Zhang Mei, a modern office drudge, dies suddenly from overwork. When she wakes, she has become Wei Qinghe, a village girl who was sold and drowned. As she sinks beneath the sea, the ten-thousand-year-old dolphin Mo Niu carries her to an immortal island city. From then on, she sets up a battered pot by the bridge and sells bitter melon soup, fish soup, and grilled seafood. Five wen a bowl, and the poor eat for free.
She takes in a group of oddballs who freeload on her food: a foul-mouthed, lame cat; an old dolphin afraid of injections; a crab who signed a contract of servitude; a mirage beast that spits bubbles; a nightmare demon that burrows into dreams; a talking Runrun Fruit; a three-thousand-year-old sea turtle; and a silver-tongued fish who never stops talking. She also takes on four weepy apprentices, twelve students with connections, and a master chef who calls her his senior sister.
Bai Shao uses fake documents to shut down her shop, while Hu San Shang plagiarizes her recipes. She fights back with a pot of hot oil, a bowl of bitter melon soup, and a sharp tongue. She builds underground canals, rescues young creatures, treats demon beasts, takes on the black market, and hosts a feast for ten thousand. Starting with a crooked sign by the bridge, she becomes the city's beloved patron saint. In the end, she gathers the ten spirit beasts and opens the Sea God's Shrine, allowing a sea god sealed away for a thousand years to become an ordinary person again.
