Pampering the Sickly Little Husband

Preorders open for my historical danmei novels The Little Eatery in the Woods and My Husband Is Born Lucky. Please add them to your collection!

Blurb:

Song Tingzhu, the Song family's concubine-born son, had been frail and sickly since childhood. He spent more than a decade recuperating at a country estate. One day, while he was unconscious, servants forced him into a carriage and sent him to the Liu family in Yunxi Village to marry in place of his elder sister.

The Liu family held a grand banquet to welcome their new bride. But when the bridal sedan arrived, its occupant was not the beloved daughter of the Song family, but an unwanted son. And if being unwanted were not enough, he also suffered from a rich man's illness inherited from birth: coughing every few steps and fainting after every other one. Calling him a walking medicine jar would be no exaggeration.

The Song family had gone too far. The Liu family's elders clamored to go to the prefectural city and demand an explanation, but Liu Hu stepped forward and willingly accepted the marriage.

Red candles burned in the room. Song Tingzhu leaned helplessly against his new husband's chest as the man gently wiped his fingertips, holding him by the wrist.

"I don't have many days left. Won't you regret marrying me?"

"I won't. All I know is that you're my wife. From now on, I'll work hard to earn money and take you to town to see a doctor."

"Fool, ordinary doctors can't cure my illness."

"Then we'll go to the prefectural city. If they can't help you there, I'll take you to the capital."

Song Tingzhu chuckled softly, taking it as nothing more than an attempt to cheer him up.

But one month passed, then two... Watching that fool work himself to the bone, so exhausted that he fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow, yet still insisting on bathing him before bed, Song Tingzhu, who had long since lost all hope of living, suddenly found a reason to keep going.

"Wife, here's what I earned working for someone today. Keep it safe."

"Fool, this little bit of money won't be enough to hire an imperial physician to treat me."

Song Tingzhu leaned into the man's arms, took his rough, broad hand, and said with a smile, "Husband, how about I teach you to do business and make money?"

A few years passed, and the Liu family's business grew larger and larger. The Song family, meanwhile, fell into decline.

When they ran into each other in the prefectural city, the eldest Song daughter was plainly dressed and looked haggard. Her former arrogance and domineering manner were gone.

By contrast, the Song family's concubine-born son, once known as a sickly weakling, was now decked in jewels and glowing with health. The man at his side was attentive and considerate, making everyone around them envious.

[Reading Guide]

1. A slow-burn, slice-of-life farming story, with children later on.

2. The recipient is seriously ill. The gong dotes on the shou in the early part, and they dote on each other later.

Blurb for The Little Eatery in the Woods

Yu Miao had been intellectually disabled since birth and was often bullied by the village children.

After his beloved fathers passed away one after another, his relatives fought over the family property and drove him to the brink of despair.

After the little fool died, no one came to bury him. A small, skinny beggar gave him a proper burial, then used a packet of rat poison to kill the people who had harmed him before freezing to death in front of the little fool's grave.

Perhaps because Yu Miao's previous life had been so hard, Heaven took pity on him. Not only was he reborn, his intellectual disability was cured as well.

It all felt like a dream. He also had many memories in his mind that did not belong to this world.

In the dream, he had lived in the twenty-first century and run a little restaurant with his father. Their life had been ordinary and peaceful, until a sudden car accident shattered that peace.

Reborn with the memories of two lifetimes, Yu Miao could not tell reality from illusion. He only wanted to hold on to what he had now and protect his little father, along with the little beggar who had avenged him in his previous life.

The little fool was no longer foolish. He could take on the worst people with one hand and rake in silver with the other.

As for making a living, of course he would go into the food business, the thing he had been best at in his dream.

-

At some point, a little eatery appeared in the woods between the village and the town.

Pumpkin and wild mushroom stew, snow pear and Chinese yam soup, pine nut corn, spicy pepper-salt pig trotters... All kinds of unusual dishes were so delicious that people's mouths watered.

A few years passed. The little eatery was still the same little eatery, except now there was a chubby white dumpling sitting in his father's arms, gnawing on a pig's trotter with grease all over his mouth.

"Little Daddy, pick me up!" Seeing his little daddy, the white dumpling reached out to be held.

Yu Miao pinched the little one's cheek, turned to plant a kiss on the tall, handsome man, and said with a smile, "Go ask your dad to hold you. Little Daddy's going to make you something tasty."

[Reading Guide]

1. A farming story about a young man, with children later on.

2. The gong is a local, while the shou is reborn. An everyday food story with a modest golden finger.

3. There are nasty characters, but neither lead lets them get away with it. The face-slapping hits hard.

Theme: Ordinary people are working hard to live their lives.