Xie Yushu transmigrates and learns that her predecessor was a minor supervisor at the ferry dock, who got kicked out after offending someone with connections.
The house in town was sold off to pay off gambling debts, so she has no choice but to slink back to the countryside—to the ancestral property her mother left her.
The laid-back Xie Yushu takes it in stride: “Eh, it’s fine. You won’t starve in the countryside. Living’s okay. Dying’s fine too.”
Her neighbor, a married farmer, seeing how good-looking she is, kindly tries to set her up with an unmarried man.
“Poor thing—a woman without a husband to manage her clothes and meals? That just won’t do!”
He talks himself hoarse, but Xie Yushu wears that same distracted, otherworldly expression—you talk, I listen, but I’m not really here.
Just as he’s about to give up and walk away, he spots someone stepping down from an ox cart.
The neighbor’s eyes light up: “What do you think of him? He’s the most famous beauty in our village—could hold his own even in town, it’s just that…”
Xie Yushu doesn’t catch the rest of his mumbling (barely louder than a mosquito). She cracks open some sunflower seeds and glances up.
The newcomer has clean features, a well-proportioned figure, and an indescribably comfortable aura.
But he looks icy cold. Hmm? And he even glares at her.
She shakes her head—she still prefers gentle, tender-natured men.
Later, Xie Yushu goes to town for supplies and spots Su Chi at a little stall outside the pharmacy. His fingers fly as he wraps buns—kneading, rolling, filling—each pleat on his buns as pretty as flower petals.
She stops by a few times and is, unsurprisingly, coldly ignored.
That night, Xie Yushu bolts upright in her broken bed, half-fuming:
“Why won’t he talk to me? Just because I accidentally brushed his hand when I paid?! Fine—he can brush mine back if he wants! Such a petty little husband!”
Some time later, matchmakers come calling for Xie Yushu again. Su Chi somehow gets wind of it, packs up his stall early, and rides the ox cart back to the village. That night, he musters his courage and knocks on Xie Yushu’s door—eyes red, the corners of his eyes damp, voice soft as he asks:
“I… can I be your husband?”
“Don’t marry someone else. Marry me, okay?”
After the two unexpectedly wed, they rent a shop in town and add a variety of new items:
Pork flower rolls, sesame-paste triple-delight buns, chicken-juice fresh buns, sauced-pork mini steamers, crispy-bottom pan-fried pork buns—all served with a bowl of fragrant, spicy hot-and-sour soup, savory-spicy tofu pudding, or pork-offal soup. Nothing beats a warm, comforting meal like that.
Spring: spring bamboo-shoot and sauced-pork buns with sweet fava bean soup.
Summer: plenty of seafood—chive-and-sea-urchin buns, snail-and-sauce buns, paired with cooling bitter-melon broth.
Autumn: crabs at their fattest—oil-rich crab roe xiaolongbao with nourishing beef-and-radish soup.
Winter: lamb-and-sha-cai buns with stomach-warming spiced lamb-offal soup.
Later on, even soft, squishy little rice-dumpling buns start steaming in the pot.
Farming / food / business management.
Reading Guide:
1. Female-dominant setting, mpreg.
2. No grand riches or imperial examinations/politics.
3. Slow-paced, simmered over a gentle flame.
Main Characters: Xie Yushu, Su Chi
One-Line Summary: Can I be your husband?
Motto: Simple fare, three meals a day.
