A Guide to Making a Living with Ancient Cuisine

Please add my other story, I Won After Becoming a Child Bride, to your reading list!

Blurb for this story:

Her parents are kind, her younger siblings are adorable, and her family lives comfortably.

Thirteen years after transmigrating into this world, Ji Shu has lived quietly and peacefully, almost forgetting that she has lived one life already.

Then disaster strikes. The pillar of her family falls, and her fiance breaks off their engagement. With no choice, she must shoulder the burden of supporting her family despite her frail build.

The pampered young lady of the family opens a restaurant, cooks delicious food, welcomes guests from far and wide, and makes a fortune. From then on:

Her ex-fiance, who broke off their engagement, shamelessly begs and cries for her to take him back, even swallowing his pride and making a complete face-slapping spectacle of himself.

Friends and relatives of every sort come calling to make her acquaintance.

The little restaurant at the edge of the village repeatedly draws important figures, becoming the new center of gossip!

People say her only blemish is her notoriously dissolute husband, Xue Shu.

His family fell into decline, his mother died, and his father is a scoundrel. On top of that, his stepmother and younger siblings are constantly stirring up trouble. He wants to take the civil service exams and become an official, but people call him frivolous because he is good at painting beautiful women.

Xue Shu thinks life is pointless, so he might as well be a wastrel.

Some say he spends his days fighting crickets and walking dogs, indulging in wine and women, and staying in the red-light district.

Others say he is a valiant warrior and brilliant strategist who rose through the ranks to become one of the highest officials in the land.

But few know that he wishes he could turn into one of the rolling pins in Ji Shu's hands, so he could stay by her side at all times!

Later, his paintings of beautiful women become worth a fortune, but are never seen again, because every face he paints looks like hers.

A little scene:

Xue Shu: This woman smiles at everyone every day. What a hypocrite! I'll find out whether she's faking it!

But after years of being a wastrel, the habit takes over, and what comes out is: "Hey, why don't you smile at me?"

Ji Shu: This shop sells meals, not smiles, thank you! If you want to buy a smile, go to Nanping Lane. There's the door!

Xue Shu: ...Wait, aren't you supposed to be a respectable young lady? How do you even know about Nanping Lane?

Blurb for the upcoming story:

Xu Fu, who lost her husband and eldest son early and spent most of her life widowed, closes her eyes and opens them again to find she has transmigrated.

She has become a woman in her twenties and is sitting with two little children in a huge wooden tub, floating on the open sea.

What kind of hell mode is this?

Just as she is about to give up and die so she can be reborn, she realizes that the original body's husband and son look exactly like her deceased husband and eldest son.

Xu Fu hesitates. Maybe... she should wait a little longer?

Who knew that waiting would turn her life into a cheat-mode run? Her husband, who used to be a little ruffian, suddenly changes his ways. He studies with such determination that he hangs a beam from the ceiling to keep himself awake and pricks his thigh with an awl to stay alert. He reads ten lines at a glance and speaks with eloquence, resolving to pass the civil service exams and become a high-ranking official.

The village women grow jealous and deliberately flatter Xu Fu. "Dayou, the best is yet to come!"

Xu Fu glances at her useless husband, who can't lift a burden or carry a thing, and gives a perfunctory smile. "It's all right, I guess!"

Shen Qingyuan, who had been completely absorbed in his books, looks up and points toward the kitchen. "Wife, I've already got lunch cooking in the pot. Just turn off the heat when it's done!"

"I filled the water vat, too!"

"I've chopped all the firewood!"

"I've fed the pigs in the pen!"

"Why don't you go lie down for a nap? I'll call you when the food is ready."

The women watching exchange awkward looks, then scatter in a flurry. "Look at someone else's husband! That's way more than all right! Why am I always the one doing all the work? And I wasn't even a child bride!"

Xu Fu looks at Shen Qingyuan, exasperated and amused. "...You're deaf, but you're pretty good at putting on a show!"

Shen Qingyuan shakes his head and gazes at Xu Fu with conviction. "You're my wife. It's only natural that I treat you well."

"...All right, all right!" Xu Fu feels warmth bloom in her chest, and even her old face turns red with embarrassment.

"That's still not good enough!" Shen Qingyuan says with a smile.

Later, Shen Qingyuan comes first in the imperial examinations at the Golden Throne Hall, becomes sworn brothers with a marquis, and saves the emperor in a moment of crisis. He really does have everything go his way, coasting to victory with one cheat after another.

"Husband, how did I get so lucky as to meet you in this life?"

"Because I owed you in my previous life, so I'm paying you back double in this one."

P.S.:

1. This story is entirely fictional. All the details serve the plot, so please don't overanalyze them.

2. One-on-one romance.

3. Please don't tell me if you drop the story. Thank you!

4. Malicious negative reviews will be deleted!

Theme: Love helps both people become better.