After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 68
by Little PandaIn the Kitchen
Are those two really just shijie?
The room the City Master of Jiaoyue City reserved for Yun Heng was the finest in the inn. Located on the top floor, it offered a panoramic view of all of Jiaoyue City and the distant sea just by pushing open the window. Out on the water stood a tall tower—where the Water Tribe would summon the Dragon Gate—making this room the perfect vantage point for watching the entire Dragon Gate Grand Ceremony.
Everything in the room was of the highest quality. After escorting them there, the waitress asked with stiff formality whether they needed anything else.
“I heard from Bai Jiao that your inn’s pastries are excellent. Could you bring some up?” Bai Jiao was the City Master’s given name. Yun Heng had suddenly recalled Bai Jiao mentioning that her inn’s chef ranked among the top ten in all of Cangwang Realm, so she asked.
“Please wait a moment, I’ll have the kitchen prepare some right away.” The waitress replied. The moment she left the room, she broke into a run toward the kitchen to have the head chef prepare the inn’s most famous pastries—this was the City Master’s honored guest, and she couldn’t afford any slight.
In the room, Wen Qiwu sat on the soft bed. The quilts were woven from some spiritual material that radiated a soothing spiritual energy to the touch—even someone who hadn’t slept in days would likely drift off peacefully atop it.
The waitress had thoughtfully prepared two pillows, but seemed to have forgotten to lay out a second quilt?
Before long, the waitress arrived at the guest room carrying steaming pastries, having used a movement technique to hurry over for fear of keeping her distinguished guests waiting.
“These are our inn’s most famous pastries. Please enjoy.” She set down two plates of pastries and withdrew respectfully.
Bai Jiao hadn’t been boasting. Her chef was genuinely talented—the pastries were appealing in color, aroma, and taste, their fragrance detectable from far away, and each piece was shaped like a flower, exquisitely delicate.
“The City Master of Jiaoyue City once boasted to me about her chef. Ah Que, try some and see if they suit your taste?” Yun Heng set both plates of pastries in front of her shimei1.
“It smells wonderful. Shijie2, you should try some too.” Wen Qiwu was about to feed a pastry to her shijie, but Yun Heng had other matters to attend to—she wanted to try establishing contact with the City Master of Jiaoyue City.
“Shijie, do you think something’s off about the City Master’s situation?” Wen Qiwu’s expression turned serious.
“I might be overthinking it, but it’s better to be safe.” Yun Heng had no concrete evidence—just a feeling that the entire city of Jiaoyue seemed strangely off at this particular juncture. Could the city have become like this so soon after Bai Jiao had entered seclusion? At the very least, Yun Heng wanted to confirm that Bai Jiao was actually in her seclusion chamber, proving nothing had happened to her.
“Mm, this is the busiest and most chaotic time here. It’s better to be cautious.” Wen Qiwu nodded in agreement.
But just as Yun Heng was about to use a secret technique to locate Bai Jiao, the reply finally arrived.
Bai Jiao’s voice transmission carried an unmistakable weakness. You could hear her forcing out a laugh as she welcomed Yun Heng and Wen Qiwu, and expressed her apologies for what they had gone through today.
“You finally came to visit and this happens to me. Once I’m a bit better, I’ll come find you in person. Have a good time here in the meantime—if you need anything, just go to the City Master Manor and tell the butler. He’ll take care of it for you.” Bai Jiao’s tone was full of regret.
The voice and immortal power in the transmission genuinely belonged to Bai Jiao, and the seal imprint left on the message couldn’t be faked. Yun Heng could confirm this letter came from Bai Jiao’s own hand. After receiving it, her expression eased somewhat.
She glanced at her shimei, only to find that the pastries on her plate had been barely touched.
“Not to your taste?” Yun Heng tried one as well. The pastry was soft, chewy, and sweet—the taste was genuinely good—but her shimei seemed distinctly unenthused.
“The flavor is indeed wonderful, but… not as good as chestnut cake.” Every other pastry ranked second in Wen Qiwu’s heart to the chestnut cakes her shijie made.
And it wasn’t simply personal bias. In truth, purely in terms of taste, the chestnut cakes Yun Heng made could rival any of these famous chefs’ pastries. Perhaps Yun Heng lacked the innate talent of the local head chef, but she had spent over a century perfecting this single recipe—enough to bring it to absolute perfection.
“Then shijie should go make some chestnut cakes.” Yun Heng ruffled her shimei’s hair. She’d been careless—she had assumed that after arriving in Canghai Domain, her shimei would be more eager to try the local specialties, so she hadn’t prepared any in advance.
“No need to trouble yourself,” Wen Qiwu said hurriedly.
“It’s fine. It’s just chestnut cakes—they won’t take long.” Yun Heng asked her shimei to wait in the room for a bit, then went downstairs to find the waitress and said she’d like to borrow the kitchen.
It was technically allowed—they didn’t have any rule prohibiting guests from using the back kitchen.
However… they found it hard to connect this frost-and-moonlight Immortal Venerable3 with the mundane smoke and fire of a kitchen. Their hearts couldn’t help but drum nervously. Fortunately, this Immortal Venerable had an Ice Spiritual Root—they’d witnessed the spectacular sight of a Fire Spiritual Root cultivator blowing up a kitchen before, and if this Immortal Venerable had a Fire Spiritual Root, they’d have activated the inn’s defensive array on the spot.
The waitress peered cautiously into the kitchen from the doorway, but when she leaned in, she accidentally bumped into someone. She looked up and found the innkeeper holding an abacus.
The innkeeper had clearly been in the middle of accounting—when she heard the news, she hadn’t even put down her abacus before rushing over.
“Why does the City Master’s friend share the same hobby as her?” the innkeeper muttered, raising a hand to flip open a small mechanism by the door. A palm-sized brick rose up, revealing an array activation switch.
Once this array switch was triggered, the entire kitchen would be rapidly sealed off.
“Huh? When was this installed?” The waitress had no idea the kitchen even had such a protective measure.
“It was a long time ago. You weren’t even born yet.” The innkeeper sighed, clicking the beads of her abacus.
“Something to do with the City Master?”
“Hmph.” The innkeeper gave a soft snort, her fingers flying faster across the abacus beads before stopping on a final number. “She didn’t know her own limits, but insisted on going into the kitchen. I suppose she thought she was the reincarnation of the God of Cookery—ended up mixing Fire Crystal Stones with Fire Thunder Stones when lighting the fire and blew up half the inn. Cost us a fortune.”
Fire Thunder Stones… The waitress’s mouth twitched. The City Master’s shining image in her mind crumbled a little.
“Later she claimed it was just an accident and wanted to try again. This time she didn’t mix in any Fire Thunder Stones, but she put two incompatible spirit medicines in the pot—and the pot exploded, taking the kitchen with it. That’s when I installed this. The last time, she finally managed to produce a plate of something for everyone to taste. I didn’t dare eat it, but she successfully knocked every cook in the kitchen unconscious, and we couldn’t open for business for about half a month.” The innkeeper’s aura grew increasingly terrifying as she spoke.
The waitress felt lingering fear just hearing about it. Good thing she was young and had arrived late—otherwise, who knew how many lives the City Master would have cost her.
“Innkeeper, the City Master is only at the Golden Immortal Realm. If this Immortal Venerable blows up the kitchen… will this array be enough?”
“This is just to protect the rest of you. If it really blows up, we’ll make the Wenshen Sect pay for it—they’re rich and overbearing, they won’t care about a small expense.” It might even get them a better kitchen. But the City Master was one of their own—losses caused by her just had to be swallowed.
The waitress had an epiphany. She quietly expressed her admiration for the innkeeper—when it came to money, their innkeeper would never take a loss! Except where the City Master was concerned, apparently.
Unfortunately, after observing for a while, the innkeeper could tell their worries were unfounded. This Immortal Venerable clearly cooked regularly—unlike their City Master, who had barged in on a whim to wreak havoc.
The innkeeper mused to herself that you really could never judge by appearances. She’d been fooled by the City Master’s face back then—which was the only reason she’d let her into the kitchen in the first place.
Just then, footsteps suddenly came from behind them. The innkeeper turned and saw the young woman who had arrived with the Immortal Venerable.
The young woman smiled at her and asked softly whether she could go in.
The innkeeper stepped aside and gestured Wen Qiwu in.
“Thank you.” Wen Qiwu gave her a slight nod of acknowledgment.
She then walked into the kitchen and quietly sneaked up behind the Immortal Venerable to spook her, even dabbing flour onto her face.
How could the Immortal Venerable not know someone had come? That cold and aloof immortal actually revealed a smile as gentle as water, her eyes seeming to hold room for no one but the young woman before her. Not only did she not mind her shimei’s “mischief”—there was an almost overflowing delight about her.
“Innkeeper, it’s getting busy up front, so I’m heading back.” The waitress at the door looked eager to leave, feeling for some reason that her presence there was oddly intrusive.
“Let’s go together. I still have accounts to finish.” The innkeeper pinched the bridge of her nose, equally eager to leave. She’d been the innkeeper of Jiaoyue City’s largest inn for centuries—she’d seen every situation imaginable. Were those two really just shijie and shimei? She didn’t think so.
But playing dumb was an essential skill in her line of work. Even if she saw something, she had to pretend she hadn’t.
When the pastries were nearly ready, their fragrance had already drifted far beyond the kitchen.
The nearby cooks were drawn in by the aroma. Though they hadn’t tasted it yet, they felt certain the chestnut cakes in that pot could rival their inn’s signature pastries.
“Is it ready yet?” Wen Qiwu reached out eagerly, itching to lift the lid.
“Careful, it’s hot!” Yun Heng quickly pulled her hand back. “Just a bit longer. Don’t rush.”
Just then, Yun Heng’s brows suddenly furrowed. She looked up at the kitchen ceiling—there was a roar, and a hole was smashed straight through it.
Along with the falling debris came a vaguely human-shaped mass. Wen Qiwu immediately reached out and caught the person who had nearly plummeted into the pot of boiling water. The weight was so slight it startled her—she looked down and found it was merely a frail child, eyes dull and sightless.
The two who had been attacking the child also came crashing down—though they’d been yanked down by Yun Heng. The two appeared to be demons, their bodies bearing fish-scale-like features. After being dragged down, they thrashed wildly, cursing the meddler.
Yun Heng’s expression turned cold. The two demons’ curses had begun to involve her shimei—and so they abruptly fell silent. They clutched their throats, faces turning purple. If you pried open their mouths, you’d find their tongues and throats had been entirely frozen solid.
“Y-you… you’re done for.” The cook stammered, pointing at the two ferocious demons. The innkeeper was going to be furious.
Footnotes
- 师妹 | shimei | Junior martial sister in Chinese martial and cultivation sects, denoting a female disciple who entered training after the speaker. The counterpart to shijie, carrying warmth and protective affection.
- 师姐 | shijie | Senior martial sister in Chinese martial and cultivation sects, denoting a female disciple who entered training before the speaker. Carries both respect and the intimacy of shared sect lineage.
- 仙尊 | xian zun | Supreme honorific in Chinese cultivation fiction combining 'immortal' with 'zun' meaning venerable or esteemed, denoting one who has achieved transcendent power and commands utmost reverence.
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