Chen Xiangxiang opened her eyes to find herself chasing a pig that had escaped its pen, knife in hand. Transmigrated into the body of a cook, she spent her days chopping pig offal and plucking chickens, all while enduring the spoiled young lady’s mistreatment.
Then one day, she was assigned to serve the young lady’s new tutor.
Pork braised with spring bamboo shoots, mung bean soup on summer nights, lotus root with osmanthus in autumn, and a mutton hot pot at the winter solstice. The tutor didn’t say much, simply returning his empty bowl to her.
After buying her freedom from the household, she opened a little restaurant in Sweetwater Lane. On its first day of business, just as she was closing up, a tall figure appeared at the door.
“Is the stove still warm?”
The tutor stood in the dusk, his ears faintly red, though his voice remained steady.
Later, the streets buzzed with a strange tale:
The cool, dignified Tutor Wei would squat by the stove to peel garlic for her, and queue in the rain to buy the plum blossom cakes she loved.
On their wedding night, he even knelt stiffly beside the bed just to taste her sweet-wine-scented lipstick.
In the morning, she taught beggar children to wrap roast duck in lotus leaves.
At midday, she shared honey pastries with an old flower seller.
It turned out the most comforting life of all
was a snowy evening, a fire in the stove,
a cup of wine, and him.
Theme: Two people whose appearances are complete opposites, but whose souls share equal nobility.
