After the Substitute Marriage, My Rich Husband Fell Head Over Heels for Me

(Substitute bride + married first, love later + bickering couple + food)

They say you live off the mountains when you live by the mountains, and off the water when you live by the water. Liu Yueya has lived by the mountains for seventeen years, and she’s still dirt poor.

So when the Xue family came to her with a generous offer to take someone else’s place as a bride, she agreed at once.

She’d heard that the eldest Gu young master had practiced a dark art and often went mad, injuring people. So what? That was a hundred taels of gold!

Life after the substitution was wonderful. Liu Yueya ate when she was hungry and slept when she was tired. She acted more like a proper mistress of the house than Gu Wei did.

More importantly, she was a brilliant cook. Whether it was chicken and shrimp wontons or shrimp dumplings in delicate wrappers, there was nothing she hadn’t heard of that she couldn’t make.

If she really made Gu Wei angry, she’d whip up something delicious to coax him back around. Even the way she called him “husband” came remarkably naturally.

Liu Yueya: Her parents died young, she was born a farmer’s daughter, and she’s stingy, greedy, crude, and vulgar. She accepted a hundred taels of gold to marry into the Gu family in place of the eldest Xue daughter, who had run away from her wedding.

Gu Wei read the letter. To keep his mother from worrying about his marriage, he let Liu Yueya into the house, thinking she’d learn her lesson and leave within three days.

But Liu Yueya didn’t run away. Instead, she fit right in with the Gu family.

The servants praised her beauty and kindness. Fifth Aunt said she was clever and capable. Even his own mother treated her like a dear daughter.

Gu Wei began to doubt his own sanity. Were they talking about the same person?

As time passed, Gu Wei thought, Why not let things stay this way? If a fake marriage can become real, why not?

But one perfectly ordinary morning, Liu Yueya never came back. In her place, Gu Wei got the dignified and refined Eldest Miss Xue.

By then, Liu Yueya had fulfilled her contract and departed in triumph. With her hundred taels of gold, she finally opened her own restaurant.

Who should show up to cause trouble on opening day but Gu Wei?

He stood at the door with a face as dark as a demon’s, frightening away all the customers.

Liu Yueya: “And you are?”

“The husband you seduced and then abandoned.”

The moon doesn’t know its own radiance. It doesn’t even know it’s the moon.

Little scene 1:

Housekeeper: “When you speak, you sound half like Eldest Miss.”

Liu Yueya asked, “And when I’m not speaking?”

“Seven-tenths.”

Liu Yueya was silent for a long while. “Could I earn more if I pretended to be mute?”

Little scene 2:

Gu Wei: “Wife, make me a divine immortal duck and I’ll give you a kiss. Make me a whole roast lamb and I’ll give you my life.”

Liu Yueya: “You’ve finished listing the drawbacks. What are the benefits?”

Gu Wei: “?”

Theme: A destined match, a blessing from heaven.