As they conferred, an assortment of Yangzhou dishes began to cover the table. Chu Wanning felt like they had reviewed all that they could of what they knew, so he stopped asking questions to look over the food lining the table. He paused for a moment before lifting his eyelids slightly to glance at the person across from him, whose smile was a tad nervous.
“Have you been to Jiangnan before?” Chu Wanning asked.
Mo Ran had, of course, gone to see the apricot blossoms and misty rains of Jiangnan in his previous life. However, he hadn’t forgotten that he was only seventeen at present, and that he had only joined Sisheng Peak about two years ago, so he immediately shook his head. “Nope.”
Chu Wanning’s eyelashes lowered back down, his expression neutral as he said in a clear voice, “But you ordered all the best dishes.”
Mo Ran started. Only then did he realize that he had ordered every single dish in accordance with Chu Wanning’s preferences. His only thought had been to make sure Chu Wanning ate well so that he could recover his strength. He had entirely forgotten that he shouldn’t be so familiar with the local cuisine.
“I worked in the kitchens of a pleasure house when I was young,” he said. “So I’ve heard of these dishes, even if I haven’t tried them.”
Luckily, Chu Wanning didn’t press the issue. “Let’s eat.”
Freshwater fare was a big part of Jiangnan cuisine, especially on Rainbell Isle, where there were baskets of crab and shrimp and strings of fish as far as the eye could see. The square beech table was naturally laden with seafood. Crispy fried eel with sauce poured over it; sweet-and-sour squirrel fish, crunchy without and tender within; steamed mantis shrimp; chrysanthemum-sauteed sea snail; and braised silver carp. It smelled heavenly.
Aside from those, the meat and vegetable dishes were just as exquisitely made and elegantly plated, as were the desserts. There were stewed crab meatballs; savory pork trotter jelly; shredded tofu simmered in chicken broth; soup dumplings; wensi tofu;23 and more.
With his cheek in one hand, Mo Ran watched the waiter set down the last dish—osmanthus cake—and snuck a glance at Chu Wanning, wondering which dish he would go for first. He pondered for a minute and secretly placed his bet: definitely the meatballs. These were Chu Wanning’s favorite Yangzhou dish, after all.
Sure enough, as soon as the dishes were all out, Chu Wanning’s chopsticks reached unhesitatingly in that direction.
Mo Ran sighed to himself. This guy is always so predictable, be it in how he eats or what he does, it’s always the—
Plop. An adorably plump meatball landed in Mo Ran’s bowl.
—same?
Mo Ran’s head snapped up, surprise at this show of favor slowly crossing his face. “Sh-Shizun.”
“Thanks for taking care of me these past few days.”
Wait, had he heard that right? Mo Ran was astonished. Had Chu Wanning just thanked him for taking care of him?! Never once in the entirety of their last lifetime had he ever said any such thing.
Chu Wanning watched as the young man across from him slowly turned red, his eyebrows lifting higher and higher and his eyes getting rounder and rounder. A tuft of hair even curled up from his head to sway happily back and forth. Chu-zongshi didn’t quite know how to react, but he had to preserve his dignity, so he took another lofty sip of tea. Ow, my lips…
Truth be told, during the days he’d spent by Mo Ran’s side as Xia Sini, Chu Wanning had begun to feel a little guilty. When he thought about it late at night, he had to admit that his personality really was too harsh, and he had been overly stern with Mo Ran. So he told himself that, when he returned to normal, he would no longer carry on in that way—that he would do better.
When Chu Wanning had met with the Xuanji Elder at Peach Blossom Springs, he had hemmed and hawed for a good long while before finally forcing the words past his lips and asking how to be less intimidating to disciples.
Xuanji had understandably been taken aback before answering. “First, you have to actually show them that you care.”
Show them that you care… Chu Wanning assumed that Mo Ran had never had these meatballs before, so he parted his lips to explain. “Stewed crab meatballs are made with finely minced, high-quality streaky pork that has been mixed with shrimp roe, crab meat, and crab roe and rolled into balls. They are then simmered in clear broth with bok choy, and finally arranged in a red clay pot for a colorful presentation.”
Mo Ran was thoroughly dumbfounded. What was Chu Wanning reciting the menu for?
However, to Chu Wanning, patiently introducing new dishes to his disciple was a form of showing care, and so throughout the course of the meal, Mo Ran tried every dish in turn and got an earful of descriptions that sounded like they had come straight out of Jiangnan Recipes. If not for Chu Wanning’s low, soothing voice, Mo Ran probably would’ve flipped the table and left.
“Hey, hey, did you hear yet? Linyi Rufeng Sect won the last item at the Xuanyuan Pavilion auction!”
The private booths were divided by bamboo screens, and the people in the next booth over were a bit loud. Their conversation drifted easily over to Mo Ran and Chu Wanning.
Chu Wanning abruptly stopped introducing “savory pork trotter jelly” to exchange a look with Mo Ran. They listened with rapt attention.
A rough-sounding masculine voice was speaking. “Of course I have. A holy weapon, right? Three hundred million gold, paid on the spot. Aiyo, that price—it was more gold than I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
“Sheesh, is that all you care about? Don’t you know that Rufeng Sect also spent fifty million on a Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast?”
“Heavens, aren’t you supposed to eat those? Or dual cultivate with them? Can’t believe the biggest sect in the world would use such a reprehensible method of cultivation. And right out in the open too. How scandalous!”
“Actually, Su-xiong, cultivating through use of Beauty Feasts is perfectly reasonable. It’s not in the least bit prohibited. They may look like us, but ultimately, they’re not human. It’s no different from eating fairy fruits to advance yourself. When you get down to it, there’s nothing wrong with the practice.”
“Hmph. We’ll just have to agree to disagree…”
Someone else laughed lightly. “The one who bought the Beauty Feast is apparently some young disciple of Rufeng Sect who rarely shows his face—a Ye-Something-Xi. I heard he looks decent enough. Wouldn’t have expected some guy like that to rely on screwing women to cultivate. If you ask me, Rufeng Sect is on its last legs.”
Still another person chuckled. “What’s wrong with that? Who doesn’t love a beauty?”
Then their conversation turned to roundabout debates on ethics and morality—nothing worth paying attention to.
“So Rufeng Sect bought the holy weapon?” Chu Wanning repeated quietly.
“Sounds like it.”
Chu Wanning seemed troubled. “That makes things more difficult. We’ll have to go to Rufeng Sect to investigate further…”
Mo Ran let out an, “ah,” as he remembered something and muttered, “Shizun used to be in Rufeng Sect.”
“Mn.”
“Don’t wanna go back?”
Chu Wanning looked irritated at the mere mention of returning to them. “They may be a famed sect in the upper cultivation world,” he said, brows furrowed, “but I once…”
Before he could finish, there was a sudden commotion in the main hall. Someone was yelling loudly.
“Innkeep, we’ll give you five hundred gold if you get rid of these people and clear them out this instant. Our young master is reserving the whole place today.”