Xiangling

Biodata

Background

Xiangling inherited Wanmin Restaurant’s accumulated culinary knowledge and learned cooking under Master Mao. His lessons included the Gu Cuisine Calamity, a mass food-poisoning incident caused by a talented chef who went astray. She took the incident as a warning: although she embraced experimentation, she would not use harmful ingredients as a shortcut 14 33.

Her talent became known even to retired chefs. Tang Hao described her as an exceptionally gifted cook who had absorbed the strengths of nearly every culinary school and continually developed new ideas. Before meeting her in competition, he already considered her a difficult opponent 14.

Her late maternal grandmother’s house provided accommodation and a kitchen during her preparations at Yilong Wharf. Master Mao and Madam Mao maintained the house, returning each year to clean it and stay for a while 39.

Personality

Xiangling places diners’ physical and mental health above flavor. She rejects Tang Hao’s argument that any satisfying ingredient belongs in cooking, insisting that food which harms its consumers is poison rather than fine cuisine. Her ideal combines genuine love of cooking with sustained effort, not addictive ingredients or underhanded methods 20 21.

She is competitive without dismissing another chef’s achievements. Despite opposing Tang Hao’s methods, she acknowledges the extraordinary skill behind his noodles and evaluates them honestly. She also refuses to rely exclusively on Century Soup in the Cuisine Machine Test: she wants to demonstrate broad culinary ability rather than excel at only one dish 22 30 32 41.

With friends, she is affectionate but firm. She defends Guoba from Shen Luolun’s teasing, makes both troublemakers clean restaurant tables, and readily scolds Shen when he becomes disruptive. Her practical care extends to preparing meals, arranging spare clothes, and helping him finish kitchen work 2 3 39.

Abilities & Skills

Culinary Expertise

Xiangling combines inherited techniques with experimentation across culinary styles. Tang Hao recognizes both her creativity and the breadth of her repertoire 14.

• Prepares dishes including chicken wraps, Adeptus’ Temptation, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and boiled black-backed perch 2 3.
• Plans different dishes for successive competition rounds rather than repeating a single specialty 41.
• Recognizes similarities between Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles and the cooking involved in the historical Gu Cuisine Calamity 33.

Century Soup

Century Soup is Xiangling’s answer to Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles. Its creation began with a story told by Shen Luolun; after searching for suitable ingredients without finding a satisfying combination, she received guidance from Zhongli and the White Horse Adeptus about ingredients’ individual flavors and how those flavors combine 30.

• Counteracting the noodles: The soup removes the noodles’ effects and restores the affected residents to normal 29 30.
• Powdered preparation: She carries a transparent soup powder in a waist pouch. It can be prepared with hot water, making the dish convenient to reproduce 30 41.
• Culinary impact: Tang Hao considers the finished dish beyond his understanding and concedes that he cannot meaningfully score it 32.
• Distribution: Zhongli uses adeptal arts to divide the entire pot among the crowd. This large-scale distribution is his contribution, not an ability attributed to Xiangling 30.

Knife Skills

Xiangling works several times faster than Shen Luolun, slicing an entire basket of carrots in five minutes. Her cleaver moves quickly enough to leave afterimages while the slices land neatly on a plate 39.

Willpower

Xiangling regains clarity after eating Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles, resisting the compulsive desire that overwhelms other diners. She identifies their pleasure as hollow and compares the experience to becoming a slave to desire 21.

• Her resistance does not immediately remove every aftereffect: she remains physically weak and asks Lumine to assist with cooking 22.
• She nevertheless completes the tasting and continues the duel rather than accepting Lumine’s offer to end it 20 30.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Wanmin Restaurant Dispute

Xiangling first appears serving Shen Luolun, a childhood friend and regular customer. When he provokes Guoba into breathing fire, she orders Guoba to stop. Their antics lead to a dispute with Tsarevich after Shen gives Guoba food belonging to the merchant 2.

She refuses Tsarevich’s demand to intervene against Shen when no one has actually been struck. After Tsarevich leaves, however, she reprimands both Shen and Guoba and assigns them table-cleaning duty. Shen’s subsequent remarks about her blushing and his proposed restaurant rules earn him a punch on the head 3.

Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles

Ahead of the Moonchase Festival’s Cuisine Machine Test, Xiangling invites Lumine and Paimon to Liyue and asks Shen to attend in support. At Yilong Wharf, she joins Lumine and Paimon in investigating a restaurant whose beef noodles have made residents abnormally obsessed with eating 13 16 19.

After Lumine leaves to look after Paimon, Xiangling confronts Tang Hao about the noodles’ ingredients. Their disagreement over a chef’s responsibilities becomes a cooking duel: each chef must taste and honestly score the other’s dish. The wager requires the loser to withdraw from the Cuisine Machine Test; if Tang Hao loses, he must also stop making Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles. Lumine serves as judge and witness 20 21 30.

Xiangling withstands the noodles and answers them with Century Soup. Zhongli distributes the soup to the affected crowd, while the White Horse Adeptus helps the Millelith guide and evacuate residents. Xiangling awards Tang Hao’s noodles 100 points, but his own score sheet remains blank because he cannot judge her soup. He admits defeat 30 32.

Exposing the Gu Cuisine Calamity

When Tsarevich accidentally names Soul-Forsaking Grass, Xiangling connects the forbidden ingredient and the noodles’ familiar effects to Master Mao’s lessons. She identifies Tang Hao as the chef responsible for the Gu Cuisine Calamity twenty years earlier 32 33.

The ensuing questioning exposes Yinyue’s role in supplying the banned grass and arranging the Sea Overlord operation. Xiangling and Lumine also realize that a pharmacy owner was used to obtain the ingredient. Yelan later arrives to investigate the noodles and takes custody of the suspects 33 35.

Cuisine Machine Test

Xiangling brings Shen to her grandmother’s old house to help prepare for the next day’s competition. She chooses Adeptus’ Temptation as her first dish and has him wash and soak dried abalone, sea cucumbers, and fish maw overnight 38 39 41.

At the venue, she takes stove fifteen. Shen and Guoba help light the stove before withdrawing under the competition rules. She gives only a brief acknowledgment to the neighboring contestant, whose attention is directed toward her rather than his cooking 47.

When Shen and Guoba begin a fire-breathing chase through the audience, spectators and contestants turn toward her station. Embarrassed, Xiangling lowers her head and concentrates on tending the flames. The supplied account ends during this opening round; no competition result is given 47.

Relationships

• Shen Luolun — Childhood friend of more than ten years and a regular at Wanmin Restaurant. She calls him “A-Luo” and knows his favorite order, the chicken wrap he has eaten for a decade. Her thoughts reveal romantic interest, including imagining becoming his girlfriend if he cannot find one; he continues treating her as a buddy. Their later interactions include shared cooking, his styling her hair, and his accompanying her to the competition 2 3 39 42 47.
• Guoba — Companion and kitchen helper. She protects him from teasing, gives him special meals, and entrusts him with jobs such as carrying vegetables and watching the fire. She also disciplines him when he joins Shen’s mischief 2 3 39.
• Master Mao — Family member and cooking teacher. His warning about the Gu Cuisine Calamity shapes her culinary ethics, and he sends encouragement through Shen before the competition 16 33 39.
• Lumine — Trusted friend, assistant, and witness to the duel with Tang Hao. Lumine offers to protect her, respects her decision to continue competing, and helps while she remains weakened 20 21 22.
• Tang Hao — Senior chef and defeated rival. Xiangling respects his technical achievements but condemns his harmful ingredients and exposes his connection to the Gu Cuisine Calamity 21 22 32 33.
• Zhongli and the White Horse Adeptus — Advisers whose guidance helps her complete Century Soup. They also assist in resolving the crisis among the affected residents 30.
• Yelan and Lan Yan — Friends who also compete for Shen’s attention. When Xiangling proposes taking him into her care and reforming him with good food, both immediately turn their attention toward her 37.

Equipment & Items

• Cooking utensils — Uses a spatula at Wanmin Restaurant and a cleaver for rapid ingredient preparation 2 3 39.
• Waist pouch — Holds a packet of powdered Century Soup 30.
• Contest identification plaque — Wooden plaque assigning her stove fifteen at the Cuisine Machine Test 47.
• Improvised apron — Shen ties his outer shirt around her waist to block a neighboring contestant’s view, claiming that she needs protection from the cold 47.

Trivia

• Shen’s hairstyling impresses her enough that she carefully protects the new style while washing her face the following morning 42 46.
• Despite her willingness to taste unfamiliar dishes, she strongly dislikes fermented mung bean drink and flees when Shen offers her some 46.

Notable Quotes

“Trust me, Traveler. I’m going to defeat him with my cooking. I’ll win.” 20

“Good food doesn’t need underhanded methods at all. A pure love of cooking and tireless effort are the keys to making good food!” 21