In 1983, in the kitchen of Tongqinglou, the provincial capital's oldest established restaurant, water carrier Lin Wangshu is mocked as the "Mute" and endures two months of humiliation without uttering a word. No one knows that he is the fifth-generation descendant of imperial chefs from Prince Gong's Mansion, with knife skills bordering on the divine. He has concealed his identity only to investigate an old case in which his father died unjustly. When the long-lost Eight Treasures of the Prince's Mansion are ordered for the table, a seven-day deadline looms. Zhao Mantang, the treacherous head chef, fails to steal Lin's skills and resorts to poisoning and framing him. Can a copper pot engraved with the character "Gong," seasoned by eighty years of fire, bring the true flavors back to light? After hiding his talents for eight years, how will Lin use a single ladle of aged broth to overturn three sinister schemes?