Thirty-four-year-old Zhao Hongying is a female assembly line worker in an old state-owned factory in Jiulongpo, Chongqing. She is divorced, laid off, and has no savings. The only property she is assigned is a cracked iron pot and half a bag of Sichuan peppercorns. The husband ran away with the daughter of a supplier of hot pot ingredients and couldn't even fight for custody of the daughter.
She didn't cry. Chongqing women don't believe in fate.
She set up a folding table under the stairs in the old street and sold small noodles. There are only three things in a bowl of noodles: Sichuan peppercorns, sea pepper, and her stubbornness. There is a new boutique coffee shop next door. The owner is a slow and leisurely young man who brings a cup of latte to eat noodles every day. He called her a "mountain city on the tip of the tongue" and she called him a "fancy coffee kid".
But she didn't know that he was the prince of a catering empire, and he approached her because he wanted to pass down the secret recipe for hot pot. He didn't know that on the days when he was stealing from his master, his heart would be stolen first by a bowl of noodles.
When capital siege, rival plagiarism, and ex-husband's revenge came one after another, she used an iron pot to fight her way out - live broadcasting stir-fry, riding riders across the city to deliver food, and leading laid-off women to open a hot pot restaurant. He wanted her people, and she wanted his skills; he came to acquire them, but in the end he became her most loyal apprentice in front of the stove.
This is a story about a Chongqing empress teaching a capital how to be a good person, and by the way, attracting a young wolfdog. Spicy is really spicy, sweet is really sweet.
