Chapter 1

I was born with an unusually huge appetite. Among the capital’s noble young ladies, I was known as “Taotie,” the gluttonous mythical beast.

The Crown Prince suffered from anorexia, yet whenever he watched me eat, he would take a couple of bites himself.

So I entered the Eastern Palace to keep him company at meals.

The food there was plentiful and delicious, and I didn’t have to pay for any of it. All I had to do was sit down and eat to my heart’s content.

I kept him company for one meal, then another.

I often experimented with new dishes, hoping to coax him into eating just a little more.

In time, his anorexia was cured—and he became more and more appetizing to look at, too.

The Empress wanted to arrange a marriage between us, making me the Crown Princess.

I was overjoyed. When I came of age, he even gave me a jade hairpin he had carved with his own hands.

He told me that, year after year, month after month, he wanted us to sit at the same table and eat together.

But one day, I heard others teasing him about me.

“Little Glutton Xu eats as much as three grown men put together. Who else besides the Eastern Palace could afford to feed her?”

“Last time, someone didn’t believe it, so you deliberately took her to a restaurant. We hid in the next room, watched her, and placed bets. We won a fortune!”

The Crown Prince chuckled.

“Anhe is far too fond of eating. Later, at family banquets or state banquets, she may not be able to shoulder the responsibilities of a mistress of the household. If only she could be as composed and refined as your elder sister…”

The elder sister he mentioned was Jiang Xian, the legitimate elder sister of his study companion, Jiang Heng. She had just returned from a Buddhist temple and was known for her aloof temperament.

When we went on a spring outing and encountered snakes, he only cared about holding her tight and protecting her. He left me behind amid a whole nest of them.

By chance, my maternal aunt returned to the capital to visit her family and noticed I was unhappy.

She said, “There’s a new restaurant in Lizhou! Their grilled sausages gush with juices when you bite into them. The river-snail rice noodles smell foul but taste divine, and they even have fried chicken—one bite and you’ll feel like you’ve ascended to heaven!”

Grilled sausages? Fried chicken? What were those? I had never heard of them!

That night, my travel bundle was soaked with drool.

“Auntie, let’s hurry! Uncle in Lizhou must be missing you terribly!”

1

As Auntie told her stories, she covered her mouth with a handkerchief.

Her eyes sparkled like a pair of pearls.

She kept swallowing, and even beneath the handkerchief I could hear her smacking her lips.

After managing to sip some tea to calm her craving, she frowned.

“Sigh, how can I drink this now? The bubble tea at Huixiang Restaurant is so much better!”

She set her teacup down.

This was top-grade Yuqian Spring Bud tea, of which only a small amount was harvested each year.

If Auntie hadn’t come home, Mother would never have taken it out for a guest.

What in the world was bubble tea?

Auntie saw my confusion and brightened.

“Have you ever had molten cheese tofu? The outside is crisp and golden, the inside soft and silky. It’s so delicious you’ll want to swallow your own tongue.”

“Baba Chicken skewers are good, too. One coin apiece, and I eat at least fifty in one sitting—numbing, spicy, fresh, and fragrant!”

“And don’t get me started on fried chicken. It’s so good you could die happy after eating it. Have a bite in the morning, and even if you died that night, it would’ve been worth it…”

My mouth watered. The maids behind Auntie all lowered their heads.

For a moment, nobody spoke. The only sound was a chorus of swallowed saliva.

My senior maid, Qingluo, couldn’t resist chiming in.

“Madam, don’t forget the wolf-tooth potatoes and grilled beef balls…”

Auntie nodded repeatedly. I hurried over and grabbed her hand.

“You really didn’t bring any back for me to taste?”

Her eyes darted around.

“The shop only makes three hundred portions a day. Never mind whether you could even buy any—by the time you got them here, they’d be spoiled.”

Qingluo hesitated, as though she wanted to say something but held back.

“Madam actually did bring candied hawthorns and chestnut cakes that keep well. It’s just that along the way…”

Auntie’s face flushed red. She shot Qingluo a glare.

“I swear, at first I only wanted a tiny taste. Just one little bite!”

“But I truly couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t help it…”

Mother tapped Auntie on the forehead and laughed.

“One little bite today, one little bite tomorrow, and before we’d even covered half the road, you’d have eaten every last thing.”

Qingluo lowered her head, her shoulders shaking with laughter. She had grown up alongside Mother and Auntie, and they had always been exceptionally close.

Caught red-handed, Auntie turned to me.

“Anhe, your eyes were red the other day. Did someone bully you?”

But my mind was already full of fried chicken, grilled sausages, and that molten cheese tofu.

Drool kept welling up. They were all strange new foods I had never even heard of.

The palace had nothing like them, either.

I wanted to eat them. So badly. Eat, eat, eat!

2

I had always had a huge appetite.

When I was born, Father and Mother had been longing for a little daughter.

Mother refused to hire a wet nurse. She wanted to feed me herself.

But I cried all day long, and grew thinner by the day. Mother worried until her eyes turned red.

“My milk is plentiful! I’ve drunk so much fish soup to bring it in that I’m nearly sick of it!”

Grandmother sensed something was wrong and brought over a wet nurse.

I burrowed into the woman’s arms and began sucking frantically. One wet nurse wasn’t enough; in the end, they needed three.

Only when I was full would I finally sleep peacefully.

As I grew older, I ate more than all three of my elder brothers combined.

Father and Mother worried I might be ill and summoned one famous physician after another.

Every one of them examined me and said I was perfectly healthy.

Father still wasn’t reassured. He had heard that in the Southern Border there was a kind of sorcery that made people eat and drink without restraint until they burst from overeating and died.

“Could some jealous wretch be trying to harm my precious daughter because they resent how blessed I am?”

He paid a huge price to invite a master to examine me. The master watched me eat.

After a long silence, he declared that even people afflicted by that sorcery could not eat as much as I did.

At last, Father and Mother relaxed. If I could eat, then I should eat. What mattered most was that I was healthy.

Still, when the steward calculated the household expenses, Father muttered that he might have to embezzle a little just to feed his daughter.

My tongue was more discerning than other people’s. Even the cooks in our household learned from me.

After a single bite, I could tell which seasoning had been added too generously and which too sparingly.

The cooks said I had a natural gift for it. When they adjusted the dishes according to my suggestions, the results were indeed much tastier.

That was why I loved sneaking into the kitchen to experiment with food.

When I was nine, Her Majesty the Empress summoned me to the palace.

She took Mother’s hand, her eyes reddening.

When we saw the Crown Prince, Dongfang Heng, lying on the bed, we were both startled.

His face was sallow, and he was frighteningly thin.

He suffered from anorexia. He refused everything he was given, and if anyone forced food into his mouth, he would vomit.

The imperial physicians were helpless against his condition. Day after day, he was made to swallow medicine.

The Empress looked at me with hope in her eyes.

“On the day of your maternal grandmother’s birthday banquet, Heng’er came too. He actually ate a few bites on his own. That was the only day he ate anything.”

“He seemed to enjoy watching you eat. I’d like you two to sit at the same table and see whether you can encourage him to eat a little more.”

And so I became the Crown Prince’s study companion. In name, that was my role; in truth, I was his dining companion.

The Empress and Mother had been close friends since they were young ladies. I had known Dongfang Heng since childhood, too.

Seeing him so sick made me feel awful…

Fortunately, there was plenty of delicious food in the palace.

I ate to my heart’s content, secretly thinking that since it cost me nothing, I could help Father save some of his salary.

Dongfang Heng watched me with his pale face.

As I ate happily at the table, he finally picked up his chopsticks.

But he could only manage a few bites in a whole meal.

How strange. How could someone eat so little and not starve?

I patted my head. Suddenly, an idea struck me.

Wouldn’t sour mountain berries combined with poria help strengthen the spleen?

I ran into the hills behind the palace and searched everywhere for the tiny sour berries, no bigger than my fingernail.

I fell and covered myself in mud, but still carried a whole handful of berries back with me.

Dongfang Heng wiped my face with a handkerchief. A touch of emotion appeared in his eyes.

“Anhe, don’t trouble yourself anymore. The imperial kitchen has already made foods to strengthen the spleen. None of them worked.”

I ran straight to the kitchen. My method would be different from the imperial chefs’.

First, I mashed the sour berries into little balls and coaxed him by telling him they were medicine. He frowned. The moment he let his guard down, I slapped one straight into his mouth.

At least something was going into his stomach. That had to be better than nothing.

Then I tried making little balls of dough, meat, and vegetables.

Each one was about the size of my thumbnail. I coaxed him to open his mouth, and he could swallow them without chewing.

Some ingredients refused to stick together, and rolling them into balls was a lot of work.

But when he swallowed one without vomiting, I was so happy I clapped my hands.

He noticed the faint calluses on my hands. A flash of tenderness crossed his eyes. He fetched some hibiscus ointment and carefully applied it.

“Anhe, you don’t have to work so hard for me.”

I also asked the imperial chefs and physicians to write down this method.

If it could be passed down, maybe one day it would help cure this strange illness.

Food and medicine share the same source, after all.

3

I could never understand what it felt like to have no appetite. Happy or unhappy, I could always enjoy a good meal.

My little maid, A Xing, grew thinner and thinner. After I pressed her, I learned that her family member was ill and she was so worried she couldn’t eat.

I gave her a pouch of silver and told her to take it home to pay for treatment. Once her family member recovered, she regained her appetite, too.

Thinking about it, perhaps Dongfang Heng was hiding some heartache as well. I secretly made inquiries.

But who would dare upset the Crown Prince? Even the Emperor had never given up on him, although he had grown so thin he was little more than skin and bones.

I tried asking around indirectly, but he always kept his mouth shut.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, when families reunited, I didn’t go to the palace to dine with him. So he followed me all the way home.

I had made rabbit-shaped mooncakes with my own hands and gave him one.

“My elder brothers were fighting over them. They all love them.”

“This one was specially set aside for you.”

He ate the whole thing. When he saw my eyes narrowing, he smiled and rubbed my head.

“Anhe’s little pig-shaped mooncake is delicious.”

“I clearly made a rabbit…”

We sat beneath the moon for a long time before he finally told me his secret.

Last year, in the Cold Palace, a deposed consort had been tending a pot of food. When she saw him arrive, she smiled and waved him over to eat.

Only when he came closer did he see what was in the pot: a human-shaped figure, about as long as a forearm.

He had fled back to the Eastern Palace in terror. Ever since, whenever he tried to eat, he remembered the sight of that pot and felt so sick that the world spun around him.