Floating World's Delicacies

In a turbulent age, there is always a gourmet eatery where the lamps burn late into the night. No matter what terrifying horrors await outside, when the blue-green wooden door opens, it feels as if it’s just an ordinary day, and you’ve come in search of a meal. A stunningly beautiful cook greets you with a smile. Several little creatures, foxlike but not quite dogs, cling to the man behind the counter. The rich, delicate aroma wafts through the partition. Summer breezes and winter sunshine are especially pleasant in this little eatery. In time, people began to say that the Gourmet Eatery moved wherever war and disaster went. It might stand on the frozen earth of North River, where fierce winds blow, with fiery sorghum liquor that burns going down, thick white mutton soup bubbling in the pot, and glossy red venison roasting over the stove. Or beside the splendid flower market of South De, with crispy-outside, soft-inside fried sausage doused in garlic sauce, and the taste of spring and freshness in every bite of locust blossoms and elm seeds. Or in a busy corner of East Tai, where the north and south meet, with two-finger-wide steamed buns stuffed with tender, fatty pork belly, and Spanish mackerel dumplings bouncing in a strainer fresh from the boiling pot. Or by a riverside bridge, beneath the tips of willow branches, where a stern-looking man opens a pair of gentle eyes, while the air fills with the smell of caramel slowly burning. He sprang up from his bamboo chair, only to hear a cool, languid voice say, "General Fang, are my plum blossom cakes burning?" The female lead isn’t human. The male lead used to be human, but after meeting the female lead, he can’t be human anymore either. Upcoming historical novels: After All the Marquis Household’s Women Become Commoners and Green Shoots Hold the New Rain Blurb for Green Shoots Hold the New Rain: He Qingyuan thinks everything is pretty good. Spending a decade or so with her grandmother back in their Jiangnan hometown? Pretty good. Returning to the capital to live with her parents and siblings? Pretty good. As for the fact that her future brother-in-law suddenly became a Taoist priest, her elder sister thinks it’s pretty good, so He Qingyuan thinks it’s pretty good too. But their parents arranged the marriage, and it’s not easy to end it. General Zhu has remarried twice, has many wives and children, and his household is a mess. Her mother insists that she won’t accept the bloodline of a wicked woman! Then the Zhu family’s long-lost son appears, the one who vanished during a military campaign years ago. They say he was raised in a wolf’s den for three to five years, is full of wolfish instincts, and howls as he transforms into a beast under the full moon. He Qingyuan becomes the object of pity among the capital’s young ladies, but she thinks it would be pretty good if Zhu Yunlai really did have a tail. Only after they marry does He Qingyuan find out that the rumors spread by her stepmother-in-law weren’t entirely made up. Zhu Yunlai really can transform into a beast, and not only under the full moon. At first glance: a sweet, airheaded girl × a fierce werewolf In reality: a fierce, sweet girl × an airheaded werewolf Blurb for After All the Marquis Household’s Women Become Commoners: The Prince of Ming’s household backed the wrong side in the struggle between the princes and princesses, and has been confiscated! The Marquis of Ming took his own life, while his legitimate son and illegitimate sons were all exiled to the borderlands. The empress ascended the throne and, in her mercy, only demoted the women of the household to commoner status. Twelve wives, concubines, and daughters, each with her own beauty and charm. They have been raised without ever lifting a finger, knowing nothing of housework or farming, only that food should be brought to them and clothes held out for them, while they paint their brows, rouge their lips, play the zither, recite poetry, and play Go. At most, they can sew a little, split threads, or use an abacus, but they have no idea how to wash clothes, clean vegetables, or pull up radishes, let alone plant vegetables, raise chickens, or work a bellows. Everything is a mess and everything goes wrong. One by one, they set things right. With no man left to fight over and serve, the legal wife and concubines become friends who understand and support one another. Without distinctions of status, the legitimate and illegitimate daughters become true sisters. From washing and ironing clothes for others to building the capital’s leading clothing shop; from writing letters for a single coin to sitting the imperial examinations and serving in government; from sometimes eating their fill and sometimes going hungry to opening a little restaurant so popular that even the empress checks in. Dual female-lead perspectives: The legal wife Lan Panxiao × the chief steward who came with her as part of her dowry (secretly in love for years, an older virgin) Younger sister Ming Baojin × the prickly girl next door (childhood sweethearts, training him to be a gentleman) Some of the girls have love interests, and some don’t. Theme: Love is mutual nourishment and helps both people grow