Food Is My Downfall

A bare progress bar is the only clue I got after wishing to transmigrate.

No System, no golden finger. I have to guess my way through the main quest.

Xu Yuan rolled up her sleeves: I get it. I'll make my fortune through food, just like in the novels! Watch me.jpg

So she worked hard, going from a street stall to opening a restaurant. With fragrant braised pig trotters, crispy pepper prawns, mint chicken salad... she won over a crowd of diners. Everyone knew the name of the restaurant in the north, and even General Xuanhui, the pickiest eater around, became one of her regulars.

Xu Yuan watched the quest progress bar rise little by little, completely satisfied.

Until one day.

She took pity on a cash-strapped soldier and gave him a few extra sesame flatbreads, but the progress bar went down by 1%.

She chatted enthusiastically with a scholar about food culture, and the progress bar dropped by 3%.

A neighbor set her up on a blind date, and the progress bar plunged by 10%!

Xu Yuan: QAQ What is going on?!

She couldn't make sense of it. Then she turned and saw Xuanhui angrily confronting the young waiter in her restaurant: "Why did she go on a blind date? If you can't even protect her, what use are you?"

A flash of insight struck her, and she suddenly understood.

Xu Yuan stared at Xuanhui and tentatively took his hand. The man who had just been raging immediately fell silent.

She sealed his unfinished explanation with a kiss, and the progress bar shot straight up by 20%!

Xu Yuan: ...Damn, is there still time to start the quest over?

Blurb written on June 15, 2022

Reading guide:

1. A chatty, everyday food story. They fall in love and make delicious food. There are plenty of original worldbuilding details, including tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. The recipes come from everyday life and the internet.

2. Wishing all readers every success and happiness.

Completed: "Oh No, My Brother Usurped the Throne" is next door. The two stories share a setting and can be read independently.

Most recently completed:

"Does the Tyrant Really Smell That Good Today?" by Chu Shangshi

"I've figured it out."

Qiu Xu said gravely, "The highest form of regicide is to outlive the tyrant."

Not long ago, Qiu Xu transmigrated into a story about rebellion. The trash System told her that her mission was to kill the emperor and take the throne.

Looking at the tyrant, who had been reborn and was now on a killing spree, she dropped to her knees without hesitation and lay flat to perfection. Whoever wanted to do it could do it. She certainly wouldn't.

The crown prince sidelined her, giving her the perfect excuse to be an unproductive crown princess.

The crown prince ascended the throne and became emperor, and she continued being an unproductive empress.

There's no denying it: being a rich good-for-nothing is amazing!

...Though once in a while, she had to do some public relations under the royal banner.

During disaster relief, she accidentally uncovered a nest of corrupt officials. To thank her, the people sent her so many local delicacies that they filled her carriage to the brim.

She casually rescued a scholar in distress and unexpectedly exposed an exam-cheating scandal, earning a first-rate academy in the capital as its headmaster.

When she accompanied the emperor on a military campaign, she stayed behind to manage the supplies. The enemy launched a sudden attack, and one unconventional move from her unexpectedly defended the city and routed thousands of troops. She also cleared a wrongly accused general's name and even found the only child of a princess who had been sent away for a political marriage.

In no time, Qiu Xu became famous and was praised throughout the realm as a radiant moon.

-

As for the mission to kill the emperor...

Qiu Xu lazily basked in the sun beneath a tree in the courtyard. Fed up with the System's urging, she turned and kissed the tyrant's cheek. "Just so you know, tonight I'm going to take you out."

"Granted."

Without looking up, the tyrant put a peeled orange into her mouth. "If you're going to kill me, do it properly. Don't be like last time, when your blade wasn't even sharpened."

-

The history books say Emperor Wei Xuan bore many grudges: the brutal deaths of his loved ones, his enemies in power, and his own untimely death.

On the night he was reborn, he saw at a glance that the crown princess who had killed him in his previous life had a different person inside her body.

At first, he watched her coldly, intending only to keep her as bait.

But when he was ambushed, the timid, lazy woman not only trembled as she grabbed a stick and knocked out the assassin, she also dragged him halfway up a mountain through a torrential rainstorm and stayed awake for two nights to care for him.

When she truly became a legendary figure, treated with the utmost respect, he found himself secretly resenting the moon for shining on everyone but him.

In the middle of the night, as he held her close and kissed her shoulder, he thought to himself:

If she really wants the supreme throne, he wouldn't mind being the subject kneeling at her feet.

The Tyrant x The Lazy Fish

Theme: Courage is the resistance to and mastery of fear.