(Please follow and bookmark the author's other novel, *Everyday Life of a Beloved Family in the 1990s*. It opens in late October. A healing story about being cherished by everyone. There's a little Yawen living in everyone's heart, and I hope this story can heal your inner child.)
Everyone knows Zhou Tianqi is a legend at the Federation's Second Military Academy.
They say she defeated the Federation's top commander and made him fall head over heels for her.
But the Empire scoffs at the story, calling it an exaggeration and accusing the Federation of using a pure human as a gimmick.
Then the Federation and Empire hold joint military exercises, and the Empire mocks the Federation for sending such a weakling of a pure human.
Zhou Tianqi: Right, right, whatever you say.
She fires off a medicine she'd hastily concocted from Chinese angelica and ginger. The fire attribute of the fire-type esper beast surges out of control, and it collapses to the ground, helpless to resist.
The Empire: You must have used banned drugs. That's cheating!
Zhou Tianqi: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Bye-bye now!
She promptly shoves a medicine with an opposing attribute down his throat. The big, burly man can't fight back and collapses in seconds.
The Empire: The Federation's so devious, pretending to be weak!
The Federation: Since when did we have such a powerful pure human?!
Federation commander: ... (feeling guilty)
Zhou Tianqi is transmigrated into a pure human on the brink of extinction in the interstellar age, where she becomes a nutrition teacher at the Federation's Second Military Academy.
The medicinal cuisine of Huaxia has been lost to history in this world, leaving behind only a vaguely related field called nutrition.
She doesn't know nutrition, so she'll give it a complete makeover and teach medicinal cuisine instead.
The Federation's people distrust small and weak pure humans, sneering at her one after another:
What kind of trash is medicinal cuisine? I've never even heard of it! Pure humans really are frighteningly naive.
Who could have guessed
The beloved daughter of the Peacock Fish family is often listless and has no appetite. The clan leader has consulted every famous doctor without finding relief. Zhou Tianqi often makes her poria, atractylodes, and crucian carp soup to strengthen the spleen and dispel dampness. In just a few days, the girl is lively and energetic again.
The only phoenix descended from the ancient Earth bloodline undergoes an ancestral transformation into a fire phoenix. Lily and lotus seed congee, which clears the mind and reduces internal heat, helps her through the hardest part of taking on human form. Her temper softens, and she reconciles with her mother.
The most domineering metal-type esper begs Zhou Tianqi to save his younger brother. He even turns into a white tiger and acts cute, all so she'll agree to help. A bowl of duck soup with glehnia root and polygonatum restores his brother's health.
Lily and lotus seed congee, Four Spirits soup, bupleurum and liver-soothing congee... More and more medicinal dishes tailored to balance the energies of the five elements appear, and even interstellar genetic diseases once deemed incurable are cured.
Zhou Tianqi: Honestly, all of this comes down to not knowing how to take care of yourselves.
As one outstanding member after another from the various families is cured, the mastermind plotting behind the scenes is left dumbfounded.
How the hell are they supposed to play this now?
Reading guide:
1. A little bit of everyone-loves-her, but the heroine is independent throughout the main story. The romance in the extras has an open ending.
2. Not a traditional strong heroine story. The heroine is absolutely in charge.
3. My own worldbuilding, set in a fictional interstellar future.
4. All the specialized knowledge about medicinal cuisine comes from the internet or from things I've exaggerated and made up, so please don't scrutinize it. The heroine is healing nonhumans, ahhh! Don't apply this to real life, and don't actually treat medicinal cuisine as medicine.
5. You can't please everyone. If this isn't your thing, please be kind about it.
(Blurb recorded on 2025.11.27)
Theme: Spreading the culture of Huaxia's traditional medicinal cuisine
