After the Laid-Back Crybaby Opened a Restaurant on the Border

After dying suddenly, Li Xiaoyu was reborn in ancient times. His uncle held an official post, and his parents ran a grand restaurant.

He spent his days eating and sleeping. Aside from having a body that couldn't stop crying, everything else was great, so he happily decided to lie flat.

But when he turned fifteen, his uncle was demoted and sent to the frontier, all the cooks at his parents' restaurant quit, and business went from bad to worse.

Having connections at court made things easier, so the Li couple closed the restaurant and went to the frontier to join their uncle.

With no particular talents, the Li couple opened a small eatery there, too.

But without a skilled cook, business was dismal, and they struggled to get by.

Li Xiaoyu, a chef in his previous life, couldn't just lie around anymore.

With so many cattle and sheep, they could make barbecue and hot pot.

If the food was too monotonous, he could offer all kinds of desserts, stir-fries, stews, and fried snacks.

In the Great Yu Dynasty, every trade was passed down through generations, and cooks kept their recipes under lock and key.

But Li Xiaoyu taught anyone who paid, and made sure they learned.

Once word got out, countless people came to apprentice under him.

Before he knew it, Li Xiaoyu had become the master of over a hundred people, and branches of the Li family eatery had opened all over Great Yu.

Li Xiaoyu nodded with satisfaction. At last, he could lie flat in peace again~

As the son of the Marquis of Ding'an, He Ci had been the undisputed bully of the north since childhood.

Even the great black bears in the mountains couldn't out-bear him.

Then he met Li Xiaoyu, who had come from the capital, and his fierce life took a sharp turn.

The first time they met, he hadn't even touched the other boy, and the other boy started crying.

The second time, he'd barely said a word before the boy started crying again.

The third time, he got in first, acting cocky and infuriating. "Cry again and I'll beat you up."

Then the other boy cried even harder and glared fiercely at him through his tears.

He Ci thought the kid from the capital had something wrong with him. His constant sniveling was annoying as hell.

When the two of them got trapped in a cave, he gripped Li Xiaoyu's chin and glared at him viciously. "Cry again and I'll kiss you!"

Not long after, He Ci watched Li Xiaoyu take on five people at once, beating them up while crying.

Several people lay on the ground, but Li Xiaoyu had shed more tears than any of those who'd been beaten.

Tears still on his face, he clenched his fist and stared impassively, his voice cold.

"Kiss me? Go ahead and try."

He Ci lowered his head. "You said it, not me."

[Reading Guide]

◆ A touch of ensemble cast, with character growth. No character is perfect; they all have flaws.

◆ Xiaoyu tears up whenever his emotions shift, but this isn't a weak-bottom-and-strong-top pairing.

(If that's the kind of pairing you're looking for, this story's CP isn't for you.)

◆ The text will be revised often for typos. The setting is entirely fictional, with countless original details.

◆ Cover artist: Yin Lang

-----Coming Soon: Handing Over a City-Building System After a Natural Disaster-----

The Yu Dynasty was struck by a sudden blizzard. Temperatures plunged, and countless people froze to death overnight.

Yuan Qingming, a young noble who'd always idled around, teasing cats and dogs, was jolted awake by the cold. When he opened his eyes, he found himself on an empty street, where someone claiming to be a city-building System told him to complete a quest.

The pampered young lord had cut his hands, singed his hair, and even burned down a shop. At last, he managed to make a bowl of tomato and egg drop soup as requested. Weeping and wailing, he begged and pleaded until he finally sold it, completing the beginner quest.

After completing the quest, Yuan Qingming rushed straight into the imperial palace, clung to his handsome royal uncle's leg, and tearfully displayed all his injuries, insisting that he wanted to hand the System over to the imperial court.

Thousands of miles of land were locked in ice. The Yu Dynasty faced a bitter cold snap.

The fields yielded no harvest, the frontier was in crisis, and people were reduced to eating their own children.

Just when all hope seemed lost, the imperial treasury suddenly began handing out grain and clothes.

The clothes were strange, though. They were called down jackets and military overcoats.

The rice they handed out was all polished white rice, with no coarse grains at all. They said coarse grains cost more than white rice, so they couldn't afford to give those out.

Every so often, they even got canned meat to eat. The cans were sturdier and more durable than bowls.

Somehow, life was getting better!

In the city-building simulation world of 4076, humanity began awakening supernatural abilities.

An abandoned ancient cultural street in the Zhongyu Kingdom suddenly opened for business.

Step into any restaurant, and the chef is an imperial chef.

Visit a medical clinic, and the physician is an imperial doctor.

Enter a clothing shop, and the tailor is an imperial embroiderer.

Go into a martial arts school, and the instructor is an imperial guard.

Visit a bookshop, and every ancient text on the shelves comes from the imperial study.

Hey, whether or not it was genuine, they really got to experience the kind of treatment only an emperor could enjoy.

The shops along the cultural street also had all kinds of special effects.

The food could boost stamina, brainpower, and mental strength!

The medicine at the clinic could ease the unavoidable side effects of supernatural abilities.

The clothes from the tailor could provide all kinds of defensive effects.

The techniques taught at the martial arts school let people attack for five seconds, regardless of their ability level!

As word spread about these amazing effects, the once-deserted traditional cultural street became a global sensation.

Yuan Qingming asked the System to wake him promptly at midnight.

The System had unlocked a friend-farm feature, and Yuan Qingming had to log in on time to steal crops and sell them at the restaurant.

As he was happily stealing vegetables, a voice beside him asked, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Yuan Qingming looked over.

The person before him was as lovely as a peach blossom, beautiful as jade, elegant and handsome, with the bearing of an immortal.

Yuan Qingming couldn't help saying, "Royal Uncle, you're so beautiful."

Yuan Shuo: "What?"

Yuan Qingming came to his senses. "I said I'm stealing vegetables."

Yuan Shuo chuckled. "And what else?"

Yuan Qingming couldn't help getting lost in his good looks again. "And Royal Uncle is really so beautiful!"

-----Coming Soon: Yuanbao's Life in the Commoner's World-----

Yuanbao was reborn in ancient times as a boy who could bear children.

There were five people in the Yuan family. They scraped by on Father Yuan's earnings from selling wontons and Mother Yuan's laundry work.

The family was so poor they could barely afford to eat.

His parents wore worried expressions all day, and there was never a smile on his siblings' faces.

When Yuanbao was only a month old, his father carried him in a back basket and set him beside the wonton stall.

Even as a tiny baby, Yuanbao had a round head, round face, and round eyes.

He was adorably round.

His parents had to earn money to buy him goat's milk, and Yuanbao wanted to help. Neither his age nor his inability to speak would stop him.

He smiled at passersby with his big, round eyes.

In baby talk, he babbled, "Come have a bowl of wontons! (✿◠‿◠ ✿)"

Before long, more and more people came to the family's little wonton stall, and business kept getting better.

Yuanbao finally got to drink goat's milk and grew up safe and sound.

At fifteen, Yuanbao fell seriously ill. His family sold their wonton stall to raise money and snatch him back from the King of Hell.

Father Yuan went to the docks to carry heavy loads, and Mother Yuan took on even more laundry work.

Yuanbao's eldest brother quit school, and his second eldest sister said she would marry to save the family the cost of feeding her.

After returning from the gates of the underworld, Yuanbao's hazy memories of his past life grew clear.

Unable to bear seeing his family suffer, he returned to his old trade and began making all kinds of pastries and noodles to sell.

Through the family's hard work, their tiny stall grew into a little shop.

Yuanbao and Cheng Junzhu had been childhood friends, and now that they were old enough, it was time to discuss their betrothal.

The two families had agreed to arrange the engagement after the children's examination, whether or not Junzhu passed and became a licentiate.

But Junzhu passed, and then got engaged to a young master from a wealthy merchant family instead.

Yuanbao crouched beneath the pomegranate tree in the courtyard, his shoulders trembling slightly.

A low voice came from behind him, its usual hardness softened by an awkward attempt at comfort. "Don't cry. I'll beat him up for you."

Yuanbao stopped picking pomegranate seeds to eat. When he saw who it was, he was so startled that he fell flat on his bottom.

The pomegranate rolled right up to a pair of black boots.

Lu Huaiqian, a junior officer in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

His fearsome reputation preceded him, and no one dared cross him.

He was also the grim reaper Yuanbao and Cheng Junzhu had feared since childhood.

Yuanbao stammered, "Hello, Cousin Lu."

Lu Huaiqian frowned. "I'm Cheng Junzhu's cousin."

Yuanbao cautiously tried again. "Hello, Officer Lu."

Lu Huaiqian frowned even harder. "I came to your house to ask for your hand in marriage. From now on, call me your husband."

He wanted to marry him? Yuanbao burst into tears.

Later, his childhood friend was made to call him sister-in-law by his husband.

Yuanbao nodded, a little embarrassed. "Oh, Cousin."

Theme: Look ahead, and life will keep getting better