After Su Mingyi left, Wei Jia tried to focus on the Mapo Tofu assignment, but her hands felt clumsy and disconnected as she attempted to work with the sophisticated equipment. The precise temperature controls and molecular analysis tools felt alien compared to the cooking methods she had learned from her grandmother.
The tofu was uniformly cut, consistent texture, but it felt dead in her hands. She was struggling with a molecular density meter when she heard the sound of the laboratory door opening again. Wei Jia looked up, expecting to see Su Mingyi returning with additional criticism or Li Shiyan himself coming to check on her progress.
Instead, a young man entered. He looked to be in his early twenties, wearing the standard white lab coat that made him a Tianxia researcher, but his demeanor was completely different from the other employees.
"Um, excuse me, Are you Wei Jia? The street food chef everyone's been talking about?"
"I'm Wei Jia," She replied. "Though I'm not sure 'everyone's been talking about' is necessarily a good thing in this place."
The young man's face lit up with genuine enthusiasm.
"I'm Ming," He said. "I'm a junior researcher in the Innovation Lab. I saw your confrontation with Mr. Li at the expo and it was incredible! No one ever challenges him like that."
"And look how well that turned out for me," Wei Jia said, gesturing around the laboratory that now served as her prison.
"Yeah, I heard about the contract situation. That's that's pretty brutal, even for Mr. Li. Five years is a long time to be locked into corporate consulting."
"You seem different from the other people I've met here," Wei Jia observed.
"Most of us are," He admitted with a sad smile. "We got into food science because we actually care about cooking, not just about corporate optimization. But the senior researchers..."
"Like Su Mingyi?" Wei Jia asked curious about what the corporate culture really looked like.
"Mingyi is incredibly talented, don't get me wrong. Brilliant food scientist, amazing technical skills, total mastery of molecular gastronomy. But she's also completely bought into the corporate philosophy. She genuinely believes that traditional cooking methods are primitive and that scientific optimization is always superior."
"And what do you believe?"
"I think that there's probably value in both approaches. Traditional methods developed over centuries for good reasons, but modern science can definitely improve on efficiency and consistency. The problem is that people like Mingyi and especially Mr. Li seem to think that anything that can't be measured and optimized isn't worth preserving."
Wei Jia was impressed with his thoughts, was glad that atleast someone seemed to understand the complexity of the situation rather than viewing it in purely technical terms.
"Can I ask you something? What's the real relationship between Su Mingyi and Li Shiyan? She seemed to know him very well."
"They've known each other since they were kids. Their families are both major players in the food industry. Mingyi's father owns the largest food distribution network in Southeast Asia. Everyone assumes they'll eventually get married. They'd basically control the entire regional food supply chain." He explained.
"That's why everyone's so curious about you," He continued. "You're the first person who's ever gotten under Mr. Li's skin enough to make him do something impulsive. Usually he's completely calculating, but bringing you here was pure emotion disguised as business strategy."
She listened everything carefully and understood fighting with Mingyi won't be easy as she is involved in Shiyan's life both professionally and personally.
After Ming left, Wei Jia found herself staring at the molecular analyzer with growing frustration.
She set the device down with force. This was insane. She was a chef, not a laboratory technician. She cooked with her hands, not machines.
The assignment wanted her to document every molecular interaction, but how could she explain the way doubanjiang transformed under heat, releasing layers of fermented complexity that had been developing for months in ceramic crocks?
Wei Jia looked around the laboratory. Hidden in one corner, she spotted a small induction plate, probably intended for basic heating tasks that didn't require the precision of the main cooking systems.
Most importantly, tucked into her bag, the few personal item Ms. Zhou had allowed her to keep were the small containers of spices she had grabbed from her apartment. She had doubanjiang from her trusted supplier in Chengdu. Sichuan peppercorns she had toasted and ground herself just two days ago. Chili oil infused with star anise and cinnamon, aged for weeks. These were the real ingredients for Mapo Tofu.
Wei Jia retrieved the small jars from her bag.
She plugged in the induction plate. As it heated, she arranged her ingredients. The moment the oil began to shimmer, her hands moved with practiced confidence as she added the doubanjiang, watching it bloom in the hot oil, releasing the deep, complex aroma.
Wei Jia added minced garlic and ginger, then came the ground meat, browning and crisping as it released its own savory richness into the developing sauce. Each addition was timed by instinct rather than digital timers, guided by the sounds and smells that told her when each element was ready for the next step. The tofu went in gently to absorb the complex flavors without falling apart.
As the dish simmered, Wei Jia added her final element: a sprinkle of ground Sichuan peppercorns that would create that signature numbing sensation, a drizzle of her homemade chili oil , fresh scallions that added color and brightness to cut through the rich intensity of the sauce.
The laboratory was transformed. Where minutes before it had smelled like nothing, now it was alive with the aroma of authentic Sichuan cooking.
Wei Jia ladled her creation into one of the bowls.She took her first bite, closing her eyes as the familiar flavors exploded in her mouth. It was perfect. This was what Li Shiyan's algorithms would never understand. This was what Su Mingyi's optimization protocols would never replicate.
What Wei Jia didn't know was that her act of culinary rebellion was being observed.
Three floors above the laboratory, Li Shiyan stood at the observation window in his private office, his attention drawn by reports from the building's environmental monitoring system. The air quality sensors had detected "unusual aromatic compounds" emanating from Laboratory 7-C, triggering automatic alerts about potential safety violations.
He had come to investigate and found Wei Jia, bent over a simple induction plate, cooking with an intensity and focus that made everything else in the laboratory seem irrelevant.
Li Shiyan watched her move with practiced grace, her hands confident as she built flavors layer by layer. Even through the observation glass, he could see the way her entire posture had changed. And then the scent reached him.
The building's ventilation system, designed for perfect air circulation and filtration, carried the rich, complex aroma of her cooking directly to his office. The moment it hit his consciousness, Li Shiyan felt something shift inside his chest.
Suddenly he was 7 years old again, small and hungry and desperately trying not to cry as he sat alone in the vast dining room of his family's mansion, eating perfectly prepared meal prepared by the household's professional staff.
Li Shiyan stood frozen at the observation window, watching Wei Jia taste her food with obvious satisfaction, and felt the careful walls he had built around his emotions beginning to develop dangerous cracks.
As the aroma of authentic Mapo Tofu filled his office and triggered memories he had spent years suppressing, Li Shiyan found himself questioning for the first time whether some inefficiencies might be worth preserving.
He reached for his phone to call Ms. Zhou and demand an explanation for why his environmental monitoring systems were detecting unauthorized cooking activities in the research laboratories. But he couldn't make himself place the call. Instead, he stood there like a man hypnotized, watching Wei Jia clean her improvised cooking setup, and feeling something he couldn't identify.
The cold, calculating CEO who had trapped her into corporate world was discovering that some cages worked both ways.
Wei Jia arrived at the laboratory the next morning. The moment she stepped inside the laboratory door, she was shocked.
The space had been sanitized. The small induction plate she had used for her Mapo Tofu was gone. Even the faintest trace of aromatic oils had been eliminated from the air. But it was her workstation that delivered the killing blow. Where her carefully hoarded containers of authentic spices had been hidden in her personal storage area, there was now nothing but empty space.
Every ingredient that carried the soul of authentic cuisine had been eliminated, leaving her with nothing but the corporate approved, standardized substitutes that tasted like nothing.
Wei Jia stared at the empty storage compartment with growing fury. Someone had entered her workspace while she was gone, gone through her personal belongings, and stripped away the last connection she had to her culinary heritage.
The monitor came to life, displaying a message that confirmed her worst suspicions:
LABORATORY SAFETY NOTICE
All non approved ingredients have been removed from Laboratory 7-C as a contamination risk. Corporate food safety protocols require all materials to meet standardized purity and consistency specifications. Personal ingredient storage is not permitted in research facilities.
Any future violations will result in immediate contract review and potential disciplinary action.
Compliance Department
Wei Jia knew immediately who was responsible. Su Mingyi had made her territorial claims clear the day before, and the elimination of Wei Jia's personal ingredients was exactly the kind of corporate warfare that someone with her authority and connections could execute.
She was done being polite. She stormed out of the laboratory as she headed for a confrontation with Su Mingyi. Following the directional signs through Tianxia's headquarters, Wei Jia made her way toward the Traditional Kitchen Wing: the division where Su Mingyi's office was located.
She threw open the doors to the wing's main kitchen, ready to deliver a confrontation that would either resolve this situation or destroy her corporate career entirely. But then she stopped dead, the words dying in her throat as she saw the scene before her.
Li Shiyan was there, standing at one of the cooking stations. But it wasn't his presence that shocked her, it was his posture, his expression, his obvious comfort and intimacy with the woman beside him.
Su Mingyi stood close enough to Li Shiyan that their bodies were almost touching, offering him a spoon filled with some strange dish.
Li Shiyan's cold, calculating demeanor had been replaced by something warmer, more relaxed, as he leaned slightly toward Su Mingyi to taste her dish. And Su Mingyi was glowing with confidence that came from having a powerful man's complete attention.
They looked like what they probably were: two people from the same social circle, the same level of wealth and sophistication.
The moment Su Mingyi noticed Wei Jia standing frozen in the doorway, her expression transformed.
"Wei Jia," Su Mingyi said. "How nice of you to join us. I was just showing Shiyan the latest developments in our traditional broth optimization project."
Li Shiyan turned to look at Wei Jia, with a look of authority. Su Mingyi's smile widened.
The phoenix pendant felt cold against her skin as she realized that some cages were designed not just to contain, but to humiliate.