After the Adorable Chef Won Over the Aloof Top Student

The unluckiest thing that ever happened to Su Nuo was being driven out by his roommates for “making the apartment smell like food,” and sent to an old residential neighborhood. The moment he opened a door, he knocked over the takeout belonging to the school's top student. Even worse, the aloof academic prodigy got a stomachache after eating it. The sight of his reddened eyes made Su Nuo's heart skip a beat.

The plain noodle soup Su Nuo made to apologize became the only takeout that Lu Zhiye, who had suffered from food sensitivities for years, could stomach. So the aloof academic handed him a “meal ticket contract”: “I'll provide you with competition resources, and you cook for me every day.”

Su Nuo thought it was just a simple arrangement that benefited them both, but he never expected this:

When a judge mocked his “primitive equipment” in the preliminaries, Lu Zhiye immediately brought out a copper pot from his family's century-old pastry business and coldly retorted, “You think my family's pot isn't worthy of his cooking?”

When his Chinese sausage was switched before the semifinals, Lu Zhiye told him to make mixed fried rice with instant noodles, then clumsily carved carrot flowers to decorate the plate. He coaxed him softly, “Your home cooking is better than any delicacy.”

When the campus belle spread rumors that he was using connections, Lu Zhiye showed the contract to everyone in the cafeteria and exposed evidence of plagiarism, shielding him as he said, “No one gets to talk about my person behind his back.”

From campus food competitions to a nationwide restaurant chain, from a bowl of plain noodle soup to dumplings filled with two flavors, Su Nuo gradually realizes that this helpless-in-daily-life academic prodigy has long since memorized all his preferences: he remembers that Su Nuo doesn't eat scallions, ginger, or garlic, saves him a front-row seat in cooking class, and even uses a family recipe from his grandmother as bait when he proposes.

“Lu Zhiye, when did you start falling for me?”

Lu Zhiye wraps his arms around him from behind as he cooks braised rice with Chinese sausage, resting his chin on his head. “The day I ate your noodles for the first time and my stomach didn't hurt.”