One-sentence summary: The back door of a modern snack shop on the verge of closing leads to an alternate dynasty. Food blogger Su Tang says, "This immense fortune has come my way, and I'm taking it!"
Detailed summary:
When Su Tang returned to her hometown to inherit the family business, a time-honored shop called Alleyway Eatery, all she found was the grim reality of a business on the verge of closing and a fat orange cat that refused to leave.
Then, on a rainy night, someone knocked on the back door.
Outside stood an ancient scholar, soaked to the skin and looking terrified. Shivering, he asked, "C-could I trouble you for a bowl of hot noodle soup?"
Su Tang looked at the jade pendant he offered, valuable enough to buy her entire shop, then at the instant noodles by her hand, ready in just three minutes.
A daring idea took shape.
From then on, the back door of Alleyway Eatery became a hub connecting two worlds.
Self-heating hot pots were hailed as "Cosmic Boiling Pots," ice cream became "Frost Jade Pastries," and a cup of milk tea was enough to drive the noblewomen of the capital wild.
Business boomed, and trouble followed.
Jealous competitors, skeptical officials, curious Imperial Astronomers... and Gu Qingyan, a young deputy director who always watched her with a probing gaze.
With her fat cat Yuanbao in her arms, Su Tang counted her gold ingots and used modern know-how and a little "mystifying mumbo jumbo" to solve each problem one by one.
Then one day, a commandery princess tugged at her sleeve and asked eagerly, "Sister Su, do people in the immortal realm eat dumplings for the New Year too?"
Looking at the New Year's supplies piled up in the storeroom and the sincere smiles of her ancient friends, Su Tang suddenly felt that perhaps a door was not the only thing connecting the two worlds.
This is a legend that began with a bowl of noodles, and the story of a little shop bringing warmth to two worlds.
