The Late-Night Canteen

[The full novel costs only 3 yuan!]

[Next up: After Becoming a Love-Security Guard, the Villain Set His Sights on Me. Blurb at the very bottom!]

Blurb:

Shu Qing was born into a new world and became a courtesan who was saddled with an inflated ransom by a spoiled rich heir, roughly beaten and scolded by the brothel madam, and insulted to her face by her customers.

Faced with the enormous ransom and the madam's hostility, Shu Qing simply decided to lie flat and loaf around the brothel during the day, while earning money at night with her Night Canteen System to buy her freedom.

The canteen serves chewy, savory Jincheng dan dan noodles; deliciously sour and spicy roasted sweet potato skins with pickled long beans; glutinous, fragrant tangyuanguo; refreshing, mildly sweet fermented-rice ice tangyuan; piping-hot, bubbling yuan yang hot pot; and intensely spicy, deliciously fresh cold-dipped chuan chuan skewers...

The snacks are affordable and excellent, a feast for the taste buds.

Later

The famous date-cake shop in town offers a hefty sum to collaborate with the canteen.

The Jincheng County government hires Shu Qing as its chef at a high salary.

Even the new emperor, who rules from the capital, wants to invite her to the palace to cook.

Before long, the cramped Night Canteen has become a grand night-market restaurant famous throughout Jincheng, with branches in every prefecture and county of the Hongyuan Kingdom.

One day, the madam sneered at Shu Qing, who was lying on her bed eating sunflower seeds. "You'll never save up enough money at this rate."

Shu Qing pointed nonchalantly at the tavern next door. "See that place? The one that steals business from Lianyue Tower every day and makes a fortune? It's one of my branches."

*

A short scene:

After buying her freedom, Shu Qing became the chef for Jincheng County's government office. County Magistrate Ji Chuping also helped her deal with vicious competition against her restaurant, so Shu Qing figured Magistrate Ji must be an honest, upright official.

But one day, a handsome young scholar barged into the county office. He knelt at Ji Chuping's feet, tears and snot streaming down his face. "Your Majesty, now that you've had your fill of enjoying yourself in Jincheng under my name, please return to the capital. Chuping thanks you!"

Shu Qing: E-Emperor?

*

Beautiful canteen owner x emperor traveling incognito

A lighthearted, feel-good, delicious little story about running a food business!

*

Reader's guide:

1. Both leads are each other's one and only, and both have secret identities. They're both smart and capable.

2. Lots of Sichuan cuisine ahead!

3. The setting is a fictional version of the Sichuan-Chongqing region. Jincheng is similar to Chengdu, but the setting is highly fictionalized. Don't try to pin down the dynasty; many elements are nonsensical and have no basis in science.

4. Blurb written on 2023.2.12, revised on 2023.12.13

*Coming soon

[Sunny, innocent girl x gentle, gloomy ghost]

Zheng Li transmigrated into an early-era novel that had been abandoned before it could reach its ending.

The good news: She was bound to a Love-Security Guard System. If she could get the original male and female leads to a happy ending, she could return to the modern world.

The bad news: She had become a random passerby. Whenever she tried to interfere with the original leads' fates, the world's mechanics would block her, leaving her completely unable to act.

The even worse news: She married the original story's villain right from the start.

[Host, you can cooperate with the villain. That will let you break through the world's blocking mechanism around the male and female leads.]

Zheng Li was stunned. Cooperate with whom?

The great villain Qu Heng, who had single-handedly killed half the people in the entire book?!

The System was no help, either.

Garbage ads and pop-ups kept filling the screen, and she even accidentally ended up on an adult website. Zheng Li was so furious she could barely sit still, so she switched to minimalist mode.

The display was now neat and clean, with only a bouncing intimacy meter remaining.

Peace at last.

-

To get home as soon as possible, Zheng Li followed the System's instructions and had no choice but to establish a friendly working relationship with Qu Heng.

Using her prestigious status as the legitimate daughter of the Chancellor's household, she helped Qu Heng secretly expand his influence.

Qu Heng continued setting schemes in motion just as the villain was supposed to, while taking advantage of the situation to help Zheng Li get closer to the original leads and complete her matchmaking mission.

Qu Heng beat the male lead until his head was bleeding, and Zheng Li rushed the female lead over to save him.

Intimacy: [Up!]

Qu Heng framed the female lead for treason, and Zheng Li brought evidence with the male lead to clear her name.

Intimacy: [Up again!]

Qu Heng planned to wipe out the male lead's entire family, and Zheng Li and the female lead grabbed their weapons to help him escape.

Intimacy: [Up, up, up!]

Zheng Li and Qu Heng worked together flawlessly. Watching the intimacy meter rocket upward, Zheng Li was ecstatic: Home was just around the corner!

But through all this, Zheng Li ignored the pair of eyes growing ever more gloomy and clingy.

Until one day, Zheng Li switched the System back to full mode and was instantly stunned.

It turned out the System had quietly changed the people she was supposed to matchmake long ago.

That intimacy meter, racing upward like a runaway horse, had been tracking her and the gloomy villain beside her all along.

Zheng Li slowly turned her head.

Qu Heng was peeling a mandarin beside her. He looked up and smiled. "Did our numbers go up again?"

Zheng Li: "..."

Go home? Like hell.

*

Both leads are each other's one and only, 1v1, happy ending.

The reason the System changed the matchmaking targets will be explained in detail in the story.

*

Content warnings:

1. The male lead is genuinely bad at first. He schemes against the female lead and takes advantage of the situation. Later, he has to win her back, and there's a bloody price to pay.

2. The female lead cares about looks, but she's not a love-struck beauty addict.

3. The male lead can't see the System interface, but he can infer the System's presence from details, as well as the meaning of the numbers on the female lead's display.

4. The original female lead is Feng Xiyu, and the original male lead is Gu Lingye. There will be no rivalry between the original female lead and the female lead.

Theme: Eat well, drink well, and escape poverty