At the time when lanterns were first lit.
In the outer city of Yunyu Sect, shops were closing one after another.
The door panel of the Yanshi Sect Puppet Specialty Shop had just been put down, leaving a small door for nighttime entry and exit.
A young shop assistant, carrying three catties of Lili stir-fried meat wrapped in spirit leaves and tied with straw rope, walked quickly to the doorway. He was just about to recite the incantation to unlock the door when he suddenly noticed a tall figure standing in the shadows at a distant street corner.
The assistant felt an ominous premonition. His heart pounded wildly, and the Door-Opening Incantation was completely forgotten. He pounded on the door with all his might: "Open up, open up…"
Then he felt a chilling coldness on his back. His hair stood on end, and his voice caught in his throat.
He slowly turned his stiff neck. The figure that had just been far away from him had, at some unknown point, silently come to stand behind him.
The assistant recognized that eerily beautiful face at once and began to tremble uncontrollably. The meat he was carrying fell to the ground with a thud.
Then his knees gave way, and he knelt down: "Ancestor Puppet, Ancestor Puppet, this humble one is just an errand boy doing odd jobs. I know nothing. Have mercy, great Ancestor Puppet. Wrongs have their source and debts have their debtor—go find the boss, not this humble one…"
The Puppet Human stepped forward, extended his hand, and expressionlessly picked up the leaf package that had fallen to the ground. His long, pale fingers with distinct joints hooked around the straw rope, and from his thin, pale lips came a single word: "Pot."
The assistant's mind went blank. After a long moment, he managed to squeeze out one word: "Huh?"
"Pot." The Puppet Human lifted the Lili pork belly in his hand slightly, his gaze grim, carrying the menace that one more word would mean death without an intact corpse.
Fu Tingyun's patience was indeed nearly exhausted. Anyone would be in a bad mood after Colored Characters flashed in their Spirit Manor the whole way.
He had never eaten meat, but he was thoroughly knowledgeable about the customs and products of the Three Realms. He knew that the Lili's habitat was a thousand li away, and he also knew that such a thing as a butcher shop existed in the world.
Although he could not currently use much Spiritual Power, his movement techniques remained. With a few swift leaps, he arrived at the outer city.
When he found the butcher shop, the owner was just closing up. The last portion of Lili Meat had been bought just moments before.
The buyer was the shop assistant from the puppet shop.
So he had naturally come here.
Just then, the wooden door behind the assistant creaked open, and a fat face poked out: "How did buying some meat take so long…"
Before he could finish, the door lamp lit up, and he unexpectedly met a pair of astonishingly beautiful eyes.
A gaze as cold as a blade's edge seemed to sever his vocal cords. The shop owner let out a terrified squeak, his plump body swaying unsteadily.
"B-Boss…" the assistant said quietly, "He wants a pot…"
Before he could finish, the Puppet Human had already raised his foot and kicked the shop owner, along with the door behind him, into the room.
Carrying the meat, he expressionlessly walked into the brightly lit shop hall, looked around, and then lowered his gaze to the shop owner sitting on the ground trembling: "Kitchen."
The shop owner finally came back to his senses. He scrambled to his feet, bowing and scraping: "The kitchen is in the back… Young Master, please… please…"
The Puppet Human walked into the kitchen and looked at the grease-covered stove and the filthy iron pot. His long brows furrowed.
The shop owner followed his gaze and hurriedly said, "There's a new pot, there's a new pot. This old servant will fetch it for the Young Master."
Seeing that there was no danger to his life, the assistant mustered his courage and asked quietly: "Boss, what's he trying to do? He's not going to cook, is he?"
The shopkeeper shot him a vicious glare. This fool had no regard for his own life, still chattering on—wasn't he afraid of being turned into a dish by that ancestor?
He scolded, "I told you to clean up the kitchen properly, and all you ever do is slack off! Now hurry up and get the stove top all tidied up…"
Before long, a new wok was brought in, and the shopkeeper, showing considerable tact, also threw in a brand-new cutting board.
The shop hand didn't dare skimp on spiritual power either, casting over a dozen Dirt-Removal Spells until the entire kitchen gleamed spotless, looking completely renewed.
The Puppet ancestor spoke again: "Recipe."
The shopkeeper asked cautiously and fawningly, "May I ask what dish the young master would like? Perhaps this old servant could do it for you…"
As he spoke, he reached out to take the leaf-wrapped bundle from the Puppet's hand.
The Puppet ancestor glanced at his greasy, plump, stubby hand and moved the meat further away: "Stir-fried pork, recipe."
The shopkeeper: "…" The insult was absolutely devastating!
Half an hour later, the rich, savory aroma of the stir-fried meat filled the air.
The shopkeeper was just about to hand over the large heat-preserving porcelain basin he'd prepared when the Puppet Human didn't even spare him a glance, picked up the scalding-hot iron wok, and walked straight out the door.
The moment he stepped out of the shop, the shopkeeper's legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest, letting out weak cries of "Oh dear, oh dear."
The shop hand, too, felt like he'd narrowly escaped disaster, breaking out in a cold sweat: "B-boss… what on earth is going on? What's gotten into that Puppet ancestor, coming all the way here just to make a pot of stir-fried pork?"
The shopkeeper, having weathered many storms in his time, gradually calmed down.
As his terrified heart slowly settled, he was finally able to think again.
He shot the shop hand a sidelong glance: "You're still too green. You can't see the deeper meaning in it."
The shop hand: "Huh?" What deeper meaning could a wok of stir-fried pork have?
"You think he just stir-fried a pot of pork," the shopkeeper said, his gaze darkening, "but in truth, every move was a hint."
He narrowed his eyes, and before them flashed the image of the Puppet Human coldly slicing the meat—those long fingers pale with a hint of blue, that chilling, intimidating blade, that meticulous knife work producing pieces uniform in shape and thickness…
The shopkeeper shuddered: "You think he was just slicing meat, but really he was threatening to slice us into a thousand pieces.
"You think he was just putting the meat into the wok, but really he was threatening to boil us in water and roast us over fire.
"You think he was just taking the wok away with him, but really he was threatening…"
He grabbed the shop hand's shoulders and shook him hard, his voice trembling, the fat on his face jiggling along: "He's going to take us all out in one pot!"
The shop hand, too, felt a chill run down his spine at his words—his wages for this month weren't paid yet, should he make a run for it?
"But… aren't Puppet Humans supposed to lack intelligence?"
"Right," the shopkeeper said with a solemn expression and a deep gaze, "you've finally hit the key point. Puppet Humans have no intelligence, so everything he did was naturally controlled and directed by a living person behind the scenes."
"Huh?" The shop hand scratched his head. "Those two young girls from the Yunyu Sect during the day? They didn't seem like it…" Their eyes were so clear.
"And I saw they had outer-sect tokens from the Yunyu Sect hanging at their waists, and they even asked if the tokens could get them a discount!"
The shopkeeper snorted: "What young girls from the Yunyu Sect? That's just their cover identity. They're wolves in sheep's clothing! How else would they have picked out that Puppet at a glance? How else would they have casually formed the contract…"
He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "To think that I, Huang, have hunted geese all my life, only to have a goose peck out my eye."
"Boss, so what do we do now?"
"What do we do, what do we do, you're asking me what to do…" The shopkeeper paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, muttering under his breath, "Disaster is upon us, disaster is upon us…"
Just then, the door opened and another employee walked in carrying a jug of wine. "Boss, I bought the wine—smells so good! Today's stir-fried pork is especially fragrant. Who cooked it…"
The shopkeeper shushed him, yanked him inside, and shut the door tight.
After hearing his companion explain the situation, he too was at a loss. "Boss, if they want us dead, why not just say so? Why go to the trouble of cooking a dish?"
The shopkeeper's patience with these imbecilic employees was utterly exhausted. "Masters who hide their true depths in this world always act with profound intent. They're nothing like you blockheads, who take everything at face value!"
The employee grew panicked. "So what do we do? They're not going to come at dawn and wipe us all out, are they?"
The shopkeeper's eyes turned cold and sharp. He gritted his teeth. "The only way now is to run!"
Then he shook his head. "Running alone won't work either. We've already been marked. There's no way this ends well without shedding some blood. Consider it paying to avert disaster!"
He turned to one of the employees. "How much cash is left on the books this month?"
The employee ran to the counter and worked the abacus. "Boss, there's about eight thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones on the books. Is that enough?"
The shopkeeper let out a scoff. "Eight thousand—you think we're fobbing off beggars? They went to all this trouble to set this trap for me. Their appetite must be enormous. Eight thousand won't even begin to cover it!"
He calculated for a moment, then estimated, "Without two hundred thousand, I'm afraid this won't be settled. Forget it, forget it—to be safe, first thing tomorrow I'll go exchange for three Jade Slips of a hundred thousand each, seal them up, and send them to the Yunyu Sect."
…
The night was deep.
Fu Tingyun returned to his room and placed the still-steaming pot of stir-fried pork on the small table beside the bed.
The Colored Characters in his Spirit Manor had been flickering for over an hour, each flash seeming to push the limits of his patience.
The young girl was fast asleep, lying on her back completely unaware, her brows and eyes relaxed, only her eyelids still slightly swollen.
Moonlight filtered through the gauze canopy, casting a hazy, clear glow over her narcissus-like face.
"Wake up," Fu Tingyun said coldly.
Su Xiaoyuan showed no reaction.
Fu Tingyun pinched the arm she had left outside the blanket. "Get up and eat meat."
This time there was a reaction. She furrowed her brow, her full, moist lips pursing as she mumbled a string of meaningless sounds.
Fu Tingyun's patience was completely gone. He glanced down at the slender neck exposed outside the blanket, where the marks from his fingers still remained.
He rolled up his sleeve, extended his hand, and slowly covered those marks with his long fingers, tightening.
This time he knew how to control his strength—just enough to pinch her awake, not enough to make her swell again.
The young girl's face showed pain in her sleep as she struggled to breathe.
Fu Tingyun's bare forearm felt the warm, moist breath from her nose.
After a moment, she finally opened her eyes, her gaze unfocused and dazed. It took a while before it landed on his face. She yawned. "Fu Tingyun… you… what are you doing?"
Fu Tingyun released his hand. "Awake?"
Su Xiaoyuan was awake but not fully awake.
She had been sleeping soundly just now, and in her drowsy state she seemed to catch the aroma of stir-fried pork.
That was Dad's signature dish—was he stir-frying meat in the kitchen?
Just as she was thinking about it, her breathing grew increasingly labored. She opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by darkness. There was no Dad, and this wasn't her familiar home.
A blurry figure stood before her.
"Get up. Eat." The person commanded in an icy tone.
Su Xiaoyuan didn't want to eat anything. All she wanted right now was to sleep.
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry…" she mumbled, closing her eyes and rolling over to continue sleeping.
Fu Tingyun stared at the lump under the blanket. Not only was she turning her back to him, but she'd also pulled the blanket over her head, clearly signaling she had no intention of acknowledging him further.
He had never met anyone so shameless.
She was the one who said she was hungry. He'd gone through the trouble of stir-frying the meat, and now she was going back on her word.
Even without the Colored Characters in the Spirit Manor, he wouldn't let her off the hook today.
He yanked the blanket off and tossed it aside, grabbing her small, rounded shoulder to turn her around. "You must eat."
Su Xiaoyuan was too sleepy to open her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm really not hungry… I want to sleep…"
"It's not up to you."
Fu Tingyun said coldly, pinching her jaw between his left thumb and index finger, applying just enough pressure to force her mouth open. He cast a Purification Art on his right hand, picked up a piece of meat from the wok, and pushed it between her slightly parted lips.
Su Xiaoyuan hadn't had any appetite at all, but the moment the stir-fried meat touched her mouth, her dormant taste buds awakened before she did.
It was so delicious—so good it made one want to cry…
Lili Meat had a sweeter, more delicate texture than pork, melting the moment it entered the mouth. But the cafeteria chef's skills were mediocre and couldn't replicate the taste of home.
Yet this piece of meat tasted strangely familiar… as if Dad had made it himself.
She couldn't help but suck on it, then licked her lips with lingering satisfaction.
The moment Fu Tingyun fed the meat into Su Xiaoyuan's mouth, the Colored Characters in the Spirit Manor finally dissipated.
He was about to withdraw his fingers from her mouth when the girl's warm, moist lips and tongue suddenly sucked onto his fingertips.
He clearly felt her tongue curl around his finger, slowly sweeping across his fingertip.