Dao of Cooking

Chapter 13 - On The Way

After one hell of a night, Lei and his team of little cooks strolled back to the ruins under the glistening night. Fatty Lou was with them, having decided to spend the night in Lei's modest house as he didn't want to wake Master Li.

The children sang songs all the way, hopping around them, while Snake and Stone carried the spit on their shoulders, faces creased with resolve. Lei, on the other hand, had hauled his ladle on one shoulder, his other hand holding another wooden container.

"Nine hundred coins," he said, glancing at Fatty Lou. "You've outdone yourself once again, Brother Lou. Can't say I expected to see that much color tonight."

Fatty Lou had a smug smile on his face as he stared at him. "A man has to show some spirit, don't you think? And I'll be taking a hundred coppers from our haul, a little gift for those ladies, if you will."

"Naturally." Lei nodded. A hundred coppers for such a service wasn't anything short of a steal. "Will they be interested in a long-time partnership with us?" he asked with little hope.

"It's best not to get too greedy," Fatty Lou said. "I was just lucky to hear from Uncle Zhang that they'd be doing some restorations in the Moonlight Delight tonight. Or else even five hundred coppers wouldn't have been enough for those ladies."

"Thought you'd stolen their hearts with your charms," Lei said and sighed as if disappointed. "Guess this world too works on hard cold cash like many others."

Fatty Lou gave him a side-eyed glance. "Oh, our heavenly cook decided to part us some knowledge of the realms beyond the reach of men, eh? Tell me, then, are they all messed up like this one?"

Lei thought for a second, then shrugged. "More or less. Can't be that different, right? People are of the same mold, after all."

"Shaped and twisted by the Heavens' will, don't you forget," Fatty Lou said, waving a hand to Snake and Stone. "At least in this world. Or how can you explain these two, and that little one with the cat if we're all of the same mold?"

"Circumstances?" Lei said, but he didn't believe it himself. Not entirely, at least. Being born with talent could be considered as a gift on its own, but Lei wasn't sure if being talented alone should be something to be glad for. "Say you're a talented man, say you're a damned genius, then what? What would you do different than those cultivators?"

"For one, I would gladly take my leave from their strifes with my chin held high," Fatty Lou said, raising a finger. "Then I'm thinking of a heavenly manor, some fairies, and your food by my side. Not that mortal shit, mind you, but something spiritual."

"You'd take me as a chef, then?"

"Not as a chef, no. Think of it like a close friend who happens to cook all the time." Fatty Lou eyed him with a slight smile. "From this blasted wreckage to above the heavenly clouds. I call that a quality change, no?"

"It depends," Lei said. "Will we be able to tread upon those clouds, or fly across the skies? Or would you rather chain me into that manor of yours after getting your mind twisted up by all those spiritual drugs and the power to, I don't know, build a damned manor over the clouds?"

"Look, you're thinking too much into it," Fatty Lou said, then paused and shook his head. "You know what, I think you're not thinking too much into it. I mean, if we're immortals in the said scenario, then you can easily grow six arms and three heads, or split your body into three or four copies for them to do the hard work, right? You don't have to actually cook the food yourself."

"Where's the fun in that?" Lei said. "Is that why you want to become an Immortal? To do nothing at all?"

Fatty Lou looked conflicted, but that lasted only for a second. "You're missing the point. I'm talking about not doing all the hard work. We can pass the time by shooting stars or having some dual cultivation with ladies. Or play with a spiritual beast or two, ride a Qilin just for the fun of it, maybe?"

Lei shrugged. In a way, being super rich and becoming a real immortal seemed oddly similar. But then, Lei had little idea about what immortals were really capable of. If they could, say, change reality with a wave of their hands, then perhaps it'd be hard to resist the temptation to play with certain fates or certain worlds to pass the time. It would definitely be different than taking a jet to some faraway island or peering out into the wide skies from behind the glass windows of a penthouse.

"Perhaps we should aim a little lower," Lei said, and earned a sigh from Fatty Lou, but inside, he couldn't help but think about the future.

Felt different now that they had something to work on. It was never an easy thing to find your way through an alien world, but the month he'd spent here showed Lei that he had, in fact, what it takes to survive in these rather curious times.

You have to make the best of it.

He let a smile crease his lips.

….

As they wound through the ruins, the children started searching for a safe-looking place to pass the night. They might have been too afraid to stare directly at Old Ji's wrinkled face, but they were clever enough to pay heed to his warnings, careful against the thugs haunting this side of the city after sundown.

Lei knew these thugs were mostly scavengers, people who either got on the wrong side of the Heavens or were cursed right from birth with the life of an orphan, turning them into outcasts who'd been shunned from society. There were some bad ones caught in the mix, though.

"Stay close to each other!" Lei called out when one of the little devils wandered a touch too far into the distance. The sky was full of stars, but it wasn't enough to light the place.

"So, about these imps," Fatty Lou said, glancing at him. "I think we can get a big place for about four to five hundred coppers, but you have to live with them. You know nobody's going to rent their place to these orphans."

"That's the plan." It was bad enough that they had to pay six months of rent upfront to get the key, but rent prices also went completely insane after the assault, with people who survived the ordeal flocking into the other parts of the city.

"Or, you can always get a permit from the Governor's Office and build yourself a shed or two here," Fatty Lou said, then nudged him with an elbow. "But better to stay close to me. This back and forth is killing me."

"You just want a place to crash after a long night without bumping into your old man." Lei knew that too well. "But yeah, I don't want to stay here either. It's too dangerous."

He paused when a shadow shifted beyond a half-broken wall, followed by a creaking sound that probably came from the wooden planks that lay near it -- a door, or at least what was left of it. But the night breeze wasn't strong enough to make them dance.

"Snake, Stone, put that thing down," Lei said, keeping his voice low. The children gave him a questioning look, but he urged them with a hand after putting down the wooden container. "Take the others and get behind me."

"What's wrong?" Fatty Lou asked, looking around him.

Lei gestured with his head to that broken wall, some ten feet away to the right side. "There's something there. I saw it move."

Fatty Lou tensed and stepped back. Lei tapped with his leg to the wooden container he'd just put down, and Fatty Lou nodded before opening the lid and pulling the meat cleaver from inside of it.

The cat hissed.

Lei snapped his head back at Little Mei. "Shush that cat, and be quiet."

Little Mei nodded with a blank look, then whispered some words into the cat's ears, but the animal seemed to have been fixed on that same spot, refusing to shut up.

"Let's go," Lei said, inching slowly forwards. There might be a stray monstrous beast roaming the ruins for a quick snack, and as far as he knew, human meat was rather high on their diet list. Beast attacks weren't that common, but not unheard of, either.

We need to be cautious.

As they trudged silently together Lei kept an eye around, ears perked up to catch any minute sound, one hand clasped tight around the ladle's handle. Fatty Lou had his eyes fixed on the shadows, the cleaver catching the light of the stars, glistening sharply. Their nervous expectation was broken by an occasional whisper or a chuckle, usually stifled before Lei could turn back and scold the little devils.

"We should find a house," Lei said, heart pounding in his chest. "Find a house, and stay inside until we'd be sure there's nothing out here."

"Makes sense, but I've yet to see a solid wall, let alone a full house." Fatty Lou frowned deeply. "This place is fucking dead."

"Don't start with that again." Lei sucked in a deep breath. "Just for this night. Tomorrow we'll be gone."

"Fine, fine, I know." Fatty Lou waved a hand at him.

They crunched down on pebbles and pieces of wood, the sounds of their passing echoing far and wide into the long night. If it was a monstrous beast or something entirely else that was out to get them, then there was no doubt it knew wherever the hell they were.

Deep breaths. Perhaps it's your imagination. Could be some drunkard, dozing off behind a wall. Or some rat. Yes! That must be it, a rat or a squirrel. But do they have squirrels here? Damn, a rat it is. A big one, for sure, perhaps a monstrous one. A magical rat? Shit.

Felt like his own thoughts had turned their backs on him, trying to mess with his mind. Every single rock or a broken piece of wood looked a good enough place for a monstrous rat to hide behind it. And if it was a monstrous rat, then there was no way they'd be facing a single one. These things lived in groups or swarms? Flocks?

Take. Deep. Breaths.

But taking them, they did him no good. Eased his heart a little, but his skin was still tense as a fully-drawn bow. The only thing that gave him some solace was the heaviness of the ladle. It was a spiritual tool, after all, not an average cookware.

Just as they rounded a corner a clapping sound echoed, then came the source of it. Three men stood in front of them, faces hidden behind black scarves. Sheaths dangled from their belts, metal glinting from under the worn leather as they regarded them with open disdain.

"Shit," Fatty Lou said, raising the cleaver. "Who the hell are these guys?"

"Thugs," Lei said, looking over his shoulder to check the children. His eyes widened when two shadows broke out from the ruins, glancing at the children like savage beasts, swinging axes as they circled the group. They looked crude and worn, those axes, but Lei reckoned they had enough edge about them to make it hurt.

"Look, we don't want any trouble," he said, raising one hand to the scarfed-men. "Just let us pass, we have children here."

"But you've something else, too, eh, Heavenly Cook?" said the one in the middle, a head taller than the rest of them, slanted eyes flashing with a cruel glint from under his bushy brows. He drew the sword, running a finger through the metal, before pointing it at Lei. "You've made quite the killing today. Some thousand coppers, was it?"

"Around nine hundred, boss," said the one on the right side who had a big mole under his right eye.

A nervous silence settled between them as Lei considered his options. There were five of these bastards, and he had a dozen children behind his back. Three of them were at the Body Tempering Stage, but other than to lift some heavy things, they couldn't be considered as true cultivators. Just some kids who got lucky.

Lei glanced at Fatty Lou. His brother-in-arms had a savage look in his eyes that told him he wouldn't back away from a fight. That would've been reassuring if not for the fact that Lei himself had no experience against a sword, or an axe, however crude they looked. The most he'd done was to punch some drunkard back when he was young, and to call it a real fight would be an exaggeration.

"Alright," he said, reaching for the money pouch. About one thousand coppers, all the money he had in the world, resting inside that damned pouch. If he gave it to these bastards he'd be left with nothing. He gazed at the scarfed men. They didn't look the type that would give them a simple beating if they tried to do something stupid. He'd lose an arm or a leg at best and at worst…

Let's go with nothing. I can work with nothing.

He cursed under his breath. There were no guards, nothing in sight in this desolate wreckage. A part of him wondered if they'd done something to Old Ji. Killed the man, maybe? He shook his head. Old Ji didn't have anything with him to become a target for these men.

"We'll give you the money," Lei said and threw the pouch to the tall man. "Take it, and let us pass."

Bushy took the pouch and weighed it on his hand before passing it to the Big Mole. "Good, now let's talk some real business," he said, raising a finger to the children. "I don't want much else. Just two or three of them will be enough. I found that these little ones have the deepest potential to become reliable assets. They come with a blank slate, you see? Easy to punch some sense into them and make them listen, unlike these fools."

His men grumbled at the words, but none had tried to raise their voices. Seemed the boss had an iron grip round them. Smelled like trouble.

"Take the money," Lei said with a straight voice but was surprised when he couldn't hear the pounding of his heart. It'd eased back into its usual rhythm. "And let us pass," he finished, clenching the ladle further.

Bushy waved a hand to his men. "Take those two at the back," he said with the ease of a man speaking about plucking flowers. "And the girl with the cat. She has just the face for it."

"You piece of shit," Lei muttered. There was a pressure, some sense of urgency inside his mind that got lost in the middle. So he clutched the ladle tight in his hand and fixed the group with a scowl before turning to Fatty Lou. "Seems like we've no other choice but to fight it out."

"Figured that much," Fatty Lou said, then cracked his neck. "I'm fucking ready."

……