Chapter 1: Big Bwother, the Food in Your Hands Is Glowing!

Early summer, Zhenguan Ninth Year^[1].

The sun beat down mercilessly over Chang’an City, its glare dazzling off the glazed tiles atop the Imperial City’s red walls.

In the most secluded corner of the Imperial Kitchen’s rear courtyard lay a half-man-high pile of scrap firewood. Su Mu sat on a log, holding a notched woodcutter’s knife, listlessly shaving off wood chips.

It had been three days since he transmigrated.

In his previous life, he was a top state banquet chef on Blue Star who had won countless awards, but now he was nothing more than the lowest-ranking firewood chopper in the Great Tang imperial palace.

The drop in status was vaster than leaping from the Himalayas straight into the Mariana Trench.

【Ding! The Food God System has issued a beginner quest: While on duty, use available ingredients to prepare a delicacy and clean the plate entirely. Reward: God-tier knife skills.】

The cold voice of the system echoed in his mind again. This was already the third time.

Su Mu drove the woodcutter’s knife firmly into the wooden stump.

Let’s do it!

For three days, his mouth had been so starved of flavor that a bird could fly right out of it.

Cooking in the Great Tang during this era amounted to nothing more than steaming or boiling, or half-raw chunks of roasted meat sprinkled with coarse salt.

The odors wafting from the Imperial Kitchen consisted of either gamey mutton or the stench of poorly fermented paste, foul enough to make him want to throw up food from three days ago.

He was a chef with a precious palate; he couldn’t endure this torment.

He glanced left and right. It was currently the peak rush for lunch preparations.

In the main hall of the Imperial Kitchen, the imperial chefs spun around like tops, shouting and barking orders as pots and pans clattered deafeningly. No one had the time to care about this run-down back courtyard.

Su Mu stood up and slipped into the secluded kitchen normally used for boiling wastewater.

The stove here had half-collapsed, but fortunately the wok was still usable.

He rummaged through an earthenware jar in the corner and found himself in luck: a bowl of leftover white rice from the night before.

It was fine grain, Tribute Rice. Though completely cold, each grain remained distinct.

Reaching into his robes, he pulled out a small oilpaper packet containing a glistening piece of pork leaf fat and a few stalks of green scallions he had just swiped from a vegetable basket.

In this era, pork was deemed base meat that only the impoverished ate, making it a rare sight in the Imperial Kitchen. However, he had deliberately asked a purchasing eunuch to procure this slab of leaf fat, costing him the last of his money.

“Time to start the fire.”

Su Mu skillfully ignited dry twigs and shoved them into the hearth.

Flames licked the bottom of the wok, and the pitch-black iron soon began to give off wisps of blue smoke.

He diced the pork leaf fat into fingernail-sized cubes and slid them into the hot wok.

“Sizzle!”

The crisp sound rang out sharply in the quiet, secluded kitchen.

Immediately afterward, an aggressive, overpowering, and utterly unapologetic savory aroma of rendered fat exploded into the air!

This was the most primal collision between fat and intense heat.

In this Great Tang era of mere steaming, boiling, and stewing, the fragrance of stir-fried rendered fat was nothing short of a dimensional strike^[2].

Su Mu took a deep breath, his nostrils filling with a long-missed sense of joy.

The cracklings slowly turned golden and shrank, tumbling and dancing in the bubbling clear lard. He scooped them out and sprinkled a pinch of fine salt over them. In his previous life, this was the ultimate rice topping; here, it was an unmatched delicacy of a snack.

Leaving the base oil in the wok, he cracked the eggs.

He cracked three free-range eggs and whisked them rapidly with chopsticks before pouring them in. The eggs puffed up instantly, filling the cramped room with a golden, toasted aroma that rampaged through the air.

The rice went in, the spatula flying into motion.

Su Mu’s wrists flicked at an extraordinary tempo. Though his physical body and muscle memory had not fully returned to his past life’s peak standard, his wok-tossing skills were etched into his very bones.

Every grain of cold rice was coated in hot oil and egg, tap-dancing across the iron wok.

The grains had to be fried until they danced and popped in the wok, signaling that the moisture was thoroughly driven out and the fat had fully seeped through.

Finally, he tossed in a handful of vibrant green chopped scallions.

Green scallions, yellow eggs, white rice, glistening with an oily sheen!

A fragrant fusion of toasted scallion oil and rich egg drifted uncontrollably through the gaps in the battered window lattice, escaping outside.

…

In the Imperial Garden, beside a rockery.

A tiny figure was squatting on the ground, drawing circles in the dirt.

Princess Jinyang Li Mingda, affectionately called Sizi^[3].

Right now, a bitter expression clouded her delicate, jade-carved little face as her chubby hands clutched her belly.

“Gurgle!”

Her stomach grumbled uncooperatively.

“Don’t wanna eat…”

Xiao Sizi pouted, muttering in a soft, childish voice.

For breakfast, the Bureau of Culinary Service had sent mutton soup once again, its gamey smell making her scrunch up her little brow. Imperial Father had said it was nutritious and good for her health, but she simply could not swallow it down, throwing up after taking just one bite.

She had just sent away her personal maid to fetch candied fruit and took the chance to slip away.

So hungwy!

So very hungwy!

Xiao Sizi braced herself against the rockery and stood up, seeing stars before her eyes.

Suddenly, her little nose twitched.

What was that smell?

It wasn’t that stinky mutton smell, nor was it that bitter smell of medicine.

It was a… mouthwatering, delicious aroma!

Xiao Sizi’s eyes lit up, a glimmer of longing flashing in her large, dark-grape eyes. Following the breeze, she pumped her short little legs and tottered forward.

Passing through a moon gate, she skirted past a row of willow trees.

The aroma grew stronger and stronger, so rich it seemed to hook her little soul and pull her along.

Ahead lay a dilapidated courtyard with its door left ajar.

It was the back gate of the Imperial Kitchen, usually only used for taking out slops.

But at this moment, an intoxicating aroma poured through the crack of that peeling, black-lacquered wooden door.

Xiao Sizi gulped, gripped the edge of the door with her tiny hands, and struggled to squeeze her little head through.

The beaded hairpins and dangling ornaments on her head clinked against the doorframe, but she paid them no mind. Wiggling her chubby body like an awkward little penguin, she somehow managed to squeeze entirely through the gap.

…

Inside the kitchen.

Looking at the golden fried rice in the wok, Su Mu nodded in satisfaction.

This was the legendary “Golden Egg Fried Rice^[4]“!

Each grain was distinct, the egg evenly dispersed and wrapping around every single kernel. In the sunlight streaming through the window, it truly resembled glittering golden sand.

“The quest requires me to finish every bite, right? That’s easy.”

Su Mu picked up the bowl and had just raised his chopsticks, ready to dig in.

Suddenly, a rustling noise came from the doorway.

He turned around warily.

There, he saw a soft, pink little dumpling of a girl struggling with all her might to squeeze through the door crack, her two little hair buns squished completely crooked.

Their eyes met.

“Holy crap, I’ve been spotted!” Su Mu blurted.

He instinctively shielded the bowl against his chest.

This was a quest item; he would fight anyone who tried to take it.

Xiao Sizi straightened up and brushed the dust from her skirt, but her eyes remained glued to the bowl in Su Mu’s arms.

Steam was still rising from the bowl.

A golden light flickered within.

“Big bwother…”

Xiao Sizi took two steps forward, a strand of crystal-clear drool hanging from the corner of her mouth, lisping through the gaps in her teeth: “Y-You… the yummy food in youw hands is glowing…”