The Scholar's Wife's Daily Breadwinning

My new novel, The Leisurely Life of Chef Yao, is now underway! Please click to check it out!

The three sisters were being bullied nearly to death, and Lin Qing, newly arrived in this world, was so furious she sharpened her knife. Just as she was worrying about what to do, someone came knocking. Song Yan said, "I've come to break off our engagement!"

Lin Qing yanked him into the courtyard, then turned around, shut the door, and locked it, all in one smooth motion.

Break off the engagement? You'll do that after I've had my use of you.

The next day, the Lin family had gained a live-in son-in-law, a scholar at that, and Lin Qing had set up her own household.

Lin Qing had thought Song Yan was a gentleman of impeccable character. It was only later that she discovered just how thick-skinned he was.

Before leaving, Song Yan wanted to break off the engagement his father had arranged verbally. His future was uncertain, and he had no idea when he would return from this trip.

Who could have guessed that the Lin girl would take his money and demand him too? She was practically a bandit. Her promise to support his studies was a joke.

So be it. If she isn't afraid, what have I to fear?

I'll put up with it. In a year, we'll owe each other nothing and go our separate ways!

Later...

Lin Qing: "Go take care of the paperwork. We can't put this off any longer."

Song Yan played dumb. "What paperwork? Didn't we already take care of the shop's paperwork?"

Lin Qing: "Our one-year agreement is over. You're taking up space and keeping me from finding a man."

Song Yan gaped. "I'm right here, so who else are you looking for? I've joined the Lin family, so I'm yours. Are you going to use me and then toss me aside? You're such a jerk." He'd learned the word "jerk" from Lin Qing.

A warm, mutually doting, slow-burn romance. They come to understand each other and never give up on one another.

My next novel will be a food story: The Leisurely Life of Chef Yao. Thanks for adding it to your collection!

Yao Qingxue is reborn as an orphan who depends on her grandparents. To make a living, she returns to her old trade and applies for a cook's job at the Vice Minister's residence. Before long, the Vice Minister of Revenue falls from power. She then takes a cook's job at the Duke's residence, but within six months, the entire Duke of Zhenguo's household is sentenced to death.

Shao Xichen looks at the familiar woman before him and raises an eyebrow. "Why is it you again?"

Yao Qingxue is just as helpless. She doesn't want the hardships of running a street stall; she just wants to cook for a wealthy household. Somehow, every household she joins comes crashing down.

Shao Xichen suspects she's a spy from some unknown place and decides to keep her under his watch. So Yao Qingxue becomes the cook at the Shao residence, preparing meals for Shao Xichen alone.

Yao Qingxue has never met anyone so difficult to please. The food is either too salty or too bland, and if he leaves it sitting for half a day and it goes cold, he still comes to complain to her. When he reads in his study, she has to brew wine and tea beside him. Other people bring their beautiful wives and concubines to banquets; he brings his cook.

She's only a cook, yet she has to do the work of senior maids and housekeepers too. If it weren't for the five taels of silver she earns each month, she wouldn't serve him.

Well, later on, she takes on the job of warming his bed too!

Shao Xichen believes getting both fine food and a beautiful woman is the best decision he's ever made.

Theme: Only by making yourself strong can you remain invincible.