Homecoming (3)
Fwoosh.
Flame bloomed in the stove.
“Alright. Shall we get started after all this time?”
Jo Hwan, bright with excitement, set a wide, deep cast-iron cauldron onto the fire. It was the most common cooking vessel in Chinese cuisine—what modern people called a wok.
Glug, glug, glug.
He poured in a generous measure of peanut oil he had bought at the market. Peanuts were known in this era as groundnuts, and cooking with their oil was the ordinary, everyday method of the time.
“Now let’s prepare the meat.”
Jo Hwan began trimming the pork. He laid it on a large wooden cutting board and started pounding it with a strangely shaped iron hammer.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The hammer had been forged to the design Kang Yeon once taught him, made specifically for tenderizing pork. In the inn it was called a meat mallet, and by now the neighboring inns had begun using the same thing.
Jo Hwan looked over at Kang Yeon.
“How’s this? Enough?”
“Your skill hasn’t faded a bit. Perfect.”
Hearing praise from the very man who had created the dish, Jo Hwan grinned.
“Then next…”
He mixed finely ground flour with boiled water in equal parts, cracked in a few eggs, and stirred the thickened batter until it was smooth.
“Now we give it a coat.”
Jo Hwan dipped the tenderized pork into the batter. Not too thick, not too thin—just right.
He glanced at Kang Yeon again.
“How about it?”
“Just right.”
Now they only had to wait for the oil to reach temperature.
Kang Yeon had no intention of waiting.
“Shall we turn the heat up a little?”
He stretched a hand toward the stove. At once the flames shifted to the blue of extreme heat.
Fwoosh.
The oil began to boil almost immediately.
“Whoa. Martial arts must be insanely convenient for cooking too, huh?”
Kang Yeon smirked. He hadn’t learned martial arts for that reason, but it could certainly be used that way.
“Go ahead and put it in. I can’t wait any longer.”
“Got it.”
Jo Hwan lowered the pure-white-coated pork into the oil.
The instant it sank beneath the surface—
Sizzle—! Sizzle—!
The batter crackled like a bright, cheerful song. The rich, savory aroma that rose with it was pure bonus.
Kang Yeon couldn’t hold back a low sound of pleasure.
“Ahh… this smell is still the best.”
For far too long he had endured by holding onto this sound and this scent. They were the things he had called to mind every single day so that he could return here.
At last—
“Pulling it out?”
Jo Hwan lifted the perfectly fried pork from the oil. What had gone in wearing pure white now emerged in a proud coat of deep brown, looking almost majestic.
“Ooh… it came out better than usual today. Must be because you’re here, Yeon.”
“Probably.”
Jo Hwan transferred the cutlet to a plate, then looked at Kang Yeon with a sheepish expression.
“I was in such a hurry I didn’t prepare the sauce or vegetables.”
Kang Yeon answered at once.
“Those can wait. This is more than enough for now.”
He flicked his fingers in a lattice pattern above the pork.
Crunch. Crunch.
With the crisp sound that proved how well it had fried, the cutlet fell into neat, bite-sized pieces.
“Let’s eat.”
Crunch—
The batter shattered between his teeth and Kang Yeon let out another soft exclamation. Then the wave of meat juices that followed filled him with pure emotion.
“Haa… this taste. I really missed it.”
Jo Hwan watched him with a warm, satisfied smile.
“This is the food you taught me… and you’re saying you went all this time without eating it?”
The crispy pork cutlet Kang Yeon was devouring was the secret recipe the boy had once taught Jo Hwan. With that dish the inn had known its greatest golden age. Someone like Kang Yeon could easily have made it himself if he had wanted to.
“It’s not exactly a convenient dish to whip up, you know? I never had the free time to casually stand around frying pork cutlets.”
Kang Yeon spoke around a mouthful of food.
Jo Hwan studied him for a long moment.
This kid… just what kind of life has he been living to come back like this…
The mysterious power he had briefly shown upon appearing at the inn was something Jo Hwan recognized well—the power of martial arts. One day the boy had appeared out of nowhere and poured life into the place; another day he had vanished just as suddenly. After twenty years that same Kang Yeon had returned, and what he revealed was the strength of a martial master.
Jo Hwan waited quietly until Kang Yeon finished eating.
Kang Yeon ate with real appetite. He had always eaten well, but now that he had grown into a young man he polished off several times the old amount.
“Haa~ That’s the taste. No regrets left.”
Kang Yeon patted his stomach with a look of pure contentment. Jo Hwan asked,
“So where have you been and what have you been doing all this time?”
The face of the man who had been savoring the cutlet darkened for an instant. He smoothed it away before Jo Hwan could notice and gave a light smile.
“Just had some business to finish up and came back.”
“What kind of business takes twenty years?”
Kang Yeon shrugged.
“It was pretty important business.”
Seeing that he had no intention of elaborating, Jo Hwan clicked his tongue.
“Tsk… You’ve always been like this—never telling the important stories… Anyway, did you finish that business of yours properly?”
“Well… not perfectly, but… more or less.”
“Huh? You finished something ‘more or less’? With your personality, Yeon?”
Jo Hwan’s eyes went round. From childhood Kang Yeon had never known half-measures. Once he started something he had to see it through to perfect completion or he couldn’t rest.
“Yes. Even with my personality, that’s how it turned out.”
“Well… twenty years is a long time. Your personality must have changed too.”
“But Uncle, what happened to the inn?”
The dishes he had taught weren’t limited to the pork cutlet. Kang Yeon had given Jo Hwan many recipes that simply did not exist in this era. With those ahead-of-their-time dishes the inn had thrived. Food and drink. In Hangzhou, where everything claimed to be the finest in the Central Plains, it had become famous as the inn with the most delicious cooking. He never could have imagined that such a place would end up like this.
“Haa… What happened… As our dishes got famous, other places gradually started making and selling the same ones.”
“What?”
Kang Yeon looked blank for a moment, then let out a dry laugh.
Well… this is the continent, after all.
Jo Hwan heaved a deep sigh.
“Once other places started selling the same dishes, how were we supposed to compete? Our inn was the smallest and shabbiest to begin with…”
“That’s true.”
When Kang Yeon nodded, Jo Hwan snorted a quiet laugh.
“Still as honest as ever.”
“But even so, for the inn to go completely under like this?”
Copying recipes was one thing; complete ruin was another. Jo Hwan’s expression darkened.
“About that…”
“What is it? Did you get scammed again?”
Jo Hwan flinched.
Kang Yeon let out a long sigh.
“Haa… I told you over and over not to trust people so easily.”
“I’m sorry. I was going to remodel the inn with the money we’d saved… and then I got scammed by some random bastard…”
Kang Yeon clicked his tongue.
In short, he got scammed on the interior renovation.
It seemed scammers thrived just as well in this age as they did in the distant future.
“I see. Where are the bastards who scammed you?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“The ones who took the remodeling money from you and disappeared. Do you know where they are?”
At that moment—
Bang—
The inn door burst open as if it had been smashed. Night air of late evening poured through the opening. Along with the night air came uninvited guests.
“Hey! How’ve you been?”
Five men in all.
At the front stood a short, slender man with a fox-like face and a thoroughly vicious expression. Behind him, like a living wall, four men with fierce faces and bear-like builds formed an escort.
“In short, a classic thug crew.”
At Kang Yeon’s words Jo Hwan tilted his head.
“Thugs? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There is such a thing. But Uncle, who are those guys?”
Jo Hwan sighed deeply.
“The ones who scammed me… and now they’re debt collectors.”
“The ones who scammed you became debt collectors? What kind of logic is that?”
“These bastards, not content with scamming me, claim I didn’t pay the full construction fee and come by regularly to cause a ruckus. They’d been quiet for a while… but they must have heard somehow that I bought things at the market today.”
A deep shadow settled over Jo Hwan’s face.
That was why he had not dared to go outside after the inn failed. That was why he had waited for death inside the dark building, having already given up on hope.
“So the reason the inn went under is because of those guys?”
“That’s right. They’re from a place called the Five Flowers Sect. That one’s Jin Seong—the worst of the lot.”
The man he pointed to was the fox-faced one. Kang Yeon rose from his seat and planted himself in front of Jo Hwan. An involuntary sound escaped Jo Hwan’s lips.
“Ah…”
Kang Yeon’s back was as broad as a mountain. Even as a boy he had given the same impression. Whenever trouble arose at the inn, Kang Yeon would step forward and solve it with quiet wisdom; he had always been a reliable presence. That same Kang Yeon had grown so much that he now stood as a massive shield protecting Jo Hwan.
Whoosh.
Kang Yeon swept his gaze over the men once.
Hmm… worthless trash.
The rest of them possessed even lower martial skill than the man called Jin Seong. Kang Yeon sighed.
“Honestly… these unorthodox bastards… always pick on people weaker than themselves.”
Muttering under his breath, he spoke toward the fox-like man, Jin Seong.
“You’d better turn around and leave right now. Otherwise I might just erase the entire Five Flowers Sect from this world.”
For an instant the killing intent that rolled off Kang Yeon made Jin Seong flinch.
But as expected—and stupidly—Jin Seong deliberately ignored it. Like every typical Third-Class martial artist of the unorthodox path, he believed aura was everything and exploded in anger.
“You little shit, I’ve had enough of looking the other way! Who do you think the Five Flowers Sect is?!”
And as always he brandished their numbers, trying to threaten Kang Yeon with sheer quantity.
Shing— Shing—
Weapons rasped free all around them, pouring killing intent toward Kang Yeon. Drunk on the safety of numbers, Jin Seong and the Five Flowers Sect martial artists charged as one.
Kang Yeon snorted a quiet laugh.
“True. With kids like you the stick is always the answer.”
He casually waved his hand.
Hummm—
Internal energy burst from Kang Yeon’s palm and wrapped around Jin Seong and every man of the Five Flowers Sect.
“Urgh!”
“Huk!”
They froze solid where they stood. As if locked in ice they could neither move nor open their mouths.
Kang Yeon stepped up to Jin Seong and spoke softly into his ear.
“I just finished staining my hands with a whole lot of blood not long ago. So I still don’t feel like getting more on them. Especially not the blood of Third-Class unorthodox trash like you.”
He sighed and added,
“But I know all too well that your kind is a hopeless breed.”
Kang Yeon stepped a little farther away. Unable even to breathe, the faces of Jin Seong and his men flushed dark red as if about to burst. At this rate their qi and blood would rupture and they would die.
“Ugh… then I’d have to clean that up too.”
He flicked his hand lightly.
Hummm—
When Kang Yeon’s internal energy vanished, Jin Seong and the Five Flowers Sect martial artists toppled over backward.
“Huff, huff… thought I was gonna die…”
“Urgh…”
Having dragged his breath back down from his throat, Jin Seong looked at Kang Yeon. Even a Third-Class unorthodox martial artist met masters from time to time, yet to such a man Kang Yeon was a height he could not even dare to gaze upon.
Kang Yeon spoke in a low voice toward the sprawled men of the Five Flowers Sect.
“Go tell your sect leader. I’m coming to collect the principal plus interest.”
In a trembling voice Jin Seong managed to speak.
“Just who… are you?”
Kang Yeon furrowed his brow.
“Why would you need to know that? Just go deliver the message.”