The Eastern Palace's Little Chef

Blurb:

Divorce feels great for a moment, then comes the long road to winning your wife back.

Chu Yan always thought Jiang Shuning was so stubborn and impossible to sway that she wouldn't care even if he married again and took a concubine. He never expected her to ask for a divorce!

He was secretly delighted, thinking this proved she still liked him, but then she actually went through with it!

After their divorce, this woman seemed to have gone completely strange.

Singing at a restaurant? Improper! Shameless!

She was making him lose face!

When he tried to stop her openly, she shed her usual cool demeanor and snapped back so sharply that he couldn't get a word in?

Then he'd ruin her livelihood behind her back! He thought she would eventually come crying and begging him to let her come home, but instead she went to the street and set up a food stall as a cook?!

They'd been married for three years, and he had never even tasted her cooking. What right did these commoners have to eat it?

Young Master Chu, determined to find fault, decided to try it. He would take the chance to put her down and deal her a blow! But after tasting it... it was delicious!

She was summoned to the Eastern Palace by imperial decree to become a little cook, only to find its master picky and difficult to please! And to top it off, her ex-husband was there too, caught red-handed sneaking a taste of her food.

The once-cool madam had become a clever, mischievous little cook. What had he missed all these years...?

P.S. The female lead seems cool on the outside but is actually cute and goofy. She's neither a naive innocent nor an invincible, over-the-top queen. The male lead seems aloof, scheming, and sharp-tongued, but he's actually conceited, childish, and proud.

[Important]

This is an alternate-history setting. The author's worldbuilding takes precedence. No nitpicking historical accuracy.

Updates at two in the afternoon, with two chapters a day. I'll do my best to finish this story.

If it's not your thing, don't read it.