The Baiting Food Blogger and His Suit-Wearing Bruiser Husband

The main story is complete! Time to celebrate!!! There are still tens of thousands of extra words in the works!

Please add my upcoming novel to your reading list: “How Is the Witch’s Manor Lord a Man?!” A Western fantasy farming story. The blurb is at the end.

[Suited-up ruthless investor seme × flirtatious, sweet-on-the-outside, dark-on-the-inside food blogger uke]

Former boy-band trainee Lu Yihe returns to China after ending his contract and makes a fresh start as a food blogger. Who wouldn’t love videos of a gentle, beautiful man cooking delicious food? As his following steadily grows, a well-known venture capital firm also reaches out to him.

At a coffee shop near his home, Lu Yihe meets a man who is exactly his type. The handsome, poker-faced man wears a tailored suit and straddles a black heavyweight motorcycle with his long legs.

The clash of restrained coolness and untamed wildness makes him everything Lu Yihe has ever imagined in a “suited-up thug.”

A stray calico cat that appears out of nowhere becomes the beginning of their connection. What seems like a casual chance encounter and a quiet approach take root, binding them together.

-

He is the owner of a coffee shop, the mysterious backer behind a studio, and a business assistant who never shows his face. Lu Yihe peels away Jin Ze’s layers of secret identities, gradually exposing his possessiveness, wild streak, and overwhelming need for control.

Zhou Yan, a top-tier star in an overseas boy band, abruptly leaves the group and returns to China, setting off a storm of online discussion. As the star’s former bandmate and childhood friend, Lu Yihe is forced to stand alongside Zhou Yan on the trending topics list.

To break the deadlock, the two team up with perfect understanding and put on a show for the cameras. Their childhood-friends pairing sends countless fans into a frenzy, with everyone calling them a match made in heaven.

As Jin Ze falls for Lu Yihe’s subtle teasing and push-and-pull, he finally realizes that he was never the hunter in this game.

-

One late night, the suited-up thug finally loses control.

He corners Lu Yihe by the window, his tie loose and his collar undone, intense, suppressed emotions on the verge of spilling over in his eyes.

“What exactly do you want?”

Lu Yihe looks up, his expression as gentle and mild as ever, and reaches out to smooth the wrinkles in Jin Ze’s collar.

“Mr. Jin…”

His voice is soft, but filled with the certainty of someone who knows he will get what he wants.

“Once the fish takes the bait, there’s no getting away.”

“Whether I give you a title is up to me.”

-

Reader’s guide:

1. The story involves the entertainment industry, including fan culture, variety shows, and livestreams. The characters are not based on real people.

2. The top-tier star and childhood friend is strictly a platonic bestie; he has his own pairing.

3. The seme and uke are devoted to each other throughout, with a strong mutual attraction. Their playacting and push-and-pull are just a couple’s way of having fun.

Please add my upcoming novel to your reading list: “How Is the Witch’s Manor Lord a Man?!”

After taking one bite of a contestant’s awful dish, Jiang Heng tumbles into a vortex to another world while filming a food variety show. A voice tells him that he has become the owner of a luxurious manor.

Jiang Heng brushes the dust off his backside and gets up, only to discover that the “luxurious manor” in front of him is actually a ruined old castle. It is gloomy and dilapidated, overgrown with weeds, and looks like it could slide off the hill at any moment.

A gray mouse standing upright suddenly appears and solemnly tells Jiang Heng, “I am the manor’s guardian spirit. You’re lucky: I chose you to be its heir. From today on, this manor is yours!”

“As a witch, you possess powerful magic and innate gifts. Restoring the manor and saving this continent… I’ll leave it all to you!”

“A witch? Me?” Jiang Heng points at himself, looking utterly dazed.

-

Legend has it that a terrifying witch lives in a manor at the edge of the Black Forest. They can control the land and cultivate magical plants, and command a four-meter-tall dark familiar. Every hero who sets out to defeat them disappears without a trace.

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t know two things:

First, the witch is a man.

Second, the witch spends every day struggling to clear the land, repair the ruined castle, and get enough to eat. He’s exhausted like a dog and has no time to hurt anyone.

One day, while gathering supplies in the Black Forest, Jiang Heng finds a tall hunter unconscious. Broad shoulders, long legs, and bulging pectorals: he looks like a real workhorse.

Overjoyed, Jiang Heng drags him straight back to the manor: Free labor!

Once the hunter recovers, he dutifully repairs fences, hunts in the mountains, and guards the manor. He’s a man of few words who gets plenty done, remains calm, and never complains.

His one small flaw is that he can’t go near the vegetable garden.

Jiang Heng has no choice but to put him to work outside the garden beds, repeatedly reminding him every day: “Selend! Don’t step into the garden. My radishes can’t take you trampling all over them!”

Life at the manor grows more comfortable by the day. Jiang Heng raises seedlings, farms, tends livestock, brews wine, and cooks delicious food. He chatters away all day while the hunter listens quietly and takes every backbreaking task off his hands.

[A little scene]

One day, a bounty-hunting party made up of elves, centaurs, dwarves, and werewolves sneaks up near the witch’s manor.

Bounty hunters (furious): “Oh no! It really is Selend! The evil witch must have trapped him in the manor so he can’t escape! Don’t worry, brother, we’re here to save you!”

Selend (calmly): Feeding the chickens, chopping wood, carrying a basket of compost, carefully walking around the seedlings, wiping sweat from the cooking witch’s brow, and enjoying a delicious lunch together.

Bounty hunters (confused): “Does that guy even remember he’s a witch hunter, and that his mission is to hunt witches? Wait, what are they eating? It smells amazing!”

Theme: True love needs no disguise; the hunter and his beloved end up together.