OR-ST-2 Roasted Chestnut

Look how idle you are. All the Mid-Autumn festivities of Lungmen, and you don't plan to attend a single one?

Should I? Who wants to see my wrinkly mug on their TV, anyway?

The Schwires' girl is a planner. She'll handle it. She can make anything lively.

I've watched you grow lazier day after day since we came back from Yumen. You just coop up in your study at home eating snacks. If you don't go out for a walk any time soon, you might just start putting on a beer belly.

Hah hah... I haven't seen Lin Kojui get out much since spring. I can't even find a partner for morning jogs now.

Ah... he's old, I'm old, the young ones know how to do it all. If I keep sticking my head in, they won't think I'm cool.

So now you understand, huh? If you'd realized any sooner, would little Ch'en have ever left?

......

How long ago was it?

Sorry, what?

Little Ch'en. How long has it been since she left?

Five years.

It's been five years.

We don't even know what she's going through out there, or how her disease is.

I know she was at Yumen, when I was there.

She's doing fine. Her swordsmanship's progressed... so she's fine, I suppose.

So you just watched her leave again?

She doesn't want to see me, and she doesn't want to come back. I can't force her.

Don't worry. Her path's longer than ours.

Lord Wei, a letter to you.

...That they made you deliver personally...

It's from the capital.

......

The sender...?

His Majesty's Imperial Guard.

Did he have any message aside from the letter?

The True Lung invites Lord Wei to the capital for the Feast of a Hundred Delicacies, and for a moon-viewing together.

......

Leave the letter on my desk. You're dismissed for now.

If we may ask what Lord Wei intends.

I have my own plans. None of you need to worry.

Lord Wei, we volunteer to escort you to the capital!

...I said you're dismissed!

......

Why don't we open up your invitation and see what they wrote exactly?

No need. Just leave it there.

This day was meant to come. I even thought it'd come a little sooner.

...How many years has it been?

Forty... it's been forty whole years since I left Baizao.

Yumen should've reached the capital by now. I suppose my brother's settling all his old debts in one clean go.

A clean slate in time for autumn... A fine autumn at that.

You can choose not to go.

It's been forty years already, what's he going to do? Send another unit of Imperial Guards, a whole army—

...Enough nonsense!

At this point, that's not what he intends...

Then what does he intend?

You know, I've never really brought up those days with him before...

Enough. I don't want to hear it.

Fumizuki, I've let down a lot of people throughout my life...

Edward, my sister, my teacher...

And I have to admit that my brother's turned out to be one more on the pile.

You can also say that it was the position that killed so many people.

...And who had a choice?

Then it wasn't your fault.

Even if you'd stayed, would things have turned out better? Would there be no blood?

Nobody would have remembered a minister pleading the commoners' case. They would only remember a regicidal, fratricidal prince!

......

......

If you have questions, ask. I'm in a hurry.

Mind your attitude. You're also a theoretical suspect in our crime scene. But seeing as you're a coworker, I'll spare you the interrogation room.

I told you! I saw the culprit on the scene, I just miscalculated and failed to arrest him—

Calm down. Are you going to physically vent on me just because you didn't catch the one who did it?

...I'd have to match your strength first.

Good. You're still somewhat sober.

In light of the years we've spent together in the Judicial, then, can you tell me—

This afternoon, why were you at Ding Feng Lou, at the scene of the crime?

...An investigation.

In the runup to the Feast of a Hundred Delicacies, we've had the scrollery be burned, then two fires at Ding Feng Lou. Don't you think this string of cases could be connected somehow?

So you're saying you knew beforehand that someone would set fire to Ding Feng Lou today, and thus you were lying in wait for them?

I was just there following up a lead...

'Just' there following up a lead... Do you need me to list off every action you've taken the last few days?

You've been tailing me?

I don't have that sort of free time... but I have ways of knowing these things, naturally.

Let me ask once more. Who were you meeting at Ding Feng Lou today?

...I fear I'm not the only one working on the sly.

Explain?

For your information, you never told me the Ministry of Rites' files on Gu Quan were forged, and that he was sent to death row before leaving Baizao... As a minister, you must have known these things.

These are all clearly key points of evidence. Why were they nowhere to be found in the Judicial Review Office archives? And why would you cover up—

So this is the lead on the scrollery fire that you've been toiling over for the last few days...? How did you find any of this out?

It's none of your concern how I found out...

There is a piece of advice I gave to Yu Cheng in the past, and I will give it to you now.

Some past affairs are learned of. Some are not learned of. In both cases, there are reasons why.

Some things are best left forgotten by all.

I never imagined I'd hear those words come from a minister.

You may consider me a schemer all you like, a minister merely booted over from the Ministry of Justice.

But I know exactly what I'm saying.

And I know that regardless of the thousands of reasons you might have, the truth is still and merely the truth, not anyone's tool to broaden the divide.

There will always be someone who remembers the truth, and the meaning behind it.

For example, that girl shut in the next room—whom you took every pain to secretly bring back to Baizao all the way from Victoria?

......

Yes... I did uncover that Gu Quan had a daughter in Victoria. She too can provide vital testimony in the Gu Quan case—

Lin Qingyan, when will you stop playing dumb?

You've already found out that the Gu Quan files are fake. You know Yu Cheng is on the trail of that very case...

So I'm guessing you've also found out about the child who the Imperial Guard brought back forty years ago, who they recorded in the files as deceased... You have your suspicions as to the truth of this case, correct?

Was that girl you brought back here born in Victoria, or born in Baizao?

—!

You know full well.

You clearly long suspected her identity, and still, you decided to bring her back. Were you that confident you could pull this off without a hitch...

Or was it that in pursuit of the 'truth', you didn't even care if she lived or died?

You're threatening me...

You think I'm joking?

But back on topic, that's not what I care about. At least, right now, it's not what I care about most.

I've told you, past affairs are never as important as present.

So what are these present affairs of yours?

You know that Yumen is less than a hundred li from Baizao right now. For three months, Baizao has been preparing to split up and move.

...And how does this relate to the Gu Quan case?

Should you keep investigating this case, then there will only be one person in all of Yan who can give you your answers.

......

Qingyan, take one step out of this door, and I can no longer protect you.

...Let alone her.

At the Ch'ens' old place, in the study, there's a secret closet. After I leave, go there, and take what's inside.

Follow those instructions, and you can protect Lungmen's safety, and your own.

So you're going?

Now's the perfect time to. Kojui's girl is doing a great job handling the downtown, and the Schwires' future doesn't rest on the sick old tiger anymore.

Lungmen doesn't need a Wei Yenwu anymore, or a Chief Executive...

I think you're giving your last words a little too early.

This is about Lungmen's future... Fumizuki, listen to me...

I've made a lot of mistakes, done a lot of things I regret... but Lungmen, our city, built by us... a home to millions—

Lungmen must stay.

Then you stay too, and take care of it.

Youngsters can handle it all, but it still needs some oldies to look after it.

You see this letter too. How am I meant to ignore this?

So once again you'll just roll over and die? Just like last time you'd pay with your life, is that how you're envisioning it? Does that make anything even?

...It's different this time!

There's no one standing on the other side, I'm just facing my own debts.

I made a choice forty years ago... and ever since, with every action I take, I try to convince myself—that even knowing how many people I've failed, I was still right to make that choice.

But I can't run forever.

You know, your life's never been yours alone. Not then, and certainly not now.

Forget about sacrificing yourself to make up for anything. You can't make up for a mistake with another mistake—it never ends that way. At our age, we should've already learned that lesson well.

Stay. We'll face this together.

Fumizuki... Don't try and stop me!

You cannot stop me... paying for my past.

Well then, you leave me with no other choice.

While I'm stood here, you're not going anywhere.

Yenwu, this time, I'll protect you. I swear it.

Leizi!

You're... you're alright?

Of course I'm alright!

All that Judicial lady asked was what I saw during the fire, and I just told the truth—I didn't see anything! So then she let me go.

The heck did you do? How come you took so long?

It's no matter now. Let's go.

Wait, wait, wait! Go? Why?

That Mo Bufu clearly still has tons of answers! Aren't we gonna follow up with him?!

There's nothing to follow up on.

Pardon?

I'm not meddling with your father's case anymore.

I'll get you out of Baizao in the next day or two.

Lin Qingyan! That's one stupid joke to tell me now, you know that?!

No, wait... you just found a new lead, didn't you? That's why you're just screwing with me?

Okay now, for real, tell me what you found or—

Blaze!

You—

I got the official debriefing from the Judicial case files.

Gu Quan... an ethnic Yanese from Victoria, joined the Ministry of Rites in 1077 as a ceremonial officer.

Reassigned as envoy of ceremonial rites in 1092, headed for Victoria as part of a diplomatic mission. On the way, encountered an unexpected snowstorm, and passed away after falling into a river.

What...?

Leizi... you're lying to me, aren't you...? Just trying to shove me out of the picture again?

You've been asking me just what the deal was with your father's death, haven't you?

Well, every lead's been thoroughly investigated. There's no doubt. That's it, it was just an accident...

All the gaps in the files have been made replete.

...This case can be closed.

Achoo—!

If you're that cold, just turn on the heater.

Easy for you to say. If we're going to keep running this shabby little eatery, we have to pinch every penny we can on warmth...

Dammit, look how late it is. When will Blaze and her friend show up?

You're wondering about that reward money, huh...

A... Am not! Achoo—!

Is this window letting air in? I need to fix it later—

Wait, are they back...?

—!

You... You're—

What? Am I not allowed in?

P-Please, come inside, I'll put on some tea for you now... Anything to eat?

Noodles. Longevity noodles.

R... Right, I'll make you some now!

Ones made by your boss.

W-Well...

Er... he's out on business.

Then I'll wait for him here.

Far, far out... he won't be back for a fortnight.

And I'll still wait.

I've waited thirty years. So long that I'm shriveled up. What's a little longer?

Chef Mo, please don't joke around now...

You're the first under heaven when it comes to cooking. What could be worth wasting your time here?

Ma de... First under whose heaven?!

I remember clearly... that winter thirty years ago, a Catastrophe wrecked my home village. Those of us lucky enough to survive took off, me with nothing but my cooking skills. We thought, let's scrape by in Baizao.

We went through hell. We were almost there when we ran into another group of refugees—or maybe a bandit gang, I'm not sure.

They followed us for a long way across that icy waste, weapons in hand. We began to realize that they were after the remaining supplies and rations we had left.

By the time we'd been trekking for a month, plenty of us were sick or hurt. We had barely scraps left to eat, far from enough for both sides to cross that wasteland.

There was no escape, so we decided we may as well risk it all with them. However, when we were just about to go out fighting, we smelt something delicious. That's when we saw him...

There was an old temple not far away from where we were. Someone'd set up a stove by the gateway, boiling up a wok of noodles. We couldn't see his face properly, through all the steam.

We had no clue why someone would be making noodles there, but we were past the point of wondering, of asking, even of fighting.

That wonderful smell and those piping hot noodles drew all of us near the wok, and we waited around him quietly.

Never before had I eaten something so delicious...

The moment those noodles entered my mouth, I felt like my tongue had been numb for decades, only to spring back to life right then and there.

All along, I never knew that a meal could taste so arresting, so absorbing.

It felt like a flavor beyond us humans...

By the time I finished my noodles and looked up from my bowl, he was gone.

Who knew that in my lifetime studying as a cook, the most profound lesson I'd learn would be in a shack of a temple outside Baizao City.

From then on, I apprenticed all over, so that one day, I might make a bowl of noodles like those.

But I couldn't... In the end, I just can't.

You know, what if you're misremembering... I mean, look, you were starving at the time, maybe that's why you found that bowl of noodles so tasty—

Do you not trust my tongue?

Thirty years a bowl of noodles has been burned into my mind. Thirty years I've been searching for it.

If whoever that was is still in Baizao, he must be over fifty by now...

I searched all over this city. The well-known tea maker in the north, nothing. The guy who made the best pastries in the south, still nothing...

I searched and searched, until my fellow oldies in cooking retired, and only I was left. I was on the verge of giving up...

But today, once more, I tasted it...

I don't know why... her cooking skills were immature, but the noodles she brought forth tasted exactly like it.

It was your chef here who taught her those noodles, am I right?

How do you know...

We sent out a hundred written invitations for the Ding Feng Lou competition. I can recall every one. I've long been aware your Savors at Yu's had a reputation.

I don't know what kind of relation your chef and that savior of mine have, and I have no clue why he's willing to waste his talents away like this.

But I won't do the same... All the cooking skills I've inherited over the years, I can't let them end with me.

...You tell him this. That untrained disciple of his? She passes.

Tell her to report to Ding Feng Lou two days later before noon.

Huh...? She just—passes?

You get good enough business here. Did this doorstep sink again recently?

We haven't replaced it in over ten years.

Low doorsteps can't keep the wind out. It's getting colder in the coming days.

The boss won't let me. He says the lower, the better. Too high and all the diners will stop coming.

......

...Is he gone?

*Sigh*... You really are—*Sigh*!

I heard Blaze passed the test? Does that mean the prize money—

Forget about the prize money!

What's wrong with you to torment a man like that... He's seventy, eighty years old, and you'll just watch him freak out like that?

He just can't find an apprentice to fit him, right? What's to worry about... Look at me, I never worry about things like that.

Put yourself in his shoes, he's spent a lifetime honing his craft, just for it to be lost in a blink—

Well, if it's lost, it's lost.

Ai—!

It's his future reputation he cares about right now, it's the title of 'first under heaven' he's carrying, it's others' cuisine he's obsessed with—there's no way he can focus on his own craft and improve it at this rate.

If he can't make it through this, nobody can help him.

......

Aiyo, Blaze's back.

Look how late it is, I bet you haven't eaten? I'll go make you something now.

Yeah...

Congrats! I've got good news for you, you passed the Ding Feng Lou exam.

We'll split the reward money thirty-seventy like we agreed—

Yeah.

You don't care?

If you're that good for money, how about leaving your thirty percent of—

Huh? Xingzhu didn't come back with you?

—!

Right, where's Xingzhu?

Oh, she dropped in this afternoon while Jiang was out buying ingredients. She left you a note too.

Left me a note...?

You have passed the Ding Feng Lou Chef Selection. Please fol—

Oh, whoops, whoops, wrong one. It's this one.

......

What could be so secret she has to leave it in a note for you?

She's... inviting me to her home.

......

...Ning Manor?