The Chief Minister’s Husband’s Restaurant Is Packed Again

[A Sickly Ambitious Grand Secretary * A Dashing, Lustful Little Husband]

After transmigrating into the body of a poor husband, Qi Nian is busy from dawn to dusk every day.

He sets up a stall, makes money, buys shops, nurses his sickly husband back to health, and then plans to devour him as soon as possible!

From a little pushcart selling sticky rice rolls, to the Qi Family Snack Shop known throughout the county, and finally to the biggest chain of restaurants in Lianjiang City,

Qi Nian launches one hit product after another:

Pearl milk tea is so popular it can't meet demand and becomes every young lady's favorite; jianbing guozi are a must-have in everyone's hands, easy to munch on wherever they go; and the wildly popular weekly fried-chicken specials send all of Daxia into a frenzy.

Qi Nian makes so much money his hands are practically numb, all while supporting his husband on the road to becoming the top scholar.

He thinks he's already achieved everything he wanted from life, but when he looks back,

why does his moon-bright, gentlemanly little husband seem so different?

-

Before he was reborn, Xie Zhiheng was the Grand Secretary of the current dynasty, a man whose power overshadowed the entire court, yet whose end was tragic.

After being reborn, Xie Zhiheng still intends to become Grand Secretary.

Not only that, he intends to wield power with all the fervor of a raging fire, and settle accounts with everyone who betrayed him in his previous life. He doesn't care if later generations curse him as a treacherous usurper.

But this life is different because

his little husband by his bedside has quite the temper. He grabs Xie Zhiheng by the ear and orders him:

"Could you stop trying to get yourself killed? Your child is already how old!"

"I think you were about to say, 'I am not the chancellor, but the regent!'"

Grand Secretary Xie Zhiheng feels terribly misunderstood.

He wasn't being that arrogant. He only thought the young ruler was unfit, and wanted to depose him and install someone else.

-

After living two lifetimes, Xie Zhiheng always thought he wasn't one to get caught up in romance, until he met Qi Nian.

Xie Zhiheng is puzzled.

Are everyone else's husbands this energetic, or is his own especially lustful?

When his little husband looks at him once again with an unsatisfied expression, Xie Zhiheng knows he can't put it off any longer.

And so...

One day, Qi Nian comes home from the shop and sees Xie Zhiheng putting a stack of illustrated books into the cabinet in their bedroom alcove.

That night, Qi Nian, holding his aching waist, learns just how terrifying those books are.

What the heck? How did his proper, aloof husband suddenly get so enlightened?!

Qi Nian: "I was wrong, Husband, truly! I shouldn't have called you cold and boring."

Qi Nian trembles and tries to flee, but the man catches him by the wrist and laces their fingers together.

"No rush." Xie Zhiheng's fingertips travel along his wrist and into his loose sleeve, slowly caressing him. "A Nian, today we'll learn this one."

[Reader Notice]

1. One-on-one, both chaste before each other; married first, fall in love later. The receiver is younger in body, older in soul.

2. The receiver follows a food-business and rags-to-riches storyline; the giver follows an imperial-examinations, court-politics, infrastructure-building, and reform storyline. There isn't much court drama.

3. Childbirth is included.

**** Coming soon: The Handsome Husband's Tea Snack Shop ****

At nineteen, You Zhaoxue loses his husband and is driven out of his in-laws' home.

He takes one look at the vast capital of Shengjing, makes no fuss, and uses everything he owns to rent a shop and sell tea snacks.

In his hands, dough, maltose, and lard pastry are remarkably obedient. Whatever he can imagine, he can make.

Whether it's sweet bean cakes and chestnut cakes, clear-bean-paste dumplings, or flaky yellow-root pastries; savory spring pancakes with mugwort, peppergrass, and shredded radish, lamb pastries, or crab buns; or the signature drinks sold at the city's tea shops, such as lychee paste water, amber malt candy, and kumquat rice dumplings...

You's tea snack shop always has different treats to offer with each season.

Business thrives, and You Zhaoxue moves into increasingly spacious homes. But one thing troubles him:

That dashing young man in fine clothes and astride a fine horse barges into his shop with a crowd, demanding an explanation.

"What's wrong with your shop's milk curds? They landed my brothers in the infirmary!"

You Zhaoxue raises his face from behind the counter, ready to take the matter to court.

After waiting for a long while, the young man doesn't say a word.

The young man's ears turn bright red. He stares at You Zhaoxue's face and stammers that there's no need to pay compensation after all.

From that day on,

the young man keeps finding excuses to ride his fine horse over to the shop.

-

Everyone in the capital knows that the young heir of the Zhao Duke's household can't sit still.

He doesn't want his hereditary title and insists on going undercover to work as some kind of constable. He won't let anyone reveal who he is, either.

Everyone understands the unspoken arrangement and is happy to play along with the young heir.

Until one day,

the young heir suddenly changes his ways. He no longer neglects his martial training, gets up at five every morning to study, and even kneels before his parents.

"The one I love is a truly wonderful person. Father, Mother, I want to earn military honors and ask for his hand with dignity."

-

After getting together with Meng Ying, You Zhaoxue continues living his quiet life as before.

Making tea snacks, preparing drinks, managing the shop, opening new branches... He handles it all in an orderly fashion.

The only difference is that there's now a very boisterous person by his side.

You Zhaoxue has been used to solitude, but thinks a little noise is nice sometimes, bringing some life into the place.

Still, Meng Ying has far too much energy...

How can he help Meng Ying burn it off properly, so he'll stop wearing You Zhaoxue out at night?

It's truly a troubling matter.

[Reader Notice]

1. One-on-one, both chaste and each other's first love. The receiver's late husband is barely relevant.

2. A slice-of-life story, with wholesome romance.

Theme: Eat well.