My Eccentric Senior Fellow Always Comes Over to Scrounge for Food

Pu Yu vs. Song Guyao (Gu is pronounced like Gu)

A cool, sharp-tongued beauty on the surface, the shou vs. an antisocial, volatile, devoted puppy of a gong

Before they reunited, Pu Yu had only met his cheap senior brother twice:

The first time, Pu Yu was ten and Song Guyao was fourteen. They were cooking in the kitchen when Pu Yu accidentally poured cold water into a wok of hot oil. Oil splattered everywhere, and Song Guyao shielded him, suffering a large burn on the back of his hand.

The second time, Pu Yu was fourteen and Song Guyao was eighteen. Their master suffered a humiliating defeat in a public cook-off over a dish of flash-fried pork kidney and tripe. He died of a heart attack, and Song Guyao, who had long since been expelled from the sect, rushed into the deserted courtyard dressed in mourning. The stubborn youth faced their master's wife, her eyes red with anger, and knocked his head against the ground three times with a loud bang. He spat up a mouthful of blood from deep within and fainted on the spot.

People said that his senior brother had originally been the young heir to a wealthy family. As a child, he had inexplicably sought out their master to learn cooking. Their master had only reluctantly taken him in after seeing his extraordinary talent. Who could have guessed that his own family's corporation would drive him all the way to bankruptcy? It was a real-life version of the fable of the farmer and the snake.

Before returning to her hometown, their master's wife gave Pu Yu two instructions:

“Your master's reputation is now in your hands. You're his direct disciple, so you have to help restore his glory.”

“You're kindhearted and trusting. If you run into your senior brother, stay well away from him, or he'll devour you without leaving so much as a scrap.”

Pu Yu kept the wish to restore their school buried in his heart. For now, he had to grow up properly.

He honed his skills again and again with the precious video recordings his master had left behind. After graduating from university, he opened a private dining restaurant called Ruozhu Studio.

Before long, Ruozhu Studio's two greatest treasures, its delicious dishes and its handsome owner, became famous far and wide.

Song Guyao lost his memory due to illness. His relationship with his family was strained, and he became antisocial and volatile. He was assigned to work at the family company. This perfectly good overbearing CEO wore earrings and kept his hair buzzed short, making rebellion his whole thing.

In his eyes, not a single person around him was decent. His family was cold-hearted, the staff were all spies, and he was a lone wolf who wanted nothing to do with strangers.

Then one day, while walking down the street, he was suddenly dragged into a private dining restaurant and made to serve as a spectator judge in a live cooking contest.

The food was delicious, but... the cook seemed even more appetizing.

Song Guyao's eyes lit up. “I've seen this younger brother before.”

When he learned how they were connected, his eyes lit up even more. “So you're my junior brother. Great, you're mine now.”

At first, Pu Yu firmly rejected his senior brother's clinginess and freeloading.

But this rebellious CEO had a whole bag of tricks and was especially good at using his looks to get what he wanted. Every time he came to eat at the restaurant, he drew in plenty of customers.

Torn between feelings, Pu Yu couldn't help craving his body. In the end, he had to admit that his senior brother was objectively handsome, and the boost he brought to the restaurant's revenue was objectively substantial.

Every now and then, he would whisper temptingly in Pu Yu's ear:

“Don't you want revenge for our master?”

“Don't you want to restore our school's reputation?”

“Don't you want to enjoy my body even more?”

In the end, Pu Yu accomplished the first thing their master's wife had asked of him, but not the second.

It wasn't that he was softhearted. It was that his damn senior brother was too clingy.

Even the most virtuous woman can be worn down by a persistent man, and he wasn't exactly virtuous.

When his senior brother bullied him too much, all he could do was bite down hard on the other's shoulder, his eyes reddening.

But Song Guyao would only look thoroughly satisfied. It was clear that he saw it as a reward, not a punishment.

Everyone in Donglin City's food scene knew that ten years ago, a mishap in a live cooking contest left Liang Shouzhuo, a Lu cuisine master, utterly devastated. He went home and died of a heart attack, leaving behind a widow, an orphaned daughter, and a young apprentice of just fourteen.

Not long ago, his famous Lu cuisine restaurant, Kuanxing Residence, was schemed against by his eldest apprentice's family, forcing it into bankruptcy and leading to its acquisition.

The family business Old Master Liang had guarded all his life had fallen into someone else's hands.

But who could have imagined that now, ten years later, the young apprentice Pu Yu and the senior apprentice Song Guyao, who should have been enemies, would return together?

The real Kuanxing Residence will return to the culinary world!

Reader's Guide:

1. “Power couple” refers to their professional skills, not their body types or looks.

2. The line “I've seen this younger brother before” is a play on the line “I've seen this younger sister before” from Dream of the Red Chamber.

3. A sweet little foodie romance, hehe.

4. The character names were inspired by the line “Mandarin ducks bathe among the reeds in a pond full of water,” from “Qingjiang Song” by the Song dynasty poet Su Xiang.

5. Blurb archived on December 3, 2023.

Theme: Preserve the classics and carry traditional crafts forward.