After Shen Yuzhu's father dies, her mother is grief-stricken, and her uncles are like wolves, coveting the family's fields and home. They even want to trade her in a marriage alliance. Shen Yuzhu would rather die than comply. Picking herself up from the mud, she resolves to carve out her own path to a brighter future. With her cooking skills, she'll surely find a place to put them to use.
But her path to mastery comes to a halt at the very first step: Shen Yuzhu can't read.
Beneath the lush, tranquil canopy of a banyan tree, Shen Yuzhu holds two leaves with curled, black-brown edges to her forehead with one hand and a precious cookbook in the other, staring wide-eyed at her younger brother, Shen Junbo.
“How about I bring the academy's teacher a bowl of chicken broth with tiny wontons, and ask him for help while I'm at it?”
Shen Junbo shivered. “The new teacher is very stern and quite formidable. We're all afraid of him.”
“Stern, you say... Then should I add a basket of wind-dispersing sweets?”
“...”
“Just the tiny wontons will do.” Through the two banyan leaves, mottled yellow and green, Xie Qingxuan pointed at the azure-blue cover of the book with a slightly bent finger, enunciating each word. “These three characters are read as 'Record of Delicacies.'”
Shen Junbo looked up, his little face deathly pale. “T-Teacher...”
Shen Yuzhu lifted her eyes, and that handsome, refined face made her vision swim for a moment.
Tiny wontons, wind-dispersing sweets, joyous rice balls, spring bamboo shoots, translucent flower cakes... In exchange, she got a little evening lesson every day.
From then on, he helped her become a renowned culinary lady, while she accompanied him as he passed the imperial examinations and rose to become a high minister.
Throughout it all, she thought of herself only as his student and never dared to overstep.
But he lost his heart and disregarded convention.
A clever, kindhearted beauty who loves to cook VS a gentle, calculating, cold teacher
This is a warm story of the little things in life, slowly unfolding. May everyone be cherished by the world.
Theme: Even when the road ahead is covered in thorns, stand on your own and turn the tables against the wind
