The Three Realms' Little Restaurant

[Please add The Glass Spirit Everyone Dotes On and Nineties Cuisine Makes a Fortune to your favorites!]

Xu Tangtang, heir to a master imperial chef, transmigrates and becomes the genius successor of the Xu family, a clan of demon hunters. She's forced to inherit the family's legacy.

Staring at the shabby little restaurant on the outskirts of town, Xu Tangtang is baffled. ???

Wasn't this supposed to be a demon-hunting family?

Instead of catching ghosts and hunting demons, they run a restaurant?

Cherry-glazed pork, hot pot with assorted ingredients, cold noodles with pagoda tree leaves, tadpole-shaped starch noodles, buttered abalone-shaped pastries, crab-stuffed oranges, savory fermented pork, steamed fish with baked flatbread, steamed rice with pagoda tree blossoms...

Traditional dishes come one after another, all authentic and delicious.

And so the little restaurant nobody had heard of becomes a hit!

#Question: How does Three Realms Restaurant taste? The name sounds so weird. #

#Answer: Don't ask. It's so good you'll cry! Even if you don't eat there, you'll cry from regret! #

As she eats, Xu Tangtang one day discovers:

The award-winning actor who shines in film, TV, and variety shows has grown a pair of cat ears.

The icy actress has revealed a smooth, scaly tail.

The nation's sweetheart, a cute young man, has grown a horn on his head.

Even the helper at her restaurant has a pair of furry paws!

Not one of them is human!

Xu Tangtang: "..." I'm so tired.JPG

She looks at the only normal human in the corner and walks over.

Xu Tangtang: Bro, thanks for still being human. Drink this with me!

The man takes a drink, and a fluffy tail curls around Xu Tangtang.

He smiles shyly. "All right. I drank your wine, so now I'm yours."

Xu Tangtang: !!!!

Weren't you supposed to be a normal person!??

[Upcoming story Nineties Cuisine Makes a Fortune, please add it to your favorites!]

Shen Chenxi is reborn.

In her previous life, after her parents died in an accident, her young siblings were sent to live with their uncles.

Her younger brother finished junior high, went away to work, and lost a leg in an accident. He was disabled by the age of eighteen.

Her younger sister dropped out of school early and got married. Her husband drank and beat her, and she had to work from dawn to dusk before her postpartum month was even over.

As for Shen Chenxi, she traveled from place to place, apprenticed herself to chefs, and finally learned to cook. Just as she was about to open a shop, her business partner cheated her out of all her money. When she was at her wit's end, her brother gave her all his compensation money, and her sister helped her set up and run a stall. They only wanted her to have a bright future, unlike them.

Given another chance, she would never send her siblings away again. She would help them escape the miserable fate they suffered in her previous life.

With one pot, one stall, and one beat-up three-wheeled cart,

she sets out on her legendary journey.

[Upcoming story The Glass Spirit Everyone Dotes On [Seventies], please add it to your favorites!]

Xu Lili is a glass spirit who gained consciousness before the founding of the People's Republic of China. One day, she lands in a story set in the 1970s and becomes the youngest daughter of the Xu family, led by Xu Tiezhu.

The eldest brother is lazy and greedy, the second brother is a smooth-talker, the eldest sister is wildly ambitious, and the youngest brother is timid and useless. Father Xu is stingy, Mother Xu is fiery, and from the start they're doomed to be cannon fodder, with a miserable ending.

The one good thing about this family, perhaps, is that they don't favor boys over girls and dote on their youngest daughter.

Xu Lili: ...

She bursts into tears!

A glass spirit has a glass heart. It is delicate and easily broken, yet clear and pure, like a fresh spring in the midst of a muddled life, breaking through the chaos and giving people boundless strength.

A blazing fire ignites in the family's hearts: We won't let Lili suffer and cry!

Later, whenever Xu Lili, the glass spirit, cries, the lazy family's daily life looks like this:

The eldest brother, who skips work and slacks off: Lili, don't cry! I'll go to work and buy you candy!

By year's end, he wins an award for outstanding employee.

The second brother, who loves to swindle and trick people: Don't cry, Lili. I'll take you to watch puppies fight! After that, he becomes a model citizen in the village.

The eldest sister, who loves to compete and argue: Be good, Lili, don't cry. I'll tell you a story! The following year, she becomes the first person from the surrounding villages to attend a teacher's college.

The youngest brother, who gets mocked and bullied: Whoever makes my sister cry will get it from me!

He takes down a local bully to protect Lili, and joins the army when he grows up.

-

Shen Qingyue is a loner and a village troublemaker. No one dares mess with him.

There's just one exception: a little tagalong he can't get rid of.

The problem is, he can't even scold the kid. The moment he does, they cry, and he feels bad.

Shen Qingyue: I must've dammed up all the water in my last life. That's why I'm drowning in it this time!

Oh well, these white rabbit milk candies are pretty good. I'll take some back for the little crybaby...

Author's notes:

1. Inspired by all kinds of ancient cuisine. As always, food is the most important thing.

2. This is a fictional setting, so don't nitpick the historical details. There are no real-life models.

3. A modern urban setting with demons.

4. The plot gets wild.

Completed stories on my author page are available to read:

Everyone Loves to Eat

Ancient Cuisine: The Road to Riches

I Raised Pigs and Ascended to Immortality

The First Bookshop of Ancient Times

I Picked Up a Little Tyrannosaurus

Blurb revised August 25, 2020

Theme: Food heals everything.