A sunny, self-assured girl vs. a domineering CEO with a hopeless romantic streak
Marriage first, love later | He has a secret crush | Her entrepreneurial journey
Tang Wan gets dumped at the marriage registry, then turns around and spots a handsome guy in the corner.
Smitten by his looks, she proposes to him.
They hit it off, get married in a flash, and move in together at lightning speed, becoming a couple in name only who agree to three rules.
After the wedding, Tang Wan quits her job and starts a business, making a great success of it.
What she doesn't expect is that the man starts secretly stirring up trouble.
First, he gives her a present every day, making her feel beholden to him.
Then he replaces all their loungewear with button-up clothes, and often wanders around the house with the buttons undone.
She thinks he's trying to build their relationship.
Until one day at a banquet, the man stands in a perfectly tailored suit, speaking with cold words and a frigid voice as he greets someone with apparent enthusiasm. "Mr. Wu, long time no see."
Oh, so that's his real voice.
She's hearing it for the first time, even though they've been married for ages.
"What do you mean, his real voice?"
"President Qin, you don't know that you put on a cutesy voice whenever you're at home?"
*
Qin Yang is handsome and proud, with an iron grip and a sharp eye. In just three years, he has become one of the people nobody in the business world dares to offend.
Countless women have fallen for him, but he has never so much as touched one.
Everyone thinks there isn't a woman who could move him.
Until a passerby takes a photo and says the couple in it are the couple of her dreams.
The business world: Shocked.jpg.
It's Qin Yang! He's carrying a woman on his back, his gaze gentle and a smile playing on his lips.
Good heavens, is this really the same Qin Yang they know, the ruthless man who gets things done with lightning speed?
Qin Yang himself: Heh.
All his life, Qin Yang has thought the most glorious moment was when his wife proposed to him and fell in love with him at first sight.
Only later did he learn that she'd just felt sorry for him and let her heart soften.
But that's okay. It's not her fault.
If he can't win her over, that's on him.
*
Tang Wan: "You're really handsome. If I'd seen you before, I'd never have forgotten you."
Qin Yang's lips curve into a smile, but he says nothing.
His inner thoughts: Little liar.
I've climbed mountains with her and gone to the sea. We even shared a hug once, but she still didn't remember me.
--Preview separator--
The Tang Palace's Imperial Kitchen, but Running a Street Stall in the Modern Day
★ Contrasting personalities | Food and daily life | Time travel from the past to the present | Running a business
A Tang Dynasty imperial chef, a cute girl, a sunny soul who's a little oblivious
A modern police officer, a cool guy, a taciturn, poker-faced ice cube with a fiery side
Luo Yan is a female official in the Tang Palace's Imperial Kitchen. Her Luo family dishes are so exquisite that everyone in the palace praises them.
When she opens her eyes again, she's become an unemployed and unlucky woman in modern society: her parents are dead, she's buried in debt, her rent is due, and she has less money in her pockets than she has on her face.
But that's fine. With her cooking skills, she'll never go hungry wherever she ends up.
After a great deal of effort, she gets a secondhand pushcart and sets up a "Great Tang Snack Stall."
Soon, the whole snack street goes wild. People line up early in the morning for a taste of "Cherry Biluos," even before she's opened for business, and food bloggers come from far and wide.
The cart becomes a shop, then the shop becomes a standalone building, and her bank balance grows from two digits to seven.
Her business is thriving.
The only thing that gives her a headache is a uniformed man who hangs around her stall every day.
Hey, you only arrested me once. Why are you keeping watch here every day now?
-
Yan Xu is the head of the criminal investigation squad, and the whole team agrees he's a hard-faced King of Hell.
Somewhere along the way, he started going to the food street every day, and all sorts of little treats began appearing on his desk.
Sweet or savory, they're all from that Tang Dynasty snack stall.
The team: Heh heh.
-
Later, when CCTV's Inheriting the Taste comes to interview her and asks how she can perfectly recreate flavors from a thousand years ago, Luo Yan smiles at the camera. "Maybe it's because I was a person from the Tang Dynasty in my previous life."
In front of the TV, Yan Xu feels the scrap of paper in his pocket, with the recipe she'd casually jotted down. The handwriting faintly carries the spirit of someone from a thousand years ago.
Never mind. He won't call her out. Besides, he's planning to stick with this food for the rest of his life.
Advance preview notes:
1. The foods in this story have been carefully researched through archaeology. For the sake of the plot, they'll be written as tastier than their modern counterparts. No arguing.
2. The leads are each other's first and only partners. Their romance is puppy love, and they won't be forced into a relationship. This is a slow-burn story.
3. More notes if I think of any.
Theme: A secret crush can last a lifetime, even if only one person knows
