The Black-Bellied Chancellor’s Repayment

The story of a big eater who is always short on cash, and somehow suddenly manages to get hitched to the most powerful minister in the land. The big eater in this story is the real deal. He can munch on a handful of roasted sunflower seeds and taste crispy, fragrant fried chicken. He's a good person, but always hungry. He just doesn't have much money, and spends his days trying to figure out what to do between tofu and bean sprouts. Always strapped for cash and stingy by nature, he feels bad about spending money on fatty pork for three whole days after eating it once. The powerful minister in this story is the real deal, a chief councilor second only to the emperor and above countless others. He's a master of schemes and quick to adapt. He can keep the emperor in line, steady the court, take down a fierce tiger, and win against foreign powers. But he has no generosity in him and is petty to the core. If someone owes him anything, not even a fraction of a hair's breadth can be left unpaid. If someone has wronged him, they can't get away with even the tiniest bit. He never says a word about people who've done him a favor, but he remembers them. Even after many years, he'll turn mountains and seas upside down to find those benefactors and devour them. More than ten years ago, the big eater gave the minister, then a destitute man living on the street, a handful of roasted sunflower seeds and three broken silver coins. More than ten years later, the powerful minister gave the big eater, who was standing on the street wondering whether to spend his one copper coin on peach candy or roasted sunflower seeds, a grand house, a crowd of servants, the status of his "legal wife," all his household wealth, and even his own life, without ever asking whether the other man wanted any of it or was willing to accept. This book is also known as A Debt of Love Caused by a Handful of Roasted Sunflower Seeds. It's not angsty, truly not angsty. It'll make you swoon! The Outcast