Everyday Life Running a Shop in Ancient Times

[The broad fictional setting and some elements carry over from my previous novel, The Daily Business of an Ancient-Era Eatery. You can enjoy this story without having read it.]

[Optimistic, energetic sweetheart VS serious, proper academy tutor]

A new Yuan Family Eatery opens outside Songzhu Academy in Changle Ward, the capital. Smoke curls from the kitchen and delicious aromas fill the air. The owner works magic with her hands, making a thousand dishes dance on the spatula.

Honey-roasted mung bean cakes with lotus seeds, bamboo shoot and bracken wontons, hot and sour vermicelli.

Crispy fried chicken strips, lychee pork, pearl rice wine with lily bulb soup.

Countless students linger, forgetting all about their studies.

When the tutor hears about this, he is deeply displeased and resolves to investigate for himself.

After that, the Yuan Family Eatery gains another regular customer.

*

Many years later, Yan Su still remembers the day he first met Yuan Songyi.

The sunlight was lovely. A young woman in apricot-colored clothes stood by the road outside the school, holding a bowl that gave off a sweet aroma. Smiling at him, she said,