After her widowed mother passed away, only daughter Cen Yue inherited the family's eatery.
The place was small, with the dining area in front and the living quarters behind.
Rather than close early every evening and spend the night cooped up in the cramped back courtyard, she preferred to leave the shop open and serve one or two more customers out front.
With her broth, fragrant enough to carry for miles, every now and then she really did manage to draw in a few customers.
Cheng Guan had not been born into poverty. After passing the civil service examination, he could have had a bright future, but his youthful pride kept him from sending money to the Ministry of Revenue. As a result, he was assigned to this small border town and made a mere county commandant.
He did not feel sorry for himself. Instead, he wanted to start at the border and root out every corrupt official who harmed the people throughout the Great Xia dynasty.
Since taking office, he had risen early and worked late, buried in paperwork until his body grew thinner by the day.
On his way home after work, he would always see an eatery with its lights on.
He did not know what delicacies the owner made, but the food's aroma wafting from inside was especially tempting.
One day, he stepped into the eatery and ordered a bowl of the plainest spring noodles.
But the female owner served him a bowl of mixed noodles piled high like a little mountain.
Cen Yue was neither a bad person nor someone who went around doing charity for fun.
She had her own set of standards for deciding whether to help someone.
First, she went by instinct: she would not help people who looked ungrateful or faithless. Second, she would look into the situation and see whether the other person was truly destitute and going hungry.
Her eatery always stayed open late. She watched with her own eyes as a man went from having an ordinary build to looking as if a gust of wind might knock him over.
Every time he paused outside her shop, he would soon hurry away.
That night, he finally worked up the courage to enter her eatery and ordered the cheapest bowl of plain spring noodles.
She thought she might add some meat and vegetables, then tell him she had accidentally made mixed noodles instead.
