The sizzling of the piece of meat searing, the sound of black pepper being crushed, as
it blends with the smokey flavor of the meat into a perfect seasoning, and the chiseling of knives,
is music to Lu Jin's ears. He listens to it intently with his eyes closed. Soon, the handiwork
of the chef is presented before him. He savors the bite, much to the displeasure of his subordinate,
who is waiting for him to start the meeting. He was already made to wait for two hours. And now,
for the past thirty minutes, he has been looking at Lu Jin eating the entree. Finally,
his manager speaks, letting him know, that the entire time he and his workers were made to wait,
he could have acquired a hotel for the company. Lu Jin is irked, and asks the manager if he
thinks he is more worthy than the beef. He then proceeds to fire the manager. The
manager is baffled and looks at Lu Jin's assistant in astonishment. Lu Jin explains
that the manager has never got him a hotel he likes, which is one reason to fire him,
other than the manager insulting Lu Jin's food, which he totally believes he did.
Lu Jin walks out of his office building and sees Gu Sheng Nan, a 26-year-old chef,
vandalizing his car. She has scribbled cheaters on the bonnet of the car, and proceeds to climb
on the roof to scratch some more. At the same time, she is talking on the phone with her friend,
who apparently has been cheated on by some guy. To take revenge, they plan to vandalize his car. Gu
Sheng's friend gave her the car's specifications and location; a black Audi Q3 on the 2nd floor.
While she is busy destroying the car, Lu Jin looks at this act of atrocity and decides to
film it for evidence. Gu Sheng soon realizes she got the wrong car, as Lu Jin brings her
attention to the 3rd floor sign. She quickly climbs down the vehicle and starts apologizing.
Lu Jin has an ingrained issue with apologies. He shuts her up as soon as she utters the first
sorry. So Gu Sheng promises to get his car re-painted. Lu Jin is only half satisfied,
and wants her to do something about the insult. Gu Sheng offers to get insulted by him,
so Lu Jin takes a sharpie and writes the number of the car repair shop on Gu Sheng's forehead,
and asks her to be there at 12. He threatens her by saying, if she isn't there at the stipulated
time, he will call the police. He then takes a mugshot of Gu Sheng on his phone and leaves.
Gu Sheng wakes up in her very messy apartment. As usual, she is late and dresses up in a hurry. Her
dog, Boss, helps her find her keys from underneath a pile of clothes. She runs to her workplace. Once
she starts cooking, her personality changes completely. She is very organized and focused;
the antithesis of what she is at home. Once she is done, she experiments a little
and makes Moroccan pigeon tagine. She makes the General Manager, with whom she is in a
secret relationship, taste the dish. She is giggly when he appreciates the dish, especially when he
says that they should take another look at their relationship, which she completely misinterprets.
She thinks he's talking about making their relationship public, when in fact, he is
talking about breaking up with her. He explains that he likes the dishes she makes for him,
but she is not his dish. He likes meat, and claims that she doesn't have any, even in the places she
should. He compares her with garlic chives. He advises her never to give up, because there
are people who like garlic chives. Infuriated by such an insult, she asks him to leave her alone.
Lu Jin checks in at a hotel that he plans to buy. It is the same hotel Gu Sheng works as a
chef. Lu Jin hasn't even stepped into his room, and is already annoyed to see a feline in the
guest area. He asks for his luggage to be taken to his room. As he makes his way to his room,
the chaperones keep following him, even when he asks them not to. Once inside his room, the hotel
manager enumerates all the good qualities and services their hotel provides, but in reality,
everything he points out doesn't look promising. As his last resort to sell the hotel to Lu Jin,
the manager has his chefs cook a dish. But Lu Jin is not impressed, and sends them away one
by one. When the last dish comes back to the kitchen, the manager and staff are clueless
as to what to do. It is then that the General Manager steps in, and asks Gu Sheng to create
something using her prowess. Other chefs think it is impossible to create something in 20 minutes,
before the clock strikes 12 and Lu Jin checks out. Gu Sheng touches the bottle of Troplong, and is
lost in the journey of preparation of 'Spaghetti alla Strega,' a classic dish. Once she has
imprinted the recipe in her mind, she ties her red bandana and asks everybody to leave the kitchen.
Lu Jin and his assistant are discussing other options because they are not impressed by this
hotel's poor service. Sharp at 12, the General Manager and Manager came with the dish prepared by
Gu Sheng. They request Lu Jin to try it out before he leaves. Expecting another lackluster dish,
he is fairly surprised to see the dish in front of him. He recognizes it immediately, and after the
first bite, he also predicts correctly that the chef is a female, based on the fact that it is a
special Romani dish, only passed onto the women in the family. He is so impressed by the dish,
that by the time he eats his last bite of whatever is left on the plate, he has tears
trickling down his cheeks. He cannot believe that such an unimpressive hotel has a gifted chef.
Lu Jin asks his assistant to inform the hotel staff, he'll only be eating the food
made by the last chef from now on. While the staff is rejoicing in the kitchen,
Gu Sheng seems sad as she sees her ex-boyfriend take pictures with the other girls. She goes back
to the table with the feast and starts drinking. After 6 7 bottles of beer, she thinks she is
unstoppable and climbs on the roof alone. Lu Jin cannot sleep, so he does the most
efficient thing to help him sleep: cook instant noodles. He prepares the noodles to perfection,
timing each step. As he is going to take his first bite, glass shattering deviates his attention.
Because of this, he is two seconds late for his perfect bite. He goes out to check what broke,
but finds nothing. The noodles have gone soggy, so he discards them, and starts preparing the
second batch. And this time, a girl's squeal hinders his courtship with midnight noodles.
He runs to his balcony and finds Gu Sheng trying to climb back on the roof. Lu Jin thinks she is
stalking him, and says he should have called the police when he had the chance. Gu Sheng cannot
reach the roof, so she thinks of jumping down the balcony. Scared out of his wits at her audacity,
he runs to his other balcony and looks down, but cannot find her anywhere. Suddenly, a hand
grabs his leg, and he struggles to free himself. The alcohol pretty much knocks out Gu Sheng. She
blabbers about her breakup, and asks Lu Jin whether she is pretty. She won't let go of
him till he tells. So he takes one look at her and says she is ugly. Then he adds that she is
neither repulsively ugly nor gorgeously beautiful; she's just plain ugly and bland. Hearing this,
Gu Sheng starts bawling, but stops as soon as she starts. She gets up and says she understands.
She walks into Lu Jin's room. He refuses to touch her, even when she struggles to walk.
He uses a stick to guide her out, but she passes out on the floor before he can throw her out of
his room. Lu Jin calls the reception, but the workers are sleeping, so he decides to take
matters into his own hands. He empties out his traveling bag and fits Gu Sheng in it, using a
towel as a barrier between his hands and her. Once he has her in his bag, he drags the bag
to the elevator, and leaves her there for others to find. The twin chaperon discovers the suitcase
with the body, and screams upon seeing it. Lu Jin is locked behind bars. The police in
charge ask him why he had to go to those lengths to play a game. He makes Lu Jin sit and wait. He
goes on to prepare noodles for himself. When Lu Jin sees him, he stops him and guides him
through the steps, to achieve the perfect noodles. The in charge makes it accordingly,
and finds the end result to be delicious. While he relishes the noodles cooked to perfection,
he again turns strict and doesn't let Lu Jin get up from his seat.
Lu Jin's manager is sharing the elevator with Gu sheng's friend. He makes a fake call boasting
about buying a plane to impress her, and then asks her if she figured out it was a fake call. She
says she could tell, and he blatantly asks for her number. She tells him he already has it, because
she is one of the girls who vandalized his boss' car, and she called him to the police station.
Once Lu Jin is bailed out, he stands outside the station, while his assistant brings the
car. Gu Sheng's friend urges her to apologize to Lu Jin and goes to talk to him. He dismisses them,
saying he hates apologies. The friends start to leave, but Gu Sheng turns back,
and asks if he is a germophobe. He says yes, and she tells him that he is standing on dog poop,
which makes him disgusted and irritated. As soon as he gets in his car, he leaves his shoes there.
Lu Jin, along with his assistant, is assessing the area around the hotel. He covers his mouth
with a handkerchief when he passes by the pond. On the other side of the garden,
Gu Sheng is helping the kids get down their umbrella, which is stuck in a bee hive. But soon,
they realize what a bad idea it is. The swarm of bees chases them, and all the kids and Gu Sheng
run to save themselves. Unaware of what chaos is coming his way, he doesn't pay any heed to the
children running. Even when his assistant runs after seeing the bees coming their way, Lu Jin
walks at his normal pace. Only when Gu Sheng calls out to him to run, addressing him as 'man in the
suit', he turns and sees the danger approaching. All the kids line up, and apologize to Lu Jin,
who sits with a swollen face, after being stung by bees. The children try very hard to control
their laughter. Once the children leave, Gu Sheng asks how Lu Jin is doing. He asks his assistant,
Meng, to give his watch to her. Meng understands the assignment, and tells Gu Sheng that the watch
has an alarm. When she is within 50 meters of Lu Jin, it will send an alert. That will keep
him safe from the troublemaker Gu Sheng has proved to be in his life. He still is
unaware of the fact that it is Gu Sheng who prepares the meals that he likes so much.
Meng reminds Lu Jin of his meeting, and he attends the virtual meeting, sitting in a very bizarre
posture, to cover the swollen side of his face. In the kitchen, his room number 1123 is famous.
He sends his order of the day; egg. Since it is a single word order, Gu Sheng prepares four egg
dishes, and Lu Jin is so impressed that for the entire day, the main ingredient remains egg. Gu
Sheng surprises Lu Jin with exquisite dishes that astonish him. He decides to finally meet his chef.
At the back of the kitchen, General Manager tries to woo Gu Sheng back. He tells her that he has
been lifting weights and have discovered healthy things are usually bland, giving the example of
skimmed milk, diet coke, vegan chicken, and her. He proposes they go to her place. She
smiles but soon starts throwing bread at him, because he had broken up with her, and now wants
to get back just because she was becoming famous. She walks back into the kitchen. She has an order
from room number 1123 waiting for her. She picks up the note left for her. It says that she is not
a squid who runs away to surrender. He asks her to stay. This was in reference to her last dish,
where she served squid ink in a hard-boiled egg. Gu Sheng smiles as she reads the note. In the
evening, she takes Boss on a walk. He takes a dump outside the police station, the same place as last
time, where Lu Jin accidentally stepped on it. Gu Sheng is thinking of new dishes to prepare
for the 1123 guest, because she thinks he is the key to her promotion once he buys the hotel. Also,
she has started to develop feelings for him, because they both are the same kind of people.
The next day, there is a television shooting going on. Lu Jin will be featured on it,
but he refuses to say the lines, because he finds them tacky. The host of the show asks
his assistant if he made Lu Jin aware of how vulgar, and shameless their show is. In the end,
Lu Jin agrees to do the show. The conversation between the host and Lu Jin is nothing more
than pulling snide remarks at each other. Gu Sheng also comes to see the shooting, and
realizes that the 1123 guest is none other than Lu Jin. She makes a run when Lu Jin spots her in the
crowd of spectators. In the process, a snag from her woolen dress gets stuck in the barbed wire,
and as she runs, the dress starts coming apart. She realizes what is happening, and runs back to
loosen the threat. While doing so, she tugs on the threat hard, making her fall back into the
pool. At the same time, Lu Jin is in a pickle. The videos and images of the day he was arrested,
are a hot topic in the online world. To come out with a clean slate, the show has asked for
a favor. Lu Jin has to wish the audience all the festivals, while holding the puffer fish plushy.
Lu Jin again throws a challenge to the chef, and gives her a theme,
which is open to interpretation. Gu Sheng serves dishes that invoke varied feelings in Lu Jin.
It seems as if both of them are one, and they understand the intention behind each dish. At
the end of the challenge, Gu Sheng wishes to send out a dish of her own theme. Lu Jin allows it,
and laughs after taking his first bite. It is a representation of his life, and he is yet
impressed again by her research on him. But when he tastes white truffle, he can't quite point his
finger at what it means. So he wishes to meet the chef and ask in person. But she sends a
fellow chef instead, to explain her intention of adding truffle, which signifies location.
Vexed, Lu Jin goes into the kitchen, and sees her running out. He follows her to the washroom,
but hasn't seen her face yet. In the washroom, he finds Gu Sheng and accuses her of stalking
him. It doesn't take much time for him to figure out, that she is the chef who
has been cooking for him all this while, when he finds her apron she left behind.
In the coming days, Lu Jin leaves no opportunity to scare Gu Sheng. He enjoys seeing her squeal
every time the alarm on her watch goes off, till one day, he confronts her in the kitchen. Now
that the truth is out, they talk to each other more freely. He asks her to finish
baking him a cake, and leaves the kitchen so that she can breathe a sigh of relief.
Lu Jin is about to savor the delicious cake, when he gets a call from his father. His father
is annoyed, because Lu Jin should have been in Switzerland by now, for a business trip. Lu Jin
assures that he will get things wrapped up in Shanghai soon. Till late at night,
he does his research on the hotel, and finds it is not up to the standards. He looks at Gu Sheng's
biodata. The next day, when he calls for room service, he is told that the chef is on leave. So
Lu Jin makes his way to her apartment. He bribes a kid with a lobster to find her apartment number,
and it works. Within minutes he has it. Gu Sheng is happy to see him, but when she
sees the condition of her apartment, she panics. She tries covering everything under the duvet,
but soon changes her mind. Lu Jin has brought all the ingredients for the dish he wants, and hands
her the basket containing it all, as he enters her house. While she prepares the food, he works
on building a makeshift table for himself. He sophisticatedly lays down the cutlery,
all the while maintaining a safe distance from a potential infection carrier Boss.
She brings out the dish and serves it to Lu Jin, but as she sits at the same table, he
tells her about his rule of not sharing the table while eating, because for him, eating is a very
personal experience that he doesn't like to share with anyone. While she sits in the other room,
they chat for a while. After she is done eating, she comes to see if Lu Jin wants a helping of
seconds, but finds him sleeping on her couch. She puts a blanket on him and calls it a night.
After a very long time, he slept in peace. In the morning, he gets up to see he is sharing
the blanket with Gu Sheng's dog. Lu Jin removes the blanket off him with a jerk, and goes to see
Gu Sheng, who is sleeping peacefully on her bed. After that, every evening, Lu Jin comes to have
dinner in her apartment, and sleeps on her couch. This routine has bought some flexibility to his
otherwise rigid personality. He is not afraid of Boss, and even goes to fill his food bowl when
Boss asks for food. He also lets Gu Sheng sit with him while having food, which he has never
permitted anybody. One evening, they eat Blowfish, which Gu Sheng claims her rich friend gave her,
but soon they start hallucinating. In their stupor, they feel it is raining in the apartment,
so they go outside with an umbrella. People give them weird stares, as the two share an
umbrella though it is not raining at all. Even inside a bus, they sit under an
umbrella. Lu Jin snaps out of the daze, and realizes what they are doing. Gu Sheng is still
in a trance. So Lu Jin decides to play along. Once back home, he tucks Gu Sheng into bed and
feeds Boss, who is hungry again after a meal. After not checking in at the hotel for two days,
Gu Sheng goes to Lu Jin's house. There, she finds he has a personal chef, who has come
back from vacation. This is the reason he would come to Gu Sheng's house to eat. But now that his
chef is back, he doesn't need Gu Sheng. Feeling betrayed, she confronts him about not telling her,
that he had a personal chef. He simply answers that she never asked. Gu Sheng
gets even more furious, when she sees one of her dishes being served to Lu Jin by his
personal chef. She has no choice but to leave. Gu Sheng is cooking in the kitchen of the hotel,
and she sees Lu Jin's chef come in. Initially, she instigates Gu Sheng,
but later proposes they cook together for Lu Jin. Gu Sheng cannot accept this, and in rage, tears Lu
Jin's schedule, that his chef left with Gu Sheng. Gu Sheng misses Lu Jin, and looks out the window
of her apartment, hoping to see his car. She keeps her watch on the window sill, just in case.
At the hotel, the staff in the kitchen prepares for a feast, but to everybody's shock,
the General Manager comes to inform them, that the lunch got canceled, and everybody is fired.
Lu Jin also comes into the kitchen and, facing Gu Sheng, asks to talk to her. But she is in no
mood to talk, and walks away. Lu Jin follows her. He thinks she is upset about his chef. Instead,
she asks if he really is firing everybody. He says yes, and Gu Sheng gets mad at him, for keeping the
decision he had known for days from them. He says it was important because the hotel is not
up to the standards. He also tells her that he had to fire an employee of twenty years, when
he was just 19. And he is simply doing his job. Gu Sheng breaks down while stating, that she is
not okay with him having a personal chef. She asks him why he has two dishes when he can have one. Lu
Jin tries to reason out, but Gu sheng has had enough. She calls him inhumane, and storms off.
Lu Jin prepares to leave the hotel. While his assistants are packing his belongings,
his assistant finds the broken umbrella stand in one of the bags. Lu Jin looks at it, and
the memories of the day they spent together come flooding back. Both are in despair, but neither
of them extends their hand toward the other. Lu Jin soon moves to his London office. Gu Sheng
sits with her best friend in her room, and cries because she feels bad for being too harsh on
him. She regrets not telling him how she feels. In London, while having dinner, Lu Jin asks his
chef to sit and eat with him. But the chef says she can't, since she prepares only one portion
that is for him. She excuses herself after she wishes him Bon Apetit. For a long time,
Lu Jin sits in silence, probably remembering Gu Sheng's audacity, when she shared the
table with him to have food. He misses the quirkiness, because it made him feel alive.
He lays awake in his bed. His chef texts him, making him realize he doesn't want
just food. Hinting that he is yearning for a company. She further states that
she can no longer work for him. In the morning, Lu Jin meets his
father. He is not happy about what happened in Shanghai. He doesn't approve of the chefs hired,
because he refuses to let the client get distracted by good food in a business meeting.
Lu Jin wishes to have breakfast with his dad. It has been very long since they have spent quality
time together. At the table, his father reprimands him. He thinks Lu Jin has become a joke in the
media. He is upset at his son for spending so much time on food. He believes hunger is just a
primal instinct, and one shouldn't be controlled by it. Looking at his father speak like this,
he holds an expression of disbelief, because now he knows why people despise him. He acts exactly
like his father. His father finds nothing wrong with that, saying it makes one reside in solitude,
which in turn leads to better decision-making. His father goes on to flaunt that he has put
a lot of time and effort in turning Lu Jin into a despicable person. And
he should be thankful to him for doing so. Still incredulous, Lu Jin asks his father if
he ever loved him. His father nonchalantly replies that, of course, he loves him,
even though he has many flaws, and because he is his son, he has no choice but to love him.
Lu Jin has had enough. He excuses himself, and cannot help but feel pitiful about his dad. He
has made up his mind, and reschedules his flight to make a stop at Shanghai.
Gu Sheng is walking Boss, and sulking over being jobless. Suddenly, the alarm in her watch goes
off, startling her. She sees Lu Jin in his car, and he spots her on the street. But Gu Sheng is
not ready to meet him, so she runs and gets into a taxi to escape. Once the meter reaches the amount
she has, she stops the taxi, and after throwing money at the driver, makes a run into the farmer's
market. Lu Jin keeps up and follows her there. He cannot take his car further, so he gets down,
and through a loudspeaker, calls out to Gu Sheng to stop hiding. He tracks her with his watch,
but finds it tied to Boss's collar. Lu Jin asks Boss to take him to her. Boss barks in refusal,
but Lu Jin reminds him of late-night snacks. This is enough to get Boss
running towards Gu Sheng, and Lu Jin follows. Lu Jin soon finds her. She has locked herself
inside a room, and through the door, they fight and call each other names. Gu Sheng
says she doesn't want to cook for him again, but Lu Jin doesn't want her to work for him.
He says he has a place for her beside him. Gu Sheng realizes that he is confessing that he
likes her. So she makes her say all the things she wants to hear. She asks if she is beautiful,
and Lu Jin replies she is the most ordinarily beautiful person alive. They profess their love
by shouting at each other. And this makes Gu Sheng laugh, but Lu Jin holds a frown,
because she doesn't come out of the room. When Gu Sheng finally decides to come out,
she pushes the door handle a little too hard, as a result of which it comes off. Now holding the
handle in her hand, she starts panicking, because she is locked for good. Lu Jin cannot believe her.
Finally, she is free, and they go to her apartment building. But Lu Jin makes a detour and takes her
to a neighbor's apartment, where he has arranged for her to see the sunset. Realizing what he has
done, she smiles at him. Lu Jin says from here, she can have the best sunset view. They both sit
on the balcony, and enjoy the sunset and blush stained building. When she doesn't stop staring
at him, he pulls her chair closer to his. She reaches out for his hand, and he gladly takes it,
making her giggle in excitement. After the sun has gone down,
Lu Jin's stomach rumbles. Gu Sheng offers to cook something for him, but he refuses,
saying he will cook them dinner this evening. Together they enjoy his famous instant noodles.
The owners of the house are fast asleep, while the two sit on the balcony, devoid of any worries,
and enjoying their time together. Lu Jin asks Gu Sheng if she wants to see the sunrise too.