Gong Su’s life is probably a Chinese national epic by the end of the Temeraire series. The guy gets hired as a basic cook, and ends up circling the globe, learning to cook fusion styles from a dozen different cultures, alternately barbecuing entire cows and stretching single pig to feed half a dozen dragons, brews a cure for dragon smallpox, survives multiple disasters at sea and battles on land, and ends up promoted to effectively the Imperial Chinese ambassador to England.
(It wasn’t clear to me whether he was assigned as an Imperial agent from the beginning or if the Emperor of China found out he was still with Temeraire and recruited him later, and I can’t decide which is funnier)
