I Have a Starving Ghost System

◎ New work: The Plum Garden Cookbook. Next up, a mystery: The Book of Fate.

◎ I'm terrible at blurbs. The heroine will die four times.

Blurb:

She transmigrates into the mountains, accompanied by a ghost.

She's told she's been bound to a Hungry Ghost System. Ever meticulous, she thinks: Am I dreaming? How many layers of dreams deep am I?

Xue Li, the System's spokesperson, has just finished training: ...Host, if you keep this up, it's going to be hard to do my job as a ghost!

Before she even leaves the tutorial area, Jiang MiaoMiao has already "died" twice, rather carelessly. Then she learns that life in another world means following the System's directions: she only has to eat, drink, and save up wish points, then happily shop to her heart's content in the Heavenly Realm's store. In short, she gets to eat and wait for death.

But the office worker, already beaten down by society, thinks: Really? I don't believe it.

Little scene:

#My Little Story with the New Top Scholar

It seems she can no longer hide where she's from. Stammering, she explains, "You... Young Master, do you think I'm a little unusual?"

Liu Youzhi pretends not to know, holding a flower as he bends down to pinch her cheek. Smiling, he asks, "A face like a peach blossom, what's unusual about that?"

Jiang MiaoMiao: (eyes shaking) My ancient classmate used to be the most proper of men. Now he's playing rough!

[A resilient, clear-eyed modern woman x a calm, thoughtful ancient scholar]

Reader's guide:

1. A slow start, with a warm, everyday feel.

2. An alternate history. Please don't nitpick historical details.

3. Cover art thanks to @Nian Laixi.

Upcoming: Transmigrated as the Cannon Fodder Supporting Female Character in an Exile Novel

Blurb:

Xu Baoyue transmigrates into a book, becoming the second daughter of a sixth-rank military officer. After the family is stripped of their possessions, they're all exiled.

Fengzhou is only abundant in name. Apart from wheat, there's barely a handful of common wild vegetables. As a southerner accustomed to eating greens, Xu Baoyue brushes the yellow sand from her temple and presses down on the Spirit Spring bubbling at her fingertips. She smiles wearily:

Short on vegetables? No problem. I'll grow my own.

Short on water? No problem. Just look at my advanced drip irrigation technique.

Short on money? No problem. Now that I've got vegetables, I'll start a street-stall business and open a restaurant!

The scarcest thing of all is people.

She lives a down-to-earth life, and the Spirit Spring nourishes her until she becomes beautiful without even realizing it. A matchmaker from the General's household comes to call, looking her up and down. "In Fengzhou, there's no one better than our Fifth Young Master. And with a figure like yours... tsk... you'd be suitable as a favored concubine."

Xu Baoyue: No, I wouldn't.

Just as expected, the match falls through. The two families go from potential in-laws to enemies, and the people of Fengzhou wait to see the joke.

They wait and wait, but Xu Baoyue's restaurant thrives, and Gu Wulang comes to propose to her himself.

*

One day, Xu Baoyue is lifted up and perched on a low wall like a little chick.

Gu Wulang, still in his armor, wears an expression as cold as snow on a mountaintop. "You were right to refuse me. You're barely in your twenties. You can't spend your life widowed because of me."

Is that really something to say before heading off to war?

Xu Baoyue kicks him. He's built like an iron ox. After kicking him, she winces at the sharp glint of his armor. "I..."

The next moment, he slips a sweet date into her mouth.

She bites him with her lips still wrapped around the date, then pokes his smooth, jade-like chin. "When I first met you, you were covered in a huge beard. It was hard..."

He steals the date back with another kiss.

Xu Baoyue covers her sore lips with one hand and plants the other on her hip, boldly declaring, "You, Gu Wulang, get your sorry self back here in one piece!"

[Sunny beauty vs. scheming wolf]

Theme: Save others and yourself; stand on your own two feet