[New novel: Face-Slapping Envoys at the Chinese State Banquet is now available. Chinese cuisine is the best!]
Yu Ningshuang transmigrates into the body of a refined young woman in Bianjing. Her parents are loving, her younger siblings are adorable, and she lives a happy, peaceful life every day.
The only fly in the ointment is that she is bound to a wicked System that collects and analyzes human emotions.
System: [The emotion the Host needs to collect is "indifference." Each successful collection earns you a corresponding ice reward.]
Yu Ningshuang: "Ice?! Why not just pick my pockets while you're at it?"
System: [A kilogram of ice is worth about one string of cash in this era.]
Yu Ningshuang: "!!!"
System: [Collect 999 kilograms of ice to get three wishes.]
Yu Ningshuang: "Dear, precious little System, let's get started right away!"
But Yu Ningshuang is so beautiful and sweet that even the stray dogs by the roadside can't bring themselves to bark at her. No one would ever treat her with indifference.
More than half a year after she was bound to the System, she hadn't even gotten half a spoonful of ice chips.
Then she suddenly learns that she has a fiance, chosen for her in childhood.
The young man is a famously cold-faced King of Hell, cold-hearted from head to toe.
What's more, he's desperate to find someone to marry him and bring good fortune to his ailing mother, so he's looking for a woman to pretend to be his bride.
Yu Ningshuang: "Oh my, this man is surely an excellent match. I'll marry him!"
*
Yan Shuo is the Chief Inspector in charge of security in the imperial city. His temperament is as cold as forged iron, and his face is carved from ice and snow, making people afraid to approach him.
Only his new bride keeps smiling as she sidles up to him.
People in the capital say that Yan Shuo's wife is hopelessly in love with him.
Even Yan Shuo himself gradually falls for the sparkling softness in her eyes.
He has no idea that Yu Ningshuang only sees him as a big block of ice she can trade for little blocks of ice.
Before long, a frozen-dessert shop opens in Jiqing Ward.
It sells everything from milk-and-cream snow mountains and cherry curds passed down from the previous dynasty, to the icy rice balls and crystal jellies popular in this dynasty, as well as countless novel scented drinks, popsicles, fruit bowls, iced tea treats, and more...
Yu Ningshuang happily counts her money, then casually tosses out a divorce agreement.
At that moment, Yan Shuo suddenly understands that Yu Ningshuang never loved him.
Even more shocking, despite knowing that, he still doesn't want to let her go.
His eyes darken, and the veins on his clenched fist stand out one by one. "Divorce? Impossible."
Yu Ningshuang gives a mocking laugh and makes a wish to the System.
Held fast by an invisible force, Yan Shuo watches in despair as his right hand signs his name against his will. Yu Ningshuang then turns and walks away gracefully.
*
When they meet again, Yu Ningshuang is a female official of the Court of the Imperial Clan, in charge of food for the palace.
She cures the Empress Dowager's summer illness with a longan dish called Clear Breeze Rice. Her milk tea becomes the Emperor's favorite. The Noble Consort wants her homemade kumquat sweets every day, and every prince and princess gets a bowl of her lychee jelly. Most importantly...
An elegant and composed prince gathers around her, a dashing heir to a marquis follows her, and wealthy merchants from Bianjing chase after her.
Yan Shuo can only put away his icy prickles and approach her cautiously, hoping Yu Ningshuang will look at him once more.
Later, Yu Ningshuang, a highly favored palace official, is drugged by someone jealous of her.
On that passionate and bewildering night, she grabs Yan Shuo to help her get through the drug's effects.
At last, they become husband and wife in truth. Yan Shuo is overjoyed and carefully considers how to ask her to marry him again...
But Yu Ningshuang pulls on her skirt and runs off, fleeing even farther away.
She runs to the beautiful Jiangnan region, where she grows her frozen-dessert business into an empire. She becomes the founding matriarch of the trade, the head of a wealthy family, and a titled noblewoman who accompanies the Emperor on visits to his palace retreats.
A clear-eyed heroine, warm on the outside and cool within, who knows how to flirt and put on a show.
A hero, cold on the outside and warm within, who's a hopeless romantic and gets tricked out of both his body and his heart.
Reading Guide:
(1) One-on-one romance, both leads have had no previous partners. The leads divorce, then reconcile in the end.
(2) After the divorce, a supporting character develops unrequited feelings for the heroine, but all she wants is to make money.
(3) The hero really is a mess and emotionally twisted. Early on, he can't speak like a normal person and doesn't act like a decent one, so the heroine puts on an act and breaks his heart without meaning any of it.
(4) The hero suffers a lot later on. Basically, he spends that part of the story steeped in jealousy.
(5) A loosely fictionalized Song dynasty. The heroine's golden finger is as described in the blurb: it's not very powerful and really only gives her ice. The three wishes are small ones, too.
(6) One of the Nine Courts and Five Directorates series, featuring the Court of the Imperial Clan. Blurb posted on 2022.06.12 and registered.
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The next novel, Face-Slapping Envoys with a State Banquet, will be out soon. Here's the blurb:
Su Xiaoci, the only daughter of a family of state-banquet chefs, transmigrates into the body of a low-ranking kitchen maid at the Court of State Ceremonial.
The Court of State Ceremonial oversees visits from foreign states and tribute missions, and often has to prepare banquets to host envoys from all over the world.
Su Xiaoci: Hey! I've never seen a transmigration that was such a perfect fit for someone's expertise!
With her superb cooking skills, she begins her daily routine of face-slapping envoys who think far too highly of themselves.
Envoy from the Wa Kingdom: Fish tastes best when prepared as our country's sashimi!
Su Xiaoci: First, raw fish salad is something we came up with and got tired of ages ago. You picked it up from us.
Second, you simply don't know how to cook fish. There are so many ways to make it: crisp-braised mandarin fish, red-braised eel, deep-fried fish fillets, stir-fried eel strips... Get it?
Third, go to the Imperial Medical Bureau and get dewormed!
Envoy from the Wa Kingdom: QAQ I'll go right now. [Scared]
Hostage from the Dongli Kingdom: I have very refined tastes, so I brought two cooks of my own.
Su Xiaoci: Well, well, refined, huh? You mean the two kinds of sauce soup and four kinds of pickles you eat over and over every day? Want to try the thirty-odd kinds of Sichuan pickles I made on a whim the other day?
Hostage from the Dongli Kingdom: QAQ I'll try them right now. [Ashamed]
Prince of the Grasslands: Wine should be drunk in great gulps, meat should be eaten in great bites. Your country's food isn't refined, it's stingy.
Su Xiaoci: Someone bring out the golden chicken, eight-treasure duck, crystal fish jelly, and snow-and-rosy-cloud soup, all of it! Let's open this grassland wolf's eyes.
Prince of the Grasslands: QAQ Let's see it right now. [Excited]
Nobleman from the Bosi Kingdom: Why do you eat with two little sticks? Look, knives and forks are both elegant and practical.
Su Xiaoci: Boiling hot soup is called hot pot. Thick and savory is seafood congee. Food with every grain separate is stir-fried peanuts. Come on, eat with your knife and fork. Go on!!! Want to learn how to use chopsticks?
Nobleman from the Bosi Kingdom: QAQ I'll learn right now. [Humble]
Ambassador from the Yingyate Kingdom: Our country...
Su Xiaoci: Ahhh!! Shut up! A culinary wasteland has no right to speak! If you want recipes, trade goods for them!
Ambassador from the Yingyate Kingdom: QAQ We'll trade right now. And I only meant to say that our country has never had food this delicious... [Feeling wronged]
Most of these foreign visitors, who have never seen the wider world, are won over, but there are always one or two narrow-minded, stubborn ones who get so angry and humiliated that they insult Su Xiaoci.
Then the new Emperor, usually as pure as bamboo and bright as the moon, elegantly steps down from the throne dais and... kicks over the envoy's table.
He gives a faint, mocking smile, his voice as cold as ice.
"My Empress personally cooked this meal. How dare you complain?"
The envoys are so frightened that they kneel and apologize, offering countless cities and treasures.
That night, beneath the gauze curtains, it's the young Emperor who apologizes.
"A Ci, I was wrong. I shouldn't have kicked the table and wasted food."
"You deserve to be punished."
"All right. Punish me however you like."
A fierce workaholic heroine, truly fierce when angry and truly sweet when being affectionate.
A scheming hero who's a hopeless romantic: his wife is the most beautiful and the best.
Reading Guide:
(1) Fictional setting, very loosely based on anything real.
(2) Both leads have had no previous partners, one-on-one romance. Both leads are extremely swoon-worthy. Sweet, indulgent, and satisfying, maybe a little silly.
(3) The food is mainly elaborate dishes from official kitchens and banquets, but there are also simple, home-style dishes.
Blurb written on 2022.07.01 and registered.
Theme: Love yourself. That's what matters most.
I was a little touched when I saw it at the end. It's rare to see a heroine who truly has freedom of choice in the finale.
This is the only heroine in ancient literature that I have seen so far who is truly free in the end. It's so beautiful.
The author does not need to be sad. This article is much better than many articles, and the writing style is also very good. Moreover, this is the most unique female protagonist I have ever seen. She is so independent and sober that I kind of feel for the male protagonist, hahaha, great! I hope to stick to my original intention. I didn't want to follow the series so I looked at it when it was almost finished.
How can I put it... The career line is well written, the food and customs are also well written, but the emotional drama feels a bit too much. The second half seems to emphasize repeatedly that "the heroine is a free soul and does not need the restraints of men and children." However, freedom and emotion are not completely opposite. I personally feel that there is no need to emphasize it again and again in the article. No matter what you choose, it is normal. Talking too much seems to be self-brainwashing, but it deviates from the original intention of showing the free and easy heroine.
I trained my ex-husband to be a dog groomer lol I love to watch more!
Congratulations on the completion, and thank you to the author for telling such a wonderful story!
Too late! This book is really, really, really beautiful! It feels like the teacher is always making progress! Throw flowers!
I really like the writing style and feeling of this article. Thank you to the author for producing it!! Thank you for having me?
The story is too long, skipped in the middle, a unique heroine, delightful food, good-looking
I'm going to play with Xiao Yan hard in the extra episode, hehehe