Aimless Ascension

"Madam Wang, I'm telling you, this ain't right," repeated Guan Min, one of the kitchen helpers. "Leaving the kitchen to a foreigner. Who knows what he will cook up?"

"I heard you the first time," Wang Li said, not lifting her head, busy making sure her baby drank the milk. Little Rong would be three this fall. His birth hadn't been easy with low birth weight and all, but nobody could say he was unhealthy now with how he looked. "What's the problem exactly?"

"Haven't I told you already?" Guan Min grumbled. "That foreigner, he's creating trouble in the kitchen. Apparently, he wanted to make his own meal. Granny Lu asked for you to solve this."

"Of course she did." Wang Li lifted her head. "It doesn't look good if we let guests work. Why did she even let Mr Gale enter the kitchen?"

"The foreigner, he insisted," Guan Min said. Finding Wang Li unconvinced, she added, "He was very convincing."

"I knew this fellow's weird when he first ordered Iron ranked alcohol," Wang Li muttered and turned to her baby. "Come on, Rong'er, Mother has work to do."

"No," the little boy told his mother, "Rong'er full."

"No, Rong'er is not full." Wang Li stuffed the milk bottle into Rong'er's mouth, rubbing his belly softly. "Now, drink quickly or no dessert later."

"Mother, bully!" said the boy, but he did drink, albeit rather reluctantly.

After a short while, Wang Li tumbled towards the kitchen. Guan Min scurried behind. However, their expectation was betrayed, finding nothing amiss in the kitchen. She gave a questioning glance towards Guan Min, who just shrugged, peering into the kitchen.

Weren't practitioners a bunch that like to do as they please? No matter what it cost the other party?

However, the scene before her proved her entirely wrong.

True, she herself was a practitioner, but she merely squandered through resources to reach Copper Rank only for the sake of convenience. No typical cold, fever, headache or other disease affected her. That sure sounded like a win, even though her family had to spend quite a fortune. But against a life long of conveniences, that's nothing.

However, the fellow that lodged last evening wasn't a practitioner just for convenience's sake. At least not before coming here. He kept a clear head, drinking a jug of iron-ranked wine, something that could make any copper ranker tipsy and asleep for at least a couple of days.

Moreover, from Xiaolin, Wang Li heard how he had frightened the mayor's nephew, by merely staring too long. That's some trick you couldn't learn attending birthday parties or squandering spirit marks.

"He's singing?" Wang Li raised an eyebrow, peeking into the kitchen where a young man was cooking, humming some unknown tune, while a couple of kitchen staffs watched him cook. Granny Lu, the head cook, watched him with a frown. Her expression was something between disapproval and interest while another handed the foreigner whatever he needed.

"What's that language?" Guan Min asked, finding the humming unrecognisable.

"A foreign one." Too foreign to make out anything. True, the fellow seemed to have come from a long way, maybe from another continent. Wang Li just hoped he had no ill intent on coming here.

Wang Li thought about stopping the foreign guest running rampant in the kitchen, but seeing nothing too amiss, she stopped herself. She got a stare from Granny Lu, who told her to stay where she was. Perhaps the old cook was interested in what the foreigner was making.

Besides, Mr Gale already showed good behaviour from the onset—a bit weird and eccentric, but many practitioners of spirit arts tended to be. It felt wrong to stop him now, not when he was mostly done.

About a quarter of an hour later, Gale was finished cooking as the kitchen went back to their normal business. He stepped forward to help clean, but Granny Lu dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"What is the name of the dish you made, young man?" Granny Lu asked.

"These," Gale blinked, "are just simple sandwiches. Grilled cheese sandwich if you like. Would you like one?"

Before Granny Lu could agree, he handed her one and turned towards Wang Li and Guan Min.

"Ahh, good morning ladies," Gale said, carrying a tray full of grilled cheese sandwiches. "Care to join me for breakfast?"

Wang Li arched her eyebrows at the tray, unsure what the abomination Gale made. She turned towards Guan Min.

"Oh no," said the kitchen staff, scurrying into the kitchen, "I have work to do."

"Professionalism, I like it," Gale said, staring at the disappearing figure, though it was directed at both of them.

"Mr Gale, you should be fairly clear what our policy is about guest working," Wang Li said curtly.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, I was bored to death. A man needs more hobbies other than chasing after eternal life, you know." Gale held the tray before her. "Anyway, I made too many for me. Would you like one? Who knows, you might like foreign food?"

Wang Li sighed, understanding this man before her wasn't like most practitioners who only care about progression.

"Come on," Gale insisted. "I assure you there's no 'sand' in them."

That seemed like a personal joke that Wang Li had no way of deciphering. Nor did she try. Still, she wasn't sure about taking the thing her guest called a 'sandwich', but after the unrelenting insistence from Gale, she relented. Staring intently at her sandwich, she moved to the table.

Gale provided his pet with a huge chunk of raw meat that seemed too large for the hound, but Vale got busy devouring in silence.

"He likes it raw," Gale added, ruffling the furry hound in the head. His attention turned to the sandwich. "You folks seemed to not like cheese all that much. For that matter, I couldn't find any mayonnaise or any of its substitutes."

"What?"

Gale sighed. "Well, at least you have tomato sauce." He poured an excessive amount of tomato sauce on the sandwich and tasted it, closing his eyes.

"You seem to know your stuff," Wang Li added, giving the sandwich a hard look. "Mr Gale, you wanted to know more about this region."

"Just Gale is fine, and yes," Gale said, taking another bite of the sandwich. "Now where's that girl? Xiaolin. I thought she had some business propositions to make."

"She should be with grandma on her cycling lesson." Wang Li turned backwards, peering into the mostly empty inn.

"Oh." Gale frowned, though mostly kept his interest in the sandwich. Their approach to practising spirit art is most ancient, and while some of it was great, many were vastly outdated from what he found. But who was he to judge ancient traditions?

"You're interested in buying land?"