The Little Chef and the Young Master Sleuth

A clear-headed, straightforward, occasionally muddleheaded little chef who fires off a retort and then wins you over with delicious food

and a tsundere, crazy first-born young master who gets a retort, fires one back, then shamelessly tucks into his food

+ a funny, perceptive foodie second-born young master

A trio's everyday life of eating, drinking, and solving mysteries

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One-on-one romance · Both leads are each other's first · Sweet happy ending

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Shen Yanzhi transmigrates to ancient times and becomes a little chef with a tragic past. She struggles alone to support her little sister and their nearly bankrupt restaurant. Outside, her former fiance bullies her relentlessly after breaking off their engagement, and she's buried in debt...

She rubs her forehead and sighs. "They really think highly of me. But luckily, my family has been running restaurants for three generations, with master chefs at the helm."

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Nine-fold shredded tower, jade dew sculpted pastry, flaky yellow yam, cherry birlo, candied ribs, and West Lake beef soup. The unassuming little restaurant serves the most enticing and exquisitely prepared dishes in all of Lin'an.

Seeing the diners flock in, Shen Yanzhi breathes a sigh of relief. "It won't be long before I pay off the debt."

That is, until a man collapses inside the restaurant, blood spraying from his mouth and nose, his death gruesome. Only then does Shen Yanzhi realize she's gotten herself into serious trouble.

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The Shen family lady can use a lamp to share the feelings of the dead, revisit the past, and cross between spaces. A green flame the size of a bean flickers in an oil lamp, weaving a dream of the dead person's life.

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Sounds pretty impressive, right? Isn't this just an overpowered cheat?

Only when she truly enters a dream does Shen Yanzhi discover how powerful it is: she can experience the dead person's five senses in real time.

In other words, if the dead person gets slapped hard across the face, Shen Yanzhi's face burns too. If the dead person is stabbed several times, Shen Yanzhi gets cut open as well...

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She solves one bizarre case after another, but without realizing it, she also gets caught up in the sordid affairs of the previous dynasty's imperial family.

The poison of Nanjiang, the jade of Beidi, the piercing gaze of an unknown man, the late emperor's secret edict hidden for years, and the long-bearded old man who had just asked her to investigate a domestic power struggle between his wives and concubines, but was secretly called "His Majesty" by his men...

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Du Xingzhou is a thoroughgoing wastrel, spending his days chasing cats and dogs and doing nothing.

Everyone says he's the champion of cricket fighting, a legend at pitch-pot, and Lin'an City's most outrageous good-for-nothing.

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Three years ago, in Changli on the northern frontier, the Beidi cavalry launched a night raid. The Yiyang soldiers were driven back to a mass grave, where mountains of corpses and seas of blood bore witness to unspeakable crimes.

Du Xingzhou was one of the ghosts who crawled out of there.

Rumors spread among the people that General Wuwei had defected to the enemy, betrayed his country, and buried his own troops. He deserved to die.

He was hammered into the mud.

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Few people know that Lin'an City's number-one wastrel is actually insane.

The legend of the Goddess of Mount Yu has been passed down in Nanjiang for generations. Every year on the third day of the third month, a shamaness is chosen to play the goddess, and a grand sacrificial ceremony is held.

Beneath the seven-colored lanterns that rose into the sky like swimming fish, Du Xingzhou looked at two people: Shen Yanzhi, and the most beautiful shamaness of Nanjiang from years ago.

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In the capital, Lin'an, it is spring once more. As the evening glow reddens the sky, wisps of smoke curl up from the chimneys of every household.

That is the smoke of ten thousand homes.

In this dark world, he found a wisp of warmth of his own. From then on, the age would be prosperous and peaceful, and all under heaven would live in peace.

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"My lady, may I sleep in the bed tonight? I promise I won't get handsy. I swear."

"I hear you castrated a Beidi spy in the army today. What a decisive move. How does your Wuwei Army punish people who conceal their identities?"

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Du Xingzhou, all six-foot-three of him, obediently curled up in a ball on the floor mat. When the wind picked up in the middle of the night, he sneezed several times in a row.

Shen Yanzhi crept out of bed to cover him, only to be caught by Du Xingzhou, who had been pretending to sleep and making little noises. He pulled her into his arms.

From then on, he never let go.

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Theme: With a big ladle in one hand and a magic lantern in the other, the little chef warms hearts and stomachs, and protects justice in the world