Last time I wrote about a heroine who wasn’t originally human. Turns out that’s a whole genre of Chinese romantic web novels, and I quickly found another one in the same line. Real Missy Relies on Food to Counterattack has a heroine, Tang Qiaoqiao, who was originally… a cooking ladle in a cultivation sect’s kitchen! I can’t make this up… but someone already did!
Summary (condensed from Novelupdates):
She is an ancient profound iron ladle from the cultivation realm. Tang Qiaoqiao has good cooking skills. She cooks on one show and also on the next show. While filming, she also works part-time as a chef in the crew. She has become popular.
Shen Yue was paralyzed after a car accident. His temperament changed drastically, and his life seemed to fall into the boundless darkness. At this time, she was the only light in his life. Not only she healed his legs, captured his stomach, but also occupied his heart.
What, if his legs are cured, they will get divorced? Don’t even think about it!
There you have it. Tang Qiaoqiao takes over the body of a mediocre C-rank starlet who also happened to be the “real” daughter of the Tang family versus the “fake” daughter Tang Rou. All that AND she happened to marry the usual cold CEO Shen Yue even though the original Tang Qiaoqiao was in love with Shen Liang, who is Shen Yue’s nephew and also Tang Rou’s boyfriend.
Sounds like the perfect setup for a dog’s blood drama, right? Nope! The full series is very short, at 101 chapters plus 1 side story, and in that time, almost none of the things you would expect from this kind of family drama occur. BTW you can read the full thing as a cleaned-up machine translation with videos and pictures of the food at Pure Love Translations.
Anyway, like I said, no dog blood drama despite the over-the-top setup. Firstly, there’s very little tension with the Tang family. I’ve written before about hating the trope with the “real” daughter coming back later and the family having to choose between her and the “fake” daughter.
In Real Missy‘s case, the Tang family comes down firmly on the side of the “fake” Tang Rou. Meanwhile Tang Qiaoqiao is not even human any more, and what happened to the original Tang Qiaoqiao is never addressed. Therefore, the Tang family doesn’t want her, and she doesn’t want them either. There’s one short showdown and everyone sensibly decides to leave the other party alone, the end.
Secondly, nothing happens between Shen Liang and Tang Qiaoqiao because again they’re not interested in each other. Shen Liang comes to love and enjoy Qiaoqiao’s cooking just like everyone else does, but the relationship stops there, if nothing else because he’s terrified of his uncle Shen Yue. Without Tang Qiaoqiao to serve a foil inflaming their passions, Shen Liang and Tang Rou quickly fizzle out as a couple. He’s focused on trying to make it as a star, so he loses interest in her when she tries to leak their secret relationship. Eventually she moves abroad with the rest of the Tang family and they disappear from the series forever.
Thirdly, there’s no family drama on the Shen Yue side as well. Shen Yue’s mother takes an immediate liking to Tang Qiaoqiao (and her cooking) so no one objects to their relationship. The one sister-in-law (Shen Liang’s mother) who tries to be unpleasant is quickly put in her place by Qiaoqiao’s almighty cooking, while her husband is thoroughly cowed by Shen Yue’s cold demeanor and hyper-competence. The teased rivalry between the two brothers doesn’t go anywhere because Shen Yue simply lets go of the family business and starts his own which is even more successful, the end.
As you can detect from the above, Tang Qiaoqiao silencing rivals and making friends through her cooking is the whole theme of the book. They took the title Real Missy Relies on Food to Counterattack very literally. Her food is soooo good that absolutely everyone who tries it is won over, plus it even helps with stomach ailments, paralyzed legs and other minor diseases. She even starts growing her own vegetables which are somehow also the best things ever.
The chapters follow a predictable format where, as a minor star, Tang Qiaoqiao goes onto a set to film and show, ends up cooking, and wins everybody over including the audience and a growing army of fans. There’s also some comedy in there about how her original iron ladle nature makes her stronger than the average person, leading to the nickname “King Kong Barbie.” That part is actually pretty funny but doesn’t really go anywhere.
Okay, okay, but what about the romance between her and Shen Yue? Well… TBH Shen Yue is not a very nice guy. A combination of his despair over his paralysis coupled with his disgust with Tang Qiaoqiao (remember the original TQ was in love with his nephew) means that he is outright rude to her and verbally abusive for quite a ways into the novel. It’s hard to feel good about that until he starts softening up.
Luckily Tang Qiaoqiao is more focused on her cooking and acting than on winning his favor. Since she is not hurt by him but rather finds him amusing – especially how he can’t resist her food at all, that makes him a little less odious. And once he falls, like the typical novel CEO, he really falls hard and goes out of his way to sponsor and support her movie career without being overbearing about it.
He also confesses quite early but gives her the space and time to process her own feelings and decide if she reciprocates. Yes, this might be hard to believe, but he is not rapey at all. A little stalkerish, but not rapey. The bar for Chinese web novel CEOs is truly in hell.
Meanwhile Tang Qiaoqiao’s plan when she first became human was to cure Shen Yue through her magical cooking, and then divorce him for reasons that aren’t fully explained. Once Shen Yue cottons on to this idea, he does his best to woo her and succeeds, so she eventually changes her mind. They become a couple for real, have a cute little baby, Tang Qiaoqiao’s food and acting empires both take off spectacularly, and they all live happily ever after, the end.
Simply put, Real Missy Relies on Food to Counterattack is exactly what it says on the tin. The “real” daughter cooks her way through every single crisis and wins the day. No, it’s never explained how a cooking ladle came to life in a CEO novel. And due to her inheriting OG Tang Qiaoqiao’s memories, you never get the comedic hijinks that you normally get when a non-human has to deal with becoming human for the first time. Instead, Mary Sue the Super Cook just cooks for 102 chapters and gets her man, the end.
For all that, I actually really enjoyed the series. Last time, I said Lady of Fortune was boring because there was no drama. In Real Missy, that flaw is countered by the very short length, so that the whole thing is over by the time you start wondering, “Where is this going?” and receive the answer “Nowhere.” The food Tang Qiaoqiao makes also sounds and looks very delicious (I enjoyed the recipe videos the translators added) so this isn’t one of those series like My Fantastic Chef Wife where you come for the cooking and get served stale drama instead.
Recommended for anyone who wants a quick, heart-warming read without thinking too much.
