The Beloved Cook: Sweet Soup That Never Cools at the Marquis's Estate

The young cook from the Fragrant Sweet Pavilion south of the city knelt on the brick floor of the marquis’s manor, rubbing her fingertip over the red seal on her indenture. To save her younger brother’s life, she had no choice but to trade her frail body for a bowl of food. Yet on her very first day, the sweet soup she served made the cold-faced heir smash his teacup. “Too much sugar.” His eyes were cold enough to scrape frost, yet he pushed the empty bowl toward her. “Make another.”

Su Wan lowered her eyes and stirred the pot. She didn’t dare say that the osmanthus honey in the soup had once been a thank-you gift from a boy who fell into the water ten years ago, given to the cook who saved him. Nor did she dare imagine that bowl after bowl of hot soup would melt the ice around his heart and bring forth the most eagerly awaited marriage proposal in the capital: “If your sweet soup never grows cold, I’ll marry you.” But rumors that she is the orphan of an enemy general are closing in, and the blade of a poisoning case at the marquis’s manor is aimed straight at her heart... Is this bowl of sweet soup honey, or a trap?