Once they were introduced to everyone who was important, the who’s who of the people who were investigating the incident, the Chens got to work.

  “Do you think they’ll be happy with noodles?” Jin asked his wife, who was standing at the window they opened.

  She stared at him and shrugged. “Probably? How do I know? They just said to make lunch and you’re doing it with little notice, so just make whatever you can.”

  He smiled nervously and looked around the inside of his cramped wagon with his hands on his hips. He thought and looked through the drawers and the foodstuffs they had on hand. It wasn’t much.

  Jin tried to ignore Mei as she went in and out of the wagon. She was busy setting up the few tables and chairs they had, all the while she mumbled angrily to herself. He cocked his eyebrow and watched her work.

  “What are you staring at? You should be cooking, not watching me,” Mei scolded her husband.

  Jin frowned and nodded his head. “I should be.”

  “You don’t know what to make.” She didn’t ask, just stated as a fact.

  Jin sighed and nodded his head. “We don’t have very much. Not enough things for broth to make ramen.”

  Mei shrugged. “We always have noodles and stuff for that. Just do fried noodles and throw what we have in it. Make sure you use the soy sauce. That’s why we got the invite, anyway.”

  Jin’s brows came together, and he gave a confident nod. “Yes.”

  Just like that, Jin went into action. He got moving and dug through the cabinets and drawers for vegetables and things for the noodles.

  “Oh, I forgot we had shrimp,” he said and pulled out one of the shellfish.

  Mei stared at him with her mouth open wide. “How long has that been in there?”

  Jin looked at the shrimp and narrowed his eyes. “Not that long?”

  “Jin, I can smell it from here.”

  The chef leaned in and gave the shrimp a quick sniff and instantly went green. “Yeah, okay, not using that. How did we miss them the last time we cleaned?”

  Mei shrugged and reached to grab the pan from the drawer. “We were in a hurry to get here.”

  “Clean this out, will you?” Jin handed her the pan from the drawer with the offending shrimp.

  Mei gave a huff but nodded and took it. She stood at the exit of the wagon for a minute and looked at the pan in thought.

  “Thank you, dear.” He nodded and found some salted beef and pork that was still good to use for the protein. Jin also found carrots, green onions, assorted mushrooms, bean sprouts and, finally, some garlic. Finally, he found some onion that had already been chopped up.

  “You know, these are all cultivators, some shrimp that has started to tu-”

  “No, we aren’t using them.” Jin frowned and shut down his idea before he could get the whole thing out. He knew she was right. The cultivators they were serving wouldn’t even get a slight stomach ache from some shrimp that had turned slightly, but what sort of precedent would it set? It’d make them look terrible, and they were trying to impress these people.

  “They cos-”

  “No,” Jin said firmly, and set his wok on the burner and started the flame.

  Mei huffed and finally gave in. She carried the pan out to take care of it and clean it.

  On his second burner, besides the burner that his wok sat on waiting to be used, was a second smaller wok that was half full of water. He turned it on and with his aura, gave the fire a little extra heat to help the water come up to a boil a bit quicker.

  He concentrated on holding the extra hot fire while he prepared his vegetables. The carrots he chopped in long thin strips, the mushrooms were sliced, and he did a long narrow slice on the green onion at an angle. The angle cut made it look fancy, and he figured the powerful people here in the village would enjoy it.

  He barely had to think about preparing the vegetables, which was good because he used most of his mental strength to hold up the extra hot fire. Once the water started boiling, he released his aura with a soft sigh of relief and went to prep the protein. Nothing fancy to do here. They were just random pieces of leftover pig and cow. He cut them all uniformly in bite sized strips of meat and then seasoned with salt and pepper.

  Outside of the wagon, Mei rubbed elbows with powerful people. Taimei was introducing her to the different cultivators that represented the main sects of the empire. The most notable person was a representative from the school on the top of the mountain range they were at the base of. Her name was Kio, and she was from the School of the Jade Mountains.

  On top of that, there were also people from The Divine Body Sect, and the Iron Claw Sect, then obviously Taimei from the Moon Lotus Pavilion. Kio and the other two didn’t seem to treat Taimei with much respect, not that they were outwardly rude to the man as they spoke and guessed at what could have happened to the town. They were just backhanded and didn’t really seek out his opinion on things.

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  “Hisai from the Cove Garden Retreat should be here eventually as well,” Taimei told Mei, who just nodded her head.

  “He’s being held up. Apparently he’s trying to meet a…” Taimei struggled for a moment, trying to think of a word. “Wagoneer?”

  Mei cocked a brow and shrugged when she realized Taimei was asking her if she knew if that was the correct word.

  “Well, anyway, I guess it’s just someone who travels around with a wagon and ox and transports goods for people. I guess he’s a cultivator, and rather powerful judging from how Hisai talks about him, but I don’t know,” Taimei said with a shrug.

  Mei just nodded her head. She still didn’t care very much. She was only here to try to make connections and network with the sects to get her and her husband in better positions in the grand scheme of things. If she could deal with these sects, and maybe get some sort of cultivation aids to raise her husband? All the better.

  “So, what and when is lunch?” Taimei looked at her with a grin and rubbed his stomach a little. He was a little thicker than the average cultivator.

  Though Mei couldn’t really judge the man for not being in peak physical condition, she was a little thicker as well. It’s what drew Jin to her, so she didn’t mind. She was proud of her body, and why shouldn’t she be? She was a strong woman and powerful in her own right and a known person in some circles of the Empire. Not only that, but she thought she was rather pretty, if not conventionally so as considered by the empire.

  She smiled at Taimei. “I believe he’s making a fried noodle dish. Something quick so we could eat soon.”

  Taimei nodded his head and gave a shrewd grin. “Hopefully he’s using some of that delightful soy sauce you got, hm?”

  Mei grinned and nodded her head. “That’s the plan.”

  “Excellent! Excellent!” He said and even clapped his hands together a bit.

  “You know, it’s interesting that the Clear Lake Monastery isn’t here. Don’t they normally help defend small towns?” Kio walked up to the pair with her arms crossed against her ample bosom.

  Mei and Taimei both looked at her and Taimei shrugged. Mei took a minute to marvel at the woman. Cultivators were usually better looking than those who didn’t pursue immortality. Cultivation was good for the body and kept a person young. Kio though? Mei had heard about both men and women who were so beautiful they were called fairies, and while Mei had never met anyone, she would call that Kio may be close.

  Kio looked in her mid twenties with black hair that she kept shorter than what was considered normal. It hung loose just below her ears and she had brilliant green eyes and soft skin. Her eyes matched the robes she wore that told her sect. The brilliant green robes with black trim almost matched the mountain side.

  “Eh, those monks pick and choose what to do and to help. It’s more curious how the Empire’s own golden sect, the so-called Glorious Sect of the Empire, didn’t send anyone to see what happened. Doesn’t the young emperor treat them as the face of the empire for the cultivators?”

  An unfamiliar voice from a male said and walked up. Mei knew him as Yorikata from the Iron Claw sect. He was dressed in a fiery red outer robe and cream colored inner. He was from the Iron Claw Sect, a sect known for their fighting prowess and ferocity in battle. They fought like tigers and even designed a weapon that gave the user a sort of sharp claws that their members famously used.

  He was taller than everyone else and skinnier. Mei guessed that if you took off his robes, he would have the body of a chiseled god. He was also more traditional in his looks. Deep brown eyes and the jet black hair worn in a proper topknot. The man looked over at the others with a small grin that Mei didn’t quite like the look of. She thought it made him look pompous.

  “MEEEEIIIIIII!”

  Everyone blinked at the voice yelling.

  “Who the hell is yelling like that…?” Yorikata sniffed.

  Yeah, he was pompous. The young master that you shouldn’t cross type, Mei thought and looked over at her wagon. Jin was waving his arms and yelling out the window in the side of the wagon at her. She looked back at Yorikata and frowned.

  “That’s Jin, my husband, and the chef,” she said defensively.

  “Yes, they’re really rather excellent cooks,” Taimei offered.

  “Oh well, maybe lunch is ready?” Kio asked Mei.

  Mei seemed dumbstruck by the woman's cultivator and grinned stupidly.

  “COME HEREEEEEE” Jin once more yelled and knocked Mei from her daze.

  “Yes, probably. Excuse me,” Mei said and gave a soft bow to the three of them before she turned and walked over to the wagon. As she walked away, she could hear Yorikata.

  “Who the hell invited these two?”

  Mei’s blood started boiling, but she waited till she was in the wagon before she scolded him for making them look bad.

  Jin was piling noodles in a large serving dish as she yelled in a whisper to not draw anymore attention to them. She knew they’d still be able to hear if they wanted to, but she tried to ignore that fact.

  “Do you think they’ll want their food in one large dish?” Jin asked once she was done yelling. He looked at her with a soft smile as if the yelling didn’t phase him in the slightest.

  That probably drove her even more wild, but she calmed herself and closed her eyes before she answered. “No, give them each a dish and if there’s any extra, put that in a large dish in the middle so they can help themselves if they want more.”

  Jin nodded his head and followed his wife’s instructions. “Don’t be mad, my love. I had to get your attention. Let them know lunch is ready, will you?”

  Mei gave a deep sigh and tried to release the anger. “Yes. You used the soy sauce?”

  Jin grinned and nodded. “I did, it’s amazing.”

  As he said that, he grabbed some chopsticks and rolled up a noodle in them to feed her. Mei looked annoyed at him, but opened her mouth. She really didn’t like to be fed. She wasn’t a baby, but she knew he liked it, so she humored him sometimes. As soon as the saucy noodle touched her tongue, her eyes went round.

  “That’s amazing,” she said as she chewed it.

  He grinned and nodded. “Not only is it delicious, but you can feel the aura of the soy sauce. It has a strong earth aura. If any of them are Earth cultivators, they’ll go wild for it.”

  She narrowed her eyes and looked out at the three high brow cultivators. They had their backs to the wagon and were looking out over the village. Taimei’s hands waved about as they spoke, and he must have been very boisterous in the conversation.

  “Maybe Taimei is? I’m not sure.”

  Jin shrugged. “Well, either way. They’ll be able to tell it’s good stuff.”

  Mei nodded and left the wagon. “Bring everything out. The tables are already set. I’ll let them know the food is ready.”

  Jin nodded his head and finished up while she went over to the three cultivators.

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