Cooking Imperial Cuisine in the Desert, While a Research Bigwig Asks for Seconds

[Modern/alternate setting + everyday food + major national engineering projects + warm and healing + marriage before love] Su Qinghe is the heir to a family of imperial chefs, but after she refuses to sell her ancestral recipes, her awful relatives drive her into a corner. Hoping for some peace and quiet and a generous relocation bonus, she applies to be the head cook at “Desert Base No. 001,” a place so remote it doesn't even appear on maps. Here, yellow sand fills the skies and living conditions are harsh. The base brings together the country's top scientists, yet they have to eat food that's worse than pig slop. After Su Qinghe arrives, the cafeteria is transformed. From a bowl of “water-boiled cabbage” that brings tears to a senior academician's eyes, to “hairy crab roe rice” that homesick young researchers devour hungrily. With just a single iron wok, she brings the warmth of home to a desolate stretch of the Gobi. Gu Yanzhou, the base's chief engineer, is cold and abstinent, and suffers from severe anorexia. To meet project deadlines, he has lived on glucose for years. Then one night, he catches the scent of “abalone braised in golden broth,” and his soul trembles… “Chief Engineer Gu, I hear you don't eat dinner?” “…Another bowl. No, a whole basin.” Later, when Su Qinghe is about to leave the base, all the scientists petition together to make her stay. Gu Yanzhou, eyes red, corners her by the stove: “The country can't do without me, and I can't do without you.”