My name is Lin Xuan. I’m a three-Michelin-starred master chef, and I’ve been reborn as a puppet emperor who was just poisoned to death.
With a powerful minister ruling the court and the Empress Dowager directing affairs from behind the curtain, I’m sprawled on the dragon bed with barely a breath left in me.
The entire court is waiting to bury me.
I laugh. That’s it? The poison was cooked three seconds too long, and it couldn’t even mask its bitterness. You think that can kill me?
I drag my ailing body into the imperial kitchen and save my life with a bowl of chicken and millet porridge.
From then on, this frigid court becomes my five-star kitchen.
The Empress Dowager makes things difficult for me? One serving of cabbage in clear broth brings her to tears.
The powerful minister wants to starve the border troops? I teach him a lesson with my compressed military rations.
The factions can’t stop fighting? One plate of honey-glazed ham, sweet and savory all at once, shuts them up and makes them reconcile.
When I host envoys from every land with a Manchu-Han imperial feast, the old Grand Tutor who poisoned me finally loses his mind.
“Are you an emperor or a chef?!”
I weigh the jade seal in one hand and my spatula in the other, then smile calmly.
“Don’t rush. The next dish is called ‘Braised Minister.’”
