Returning Home to Open a Chu-Style Restaurant, Starting with Qu Yuan

Feng Boyuan returns to his hometown with his wife and daughter, where they open a restaurant serving Chu-style cuisine in an ancient town steeped in Chu culture. They had expected their new venture to get off to a rough start: it opened on the Dragon Boat Festival, and a heavy rain left the town’s old streets deserted. But then, in the downpour, his daughter brought home a guest who introduced himself as “Qu Ping, courtesy name Yuan.” After this senior court official of Chu had enjoyed a few drinks with Feng Boyuan’s father, he decided to grant Feng Boyuan’s daughter her wish for the rain to stop. He raised his cup to the clouds and recited “The Lord Within the Clouds,” from the Nine Songs. To everyone’s amazement, he really did summon the Lord Within the Clouds, and the rain stopped in an instant. From then on, Feng Boyuan gradually noticed that the guests at his restaurant were getting stranger and stranger. The Lord Within the Clouds, the Lord of the East, Houtu, Zhurong, the Mountain Spirit: deities and spirits from mountains, rivers, lakes, fields, and nature arrived one after another. The little Chu-style restaurant in the ancient town did more than serve travelers and tourists from across the country. It also became a place where the deities of ancient Chu could enjoy the food and comforts of the human world. Years later, Feng Boyuan couldn’t help but remark, “So my life story has turned into a mythological drama.”