Ancestral Meal

She guarded a pot for forty years. In the eleventh year of Zhenyuan, Yan Hong walked into Duan's house with a mulberry knife. From then on, the fire in the stove never went out. She watched Duan Wenchang grow from a down-and-out scholar to the prime minister of the dynasty, watched him go from being "unpretentious" to "extremely extravagant", and watched him learn to watch the fire, wait for the fire, light the fire, and remove the fire. She also watched Wu Yuanheng fall in a pool of blood, watched Han Yu be demoted eight thousand miles away, watched Xianzong die from the elixir, and watched Afan's eyes empty when he was taken out of the palace. She said: "When the heat is up, the dishes are ready. The same goes for people." She said: "As long as the fire is out, people can come back." She said: "I am 'Shan Zu', not 'Mrs. Duan'." In forty years, the stove has been changed six times, but the knife is still the same and the hands are still the same. This is the story of a cook, and also a story of an era. The fire has passed, and the reputation has turned into ashes. But the ashes are hot, hot forever.