My Private Kitchen: Taking the Internet by Storm

Tang Nuo has two lives. In front of the camera, she’s a top-tier star livestream seller, shouting, “All you ladies! Three, two, one, click the link!” Behind the camera, she runs a little private kitchen in her tiny studio, healing hearts with dishes like spring chives stir-fried with river shrimp and sweet rice wine dumplings with osmanthus. She thinks these two worlds will never overlap, until a customer whose profile reads like an “archaeological report” appears. He leaves a comment on her pork tripe and chicken soup with pepper: “It tastes like home.” The fish head soup with gastrodia she makes especially for him eases the exhaustion of his late-night research. A wave of reports, sparked by her products being “too effective,” pushes the little shop she’s worked so hard to build to the brink of ruin. Just as she’s ready to give up, the archaeologist who’s always “here one moment, gone the next” writes a forceful essay to defend her against the malice of the entire internet. He tells her, “I excavate civilizations that have passed away, while you cook a heritage that’s still alive.” Only then does she understand: the finest love is a meeting of minds across the distance, and knowing each other through the palate.