My upcoming novel, Eighties Hutong Diner, is open for follows! Food / everyday family life / healing / super sweet / ensemble cast
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Zhou Wan thinks there's something off about her older brother.
As the worst student in Hongqi Production Brigade, her brother refused to go with her to the commune middle school, and couldn't be bothered to earn more work points, either.
Then one day, he suddenly announced he was going to take the college entrance exam and get into Peking University!
The college entrance exam had only just been reinstated. Zhou Wan's boyfriend, Jiang Nan, was planning to apply to Peking University, too, but he was an educated young man from the capital!
News that her brother planned to take the exam spread through the brigade, and everyone laughed at him for a toad dreaming of eating swan meat. They couldn't wait to watch the show.
Who could have guessed that when the admission letters arrived in July, everyone would be stunned?
Zhou Wan's useless older brother had actually become the top scorer in the college entrance exam, and even bought a house in the capital!
Zhou Wan was stunned, too.
Jiang Nan had failed the exam, and she caught him rolling around in a cornfield with her good friend, Xu Zhiling!
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After Zhou Chucheng binds with the System, he learns that he's a character in a period novel, and his younger sister, Zhou Wan, is a sacrificial female character.
Her boyfriend, Jiang Nan, is a scumbag. After returning to the city, he looks down on Zhou Wan for being a country girl and kicks her out of his home. When Zhou Wan tries to explain, Jiang Nan twists the story, paints her as a clingy, outrageous woman, and beats her out of the house. Zhou Wan is so enraged that she dies.
Zhou Chucheng: ...Who? That city pretty-boy who looks down his nose at him every time he comes to the Zhou house for dinner? He dares bully his little sister?!
The sister-protecting maniac is furious. It's just a System mission, so he'll do it!
Let's see which fool dares try to steal his little cabbage!
Jiang Nan brings his sister malt candy, so Zhou Chucheng brings out several cans of malted milk powder instead, leaving everyone speechless!
Jiang Nan manages to get two fabric coupons so his sister can make clothes, but Zhou Chucheng has already ordered her a pretty, perfectly fitted polyester dress. Every girl in the brigade is jealous!
Jiang Nan wants to go to college? Zhou Chucheng shuts his eyes. For his sister, he'll give it everything he's got!
At long last, the whole family moves to the capital, and Zhou Chucheng thinks he can finally take a breather.
Who would have thought that university students, the manager of a state-run restaurant... even his own classmates would all want to date his sister!
Zhou Chucheng: ...There are way too many people trying to steal his little cabbage!
He has no choice but to work himself to the bone, grinding away all 365 days of the year to protect his little cabbage.
By the time he comes to his senses, the lazy Zhou family, once notorious throughout the brigade, has become the Zhou Group, working with the government on all sorts of major projects.
His sister... has become the little sister of the richest man in the country.
Zhou Chucheng is quite pleased. Now surely nobody will dare try to steal his cabbage, right?
But who is this man at his sister's side?!
He has sharp brows and bright eyes, with a keen edge hidden in his gaze. Ten Jiang Nans together wouldn't be a match for him.
And yet he's so refined and keeps calling Zhou Chucheng "big brother," while treating his sister with tenderness and care.
Zhou Wan links her arm through the man's, looking a little shy. "Big brother, this is my boyfriend, Lu Yanchen."
Zhou Chucheng: ???
The Lu family... Isn't that the legendary Colonel Lu, who keeps everyone at arm's length?!
Why does this living King of Hell want to steal his cabbage, too?!
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Upcoming novel: Eighties Hutong Diner
In the 1980s, during the early years of reform and opening up, a brother and sister move into an alley near a knitting factory.
They say the older sister, Song Mingyu, has a fierce personality. She managed to wheedle a whole courtyard house out of the knitting factory secretary, a miser who wouldn't part with a penny. She's a prickly sort who's hard to get along with.
The neighbors all feel sorry for the Lin family, who live next door to the siblings.
They're honest and easygoing. Now they'll have a prickly neighbor, and will probably be pushed around all the time. What a hard life!
Lin Xiang is nervous, too.
Who could have guessed that on the very first day after Song Mingyu moved in, Lin Xiang would receive a plate of her sweet-and-sour ribs, making everyone in the alley's mouths water?
Song Mingyu smiles warmly. Lin Xiang thinks she's frank, efficient, and sweet-tongued. How could anyone call her fierce?
Then the unemployed young woman Song Mingyu gets a business license and opens a little diner in the alley, leaving Lin Xiang and the neighbors utterly astonished.
Mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork, kung pao chicken, crispy roast duck...
Beef with chili oil, dan dan noodles, chicken broth pot stickers, sesame twists...
The Mingyu Diner on Knitting Factory Street serves up new delights every day, all year round. Its fame spreads across ten streets!
The alley fills with richer and richer aromas, and the courtyard with more and more diners!
The big-ticket appliances move into the home, a TV antenna goes up, and the Mingyu household becomes the trendiest family in the whole textile factory!
Lin Xiang, no, the whole Knitting Factory Alley joins Mingyu's "business venture"...
Some sell clothes and shoes, some open little shops, and one even gets a landline installed at home and charges people to make long-distance calls!
Life just keeps getting better!
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Mingyu, a food-section uploader on a video-sharing site, wakes up one day in the body of a knitting factory worker's child in the 1980s.
Her parents have passed away, and the factory gives Mingyu a choice: an apartment or a job at the factory.
The factory runs three shifts, and if you doze off at work, you might lose a finger. Mingyu just can't take that kind of hardship.
Besides, this is the 1980s... Private businesses are flourishing, and going into business is the way to make money!
Is there even a choice?
"I'll take the house!"
She chooses the biggest courtyard, knocks a hole in the wall to open a shop, and starts her own little diner.
Later, the diner becomes a time-honored brand famous throughout the country.
Later still, Mingyu becomes the hottest young businesswoman of the 1980s...
Her life is only just beginning!
[Reading Guide]
1. A slow burn, with everyday family life and an ensemble cast.
2. One-on-one ending, happy ending.
Premise: Family is irreplaceable.
The Hong Kong Star of the Nineties
The Beloved Childhood Friend's Diary of Life in the Compound: The 1970s
The Contrast Group Marries Up and Wins by Doing Nothing [The 1970s]
Reborn in the Nineties: Finding a Century-Old Restaurant
Moonlight Sonata [Campus]
The Delicate Beauty Remarries a Powerful Man in The 1980s
I Woke Up to Find That My Childhood Friend and Archrival and I Had Swapped Bodies
After Transmigrating as the Stepmother in a Wealthy Family, I Became Everyone's Darling
The Novel's Male Side Character's Daughter, Who Died Young
Is the Talent Manager Losing Money Today?
A Little Restaurant in an Eighties Alley
The Little One's Dad Is a Big Shot in a Period Novel
It's very interesting, but I feel like I could read another million words. I'm still not finished. I love the brother and sister!
"If knowledge is a love letter" gives the author a big bug ~ Just
What the hell is this? Get your money back.
Didn't my cousin go to the University of Posts and Telecommunications? Why are you so grown up?
At that time, when you asked a tailor to make clothes, you had to bring your own materials. When I was a child, I once asked an old tailor to make clothes. He was far away and made many clothes. He lived directly at home, and the surrounding villagers came to make clothes.