The Shop-Hopping Food Blogger Is My Ex

[The new novel next door, My Brother's Archrival Won't Stop Clinging to Me in the Major Crimes Unit, is now updating! Please add it to your collection!]

*Cool and aloof × arrogant and smug | A self-media creator who only wants to make money × a hot pot restaurant owner who doesn't want to be a rich kid

*Rekindled romance | Each other's first love

Scorching heat, torrential rain, an umbrella on the verge of collapse.

Xue Tang's pant legs were already soaked from passing cars splashing her along the road.

Near the school, another car came driving toward her from a distance. She didn't even recognize the make.

She was too stunned to dodge in time. But as the car drew close, it slowed down.

Xue Tang watched it stop at the school gate, and a boy stepped out.

Her gaze fell on his shoes. They were this year's new model, the same pair she'd wanted to give her older brother for his birthday.

But after saving for six months, she'd only managed to put away half the price.

At sixteen, Xue Tang once again felt keenly just how great the gap between people could be.

-

During the last two years of high school, this rich young master was always hanging around Xue Tang.

Xue Tang told him they lived in different worlds.

The boy raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a smile in his eyes. "We're both standing right here, so how can we be from different worlds? Besides, I just want to be friends with you."

-

On the day the college entrance exams ended, Xue Tang couldn't bring herself to turn down his sincere yet cocky confession.

At a class reunion later, their classmates seemed to notice the unusual atmosphere between them.

Then, at the farewell dinner before everyone headed off to their various universities, the classmates noticed something odd again.

One of them hadn't arrived, while the other kept his head down and drank. Someone began to whisper.

"Did those two break up? Did Cheng Jin'an dump Xue Tang?"

"Have you ever seen someone look like that after dumping someone? Cheng's definitely the one Xue Tang dumped."

-

At twenty-six, Xue Tang left the city where she'd spent years making a living.

Not long after she returned to her hometown, she bought a house outright with the money she'd made as a self-media creator over the years.

Xue Tang's longtime followers knew that although she made lifestyle content, she was passionate about food.

After returning to Lin City, she decided to make a video reviewing hot pot restaurants.

Only later did she learn that the owner of the restaurant was her ex-boyfriend...

That night, she was distracted as she edited the video when she got a message saying the former landlord had left something behind.

Xue Tang didn't think much of it. When the doorbell rang, she got up and opened the door.

When the door opened, Xue Tang wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

How could the former landlord look exactly like the ex-boyfriend she'd just seen at lunch...?

-

Reading guide:

1. The story opens when the female lead is twenty-six. The school years appear in flashbacks.

2. They are each other's first and only love.

3. I'll add more if I think of anything.

-New blurb screenshotted on 2024.10.1-

----- Upcoming novel blurb below -----

After My Brother's Archrival Openly Admits His Crush on Me

*Forensic doctor with the beautiful, delicate look of a white flower but a cool, capable attitude at work × arrogant, cocky police detective, a pure-hearted puppy whose secret crush turns into an open pursuit

Xu Sui Ning has a secret no one knows about: whenever she touches a corpse, even that of a small animal, she can sense the scene where it died.

This ability first appeared after her college entrance exams, when she buried a kitten that had been hit by a car at the roadside.

Determined not to let this ability go to waste, she resolutely applied to study forensic medicine.

But at the end of her sophomore year, she unexpectedly discovered that she was a bit-part character in a crime novel, as the younger sister of the male lead's archrival.

The male lead, Si Wei, and her brother had been in the same class from kindergarten through police academy. They couldn't stand each other, and it wouldn't be wrong to say they'd been fighting since they were kids. The reason was simple: Si Wei's uncle was in love with her mother, but her brother didn't approve.

Because of her brother, Si Wei had always kept his distance from her. But starting with her internship, Si Wei began appearing in front of her more and more often. Even the way he looked at her had changed.

Xu Sui Ning found it hard to describe that look. It was like a rice cake spotting its favorite snack.

Oh, and Nian Gao was the dog she owned.

-

Si Wei had had a nemesis since he was a kid, named Ji Jia Nian. The guy was annoying, but he had a sister everyone liked. Si Wei had seen her when she was little. She looked like a doll, unbelievably pretty.

The girl grew more striking as she got older. Every time Si Wei saw her, his heart itched, but with that little punk Ji Jia Nian around, he couldn't get close to her. Then, one time, he and Ji Jia Nian got into another fight. Si Wei accidentally hit his head, and afterward he dreamed for several days in a row. A voice kept appearing in his dreams.

"Congratulations, you're the male lead of a novel."

"Unfortunately, you don't have a destined female lead."

"You and Ji Jia Nian's sister won't have anything to do with each other."

Si Wei: What a load of crap!

-

Ji Jia Nian had something bothering him lately. Ever since their last fight, that dog Si Wei had been acting like a different person. He no longer provoked Ji Jia Nian, talked back to him, or even seemed willing to fight him. Ji Jia Nian began to wonder if he'd hit him too hard and damaged his brain.

Then one day, he saw Si Wei standing outside his home, holding a bouquet and a bag, talking to himself.

He crept closer and heard something truly unbearable.

Si Wei: "Sui Sui, happy birthday. This is a present for you. I hope you like it. And if you could like me a little, too, that would be even better."

Ji Jia Nian: Nobody stop me. I'm going to kill that dog Si Wei!

Theme: Fewer regrets, more happy endings