Su Mu possessed extraordinary cooking skills and built his business from scratch with his partner Lao Zhou, turning their restaurant Haoweilai into a hugely popular local eatery. But once the shop started turning a profit, the greedy Lao Zhou grew anxious. Fearing that Su Mu’s talent would cut into his earnings, he betrayed his partner after reaping the rewards, offering only 40,000 yuan to send Su Mu away for good. Worse still, he secretly bribed all the apprentices that Su Mu had personally trained. Furious at this betrayal, Su Mu walked away. Every former disciple switched sides to Lao Zhou, except for the kind and loyal Xiaoya, who refused to abandon her master and insisted on following him. Down but not defeated, Su Mu took the small payout and set up a food cart beside a construction site, selling affordable box meals at just 10 yuan each. He insisted on using quality ingredients and masterful cooking techniques to serve warm, hearty food to the hardworking laborers, never chasing huge profits. His kindness and incredible flavors won over everyone. By chance, a food blogger visited his stall, and Su Mu’s cheap yet delicious box meals went viral online overnight. Meanwhile, without its head chef, Haoweilai’s food quality plummeted, driving away countless long-time customers and causing business to tank. Chen Liang, Su Mu’s eldest apprentice who took over his role, had only learned the basics of cooking. Lacking dedication and flexibility, he was focused on quick gains above all else. Lao Zhou and Chen Liang constantly blamed each other, locked in endless conflict. As Su Mu’s construction-site food cart became hugely popular, Lao Zhou filed malicious reports against him, leading to the temporary seizure of his cart. At this critical moment, Li Jianshe, an entrepreneur who admired Su Mu’s culinary skills, stepped in to help. He assisted Su Mu in completing all the official paperwork and proposed a partnership to open a high-end private restaurant called Fortune Private Cuisine. Su Mu agreed, while vowing to keep his humble food cart running and stay true to his original intentions.
