of the Rong residence began to set their sights on Su Luo. This young master was so good at making money, and he was nearing the age to be matched with an attendant. If they could marry him into their family, wouldn't his share of the profits become theirs too?

Su Luo smiled and politely fobbed off the housekeeper's wife who came to play matchmaker, never giving her a definite answer. No one knew that he had a grand plan of his own.

He would buy his whole family out of servitude, open his own shop and make money, and choose his future husband himself.

For example, the young constable Yang who lived in the next alley, was always hanging around the pastry shop, and blushed every time he spoke to Su Luo seemed like a good choice.

*

Yang Zhaojian lost both his parents as a child and was raised by his older brother and sister-in-law. By sixteen, he had mastered martial arts and, thanks to his father's connections, secured a position as a constable at the county office.

When he came of age to marry, his sister-in-law sought out the most famous matchmaker in the area. The moment she saw Yang Zhaojian, the matchmaker thumped her chest and promised that with his looks, his build, and his job, she could arrange a match with any young woman or young master in the four wards and eight neighborhoods.

Yang Zhaojian held back for a long moment before finally muttering, "Would someone from the Rong residence on the next street do?"

The matchmaker and his sister-in-law were both startled. The Rong residence was one of the wealthiest families in the city. Why was he setting his sights on one of their young masters or young ladies?

After they pressed him repeatedly, Yang Zhaojian blushed scarlet, his voice barely audible. "Not one of the young masters. I want the young master Su Luo from the Rong residence."

He wanted neither great wealth nor a warehouse full of gold and silver. He only wanted to join hands with the one he loved and savor each day of life's simple necessities amid the bustle of the marketplace.

1. A farming-life story, food and shopkeeping, the simple everyday life of ordinary people

2. Family matters, handsome gong and beautiful shou, a young married couple, love that grows steadily over time

Theme: Live each day well, with both feet on the ground