Boss Husband

For a moment, the crowd of cultivators gathered in front of A Ya Fried Chicken Shop fell completely silent. The ones at the front of the line exchanged exaggerated winks and glances with those behind them, trying to confirm what was going on.

What’s happening?

How would I know?

Xu Ya also sensed something was off and followed the customers’ anxious gazes to look back.

Aside from A Xi calmly eating breakfast, there was only Shi Yuzhen, standing tall in the doorway with his arms crossed, holding the Ink Sword against his chest. He looked like someone you definitely didn’t want to mess with.

Xu Ya had no choice but to turn around and whisper, “Great Senior Brother, I’m really fine now~~ You can go back!!”

Don’t scare off my customers, ahhh! Can’t you see everyone’s too afraid to speak?

Shi Yuzhen’s perspective: Xu Ya’s teary eyes from last night blinked at him pleadingly, her whole face saying, “Please, I’m begging you.”

Shi Yuzhen stared at her face for a while, inexplicably pleased.

He took it as agreement to her request.

Instead of leaving through the front door, he turned and walked into the back room, as if planning to exit through the rear.

Xu Ya let out a sigh of relief. Finally, she’d sent off this living Buddha.

Wearing the standard customer-service smile she’d perfected back in Ta-o-ting, she began serving the customers who came to buy fried chicken.

But a strange silence still lingered outside the shop, along with the sound of several hearts shattering.

The cultivators in front of A Ya Fried Chicken were both men and women. After yesterday’s marketing efforts, word-of-mouth had improved significantly.

After all, those who bought fried chicken found their cultivation had improved noticeably after eating it. Word spread quickly, and today, the crowd outside the shop was clearly denser than the day before.

However, the line was somehow more orderly than yesterday…?

Xu Ya wasn’t sure if she was imagining things.

None of the cultivators had expected to witness such a juicy drama just for coming early to line up for fried chicken.

They all began whispering to each other via spiritual voice transmission.

“Why is Great Senior Brother Shi here?”

“So the rumors about the Culinary Cultivator were true?”

“The way Shi Yuzhen looked at Xu Ya—I’ve been in Yunmeng Immortal Marsh for years and I’ve never seen him look at anyone like that!”

“Don’t tell me Senior Brother Shi has fallen for Xu Ya?????”

“…I’ve just had my heart broken…”

The heart-voice chatter buzzed like a hive, nearly spilling over, but Xu Ya remained oblivious. Her hands moved with lightning speed as she packed fried chicken into paper bags, handed them over, took payment—a seamless assembly line.

Each cultivator who reached the counter wore a peculiar expression, not saying a word to Xu Ya. But to her, it looked like they all wanted to say something.

Xu Ya was a bit puzzled, but her hands didn’t stop.

She had prepared more stock today than yesterday.

Little A Xi made trip after trip to help restock supplies.

Eventually, the crowd at the shop entrance began to thin. The cultivators who hadn’t seen the earlier scene were much livelier, chatting about what the newly opened “immortal-style” fried chicken might taste like.

But their smiles quickly faded.

They saw someone who absolutely shouldn’t have been there, leaning against the side of A Ya Fried Chicken Shop, just out of view from inside the store.

Shi Yuzhen was standing there, sword in arms, eyes closed as he rested.

Now, it wasn’t uncommon for cultivators from Yunmeng Immortal Marsh to descend the mountain and open shops in the immortal town. Xu Ya wasn’t the first. But Shi Yuzhen, as one of the most talented cultivators of the Marsh, had never once been seen visiting any of those shops.

To witness such a rare sight—well, they’d just hit the jackpot.

The crowd immediately fell silent, like a flock of quail. Unlike the earlier group, they didn’t even dare to use spiritual voice transmission.

This batch of cultivators had only average strength—some low-tier, some mid-tier. Most of them didn’t even have a third of Shi Yuzhen’s cultivation. Using spiritual voice transmission at their level was basically the same as speaking out loud.

So they quietly placed their orders and received their food from Xu Ya.

When the last batch of fried chicken was sold, the shop announced in advance that there was no need to keep lining up.

But the crowd was still large. Xu Ya had no choice but to ask those who didn’t get any fried chicken to write down a preorder on paper and come back tomorrow. Payment upon pickup.

Xu Ya had thought the cultivators might be reluctant to accept this arrangement.

But today, no one complained. They obediently took the pen and paper, wrote down their orders, and left in a daze.

Xu Ya ended up with a thick stack of preorder slips and finally realized—why were today’s customers acting so weird?

The moment she closed the shop door, Shi Yuzhen walked in like he owned the place, and Xu Ya finally understood!

Hey! He was acting like a door guardian!

Xu Ya couldn’t bring herself to chase Shi Yuzhen away again. She figured that, as the male lead, he should have a strong sense of self-awareness. He’d leave when it was time.

She stared at him for a few seconds, then began organizing the preorder slips and reviewing the day’s sales.

Xu Ya had noticed that there were always a few hesitant-looking cultivators outside the shop. Judging by their clothes and demeanor, she could tell most of them were low-tier cultivators.

In Yunmeng Immortal Marsh, the strong ruled and the weak were nothing. Even the missions they received reflected this. The income gap was massive. Having been a penniless nobody for over a decade, Xu Ya knew better than anyone that low-tier cultivators weren’t much better off than someone like her, labeled a waste.

She thought back to the cultivator who’d caused a scene yesterday and left covered in dust. She kept that incident in mind.

Maybe three mid-tier spirit stones really was too expensive?

Xu Ya had to seriously reconsider her business model. Selling whole chickens was convenient and fast.

But storing whole chickens was a challenge. Stack a dozen of them and the counter was already full.

She remembered the braised snacks she used to buy outside her rented apartment in the modern world. Maybe selling by weight would be more acceptable?

And then another idea struck her: it might be more work, but what if she divided the fried chicken into parts and sold them separately? Naturally, the tastier cuts would cost more, and the less desirable ones would be cheaper. With some price adjustments, there would be more affordable options. That way, cultivators who wanted to buy wouldn’t have to leave empty-handed just because of the price.

Xu Ya’s brain hadn’t worked this hard in a long time. She was so deep in thought she completely forgot about Shi Yuzhen, who might as well have been invisible. She sat at the table, resting her chin on her hand, lost in thought. A Xi mimicked her, also propping up his chin and daydreaming.

Shi Yuzhen hadn’t been treated like this in a long time.

Like a mortal, he waved his hand in front of Xu Ya’s face. She snapped out of it like waking from a dream.

“G-Great Senior Brother.” Xu Ya felt incredibly awkward.

But then a lightbulb went off: “Great Senior Brother, can I ask you a favor?”

Shi Yuzhen raised an eyebrow. “Let’s hear it.”

Xu Ya explained her thoughts from beginning to end, every detail laid out clearly. In that moment, there were no rigid hierarchies or cultivation levels—just two ordinary friends having a conversation.

And Shi Yuzhen, for once, had the air of a “celestial descending to the mortal realm.” If those cultivators saw him now, they’d be stunned speechless.

Shi Yuzhen lowered his eyes and glanced at Xu Ya’s radiant face from the corner of his eye.

Her cheeks still had a touch of baby fat. It seemed like she’d only recently started getting proper nutrition, causing certain physical developments to appear later than usual for someone her age. Her face looked soft and round.

Shi Yuzhen understood immediately.

He realized that Xu Ya was going through all this trouble to rework her pricing just to accommodate low-income cultivators.

He had stood at the top for too long. Suddenly, he understood that he couldn’t empathize with the weak the way Xu Ya could. That was just how things worked in the Marsh—he’d been assimilated.

Following Xu Ya’s instructions, Shi Yuzhen tasted each part of the fried chicken separately. After meditating and adjusting his qi, he explained the effects to Xu Ya in plain, simple terms—because she couldn’t understand a word of the technical jargon.

Xu Ya would never know that Shi Yuzhen only acted this obedient and well-behaved in front of her.

Meanwhile, she was sobbing internally and clinging to the system like a lifeline. “Oh my god, this male lead is way too approachable! Your novel description was totally off—what cold and aloof? System, I want to join the Male Lead Fan Club! T^T”

【Hehehe, request denied.】

The afternoon passed quickly. Xu Ya finally settled the pricing details. With the male lead’s evaluation of the spiritual energy, she gradually picked up some professional terminology and carefully wrote out the benefits on the canvas using brush and ink.

After frying, a whole chicken—minus the innards—averaged about 40 taels in weight.

So, at a base price of 3 mid-grade spirit stones for 40 taels, that came out to roughly 0.075 mid-grade spirit stones per tael.

Rounded off, she could use low-grade spirit stones as the unit for selling different chicken parts.

Xu Ya divided the chicken into breast, leg, wing, backbone, wingtip—basically, anything that could be separated and sold individually. She also had a decent number of whole chickens.

This way, although it would be more work for her, the product would appeal to a broader audience.

Shi Yuzhen found Xu Ya’s energetic focus rather amusing. She reached out and flicked the tip of Xu Ya’s shiny nose. It was damp like a kitten’s, covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

Both of them froze at the same time.

Utterly awkward.

Shi Yuzhen quickly cleared her throat, pulled a porcelain bottle from her sleeve, and handed it to Xu Ya. “Take this. Junior Sister, with your current constitution, you need to take low-grade medicinal pills first to adjust your body into a vessel suitable for cultivation. To put it plainly, you need to maintain the vessel. Without a proper and well-prepared vessel to hold spiritual energy, it’ll all collapse sooner or later.”

Xu Ya accepted the bottle with surprise and delight. She had thought the male lead was just speaking casually, but less than a day later, he’d already prepared several courses of pills tailored for her.

555, the male lead is just… too kind.

Seeing the joy in Xu Ya’s eyes, Shi Yuzhen hesitated for a moment, then asked stiffly, “Why did you tell Danxiao Manor that you were buying medicine for Zhan Zhengzhen?”

If those words hadn’t come from Shi Yuzhen himself, Xu Ya might’ve thought her bestie was jealous that she was getting close to another bestie.

Knowing that her lie to Danxiao Manor about buying medicine for Senior Brother Zhan had gotten her into danger, Xu Ya scratched her head awkwardly and forced out a sheepish smile.

But then Shi Yuzhen suddenly said, “Never mind. From now on, just take the medicine I give you.”

Xu Ya received it with both hands, blinking her big eyes reverently. “Thank you, Great Senior Brother.”

Right now, Xu Ya absolutely idolized the male lead. He had saved her and was even willing to spend money on medicine to help her condition her body. Her motivation to complete the mission of making him the so-called number one in the Immortal Realm was through the roof!

She would complete the mission no matter what! Whoever dared stand in her way—Buddha or god—she’d cut them down! Oh ho ho ho ho.

【Heh.】

And so, with her metaphorical tail wagging high in the sky, Xu Ya, a little dizzy from excitement, made a request to Shi Yuzhen. “Great Senior Brother, could you help me with just one more tiny thing?” As she spoke, she held up one hand, waving only her index finger in front of his eyes.

Shi Yuzhen raised an eyebrow, signaling her to speak.

Xu Ya picked up the freshly written price list from the table, her big eyes sparkling as she looked at the male lead, clearly asking him to help distribute some flyers.

…

Shi Yuzhen stood steadily atop the Ink Sword, gone was his usual aloof pose with hands behind his back. Now, he held a stack of flyers he had duplicated using his own magic and flew straight toward the Yunmeng Immortal Marsh.

Cultivators below caught the paper-thin flyers fluttering down from Great Senior Brother Shi in a panic.

—Printed boldly across the top: A-Ya Fried Chicken Price Update Today! New prices as follows…

The cultivators stared at the flyers in stunned silence, then looked up at Senior Brother Shi soaring high in the sky.

Was this… the responsible husband of a business owner?

— Translator’s Notes —

– 555: Internet slang where ‘5’ sounds like ‘wu’ (crying sound in Chinese), representing laughter or crying depending on context – here expressing emotional gratitude.

– Buddha or god—she’d cut them down: Reference to a famous Chinese saying ‘遇佛杀佛, 遇神杀神’ meaning eliminating all obstacles regardless of how powerful they are.