[Unemployment + comeback + System + feel-good story + cutting-edge tech + food + healing + lighthearted + everyday life]
After losing my job, I activated the Shennong Food System. My cooking had the whole street swooning, and my food stall exploded across the trending charts, making me a top-tier star of the food scene.
My high-tech creations went viral across the internet, and the whole world wanted to know more.
On the third day after losing his job, Lin Yuan spent 50 yuan on a “high-end yogurt maker” from a secondhand marketplace.
Once the machine activated, a line of text appeared on the screen:
“Shennong System activated. I am the Culinary Lord. From now on, I’ll take care of your meals.”
He thought it was a joke, but the machine really did use nothing but air and water to print out a bowl of plain noodles.
The noodles were smooth, the broth clear, and the wheat fragrance rich. One bite brought back the taste of the childhood he’d lost long ago.
Later, he set up a stall at the night market, using the machine to make mushroom protein with the texture of premium Wagyu and Michelin-level molecular desserts. His stall was mobbed, with people waiting in line for at least three hours.
Investors came calling with a sky-high buyout offer, on the condition that he “serve only the wealthy.” He turned them down.
A renowned chef from a time-honored restaurant publicly challenged him, then fell silent after tasting a recreated imperial dish thought lost to history.
When international giants shut him out of the market, he built a food city on the border, its aromas wafting across national lines.
As the whole world asked where the machine came from, Lin Yuan wanted to understand just one thing:
Why did that bowl of plain noodles taste like his grandmother’s cooking?
This is my first time writing a novel, so there will be plenty of rough edges and awkward prose. Please bear with me!
