Ten years ago, Tang Zhenshan, head chef at Tang Family Banquet, a renowned restaurant in Chuanjiang, died in a fire under the accusation of arson. Ten years later, a murder case brought the restaurant's signature chili oil, a jar that should have been used up long ago, back into the spotlight.
Tang Jiujin's tongue was borrowed. A car accident three years ago left him able to taste the salt in a bowl of noodles, and to tell whether the person who made them had something else on their mind. Bearing the identity of a son branded with an undeserved disgrace for ten years, all he wanted was to quietly run a stall at the night market.
That is, until Lin Yiwei, a criminal investigator with the Municipal Public Security Bureau, came knocking. One borrowed tongue, one investigator searching for the truth. Together, they join forces amid the bustle of everyday life, tracing poison at a wedding banquet and lies in a patient's meal to an underground organization called the Banquet, which treats chefs like pawns and uses its rules to prey on people.
Tang Jiujin starts his investigation with a bowl of noodles, inching his way into the heart of that great fire. Only when he reaches the end does he learn what was sealed inside the wall by his father: at the bottom of that jar was a sentence.
The jar is empty. The people are full.
What you borrow must be repaid. Taste other people's hardships and ease their burdens, one bowl of noodles at a time.
Episodic mysteries, a central revenge plot, no romance, two equally matched partners.
I like it very much oh oh