The vibrant colored leaves of the autumn pine trees under the yellow sun directed to the Wei Province signaled the end of the plentiful harvest season and, the nearing of the winter season and its low supply of food for the commoners.
In the Four Seasons City was the Zixuan Settlement one of the poorest areas filled with orphaned children living inside old straw roofed siheyuan huts made atop stone foundations.
"I'm so hungry Big Sister Yi." Said a young child with a lanky physique riddled with signs of malnutrition.
The young teenage girl Yi Xiulan tried her best to soothe the suffering boy with words of hope," don't worry Little Chang, Elder Brother Gie promised to bring something to eat, so hang in there just for a little while longer Okay!"
Little Chang hearing about the prospect of food coming today gave his dreary spirit the boost he needed to hang on, his brother never failed to fulfill his promises and, indeed as he was still thinking of his elder brother the door to the dilapidated stone hut they stayed in opened. His elder brother entered and what followed behind him was the fragrance of food.
"Guess who brought some food!" Said the disheveled young man, his dark hair carrying dirt and his skin pasted with grime, however the smile he held gave hope to the young boy nicknamed ‘Little Chang’ as someone he could always rely on when he was hungry.
"Big brother!" Little Chang ran up to his big brother but having underestimated the condition of his malnourished body momentarily faltered and tripped, bracing himself with his eyes closed as he was about to hit the ground little Chang felt his elder brother's hand prevent his fall. Opening his eyes to thank his elder brother for the hand, Little Chang found a salted rice ball in front of his eyes releasing fragrant and delicious aromas of starch and oils.
"Hehehe, dummy how could you run while your already so weak, here eat this first." Said Elder Brother Gie with a smile.
Opening his mouth the young Shi Chang took a bite of the rice ball and was immediately left to tears with how delicious such a meal brought to his starved taste buds.
"B-br..other Gie t...thi...s tas..tes g-good," Said Little Chang attempting to speak with his thin cheeks filled with the delicious rice ball.
"Hahahaha! You fool don't talk with your mouth full because you will spit out the precious food this brother of yours worked hard to get for you." Said Brother Gie.
Hearing this the little child shut his mouth closed not wanting to lose a single grain of the white rice he had been given.
His Brother Gie then turned to the teenage girl and handed a sack of food to her, "Here Sister Yi, give this to the rest of the children."
Sister Yi looked with concern at the sack then at Brother Gie and after seeing the smile of her friend she sighed with a shake of her head and, took the sack to feed the other orphaned children, Little Chang saw their exchange but was too young to understand what all the ‘silent communication,’ was all about, he was just happy that today he was going to eat unlike other days when he had to only drink water for the whole day.
While Lin Shi Chang was busy relishing on the taste of the rice ball and it's exquisite feel it had to his taste buds, he felt a light pat to his head.
"Hahaha Little Chang do you like food that much, Unlike the others you always savor the taste and just don't gorge down the food to satiate your hunger."
Little Chang did not understand what his Elder brother was getting at, he always loved food and on the rare chances he got to eat he savored the taste of the food, as that also helped him to temporarily forget his predicament as a starving orphan.
"I like the feeling I get when the food tickles my tongue, and how different food always gives a different tickle to my tongue, sometimes it would be a sweet tickle, sometimes a bitter tickle but, when I eat out of the dumpster I get a nasty tickle. I always want to know how what I'm going to eat will tickle my tongue. And when I grow up I want to be able to make food myself and, for everyone so that you won't have to always go outside to look for the food by yourself Elder Brother Gie." Said Little Chang with the naivety of the innocent five year old he was.
For the first time Little Chang saw a stunned expression from his elder brother however, he did not know why his Elder brother acted that way.
"That's right, being an orphan doesn't mean you shouldn't have a dream of your own, and as your older brother I will help you make that dream a reality too someday." Said Elder brother Gie, with a puffed out chest.
"Okay!" Said Little Chang excitedly, and from that moment on he vowed to himself to make food so that his older brother wouldn't have to go outside leaving them all alone.
***
Four years had passed since the promise with his elder Brother Gie but, since that time Little Chang was finding it hard to make the promise he had made a reality.
During the passing of the last four years Lin Shi Chang realized one thing, that in order to become a cook, which was the word his Sister Yi taught him at the orphanage classes, he had to have something known as 'money'.
He found out that money was the most important thing to have if he wanted to learn how to be a proper cook, and afford the countless ingredients that he saw being delivered at the different restaurants that he saw while going begging with his peers.
He had found out that all the different kinds of savory food was made from raw ingredients such as wheat for the bread he only ate once or twice a year, the strips of beef that he had only tasted once where said to be made from the spirit beasts that lurked outside the walls of The Four Seasons City.
Currently as he was dumpster diving with the other orphans he then found a half eaten chicken leg wrapped with palm leaves. "This looks good enough." He said.
He then proceeded to take a bite from the chicken leg and, it gave him a nasty sour tickle to his tongue, "Urk! this doesn't give my tongue a pleasurable experience it's gone bad, good thing I brought the candy I saved up from elder brother Gie."
Smearing the candy paste on the chicken leg Little Chang was attempting to create a tasty treat to experience a pleasurable tickle to his tongue similar to the food his elder brother Gie brought. But unfortunately even the sweetness of the candy did not do a thing to the spoiled chicken leg. The taste was all over the place, the sweetness of his candy was momentary and the nasty sourness of the spoiled chicken leg was what he was left with as the after taste.
"This doesn't taste like what I want, looks like another failure." Said Little Chang as he removed a small notebook from his pocket and scribbled down on it, it contained all of the experimental recipes he had tried to make, and so far he had not been successful in making something that tasted good to his tongue.
"Big Brother Chang are you going to eat that?" Said a squeaky little voice, It was the voice of a younger girl far younger than Little Chang. The Battle between their Wei Province, against the monster surge at the Hill Forest boarders, had been getting far worse than expected and, the number of orphaned children like himself were increasing because of the adult practitioners needed at the front lines from the surrounding cities, However despite all of this, his Brother Gie always took more orphans in and brought them together to feed them all, and to this day they still relied on his Brother Gie for good food.
"Here I don't need it Mei'Mei," Said Little Chang giving the chicken leg to the little brown haired girl.
She happily took the candy covered chicken leg and gorged it down, "It's good hehehe."
At that moment Little Chang kind of understood why his Elder Brother Gie always looked after orphans like themselves, just seeing the smile of satisfaction from the little girl brought a sense of fulfillment to him that Lin Shi Chang had never known could be possible, and with that, strengthened his resolve to pursue his goal to make tasty food for everyone close to him.
As if fate had heard the resolve in his heart Lin Shi Chang who had returned to searching the dumpster found an old yellow manual with profound characters perched in the garbage refuse with the title [All Piercing Mystical Eye Manual.]
"All Piercing Mystical Eye!?What kind of manual is this."
Opening the manual, Lin Shi Chang found it scribbled with unknown symbols.
"What could this be?" He said, he had started learning how to read from Elder Sister Yi a year ago after realizing the importance reading would have to his future career as a cook, and had been improving fast when it came to reading but, seeing these mysterious symbols gave him a slight headache, however he then decided to put the manual safely away, he would attempt to read it later tonight and perhaps discuss it with his elder sister and brother perhaps they knew something, Now he had to find food for the younger children, and perhaps some food to experiment with.
***
Later that night after their brother Gie had brought some food for the orphans in their small siheyuan hut Lin Shi Chang had decided to bring up the topic about the manual he had found while searching for food in the dumpsters.
"This is a Beginner stage, Elementary Level Profound Skill Manual." Said Sister Yi, to the dumbfounded Lin Shi Chang.
He would never have thought that the old book he had found would turn out to be a profound Skill manual, these were manuals said to contain mantras used by the cultivators he heard in songs and public theaters to conquer the heavens. After awakening their Profound Veins at the age of twelve years they would use profound skill manuals in order to aid them in their chase for immortality, and the Dao of the world.
"Sister Yi are you sure!" Said another teenage voice behind Lin Shi Chang, It was his older Brother Gie, this time he had a long facial scar cutting across his still unharmed right eye, however his long dark hair and eyes exuded the presence of a fierce hawk.
Nodding her head, Sister Yi confirmed it. Although Sister Yi did not look it, she too had already awakened her profound veins almost the same time as Brother Gie which was said to be some years ago with a Mid and low grade aptitude respectively, before Lin Shi Chang even arrived into the orphanage.
"No wonder it got thrown away, its nothing but trash to some of the powerful families in the Four seasons city, what do you think we should do with it?" she said.
"Why don't we sell it, and the money we gain from it can be used to buy some provisions for the coming winter?" said a roguish fellow wearing grey commoner robes, his name was Bao Di, a friend of Brother Gie since childhood.
"No!" Yelped out Lin Shi Chang.
"Don't be selfish Lin Shi Chang, the others need winter clothes and warm food perhaps we could even afford some alcohol ahem! I mean warm tea leaves." Said Bao Di.
"Shut it Bao Di! This was found by Little Chang, and besides you know how such low level martial skills at the elementary realm are found everywhere in the street markets, We won't get anything more than a Copper Tael at best for it if we are lucky, remember we are orphans and the adults will just snatch it away from us with false pretexts if they wanted too,"
Hearing this Bao Di simply grunted with annoyance.
With a smile Elder Brother Gie, Patted Lin Shi Chang's head once more, and gave the manual back to him, "You found it now it is yours, how old are you now Little Chang?" He asked, the now calm boy.
"I will be Nine years old this year since big brother found me as a baby!" Shi Chang said meekly.
"Nine Huh! Good that means you have three years left till you awaken your profound veins, keep this manual and when you awaken you should learn the contents of the manual Okay!"
Nodding his head Lin Shi Chang smiled back at his elder brother, and then stuck his tongue out to Bao Di, which then elicited a boisterous laugh from Sister Yi and Brother Gie, and some vehement cursing from Bao Di.
Ptm· Apr 16, 2023
SimplyApill· Author · Apr 17, 2023
