Ming Dynasty Fireworks: The Spicy Young Lady's Nine Dragons Shop

Li Shishi, a modern food blogger, wakes up as Li Aqi, an orphan with the same name who lives in Jiulong Alley in Nanjing, in the Ming Dynasty. Her home is bare, creditors are at the door, and her only “inheritance” consists of a few incomplete recipes left by her father and a strange copper pot. To survive, Aqi draws on her memories of her previous life and her talent for spices. In an era of scarcity, she somehow creates Li-style old-fashioned bone-broth malatang, blending local spices such as dogwood, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, and garlic. Its bold, novel flavor instantly sets the taste buds of Jiulong Alley alight.

Amid the smoke rising from her food stall, she meets the man who will change her life: Shen Lian, a cold, taciturn and powerful Captain of the Northern Surveillance Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. One bowl of malatang is enough to make this powerful official, no stranger to bloodshed and violence, remember the stubborn-eyed young woman in the alley with her astonishing cooking skills. He becomes a silent regular at her stall, and a quiet but solid shield in her life, battered by storms.