Jiang's Wonton Shop (Food)

[Please add my next novel, A Chronicle of Mountain Living, to your favorites! Blurb at the very bottom.]

Jiang Zhi died in a car accident and woke up as an orphan in a small village in another world, where her maternal relatives refused to take her in. Fortunately, a friend of her late mother offered her shelter. To repay the kindness and establish herself, she set up a wonton stall.

The stall was small, but the flavors were many: traditional fillings like pork with scallions, pork with chives, pork with cabbage, pork with corn, and pork with celery, as well as seasonal bamboo shoot and bracken, shepherd's purse, and knife fish fillings for a change of taste.

There were plenty of ways to prepare them, too: simmered in pork bone broth, tossed in chili oil, served cold with sesame sauce, crisp-fried, or made into tiny, fluffy wontons. She could change things up every day without getting tired of them.

The pot filled with bubbling wontons grew ever fuller, and the little jar of savings grew ever heavier.

Pei Zhaojun was a longtime customer at Jiang's Wonton Stall. When it moved from the entrance of Tingsong Academy to Dongjiang Town, he followed along. Later, when she opened a shop in Qingyuan County, he was still a familiar face at the table.

His friends all said he'd changed. He used to praise the noble purity of plum blossoms, but now he was taken with gardenias. Not only had he filled his home with them, he also carried a handkerchief embroidered with gardenias, wore a hairpin decorated with gardenias, and kept a gardenia-scented sachet on him. He was a gardenia fanatic through and through.

At the opening ceremony of her county shop, Pei Zhaojun brought several pots of gardenias he'd grown himself, along with an illustrated menu he'd drawn by hand. Each wonton flavor had its own picture, the writing was elegant and free, and the wontons seemed to embody an artistic spirit. The ink was smudged into blobs, though, making them hard to make out...

Fortunately, the gardenias were richly fragrant, without a hint of restraint, and just as lovely as ever.

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads are virgins. The male lead appears in Chapter 5. A cautious, sharp-witted wonton-shop owner x a gentle scholar with a hopeless romantic streak. Plenty of romance.

2. The setting is fictional. To make the heroine's business easier, some ingredients that appeared relatively late in the real world, such as chili peppers and onions, will be included.

********** Upcoming Novel **********

Yun Xiu died on the battlefield at the end of the apocalypse, only to open her eyes on an unfamiliar landscape.

Given a second life, all she wanted was a quiet, peaceful existence.

These mountains were wonderful, full of opportunity. Her abilities from her previous life had weakened, but were still useful. She could hunt and sell goods to get what she needed.

The mountains also hid medicinal herbs and rare delicacies, but she didn't know how to identify them.

Just as she was fretting over all these heavenly gifts going to waste, someone with a wood-based ability came through with her.

Yun Xiu accepted this without hesitation. Wood abilities were great.

If she wanted to sell reishi mushrooms and ginseng, he could identify them. If she wanted fresh vegetables, he could grow them. If she wanted out-of-season produce, he could cultivate it.

In spring, she could eat pork stewed with bamboo shoots and mugwort rice cakes; in summer, fish in sour broth and hand-pulled liangfen jelly.

In autumn, she could savor drunken crab and chestnut chicken; in winter, she could feast on a whole roasted pig and assorted cured meats steamed together.

Grow fruit trees, brew rice wine, learn embroidery, dig a fishpond, make fresh tea.

Every season had something to love.

Lin Qi thought that dying alongside Yun Xiu for the same cause had been the best ending he could hope for. He never imagined he would meet her again in another world.

Sitting at ease in the gentle breeze, reunited with an old friend, he was content with everything on Jiuping Mountain.

Except for that overly clever dog that kept stealing Yun Xiu's attention.

[A Little Scene]

Deep in the mountains, a tiger roared so loudly the heavens seemed to shake.

Lin Qi: I don't dare move. I'm a frail support type who only knows how to grow vegetables.

Yun Xiu, who had long ago seen Lin Qi beat a ferocious beast with a wooden stick: How long is he going to keep pretending?

Theme: Hard work brings prosperity