I Became a Cook in Su Shi's Household

Song Dynasty, 1072. In a cramped little courtyard in Hangzhou, Yuanniang knelt beside her father’s sickbed. Yuanniang had arrived from another world, and had just crossed over when she found her father gravely ill. She was rather bewildered. Fortunately, her father found her a place to stay: she would live with a close friend of his until she married. It was bitterly cold when the man arrived amid wind and snow. He moved with the grace of a plum blossom and a crane, his bearing clear and refined. The instant he removed his bamboo hat, Yuanniang heard her father murmur weakly, “Brother Zizhan, you’ve come.” Yuanniang looked up sharply. In Hangzhou during the Xining era, she knew only one person with the courtesy name Zizhan: Su Shi, the celebrated genius whose name would live on through the ages. Her father used his last strength to entrust her to him. But little by little, life in the Su household grew difficult too. She couldn’t just eat and live there for free. She wasn’t any good at needlework, which required skill, but she figured she could at least help light the fire and cook. On Yuanniang’s first day in the Su family kitchen, she failed to cook a meal and set the kitchen on fire instead. A month after Yuanniang started working in the Su kitchen, Su Shi stirred a bowl of broth where the water and rice remained completely separate, wondering what had gone wrong. A year after Yuanniang started working in the Su kitchen, Su Shi looked at the mysterious gelatinous substance on his plate, rubbed his forehead, and gave up. Going out to serve as an official and coming home to cook must have been his fate. Later, someone quietly asked Su Shi how a great literary master had honed his cooking skills to such perfection. Was the family cook particularly talented? Su Shi fell silent. “Yes, the cook is very talented. I learned it all by teaching myself.” [Reader’s Note] 1. A food-focused story with cozy everyday life. The main text is not in first person, only the title is. 2. The author has a wild imagination and makes up all sorts of unofficial historical anecdotes. The setting is mostly fictional, so don’t scrutinize the history. 3. The heroine’s love interest is not Su Shi. He raises her like a daughter. 4. Blurb subject to change, April 20, 2024. Please add my new novel to your to-read list! Blurb: How I Rescued My Teacher in the Northern Song Dynasty (Imperial Examinations) When Xie Yan was seven, he left Shu with his father to study under a teacher. Before departing, his father clasped his hands and said, “Brother Zizhan, I entrust my son to you.” Xie Yan stood there, stunned. Wait, his teacher was Su Shi?! His teacher was wonderful, treating him like his own son and patiently guiding him. In 1079, Xie Yan passed the palace examination as the top scholar. He was summoned to sit for the examination at the Secret Pavilion, ranked third, and appointed an adjudicator at the Historiography Institute. For a time, he was unrivaled, his reputation matching his teacher’s. That July, his teacher was falsely accused and imprisoned. Xie Yan didn’t even get the chance to plead before the emperor. There was one reason: his position was too low. He needed a promotion. The following February, just after being promoted, Xie Yan received a letter from home. His teacher was all right, but the letter ended with: “Huangzhou is full of snakes. I daren’t stay overnight. Good disciple, come rescue me.” Xie Yan sprang into action! He hauled his teacher right out of Huangzhou! At the time, the court was torn by fierce factional struggles between the old and new parties, and his teacher was able to return to the capital. Xie Yan had barely enjoyed two peaceful days before another letter arrived. His teacher lamented: “Huizhou is full of miasma. Your teacher has fallen ill. Good disciple, come rescue me.” Xie Yan shot upright, nearly at death’s door. Hadn’t his teacher just been appointed governor of Dingzhou? When had he been banished to Lingnan?! Xie Yan went to the rescue again! This one was too heavy to lift. Maybe he should get promoted first! Who would have thought that Xie Yan, newly back in the capital as a court official, would receive yet another letter from his teacher before he could catch his breath? The letter lamented: “I was careless while making ink and blew up my house in Danzhou. I’m writing this with charcoal. Good disciple, rescue me again, rescue me!” Xie Yan was shocked. How had his teacher been demoted and banished all the way to Hainan? Outrageous! Xie Yan wrote fifteen memorials in the Censorate, impeaching the Luo faction and then the Shuo faction. He even blocked the chief ministers’ door, pestering them relentlessly until he finally managed to rescue his teacher. Xie Yan planted his hands on his hips. Looking back, he had risen to the highest office. Who in the world could rival him now? [Reader’s Note] 1. A male-protagonist story about the imperial examinations, food, and feel-good success. 2. Set in a fictional Northern Song Dynasty. It does not follow real history and is purely for fun. Setting Up a Food Stall at the Taixue Gate The moment Shen Zhizhi opened her eyes, she realized she had crossed over. She had landed in a humble household in Bianjing. Her father had barely breathed his last when her third uncle stole the secret recipe from the Shen family’s bun shop and sold it to the Taixue school kitchen. As it happened, the emperor visited Taixue and praised its delicious buns, saying they were worthy of nourishing the scholars. From then on, Taixue’s buns became famous. With her father gone, Shen Zhizhi’s own restaurant had lost its ancestral recipes, business plummeted, and it closed down. Even the shop premises had to be sold. Shen Zhizhi looked at her frail widowed mother and her younger siblings, who were so hungry they were dizzy. How could she put up with this?! As a chef trained to the highest level, Shen Zhizhi knew she could easily run a restaurant. And that wasn’t all. She was going to set up a food stall right outside Taixue! Soup dumplings, hot and sour noodles, fish soup noodles, pan-fried wontons, grilled sausages: she had it all. Their aroma wafted for miles, tempting even the Taixue scholars, who were devoted to nothing but the sages’ teachings! Everyone knew a beautiful young woman had set up a food stall at the Taixue gate. Her food was delicious and reasonably priced, so they had better hurry and get in line. When it’s gone, it’s gone! Shen Zhizhi saved up enough money to buy back the shop. She even expanded it into a restaurant, sent her younger brother to the best academy, and watched their lives grow brighter and brighter! Theme: Good food is too precious to let down.