Beginning (2)
West Lake Number One Inn
Jo Hwan’s face shone with pure emotion as he gazed up at the newly hung signboard of the inn. The calligraphy seemed to capture a dragon rising into the heavens with a wish-granting pearl clenched in its jaws.
And that was only the beginning. The inn’s exterior, once ordinary, now stood clean and beautiful beyond recognition. What had been a single-story building had been reborn as two full floors.
“My heavens…”
It was nothing short of astonishing. The money he had given Dan U-ryeong should never have been enough for something this fine. At best it would have covered interior repairs and a few pieces of furniture. Yet the inn had undergone a complete metamorphosis. Jo Hwan turned to the man standing beside him.
“I truly cannot thank you enough. I never imagined you would build us such a splendid inn.”
In truth he had never expected the rebuilt inn to turn out like this. How well could anything constructed in so short a time possibly be? Looking at it now, though, every bit of the hardship he had endured felt worthwhile.
“Not at all. I’m glad it pleases you. Why don’t you take a look inside as well?”
“Ah! Gladly.”
Dan U-ryeong opened the doors. Fresh air flowed out from within and brushed across Jo Hwan’s face. A sense of lightness and cheer rose in him, and the corners of his mouth lifted of their own accord.
“Even the air inside feels different. I suppose that’s because everything is brand new.”
“That’s Yeon’s handiwork. He said he installed some sort of device inside.”
“Is that so? So Yeon has talents beyond martial arts.”
Dan U-ryeong stroked his chin, his expression suddenly serious.
“Far too many talents. So many that I sometimes wonder whether he’s even human.”
“That remarkable? Just what exactly was Yeon doing before he came back?”
“You should ask him yourself later—”
At that moment Kang Yeon appeared from inside the inn.
“Uncle, come on in. You still have to tour the place.”
“Hm? Right! I’m coming!”
As Jo Hwan stepped through the doorway, Kang Yeon caught Dan U-ryeong’s eye and pressed a finger to his lips. Dan U-ryeong nodded, and Kang Yeon followed Jo Hwan inside. Dan U-ryeong watched his friend’s retreating back for a moment, lost in thought.
A place to return to…
Dan U-ryeong had always known Kang Yeon had somewhere to go back to. He had stood closer than anyone else through the countless crises Kang Yeon had faced. They had been together almost since the very beginning of Kang Yeon’s journey through the martial world. Yet whether Kang Yeon had driven himself so hard out of revenge, or because there was something he needed to reclaim, Dan U-ryeong had never been certain.
Now he thought he understood a little.
“So this inn meant that much to you.”
Dan U-ryeong stepped through the open doors. Inside, Jo Hwan’s face was flushed with excitement, his shoulders rising and falling as he looked around and kept letting out soft exclamations of wonder.
“Th-this is really our inn?”
Of course a newly built place would look clean. But the interior went far beyond mere cleanliness. The tables and chairs where guests would sit for their meals looked elegant and antique, yet never so ornate that they clashed with the overall atmosphere of the room; they fitted it perfectly.
“That’s right—our inn. Come on, let’s see the second floor too.”
Kang Yeon and Jo Hwan climbed the stairs while Dan U-ryeong settled himself in a corner, clearly intending to wait until the two of them had finished their tour.
On the second floor Jo Hwan’s eyes went round.
“My heavens.”
The décor was no different from the first floor. What set it apart was the view through the wide-open windows. The streets of West Lake spread out below in one sweeping, refreshing panorama that was nothing short of breathtaking.
“W-was this place always so well positioned for the view?”
Thinking about it, the inn’s location had never been bad. The building was old precisely because Jo Hwan’s ancestors had claimed the site long ago. As a result it sat near the heart of West Lake. As the district developed and expanded outward, that central position had only grown more valuable.
“Even if the inn itself is old, it means we seized the best ground first. That will be a real advantage for business going forward.”
Jo Hwan looked into Kang Yeon’s bright eyes and asked quietly,
“But Yeon…”
“Yes?”
“There’s something I’ve always wondered about, ever since the old days.”
“What is it?”
From the very day he first brought Kang Yeon home to the inn, Jo Hwan had felt the same thing.
“Why is this inn so precious to you?”
It had always been that way. Kang Yeon cherished and loved the inn more than anyone. He treated Jo Hwan and his family as his own. Of course the feeling was mutual. Jo Hwan’s late wife, who had long ago succumbed to illness, had especially doted on the boy and cared for him with genuine affection.
Yet even beyond that, Kang Yeon had always poured out boundless affection for both the inn and the people in it.
“Well… because this is my home.”
A soft sound of understanding escaped Jo Hwan. What other reason could there be? To Kang Yeon the inn was home, and the people of the inn were family.
“Of course. I asked something obvious, didn’t I?”
Kang Yeon grinned.
“I won’t be leaving here again. So don’t worry.”
“I won’t. And I won’t ask what you were doing before you returned, either. I’ll just say I’m glad you’re back.”
Kang Yeon nodded.
“Yes. Then shall we go look at the kitchen?”
Jo Hwan’s heart began to pound again. The kitchen of West Lake Number One Inn had always been structured quite differently from those of other inns. He was almost trembling with excitement to see how it had been reborn. Other establishments might have copied the inn’s dishes, but none of them had ever managed to copy the kitchen itself.
In a way that was only natural. Access to the kitchen had been restricted, and to the cooks of this era a kitchen with a modern layout was both unfamiliar and inconvenient. The basic framework had not changed dramatically, yet it was still strange enough that contemporary chefs tended to reject it. Unfamiliar novelty was almost always met with resistance.
But Jo Hwan knew better than anyone how wonderfully convenient that kitchen was once you understood how to use it. And now Kang Yeon had rebuilt it from the ground up. How could he not be eager?
“Yes, let’s go. I can’t wait to see what the kitchen looks like.”
Kang Yeon answered with equal enthusiasm.
“I think you’re going to be surprised.”
In the days following the completion of West Lake Number One Inn’s reconstruction, there was not a moment to spare. Restarting the business meant an endless list of preparations. Deciding which dishes to serve came first. On that point Kang Yeon and Jo Hwan found themselves at something of an impasse.
Jo Hwan liked the idea of new dishes, but he wanted to keep a certain number of the era’s existing recipes on the menu. Kang Yeon, on the other hand, wanted the new inn to serve nothing but completely new dishes from Earth.
When neither side would yield, only one method remained: each would cook the dishes he believed in, and they would decide from there what to sell.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
And so, inside the kitchen of an inn that had not yet reopened, an unexpected culinary showdown erupted. Standing before the fire, Kang Yeon felt happier than he had in a very long time. Even the days when he had walked the martial world as its strongest Martial God—revered, respected, and at times feared by countless people—had never brought him joy quite like this.
Yes. This is it. I was born to cook.
The strongest Martial God in history, the man who had brought peace to the martial world, finally found true rest in this moment. And Kang Yeon intended to protect that peace with everything he had.
Whoosh.
The dishes Kang Yeon had prepared were modern fried recipes reinterpreted for this era. Modern China, after all, had a saying that anything tastes better once it has been deep-fried, and this era too enjoyed fried food as everyday fare. The fried dishes Kang Yeon intended to create, however, were different.
The reason is the oil.
Most fried food in this era was made with oil pressed from peanuts. Peanut oil was an excellent ingredient; food fried in it gained a deeper, sweeter richness. Yet the choice of oil could transform a dish’s flavor, and every ingredient had the oil that suited it best.
Kang Yeon casually reached into empty air. As though the empty space itself were a pocket, a large earthenware jar suddenly appeared in his grasp.
“Heh…”
Inside the jar was oil he had specially prepared from ingredients brought all the way from the Western Regions—high-purity olive oil. Unlike other oils, olive oil produced a clean, light taste when used for frying. With it he could create something even more delicious.
I’ll start with the pork cutlet.
It had once been the signature dish of West Lake Number One Inn, so popular that neighboring inns now sold their own versions.
Hummm.
Kang Yeon sent the faintest thread of energy into the stove. The flames that had been merely dancing leapt higher and fiercer. The heart of Chinese cooking lay in powerful fire. By feeding a subtle stream of qi into the stove he amplified its heat—an efficiency that let him achieve tremendous results with only a little firewood. Only he could do it that way.
Or rather, any Super-Peak Realm master could… but what Super-Peak master would ever bother cooking?
Whooosh.
As the flames roared, the great cauldron— the wok—resting on the stove began to respond. Forged from Meteoric Iron, its heat conductivity was simply unmatched. The oil came to a boil almost instantly. Kang Yeon lightly dipped a finger into it.
“Hmm. Perfect.”
His body would not take so much as a scratch even from boiling oil. Satisfied with the temperature, he lowered the pork cutlet into the bubbling oil.
Sizzle—!
The cutlet met the oil with a glorious roar and began frying to golden perfection.
Whoosh.
Kang Yeon gently raised the oil’s temperature in careful stages with another thread of qi. Fried this way, the coating would turn even crispier and more delicious.
“Oil temperature’s just right too.”
Without pausing he moved on to the next dish.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
This time it was noodles, boiled and tossed in a special sauce—what the modern world called spaghetti, a dish he intended to make a new specialty of the inn. After boiling the noodles in rolling water he poured over the prepared sauce and began to finish them.
“Good. The pork cutlet should be ready by now.”
He reached into the wok where the cutlet was frying. The most perfectly golden piece of pork cutlet emerged. Kang Yeon set it on prepared oil paper. In the same span of time the spaghetti reached completion as well.
“Fried meat and noodles… now I need a vegetable side.”
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Knives flashed through the air, slicing vegetables into neat, bite-sized pieces. Everything was happening almost simultaneously.
Watching him, Jo Hwan let out a long, heavy sigh.
“He’s come back a monster… a cooking monster…”