A Foodie's Guide to Lin'an

[Next Novel: My Homegrown Little Chef, Please Add It to Your Collection~] Lin Zhi transmigrates and finds himself in Lin’an with no money, no home, and no identity. To make a living, he has no choice but to return to his old trade. And so a little restaurant called Lin’s Eatery quietly opens its doors: Sweet, fragrant, and not cloying, the cream-filled abalone pastries; soft and delicious milk-sugar dumplings; Crab roe buns, their piping-hot juices flowing out when pierced with chopsticks; Mullet roe brushed with rice wine, then pan-fried until soft, sticky, and chewy; Snow-cold rice dumplings mixed with honey and rolled into little balls, cool and sweet... The diners: “So good!” * Everyone knows that Meng Qiongzhou, a deputy minister at the Court of Judicial Review, is incredibly handsome, but cold and distant by nature, and suffers from an eating disorder. But later, people notice that this Deputy Minister Meng not only eats at Lin’s Eatery all the time, he often helps the shopkeeper wash dishes... Meng Qiongzhou’s response: “What’s wrong with washing a few dishes for my wife?” A kindhearted, beautiful, gentle bottom who’s amazing at cooking x a noble, aloof, secretly passionate top who doesn’t like to eat. One-on-one, happy ending. Reader’s guide: 1. The bottom is a saintly, self-sacrificing type. Don’t read if that’s not your thing. There will be a character who only has eyes for the bottom. 2. Inspired by the Song dynasty, but partly fictionalized, with many original details. At heart, it’s a sweet and satisfying food story, not historically accurate. Please don’t nitpick the history or offer writing advice. 3. Everyone except the top and bottom is straight. My Homegrown Little Chef After transmigrating, Lin Shuangjiang becomes a seven-year-old kitchen boy in the household of an official in the Song dynasty, responsible for tending the fire. As a household-born servant, his daily meals consist of sour brine porridge, bean rice, fermented fish, salted greens, and rice crust. That means porridge cooked with pickling brine, rice mixed with hard beans, salted fish eaten raw, bitter-salty pickled greens and radishes, and the rice left over from the head chef’s cooking: the crispy layer stuck to the bottom of the pot. Everyone else: What a feast! Lin Shuangjiang: ...Could you stop abusing children? For the sake of his own appetite, Lin Shuangjiang has no choice but to fend for himself. Soon, delicious aromas begin wafting out of the kitchen: Steaming soup dumplings, Dongpo pork braised until tender, Jade-green shrimp with Longjing tea, savory bamboo shoots and pork soup, As well as sweet fermented-rice dumplings and honey-drizzled osmanthus lotus root... Before long, Lin Shuangjiang becomes the youngest head chef in the marquis’s household, and even picks up a husband along the way. * Li Xiuran is the famously difficult second son of the Li family. Spoiled and fearless from childhood, he remains that way until he meets Lin Shuangjiang at the age of nine. The new kitchen boy is fair and soft, with big grape-like eyes, even prettier than the child in a New Year’s picture book. At their first meeting, Li Xiuran can’t resist teasing him. “You look like you’d be all thumbs.” The seven-year-old kitchen boy says nothing, but quietly clenches his little fists. Li Xiuran thinks, Tsk. He’s like a little glutinous-rice dumpling that jumps when you poke it. One night, he catches Lin Shuangjiang sneaking a bun and is startled when the boy offers him one. “Second Young Master, I bought the ingredients with my monthly allowance and made this myself. I’ll share one with you. Please don’t tell anyone, okay?” Almost as if possessed, Li Xiuran takes it and bites in. ...It’s so good! From then on, Li Xiuran becomes Lin Shuangjiang’s faithful little shadow. Lin Shuangjiang takes him to taste every delicacy under heaven, and Li Xiuran shows him the vastness of the world. More than ten years pass, and they grow up together, always by each other’s side. Later, everyone in Bianjing knows that the rebellious young master of the Li family has one untouchable weakness: Lin Shuangjiang. Touch him, and Li Xiuran flies into a rage. He protects him like a treasure. Theme: Live life earnestly and spread positivity