#Farming #Food #Everyday Life #Cook
Three years ago, Lin Xing cut up her wedding dress and threw the pieces in the clan chief’s face.
With half a crumbling house and a nearly empty grain jar, she used a handful of greens to make a bowl of plain noodles and sold it for three copper coins.
Clutching the coins, she cried behind the stove all night.
Three years later, she was the owner of Guiweiju. The price of her plain noodles had stayed at three copper coins, and people lined up half a month in advance just to get a seat at one of her vegetarian banquets.
No one remembered that she was an orphan forced into marriage by her entire clan.
Next door lived a poor scholar, quiet and taciturn, with barely a coin to his name.
Every day, he came to the shop for the plainest noodles, then silently washed the bowls when he was done. When Lin Xing gave him an extra dish of vegetables, he would bow solemnly. “Your great kindness is beyond repayment, miss.”
She thought he was just freeloading.
It was only later, when she realized something was off and confronted him, that the scholar set down his bowl and looked at Lin Xing.
“Will you wait for me to come back?”
Lin Xing froze for three seconds, then grabbed a rolling pin.
“First tell me, what’s your surname, anyway?!”
The scholar lowered his head to wipe the bowl, the tips of his ears turning red.
“Shen. The Shen who owes you a lifetime.”
