The Little Eatery on the Back Street of the Dali Temple

Synopsis: Everyone says the young woman who runs the Cen family's eatery at the end of Imperial Street is beautiful and makes delicious Southern dishes. But she's vicious to the core. To get a divorce, she sent her husband to prison for hard labor, angered her father-in-law to death, and left her mother-in-law bedridden. Marrying this woman would bring nothing but disaster to one's family. People also say the junior minister of the Court of Judicial Review who lives in Xuan'er Cave has wolfish eyes that can tell the loyal from the treacherous, and is skilled at solving cases. But he has mixed blood from a foreign people, and is a ruthless, petty man. He beat his wife until her leg was broken before agreeing to a divorce. Even for a widow said to bring her husbands bad luck, he would be a poor match. If two people like that set their eyes on each other, surely it should be a boon to the country and its people. So why is one of them weeping and saying she regrets it, while the other glares furiously and says no? Upcoming historical romances: Green Shoots Embrace the New Rain and The Marquis's Household Women Become Commoners Synopsis of Green Shoots Embrace the New Rain: He Qingyuan came from Jiangnan to the capital to reunite with her family only after reaching adulthood. Years apart, however, had left her estranged from those closest to her. Her parents thought her timid and awkward, with nothing but good looks, while her siblings thought her dull and boring, and far too obedient. Yet this very He Qingyuan was to take her elder sister's place and marry into the general's household as its eldest daughter-in-law. General Zhu had married twice more after his first wife, and had many wives and children, making the household a tangled mess. His vicious stepmother had driven his future brother-in-law to become a Taoist on a mountain, and her elder sister had followed the crane and become a Taoist nun. They had become an immortal couple, free of worldly constraints, but their marriage contract had been arranged by their grandparents and was hard to break. Marrying the son of a poisonous woman would be unbearable, while marrying an illegitimate son without power would be suicidal. Just as they were caught between a rock and a hard place, the Zhu family found a son who had gone missing during a military campaign many years ago. He had made a name for himself in one battle and earned the emperor's praise, but people also said he'd been raised in a wolf's den for seven or eight years, that he was wild as a wolf and howled like a beast beneath the full moon. The substitute bride, He Qingyuan, became an object of pity in the eyes of the capital's young ladies, but she thought that if Zhu Yunlai really had a tail, that would be rather nice. It wasn't until after their wedding that He Qingyuan learned the rumors spread by her stepmother-in-law weren't entirely made up. Zhu Yunlai really could turn into a beast, not just at the full moon, but every night. This untamed barbarian was uncouth and rough, with no sense of restraint. He Qingyuan sympathized with him as a fellow abandoned child, and indulged him a few times, only to end up losing herself. Zhu Yunlai's point of view: He'd only planned to earn some food money, then go back to the grasslands to play. Then he saw a little fox caught in a pile of silks, trapped in a golden and jade cage. He wanted to carry her off, but feared she couldn't endure the grassland winds and sand, so he decided to stay by her side instead. At first glance: a sweet, ditzy girl x a fierce werewolf In reality: a fierce, sweet girl x a ditzy werewolf Synopsis of The Marquis's Household Women Become Commoners: The Prince of Ming's household backed the wrong side in the struggle between the princes and princesses, and got confiscated! Marquis Ming took his own life, and all his legitimate and illegitimate sons were exiled to the frontier. After the empress ascended the throne, she showed mercy and only stripped the women of the household of their noble status. There were twelve wives, concubines, and daughters, each with her own charms and figure. They'd been raised never to lift a finger or do a day's work, knowing only to have their meals served and their clothes put on for them, to shape their brows, powder their faces, stain their lips red, and play music or write poetry. At most, they could handle a needle, split silk thread, or work an abacus, but they had no idea how to wash clothes, prepare vegetables, or pull up radishes, let alone how to grow vegetables, raise chickens, or work a bellows. Everything was a mess, everything went wrong. One by one, they set things right. With no man left for the wife and concubines to compete over and serve, they became friends who understood each other. Once the legitimate and illegitimate daughters were no longer divided by status, they became real sisters. From washing and ironing other people's clothes to running the finest clothing shop in the capital; from writing letters for a penny to taking the imperial exams and serving in government; from barely managing one meal a day to running a little restaurant so popular that even the empress came to check in. Two female leads: The principal wife, Lan Panxiao x the household's chief steward, who came with her as part of her dowry (secretly in love for years, an older virgin) The younger sister, Ming Baojin x the prickly boy next door (childhood sweethearts, trained to be a model gentleman) Some of the young women have love interests, and some don't. Theme: Women should stand on their own: love yourself first, then love others.