Yu Yao transmigrates and becomes a village girl on Beixiao Mountain.
When both her parents die overnight, she turns her attention to the students living in the hills behind her home, hoping to find a way to make ends meet.
Cleaver in her left hand, spatula in her right, the Yu Family Eatery officially opens!
There is an academy on Beixiao Mountain, a place of learning that students across the land dream of attending. Everything about it is wonderful, except for the dreadful food.
The dishes are too salty, the meat too tough, the soup too bitter. The students grow gaunt and sallow, but the academy is in the middle of nowhere, with no village nearby and nowhere to spend their money even if they have it.
Then one day, a young woman appears at the academy gates.
Hot and sour noodles, spicy chicken in a bowl, fish cooked in boiling oil, spicy rabbit, braised chicken... Every dish smells incredible and makes your mouth water. You could easily wolf down three bowls of rice in one sitting.
The students: Lady Yu, no, Sister Yu, you're the only big sister we need!!!
Fu Xu, head of the Dongyang Mountain Academy, has recently noticed something strange.
Fewer and fewer people are eating in the academy dining hall, yet the students are getting rounder and plumper by the day, with a clear tendency to expand sideways.
One day after classes let out, he followed the students to an eatery. The owner was a young woman, and inside the shop were a calico cat and a little child.
Fu Xu: I see. A fallen young woman and a confused young wife. Truly pitiful...
Yu Yao: Fine food and wine for company, and I get to become a mom without the pain. Life couldn't be better.
Fu Xu: Um, well, I think a child still needs a father. What do you think of me?
Yu Yao: Please move. Thanks. You're blocking my light.
A few things to know before reading:
1. A food-and-business slice of life, with a slower pace. Overall, it's sweet and satisfying.
2. Set in a loosely imagined version of the Tang Dynasty, with plenty of fictional elements.
3. There's both a career and romance, but the career takes up a little more of the story.
Theme: Eat well and live well.
