Selling Food at a Stall Outside the Censorate

Su Yao, a private chef, transmigrates to ancient times. Her in-laws look down on her humble origins and think she's too frail to bear children, so they're eager to divorce her.

Su Yao hears this and thinks, What a stroke of luck! She happily takes her dowry and goes back to her old line of work, setting up a stall across the street from the Censorate.

Inside the Censorate, the censors are busy impeaching officials and conducting inspections, working so hard they barely have time to catch their breath.

But the canteen food is truly hard to swallow. The meat is gamey and the soup watery, or the vegetables are too salty and the rice too hard. The censors are miserable, with stomachs full of complaints.

One day, the censors trudge to work looking utterly bereaved, only to find a new stall across the street.

In the morning, steam billows from the little stall. When the lid comes off the steamer, the dumplings inside are smooth and glossy with oil.

At noon, the red-braised lion's head meatballs gleam invitingly and smell wonderful, each bite bursting with rich, savory meat.

In the evening, the scallion-oil noodles are springy, their fragrance mingling with the aroma of the noodles themselves. Just smelling them is enough to make your mouth water.

Before long, the censors have all changed completely! They used to be sallow and thin, but now their complexions are rosy and glowing, and they stride along with a spring in their step.

Even the handsome, jade-faced deputy censor has become more striking than ever, radiating health and vitality.

A little scene:

Before, when it was time to leave work, the censors would dawdle and drag their feet rather than go eat. Now they run out like sprinters.

The new junior censor is baffled. "Isn't the Censorate supposed to work from four in the morning until six at night, get up earlier than chickens and go to bed later than oxen, and have no time to eat?"

Lies!

Then one day, the junior censor passes a little eatery and peeks inside. His jaw nearly hits the floor.

The usually stern and stiff deputy censor is smiling from ear to ear, chatting away with the proprietress, Su.

Before the junior censor can recover from the shock, an irresistible aroma of meat drifts into his nose.

He turns his head and sees the old censor who scolded him for being too stern that morning, now smiling as he stuffs red-braised pork into his mouth at astonishing speed. It's a jaw-dropping sight.

When the old censor sees the junior censor looking, he hurriedly tries to shield his food, without even having time to hide his embarrassed expression.

The junior censor: ...

So much for looking out for your colleagues at the Censorate. They have food this delicious and keep it all to themselves. That's just awful!

The junior censor's family haven't visited him in ages. When they finally see him, they're so shocked they can't close their mouths.

"They say the Censorate is a place that eats people alive, and we thought you'd waste away there. But how did your face get as round as a full moon?"

Theme: Striving in the face of hardship