Bitter Grass Steeped Into Fragrance

Xu Chuncao lost her mother at six. The moment her stepmother entered the household, she drove Xu Chuncao into a drafty woodshed and branded her with three scars using fire tongs. Both of her marriage arrangements were disrupted one after another. After marrying into the wealthy Zhou family, she was coveted by her brother-in-law Zhou Yaozu, who wanted the herbal braising recipe her mother had left behind. On her wedding night, she was humiliated. In the bitter cold of the twelfth lunar month, she was accused of seducing the master of the house, stripped of her padded coat, and driven out barefoot. The whole town cursed her as a jinx who brought death to her father and husband.

The bitter herb who grew up in the mud had never known kindness from fate. The only person who showed her any warmth was Lu Cheng'an, a lame scholar who sat by the bridge. He quietly gave her textbooks and hot roasted chestnuts, kept track of every bit of income and expense from her street stall, and stood up for her when she was ambushed and engulfed by rumors. Drawing on the braising skills her mother had passed down and hidden in her heart, Xu Chuncao started with a tiny stall worth seven mao. She endured harassment, sabotage, and ruthless competition to preserve a pot of time-honored broth.

She dismantled her enemies’ businesses with her own hands, founded the Chuncao Anji braised-food brand, and won a provincial gold medal. The orphan girl everyone had looked down on became an industry-leading factory director. After a lifetime of hardship, she finally found sweetness after bitterness. A pot of bubbling braising broth simmered away the grievances of life, while a lamp that burned through the night safeguarded a love that never wavered. Through all her suffering, this ordinary woman forged a vibrant life of her own.