Synopsis: Song Yu Die (Zheng Shuang) is a renowned chef in Hangzhou city with a mysterious identity. She grew up learning how to cook from her adopted mother who is also a brilliant chef and the owner of the famous restaurant Tianxiang restaurant. Her sweetheart Li Ma (Ray Ma) is the adopted son of her mother and she knows that they will marry when they grow up. However things change when she encounters Prince Zhao Yuan Qing and Li Ma heads off to the battlefield to build a career for himself. Meanwhile beneath the prosperity, a threat lurks in the background and together with Li Ma, Zhao Yuan Qing she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save it…..
Notes:
- Qian Er: In this case “Er” means second and “Qian” is the surname Sometimes the chinese will not call each other by their names instead by the position they hold in the order of precedence they were born in. For example, the 2nd son of the Wang family may be called “Wang Er” So in the case of Qian Er it roughly means 2nd son of the Qian family. I don’t believe his real name comes up.
- Ball and suitor: The characters that make up the term suitor is the character that means “to beg”, “pursue” and “person” so the literal translation is person who begs and pursues. And the character for beg sounds phonetically the same as “ball” (which is the character written in the chinese subtitles, don’t know if it’s a typo or not but I’ve kept it like it is because I think it’s a funny reference to his body shape no offence intended)
- Disowned: There are three ways a woman can separate from her husband. First, death, second is a divorce 和离 where the woman’s reputation is not tainted and they are free to marry whoever they want as well as take their dowry home with them. The other is disownment 休 where the husband can separate from his wife because she is unvirtuous or she has committed one of the 7 vices that makes disownment justifiable. The wife’s reputation is tainted and sometimes she’s forbidden to take her dowry back.
- Watershield: It’s a type of plant that floats on the surface of lakes and ponds.
- Giving up face: “face” in chinese terms does not actually mean your face it’s more like a combination of your reputation, your usual demeanor/bearing. Perhaps an english equivalent to the term would be begging/grovelling
Ep 5
Ep 6
Productive Procrastination 