Chapter 2

03

Noble Consort Ning was crying so prettily that anyone would have felt sorry for her. Except that her eyes were glued to the plate in my hands, as though it held her long-lost son rather than fried pork.

“What is that?” she asked, her voice trembling through her tears.

“Guo bao rou. Crispy sweet-and-sour pork.”

I answered calmly, picked up a piece, and blew on it.

She swallowed. Her attendants stared, dumbfounded. Was this really the emperor’s favorite consort, the woman whose word was law in the harem? She looked more like a refugee who hadn’t eaten for three days.

“I…” She drew a deep breath, trying to recover her dignity. “I order you to present that dish to me.”

Her tone was haughty. Her eyes gave her away.

I smiled and put the pork in my own mouth.

Crunch.

The crisp shell broke open, revealing tender, juicy meat. Sourness, sweetness, fragrance—layers of flavor burst across my tongue. Wonderful. I narrowed my eyes in bliss.

Her tears flowed harder.

“You… you dare!” She shook with anger. “A discarded concubine, hoarding such food right in front of me!”

“Your Highness.” I put down my chopsticks and looked at her. “This is the Cold Palace. I’m no longer Consort An, just Lady Jiang. I bought the ingredients with my own money and cooked this myself. So it belongs to me.”

I said it lightly, as a matter of simple fact.

She was speechless. Her senior maid hurried forward.

“How dare you, Lady Jiang! Her Highness’s willingness to accept your offering is a blessing! Will you accept that blessing or not?”

I glanced at her. Her face immediately flushed.

The noble consort’s gaze darted between me and the pork. It had been a long time since she’d encountered an aroma so compelling. The imperial kitchens made beautiful, exquisite food, but something was always missing: the warmth of ordinary life, the urge to throw caution to the wind.

Today she had found it. She felt she would regret it for the rest of her life if she didn’t get a bite.

Dignity and appetite fought a fierce battle.

Three seconds later, appetite won.

“Name your price,” she said through gritted teeth, as though making a momentous decision. “I’ll buy it.”

I held up one finger.

“Ten taels of silver.”

A maid snorted. “Are you mad? Ten taels for one plate?”

Noble Consort Ning turned and glared. The maid dropped to her knees in terror.

“Here.” She slipped an exquisite jade bracelet off her wrist. “This is worth at least a hundred taels. I’ll pay ten times your price. Please, just let me have a bite.”

She almost ground out those last words.

I looked at the bracelet, delighted.

“Deal.”

I pushed the plate toward her. She immediately hugged it to her chest like a puppy guarding its food, heedless of the heat, and shoved a piece into her mouth with her bare hand.

“Your Highness! Your dignity!” the maid beside her pleaded, close to tears.

But she heard nothing. As the crisp, sweet-and-sour pork melted in her mouth, her whole world lit up.

Delicious. So delicious! She had never eaten anything like it.

She demolished the entire plate, even wiping up the last of the sauce with her finger. Then she gave a satisfied burp.

Only then did she realize what she’d done.

Her cheeks flushed pink. She looked at me with an expression full of satisfaction, embarrassment, and a little… curiosity.

“You…”

Before she could finish, a shrill voice rang out in the distance.

“Your Highness! What are you doing here?”

I turned. Liu Fu.

The moment he spotted her, his expression changed. He came running with a fawning smile, then froze at the sight of the empty plate in her hands and me standing here unharmed.

“Your Highness, what… what is going on?”

She wiped her mouth and resumed her haughty manner.

“From today onward, this courtyard is no longer under your authority,” she said coldly. “I’ll send someone to deliver fresh ingredients every day. And I want the first serving of everything she cooks.”

She thrust the empty plate against his chest and swept away with her entire retinue.

Liu Fu and I were left staring at each other.

He looked down at the plate, then at me, his eyes filled with shock, bewilderment, and a little fear. However hard he thought, he couldn’t understand how a disgraced consort banished to the Cold Palace had acquired the noble consort’s protection.

I couldn’t be bothered with him. I walked over, took the plate from his stiff hands, and smiled.

“Master Liu. I look forward to working with you.”

He shuddered, then ran for his life.

I weighed the heavy jade bracelet in my hand.

An excellent opening day.

04

The fear on his face had been more convincing than if he’d seen a ghost.

I tossed the bracelet lightly in my hand. Smooth, translucent jade, cool against my skin. A hundred taels? Noble Consort Ning had undervalued it. At least a hundred and fifty.

Business in the Cold Palace had quite a promising profit margin.

I went into my newly transformed kitchen. “Transformed” really meant I’d cleaned it, but right now it looked like a three-Michelin-star kitchen to me. My hope. My battlefield.

The first sale had succeeded, and my customer was the mortal enemy who’d had me sent here.

How strange. How ironic.

Noble Consort Ning was a food lover through and through. For a meal, she would abandon both pride and decorum. People like that were surprisingly easy to handle. As long as I kept making dishes that astonished her, she would be my strongest backer.

Her parting words had been meant for Liu Fu, but also for me. She wanted to protect me because she wanted my cooking.

Crude, simple logic.

I liked it.

The next morning, someone knocked gently at the gate.

Not Liu Fu. I remembered his hurried, uneven footsteps, with that guilty air about them. These were steady and measured.

I opened the gate. A neatly dressed, pale-faced eunuch stood outside. Behind him, two younger eunuchs carried a brand-new copper wok and an assortment of kitchen utensils.

“My lady.” He bowed respectfully. “I’m Li Mao. Her Highness sent me. She says you need only ask for anything you lack. From now on, I’ll personally deliver your fresh ingredients every day.”

His words were polished and faultless, his smile professional.

“Thank you, Master Li.”

I stepped aside to let them in. They efficiently removed the broken pot and old stove and replaced them with new ones. They even carefully took down the chipped iron wok and asked whether I still wanted it.

I said no.

Li Mao handed me a large food box.

“These are today’s ingredients, my lady. Her Highness would like something different. Chicken, duck, fish, meat—she leaves the choice to you.”

I opened it. Inside were a plump dressed chicken, a prime cut of pork belly, and several lively carp. The vegetables were beautifully fresh, still beaded with morning dew.

I was being treated better than when I’d been Consort An.

“Please thank Her Highness for me,” I told him. “And take this bracelet back.”

I held it out.

“She was paying for the food, not rewarding me. Business should be business. From now on, my dishes will have clearly marked prices, charged by the serving. Ten taels of silver per portion. A fair deal for everyone.”