My Husband Smells So Good, But He Only Wants to Be Brothers

All-around farming and money-making expert, sunny, sweet little bunny: Zhuang Yubai

Master of both letters and martial arts, cunning and formidable scholar: Meng Zhizhang

Straight man Zhuang Yubai transmigrates into an ancient society where men can become brides and bear children.

As soon as he arrives, he is forced to swallow a drug, dressed in wedding robes, and sacrificed to the river.

When he finally saves his own life, it is all he has left...

Well, what a disastrous start, packed with every cliche in the book.

What now?

After stumbling around, he runs into a scholar.

So he latches on to the scholar!

He'll use modern knowledge to make money and find himself a husband!

He starts a shrimp-cracker business, and soon his name is known throughout the villages, towns, and county seat.

He sets his sights on tea and charcoal, both high-value, high-return businesses, and brings his friends and neighbors along for the ride.

He establishes a vineyard, from raising the vines to brewing wine and building an estate, and makes a fortune...

As the straight-man bride and his “good brother” work together, supporting each other and serving as each other's right hand, they count their money until their hands cramp.

As they outsmart unscrupulous neighbors, beat down arrogant local bullies, and kick out wicked relatives, Zhuang Yubai begins to notice that the way the other man looks at him is getting more and more suspicious.

Brother, don't do this! I'm straight!

*First meeting

Zhuang Yubai (tied up and tossed onto the bed): Sir, I'm really not a thief! But you're so... strong and imposing. How could you be a scholar?

Meng Zhizhang (lowering his fist and clasping his hands behind his back): If you keep denying it, I know a thing or two about fighting.

*Making himself at home

A bare-walled home with only one wooden bed.

Zhuang Yubai (patting the pillow): Come on up! We're both men. What's there to be afraid of?

Meng Zhizhang (his Adam's apple bobbing): ...It wouldn't be proper.

Zhuang Yubai (holding out his hands): Proper? Tie me up. I like sleeping while tied up!

*The marriage scare

Zhuang Yubai hears that the scholar is getting married.

And to... a man?!

No! I'm afraid of men!

We agreed to be confidants, and now you're marrying a man behind my back!

Then what was all that sharing a bed these past few days?

Does it mean I'm a scoundrel?!

*Bickering sweethearts

While wrestling around, Zhuang Yubai fishes a “treasure” out of the blankets.

One bed, two people, four eyes. They stare at each other!

Undergarments!

A pair of intimate undergarments!

Meng Zhizhang's intimate undergarments!

“Brother, sorry about this... Want me to help you put them back on?”

“Zhuang Yubai, how long are you going to keep pretending!”

Meng Zhizhang rolls over and pins him down.

Zhuang Yubai looks completely innocent.

He has no idea that he is the very bride-to-be Meng Zhizhang has yet to marry.

Reader's guide:

1. Men can bear children.

2. Set in an imaginary Song dynasty.

Some of the books referenced:

A Study of Gold Clay and Jade Shavings, Research on Prices in the Song Dynasty, A Cultural History of the Civil Service Examinations in Late Imperial China, Finance and the State in Ancient China, Transforming the Song: The Logic and Pitfalls of Wang Anshi's Reforms, The Elegant Song: A Visible Civilization, The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor, The Song Dynasty Banquet, and Suiyuan Shidan

*Coming soon: Opening a Restaurant in the Song Dynasty

[Sunny, Sweet Little Cake Bottom x Cunning, Proud Big Dog Top]

Good news: Gourmet Lin Zenan is expecting.

After tonight, he will claim life's grand prize, take his place among the world's greatest chefs, and reach the pinnacle of success.

Bad news: The night before the award ceremony, he transmigrates.

He transmigrates into the body of a frail man who is unloved by both parents.

One oil lamp, one dilapidated room. His stepmother has tied him up and is waiting to sell him to a sickly, wealthy old landowner.

If the old landowner dies tonight, Lin Zenan will be given a ghost marriage or handed over to the old man's sons.

If the old landowner survives the night, Lin Zenan will be made to bring him good luck and shared with his sons.

Fortunately, a benefactor appears from nowhere, and Lin Zenan escapes.

But he has no money and no idea where to go. What will he do?

Survival itself is a problem.

Since he's here, he might as well make the best of it. He believes that even in ancient times, his abilities will help him reach the pinnacle of success.

Fortunately, he has a way to make a living.

First, he has to survive. Then he can make money!

As a modern culinary god, he is a chef who knows how to satisfy the appetites of everyone from high to low!

He trades the wedding clothes off his back for two taels of silver and sets up a food stall.

The stall is simple, but the snacks are anything but.

With simple ingredients, he creates all-new flavors.

Three-delicacy buns, tofu pudding with a hundred flavors, shrimp and loofah autumn-leaf buns...

Word of the delicious food spreads from one person to ten, then from ten to a hundred. The prices are fair, two to five coins a serving.

The stall is packed every day.

Before long, he saves enough to open a small restaurant.

Assorted cured meats and vegetables, beef brisket and radish clay pot, baby bok choy with fermented black bean dace, rice cakes with two kinds of fish, delicate plum-scented ribs, freshly steamed smoked pork cartilage, jujube-scented Huadiao wine chicken soup, fermented rice and red bean taro dessert, and six-treasure black-leaf siu mai... He serves them all!

There's something for every budget, from two coins to two taels of silver.

With so many affordable dishes on the menu, he makes a fortune.

Thanks to his culinary talent, everyone from peddlers and laborers to exam candidates, gentry, and even nobles becomes a devoted fan.

But Lin Zenan finds himself in a predicament.

He realizes that people are pursuing him.

And not just one or two: a whole crowd!

Everyone loves him.

Every day, his restaurant is packed with customers and admirers alike.

A wealthy landowner waves a banknote, offering a dowry of a thousand acres and ten thousand taels of gold.

A newly graduated top exam candidate holds out a betrothal letter, promising to come marry him once he places first in the palace examinations.

And a mysterious prince says that once he inherits the throne, he'll invite Lin Zenan to share the dragon bed!

Hey! This is ridiculous!

But the biggest headache is yet to come. Trouble arrives just as the time comes to celebrate!

While the daily marriage proposals outside the restaurant create chaos, a distinguished scholar strides up the steps.

“This is my bride-to-be. Who dares make a scene!”

What?!

Without another word, the scholar scoops him up and carries him off on horseback.

“My dear, you have quite the short memory! That night, I saved you from a ghost marriage, and you climbed into my bed. What, now that we've slept together, you don't want me anymore?”

Lin Zenan watches as his previously loud and eager admirers fall silent and quietly disperse. His eyes grow rounder than the longans in his hand.

Has he been claimed by some King of Hell?

More or less.

The moment they see the horse's browband, everyone backs away.

What difference is there between provoking him and provoking the King of Hell?

The least ambitious and most carefree prince in the empire: Zhao Che.

Premise: When poor, focus on cultivating yourself; when successful, help the world