The Rise of the Pact-Bound Chef

Su Luowei, a modern food blogger, unexpectedly transmigrates into the body of a mistreated concubine-born daughter. She awakens a “Food Pact” golden finger that lets her sense the essence of ingredients and the emotions of those who eat them. She wields food as a sword, determined to break through the rigid “scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants” hierarchy and the constraint that “a woman’s virtue lies in having no talent.” Starting out with a single iron wok and a street stall, she uses her extraordinary cooking and business sense to build a food empire that crosses class boundaries.

But a mysterious keepsake left by her birth mother, the highly toxic “Dream-Drunk Powder,” tangled palace conspiracies, and a healing romance that begins with a meal shared with Xie Jingxing, a mysterious imperial merchant afflicted by a strange poison, make every step of her rise perilous. When food becomes a bargaining chip and culinary skill holds the power to shape lives, can she cook up a feast of destiny all her own?