A Guide to Caring for My Sickly, Possessive Childhood Friend

[The full novel costs only five yuan, so feel free to dig in, cuties! I hope you'll support the official release. My next novel is The Guan Family Restaurant [Ancient-to-Modern Cuisine], coming soon in the neighboring slot.]

The first time Jiang Yan met Shi Lin, the boy sat in a luxury car and looked down at her through the window as she stood there in a sorry state.

They were as far apart as heaven and earth.

Jiang Yan thought they would never meet again, like parallel lines that would never cross.

The second time they met, he was in a wheelchair, silent, withdrawn, and cold. He moved into the apartment below hers.

Jiang Yan thought, My hero has fallen. That's all right. I'll do my best to help him stand again.

When she accidentally saw his badly scarred legs, the boy shoved her away. "Are you satisfied now?! Get out! Don't come back!"

Jiang Yan calmly brushed the dust off herself and lifted her long skirt above her knees. "You've seen my scars too. Now we're even."

Shi Lin froze.

+

Many years later.

Every admirer with a new trick, including a confident heiress openly declaring her love, gets the same unchanging reply: Get lost.

Everyone says Shi Lin is a favored son of heaven, arrogant and proud, so much so that he can barely spare a word to reject anyone.

But the next evening, his assistant sees his impossibly demanding boss toss aside an expensive suit, change into a cheap old shirt, and knock on the door of a small apartment.

"Yanyan, I've gone bankrupt. Do you need a male servant? I'll work for free. Just give me something to eat."

"Yanyan, it's so windy outside. My legs hurt."

"...Yanyan, please take pity on me, okay?"

The assistant clutches the contract they just signed, utterly confused. Boss, when did the company go bankrupt?

You just threw away a whole company like that??

And your aloof persona, you just tossed that aside too???

"To be near you, I'd tear open my scars, even if it meant bleeding all over."

[Reader's Guide]

* A gentle on the outside, strong on the inside healing angel x a formerly gloomy wheelchair-bound boy, later a shameless, scheming cat

* A Jinjiang-exclusive medical miracle

--------------------Advance Blurb--------------------

Guan Jiu, a famous imperial food official, unfortunately dies after staying up all night studying recipes in ancient texts. Never mind how the emperor, empress dowager, consorts, eunuchs, and palace maids all grieve and weep in the palace. She wakes up one day as an orphan in the twenty-first century.

With no family, buried in debt, and on the verge of homelessness, the usually indolent Guan Jiu grabs a cleaver without hesitation.

No money means no ingredients, cooking utensils, or tableware. Sleeping on the street means no kitchen. Both are serious obstacles to her pursuit of culinary excellence!

--When the new restaurant opens, passersby dismiss the Guan Family Restaurant.

"They only sell some lousy porridge. It's bland and won't fill you up. Who'd eat there?"

"You have to fill out a survey just to eat, and clean up your own dishes. It's a lot of hassle for very little food."

"A tiny shop like this can't compare to a Michelin-starred restaurant. Don't waste your time waiting in line."

--Later

"Boss, do you sell that eight-treasure porridge by the bucket? I'll take it all!"

"Boss, are you hiring servers? I'll volunteer. I don't need a salary, just three meals a day. I'd happily eat your spicy jelly noodles at every meal!"

"Boss, please expand the restaurant! I've queued for two days and still haven't tried your shrimp dumplings, lotus-leaf sticky rice chicken, or dry-fried rice noodles. I'm about to starve to death outside your door!"

"Boss, I brought the best crabs from our farm! Where are those delicious, juicy crab-roe soup dumplings?"

[Reader's Guide]

* A slow-paced, cozy story about running a food business

* The story of a food-obsessed cook who is aloof but a little goofy, goofy but a little mischievous, and sometimes thinks in wonderfully unexpected ways

Theme: Healing and being healed