Chapter 26 - An Uncommon Meal

When Tang Jin returned, he brought with him an exquisite tea set along with a jug of wine and several small cups. "Food will start coming shortly," he said, taking a seat across the table from Ao Wen and Feng Xi. "Father insisted on cooking himself so it might take a little longer but the wait will be worth it."

"I hope your father doesn't have the wrong idea," Feng Xi said. She hoped to build a good friendship with Tang Jin. She felt like Ao Wen had too few people around her to stay anchored in this life and not lose herself. Tang Jin looked like someone worth befriending but attempts at courtship would just be a disaster.

"No, not at all," the straw-haired youth insisted. "I think Father is just excited to see me with other friends. Honestly, he doesn't approve of me spending time with Mo Yan very much," he explained. "It looks like we all get along to most folks from the outside, but the truth is that Mo Yan mostly became my friend to get close to Zhang Bo. He really doesn't care about me that much at all. It's just that City Lord brings his family here for a meal once a month on average, so being around me allowed Mo Yan to meet some of the other young masters of important families. None of the others really like me all that much either, but they like having access to the Four Garden's House, so…"

"Of course they don't like you," Ao Wen said, ignoring the tea and pouring a cup of wine for herself. "When you're by yourself and not trying to fit in with them, you're a decent person. That has to rub them wrong," she said, downing her first cup quickly and pouring another.

"I don't know that I'd go that far," Tang Jin said, trying to defend his friends. "I think they all just have different considerations. Mo Yan's family business is trade. As much as he wants to be a powerful cultivator, his grandfather sees cultivation as a means to an end. Cultivators trade in more expensive things, have access to more important people, and can build longer-lasting businesses. He's a Novice Scholar and he's trying to turn Mo Yan into the next head of the business. That's why Mo Yan has invested so much in making friends in so many different families. It's all for the family business."

"I imagine things were awkward for Mo Yan when you were the only other one to successfully Awaken," Feng Xi said, sipping delicately at her tea.

"Kind of," he said. "Mo Yan and I are both fifteen this year, Zhang Bo is only fourteen so he still has two more years to try and if he breaks through next year, while he'll be behind, he won't be seen as any worse than us. Fei Haoyu is only thirteen, so this was his first year anyway, and failing isn't a big deal."

"Still," Ao Wen said. "I hear that the four of you haven't been together much since the Awakening ceremony."

"You probably didn't know, but Fei Haoyu's parents are shipping him off to Red Moon City to study," Tang Jin said simply. "Alchemist Wai has been spending a lot of time in seclusion lately, trying to break through to become a Master Scholar so he can take the Master Alchemist exam," the young man continued. Following Ao Wen's lead, he'd poured himself a cup of wine, but he rarely drank at all, so he'd been fidgeting with his cup the whole time, trying to work up the courage to start drinking. "That leaves almost everything at the Alchemist's Guild outpost in the hands of his apprentices Mao Ailum and Wu Lin. The Fei family isn't happy that their treasured son is only receiving lessons from a pair of Alchemy Novices."

"Isn't it impressive enough that he's being tutored by Novice Scholars rather than Initiate Scholars?" Ao Wen asked, feeling that the Fei family had standards that were just too high.

"Not to them," Tang Jin said, finally sipping his wine before putting the cup down and ignoring it. "The Fei Family here is a branch of the main family in Red Moon City. Patriarch Fei is a Grandmaster Alchemist and a Deputy Branch Manager for the Alchemist's Guild there. Evidently, he took a liking to Fei Haoyu the last time the family visited Red Moon City and suggested that he study Alchemy. Haoyu thinks that if he can awaken and pass the Alchemy Initiate exam then his family will be invited to rejoin the main family in Red Moon City."

"I see," Feng Xi said. "So he's arrogant because he gets so much attention and pampering, but he's carrying a heavy expectation from his parents. No wonder he's looking for people he can lord over. Maybe Red Moon City will be better for him."

Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of several cold dishes, sweet chili tofu, sesame garlic smashed cucumbers, and a dish of bamboo shoots in plum sauce. Feng Xi began eating delicately while Ao Wen's chopsticks moved rapidly as though she would run out of time to eat.

"Um," Tang Jin said, never having seen someone eat the food his father prepared in such a rush. "You might want to go slowly when you get to the bamboo shoots. The shoots themselves are harvested from the edges of the Scorched Forest. They've been bathed in lightning and fire energy that runs rampant there while the plum sauce contains traces of wood and lightning energy. It's a dish intended to stimulate the flow of energy along the meridian pathways and promote growth."

Ao Wen's chopsticks paused as she looked at the simple appearing dish. "This is a cultivation resource? Served as a side dish?"

"This is one of Father's most popular dishes with young cultivators," Tang Jin said proudly. "The plum sauce moderates the rampaging energy of the bamboo shoots, allowing the energy to be more easily absorbed without the risk of harming the meridians or having to forcefully suppress the energy."

Feng Xi took a few thinly sliced pieces of bamboo shoot with a healthy bit of rich purple sauce. Savoring the taste, she could feel the traces of energy within the bamboo shoots flowing through her, gently warming her body and making her feel relaxed and comfortable. The effect on her cultivation was negligible but clearly beneficial. "This is delightful," she said.

Ao Wen slowly tasted the dish with its tangy sweet sauce. As the energy from the bamboo shoots started to flow through her body, she felt a dim resonance between the faint fire energy and her own inner flame. Other than her failed attempt to use fire energy along with her saber techniques, she hadn't done anything with the flame energy she held but this made her wonder again about how she could use it. Maybe she'd ask Tang Qui for lessons. After all, she enjoyed cooking as long as she was cooking for Feng Xi. It wouldn't be a bad thing to pick up the path of an Artist Chef.

"Now I see why someone like Mo Yan would want to be your friend. Just having access to your father's cooking must have helped him Awaken," Ao Wen said with a smile.

"Are you saying that I owe my Awakening to my father's cooking?" Tang Jin asked, finally managing to manifest the courage to tease Ao Wen with his false indignation.

"Yup," Ao Wen said around another mouthful of bamboo shoots. "On a steady diet of food like this, I'm sure even chickens and dogs could Awaken with you!"

"Careful Wen," Feng Xi joined in on the teasing. " Young Master Tang is a true Mountain Lion, if you were to confuse him with chickens and dogs you might find yourself kicked off his mountain!"

"I don't believe for a moment that Young Master Tang thinks I've confused him with chickens or dogs," Ao Wen said, her voice thick with mock indignation. "You're just trying to get me thrown out so you can have more of the food to yourself, Xi!"

When Tang Qui returned to the room to deliver the main courses of red braised lamb shanks and dry-fried burning quail, he found all three youths laughing, teasing, and getting to know each other over the many dishes and jugs of wine he'd sent up. Were he to charge for it, the meal itself would have been at least thirty spirit crystals and the fine tea and wine another ten. Seeing his son genuinely laughing with friends who praised his son for his virtuous ways rather than encouraging him to skirt or bend the rules… that was something a father couldn't just buy. Closing the door as he left them to their meal, he went to give his wife the good news, and to enlist her aid in preparing a few days of trail food for the young trio to take on their hunt.