The Frontier Chef's Rise to Fortune (Food)

Completed. 70% anti-theft protection.

My food novel, The Princess Still Hasn't Had Enough to Eat, is now underway. Its blurb is at the bottom. My mountain-dwelling food novel with no powerful nobles, Mountain Wilds Eatery, is also underway. Please add it to your reading list!

*Upcoming: the ancient food-business novel Selling Breakfast in Ancient Times, and the silly, comedic novel The Entire Harem Shares My Feelings.

Blurb: Food + farming + infrastructure

Food blogger Fang Nianzhen transmigrates. The moment she opens her eyes, she has become a ragged little orphan girl fleeing famine.

After traveling a thousand miles with a column of refugees, she arrives in Xinyunzhou, a border town recently reclaimed from the enemy, and puts down roots there.

Being so poor you can hear your pockets echo is no reason to fear! With her own creativity and skills, she sells lunch boxes, sets up street stalls, opens restaurants, plants flower gardens, and leases orchards. Hard work can always build a life from nothing.

Spicy hot pot, grilled gluten skewers, hand-pulled noodles, grilled fish, mini hot pots.

Ginger milk pudding, red date cake, melons, white apricots, raisins.

Sweet and savory, there's something for everyone.

What? Fresh flowers and fruit are hard to transport?

No problem! She'll open a processing workshop to make dried flowers, perfume, and nail polish, as well as candied fruit, dried fruit, and crispy dried vegetables. She can sell them all across the country, while greatly boosting employment for women in town!

"Nianzhen Foods" becomes famous far and wide, and one of Xinyunzhou's biggest taxpayers.

Fang Nianzhen plants her hands on her hips. "I'm proud to pay taxes. I'll protect Xinyunzhou's GDP!"

–

The Seventh Prince, Lu Heng, lost his mother in childhood and volunteered to spend eight years praying at the Great An Temple of the Da'an Kingdom.

Only after the new emperor ascended the throne did he leave the temple and enter court. He helped command the Black Tiger Army and acted with swift decisiveness. At seventeen, he recaptured eleven cities and was granted the title of Prince Rui.

The day after his investiture ceremony, he personally slaughtered twenty-six male members of his mother's family. His ruthless methods filled everyone with terror.

For his outrageous conduct, Prince Rui was stripped of his military authority and sent to defend Xinyunzhou. Without an imperial decree, he was forbidden from returning to the capital.

A disfavored prince, a war-ravaged and ruined border town, and a population in which one-third were desperately poor refugees.

Everyone thought all they could do was scrape by here. They never expected that the young prince could do more than fight wars. He knew how to govern a city, too. Not only could people eat their fill and dress warmly, they could even work toward a moderately prosperous life.

–

Ever since Lu Heng arrived in Xinyunzhou, his cat Yuntuan had been sneaking out every night and coming back to sleep during the day. It had also stopped eating the chicken, fish, and shrimp in its bowl.

Lu Heng followed it himself and ended up at a little eatery.

Inside were a skinny, scruffy cat and a scrawny, yellow-haired girl. Yuntuan gazed longingly as it licked sweet potato crumbs from the scruffy cat's mouth. The yellow-haired girl had even given it a new name, Er Zhu, and it meowed back obsequiously.

Lu Heng: ??? Yuntuan, you've really sunk this low!

Later, the cat wasn't the only one mooching meals. A prince joined in, too.

But why did this proprietress only ever think about making money?

A certain prince: "Help, I'm waiting online! The woman I like seems to be a Pixiu in her past life. What do I do if she doesn't have room in her head for anything else?!"

Energetic, career-minded proprietress × cool-faced, warm-hearted young prince with a hopeless romantic streak

Reader's guide:

1. Plenty of food. The author has no dietary restrictions.

2. An alternate world, very loosely based on anything real. No need to nitpick the details~

3. The leads save each other. One-on-one romance.

4. Happy ending, a sweet little treat. Enjoy!

Blurb for The Princess Still Hasn't Had Enough to Eat

Food + farming + land reclamation, with plenty of Northeastern Chinese cuisine

A big-eating heroine who stockpiles supplies × a rugged, loyal hero

Xin Rushuang, a powerful survivor from the apocalypse, is betrayed by her teammates and accidentally transmigrates into the body of a fake princess in a bridal sedan chair.

The real princess, recently found among the common people, refuses to marry into the bitter cold of the frontier. So Xin Rushuang, the fake princess who had been raised in the palace for over a decade, is hastily drafted into service and betrothed to Ye Zhao, the general guarding the border.

She hears he's from a humble family, coarse in speech and manner, and able to eat eight bowls of rice in one sitting. If he weren't good at fighting, he'd be nothing but a country bumpkin. Xin Rushuang thinks that's great. There's food, shelter, and a dowry, and she doesn't have to risk her life fighting for supplies. She can lie flat.

She went hungry and cold in her previous life, so this time she'll stockpile a few warehouses' worth of supplies. It's always good to stay prepared for a crisis.

Later, she discovers that although the border's weather is bitterly cold, its people are warm-hearted. For the honest, hardworking people of this black-soil land, she can't just sit back and enjoy the fruits of others' labor.

She'll make the people plump and well-fed, and the general's army strong and well-equipped. Just see if any fool dares call our home poor now!

-

On their wedding night, Ye Zhao opens the door to the bridal chamber and finds the supposedly delicate little princess crushing two walnuts with one hand and popping them into her mouth. He falls silent, then waves his hand grandly. "Bring on the food!"

Twice-cooked pork, braised pork bones, a whole fish stewed with tofu; hot pot mutton, stewed green beans, and then a barbecue!

Only years later do people discover that the old rumors were wrong. It was the general's wife who could eat eight bowls of rice!

-

The day after the wedding, the servants at the general's residence stare in shock at the broken bed.

"Our general is so vigorous. Can Madam handle him?"

Ye Zhao protests his innocence: She cracked it with one punch! How does this woman have so much strength to spare?!

Later, when enemy troops surround Ye Zhao, Xin Rushuang rushes to his rescue with a mountain of supplies and two enormous spiked maces. Ye Zhao's eyes go wide.

"She's so strong. I love her!"

Theme: Work hard and build a better life