After the eighteen-year-old Shen Mier lost her grandmother, she went to live alone with her aunt who was married to Yun Qingshan. Living under someone else's roof, she could only rely on her good cooking skills - picking ferns from the still-wet dew in the early morning and wrapping them into crispy golden spring rolls; soaking freshly picked sophora flowers in mountain springs and steaming sweet wheat rice. Food is her dialogue with the world and the foundation for her livelihood.
Meng Zhen, the escort, didn't talk much, but she remembered every ingredient she mentioned. He traveled across the mountains and ridges to deliver wild bamboo shoots, and she gave back a pack of freshly baked prune and vegetable sesame cakes; he presented silver bracelets under the moonlight, and she made him a sweet-scented osmanthus feast. From a bowl of hot soup to a lifetime together, their relationship is like a fire in a stove, not blazing, but enough to warm them for the rest of their lives.
This is an ancient food story that heals people's hearts with food and settles the years with true feelings. The four seasons cycle and meals come and go. In the most ordinary days, there are hidden the most touching fireworks in the world.
It's so well written and beautiful.