A Little Eatery in Bianjing

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The moment Tao Xiaoman opens her eyes, she has become an orphan in Bianjing.

Penniless and starving, she has a tiny street-front shop two bays deep. Her first step is to set up a small stall selling food.

Plum blossom soup noodles and bamboo shoot and bracken soup, crab-stuffed oranges infused with the fragrance of autumn.

Crystal aspic and steamed goose, life's finest flavors are found in the everyday.

Tao Xiaoman's stall grows bigger and bigger, with more and more customers coming back, until at last her food stall becomes the bustling Tao Family Eatery.

Later...

The poor scholar who always comes by for sweet soup passes the imperial examinations and enters the Hanlin Academy, yet still shows up at the eatery every day without fail.

Until one day, amid fierce wind and rain, the young man in blue robes puts away his umbrella and stares at the piece of success cake on the counter for a long time. At last, he speaks:

"Xiaoman, how about I repay the money I owe you with myself?"

Everyone knows that the current Chancellor Lin once lived in dire poverty. But no one knows that...

When he had given up on himself and lost all hope, a figure appeared from that little eatery, smiling sweetly:

"Would you like a bowl of sweet soup, young sir?"

He remembered that bowl of soup for the rest of his life.

[A slow-paced, comforting story about food and healing.]

Blurb captured on 2025.05.03

Theme: Warmth and bustle fill the long lanes of the marketplace, a spoonful at a time, a lifetime cooked with every bite.