Mi'er (Gourmet)

[New Story Now Open: The Substitute Empress Doesn't Want to Compete for Favor] Find it in my author page and add it to your collection. [Blurb:] Ming Yu, eldest son of the Ming family, earned military honors at just fifteen. For years, he served as Commander of the Imperial Guards, ruthless and decisive, wielding his blade for the emperor and taking his share of the dirty work. In the capital, he was infamous as the "Living Yama." On New Year's Eve, however, he was betrayed by a trusted aide and collapsed, gravely wounded, in Sweetwater Alley. When he woke, his body was burning with pain from his knife wounds, and he was blind. The only thing he could hear was the voice of a little maid at his side, caring for him day after day. He ate her noodles, lived in her home, and even needed the little maid to guide him to the privy. He secretly planned that once he recovered, he would reclaim his family's marquis title and reward her with a hundred taels of gold in thanks. But as time went by, something began to feel wrong. When the little maid cut her hand in the kitchen, he felt as though his own heart were bleeding. When a young nobleman visited her shop and chatted with her for a while, he couldn't bear it and wanted to kick the man right out... Once his wounds healed and his sight returned, he offered her gold and asked for her hand in marriage. But thanks to her own skill, the little maid had become the proprietress of one of the finest restaurants in the capital, enjoying a life of boundless prosperity. He could only dress himself up and go to her room, swallowing the bitterness in his heart as he asked, "Do you not want me anymore?" [Quick-tempered, super sweet proprietress X ruthless, aloof Commander of the Imperial Guards] [Protecting each other, growing together] [Short Scene:] Chuchu rescued him. Mi'er asked, "What should I call you?" "My surname is Ming. My given name is Yu." Mi'er: "Then I'll call you A-Yu!" "...I'm much older than you. You should call me elder brother." Mi'er looked disgusted. "Brother Ming? Brother Yu? Those sound awful! How old are you, then?" "Twenty-seven." Mi'er: "Uncle Bi is already thirty-two, so you're younger than him. I'll call you Second Uncle, then." "..." She'd just made him a whole generation older? He didn't want to agree. Mi'er: "Second Uncle, Second Uncle, Uncle Ming! Doesn't it sound nice? From now on, you're my Second Uncle Ming." "..." He'd had enough. Later, in the gentle spring breeze and slanting rays of the setting sun, he cornered Mi'er behind the door of her shop. Shafts of light and shadow crossed over one another. A fierce flame had kindled at some point in his cool eyes, and his burning voice came close to her ear. "Don't call me Second Uncle again. Call me Brother Yu!" [Set in an imaginary Ming dynasty, a tribute to the great age of importing every ingredient under the sun!] [Next story: The Substitute Empress Doesn't Want to Compete for Favor] [Blurb:] The new emperor ascended the throne. Former supporters of Prince Yi were all on edge, and the Duke of Xinguo's household, whose youngest daughter had once been promised in marriage to Prince Yi, was walking on thin ice. The eldest daughter, Lu Xingtan, had been raised by her grandmother in Jiangnan since childhood. Now her mother sent her into the imperial palace to secure the survival of their family. After entering the palace, Xingtan poured tea and ground ink, playing the dignified and virtuous empress who comforted the emperor in perfumed, warmly curtained chambers. But before long, she learned from the palace servants that the emperor had a moonlight in his heart: her younger sister, Lu Yueyou, who had nearly married Prince Yi. The emperor had favored her exclusively for the past six months only because she looked seven parts like her younger sister. With the woman the emperor pined for about to enter the palace, the concubines waited eagerly to watch the Lu sisters fight it out in Chengqian Palace. But Xingtan quit. She raised fish and planted flowers in the rear courtyard, feasted every day, and joined the dowager consort and noblewomen for foot baths and mahjong... At last, someone was coming to take over. Her retirement and good life were just around the corner! To Ling Ye, the empress was merely a dignified pawn. At banquets, she helped him win people's favor. At sacrifices, she went through the motions with the Ministry of Rites. In the bedchamber, that face, so much like the one he yearned for, gave him just the pleasure he wanted. But ever since Lu Yueyou entered the palace, the pawn suddenly stopped being "dignified." The empress repeatedly skipped engagements and avoided him at every turn, even seeming ready to yield her position to someone more worthy. Only then did he realize that, with her splendid robes put aside and her heavy, ornate headdress removed, the spirited woman from Jiangnan was someone he had never truly possessed... Until a great fire razed the temple where the empress was staying. A eunuch found a charred corpse and reported to him that the empress had died. He had been unwilling to believe it, until he saw the familiar silver anklet bells set with pearls on the body, their cheerful chime seeming to ring in his ears. From that day on, the lights in the Hall of Mental Cultivation stayed on all night, and he could not sleep. Every night, the emperor suffered attacks of heart pain. No medicine could help, and the entire Imperial Hospital was helpless. Only then did Ling Ye understand: she had long since become his very life. [Ruthless emperor X beautiful, carefree little empress who loves food and fun] Theme: Just as Heaven's movement is ever vigorous, so should a young woman strive tirelessly to strengthen herself