I emerge from the kitchens with a satisfied yawn, stretching my arms as far as I can manage above my head until the pull of my muscles threatens to slip into more of a cramp. I'd decided to try and take advantage of the sheer plethora of plums in the town to mix things up a bit for breakfast and reproduced a less 'traditional' dish… or well, less traditional to our palates, but a staple in my past life. And possibly somewhere in this world. I wouldn't rule it out.

Pancakes and waffles - two things that would go marvelously with some fresh fruit. Or jam. Or puree, or syrup, or myriad other ways one could prepare a plum. It's just as well that the plums came in a variety of flavours because if they didn't, I'm not sure I would ever be able to eat another one.

"For a vacation, you're working very hard, Hei Lian," Song Ren quips as I move to set the plates onto the rotating table - I try to spread everything out evenly, so that you don't have to turn too far to get what you want.

He might have a point, but really, I see this as a vacation from 'cultivating' more than anything. "I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I stopped cooking," is my reply, settling in between Tian Mingfei and Zhou Cheng.

The latter lets out a gentle snort, but his gaze is fixated on the pancakes with a sense of careful curiousity. It's not as though 'forks' were some wondrous invention nobody had ever heard of, but it was certainly true that most food didn't really need them. But the idea of slicing up the pancakes into easily grabbable morsels (grabbable with chopsticks, at least) just kind of felt… silly. Still, after a moment, he took a small stack of the flappy delights and after a moment of consideration, just took a bite out of one.

I almost corrected him, but eh. He can eat them how he wants. I'm not his mother. "They taste best with some syrup or jam," I offer lightly, tugging over one of the small boats laden with rich purple jam. Truth be told, it's not as though 'pancakes' are new here either - but the traditional scallion pancake is a very different beast.

It must be said though, that humans have been frying, baking or otherwise heating up some kind of dough in every way possible since time immemorial.

"Song Ren has a point," Kong Meiling notes, daintily slicing a waffle into perfect little squares, "You spent more time in the kitchens yesterday than you did anything else."

"I'm learning a lot about cooking." The 'Auntie' I'd… I wouldn't say befriended, but I'd sort of apprenticed myself under her despite her grumbling. I think I had her grudging respect - enough that she shared a number of tips and little instructions to me as I was cooking.

It probably helped that I assisted with the dinner rush. Being a cultivator, I could do the work of three or four rather quickly when I put my mind to it so it was no great task for me to assist with the simpler tasks.

Kong Meiling sighs as though this is a great imposition on her, and not just me doing what I usually do. "Even now, you still do these kinds of things. You're impossible."

"Hei Lian will be Hei Lian," Zhou Cheng retorts, although he almost makes it sound defensive. "There's no reason he can't do these things and still grow."

Aw, that's sweet.

"Powerful Cultivators are all a little strange," Tian Mingfei adds cheerfully, practically slathering one of her pancakes in jam… and then jelly. And then some preserves. She seems to be making some strange, towering mass of fruits and pancakes that gave everyone else pause. "Once you are powerful enough, it is everyone else who must adapt to you."

"That sounds very wise. Where did you hear that?"

She gives Shan Guojin a blank stare. "I did not hear it from anywhere. It is an observation."

… Ouch. He at least has the grace to be chastised by that, looking away to avoid her unimpressed look.

After letting that silence hang for a moment longer, just to drive home her point - I assume, at least - Tian Mingfei lets it break with a characteristic grin. "So! Who shall be joining me on today's Hunt? I have heard tell there is a Twin-Tailed Deer in the local forest, and I intend to claim it!"

Song Ren practically shoots to his feet. "I'll join you, Senior!" Oh, he was down bad wasn't he?

Kong Meiling sighs in that self-suffering way she loves so much. "I too, will accompany you, if only for an excuse to be out of the city for a bit." She carefully opens her fan and shoots a look at Shan Guojin, that I can't really decipher.

I don't think the city's all that bad, but I suppose Kong Meiling might have a different tolerance for the press and the throng. I, for one, quite liked it, but it was very different from the Sect. "What about you, Senior Shan?"

Shan Guojin puffs up his chest, apparently pleased someone is asking him what he's up to. "I intend to return to the Theaters for I have heard that a traveling troupe will be putting on a show this afternoon and this afternoon alone - and it is a good one, too! The Lady of Mercy."

… Nope, never heard of it. "Is it a famous story?"

He nods. "It is the story of one of the greatest Righteous Cultivators!"

So sanitized to hell and back, I assume. You wouldn't want to tell the story of a powerful cultivator if it wasn't flattering because who would want to risk that kind of wrath? "Well… it would be a shame not to see one performance whilst I'm here. Will you be joining us, Senior Brother?"

Zhou Cheng looks up from where he's wolfing down the last of his breakfast, and it takes everything I have to stop myself from reaching over and wiping his face.

I am not his mother, I say, even as I get the incredible urge to just mother him.

"Where Lian-er goes, I'll follow," he declares, which I guess settles things.

To the Theater, then.

----------------------------------------

I can't say I've ever been to see an opera of any kind, so seeing the troupe performing The Lady of Mercy was a novel experience. There was the dancing, the singing, the music that I'd expected on some level, of course, but what I hadn't really accounted for were the special effects.

I… suspected the Troupe were at least partly cultivators in nature to pull off some of these tricks. When the Heroine, played by a young girl for this particular scene, was trapped in a blizzard as she desperately tried to find help for her ailing mother, they had managed to recreate actual snow and frost, sending it forth into the audience so that we could feel the biting chill. Likewise, when she climbed the mountain to study from the Immortal of the Sun, they turned a sizzling light upon everyone.

Frankly, I thought it was a little uncomfortable, but I could appreciate the efforts they were going to. No, the real jewel - and maybe this was just me being a twelve year old boy - was the fight scenes.

This definitely had to be done by Cultivators or wire fu had really taken off in this weird pseudo-Fantasy China world. The sword fights alone seemed so terribly close and real that I half expected someone to lose a limb at any moment and yet, they were so elegant and graceful, that if you took the swords away, I would've absolutely believed they were dancing.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The highlight and climax was of course the big ultimate fight against her rival, her nemesis, and her junior disciple-brother, the Immortal of Shadows - a title that seemed tailor made to be villainous, and so I kind of quietly wondered if it were just made up.

The fight continued for what felt like forever, as she used the techniques she'd learned from their shared master - who was naturally murdered by her traitorous Junior - to banish the shadows he used to attack. And now, we could all feel it coming to its conclusion.

"Forever destined to be in your shadow, o Sister, now you will see! Now I will be! In the Shadow of all!" the Immortal howls, his voice somehow mournful and fueled with rage at the same time as he reprises his 'villain song'. It's a decidedly more sympathetic portrayal than I expected for the villain, especially given all the other terrible things he'd done.

She bats away his 'duplicates' (played by what seem like stage-hands in pure black), and raises her sword above her head. Something causes it to shine - Qi, a mirror, I can't say. "I see you now, truly and completely, even if I never did…! I see you, o Brother!"

The whole stage seems to light up with that declaration, the stage-hands scattering as though burned and leaving him alone on the stage against his sister. He was a handsome man, for certain, although that was probably to be expected of an actor.

They stay like that for a long moment, her sword aloft and shining, him cast against the ground and glaring. "Why do you hesitate now, when never before did you hesitate to best me? See it done, glorious Hero, righteous savior. Bring forth the justice you so promised me."

She hesitates. It's small, but acted clearly for all to see, and I can hear some people gasping. "Justice is what I promised you, my dear brother, but Justice I cannot offer - Justice lies in the hands of Heaven alone, and those who are appointed." Her grip tightens on her sword just a bit.

"Oh? Then what is it you bear to me?"

"Mercy." Somehow, the sword glows even more, and rather than swing it, a beam of pure light strikes him in the chest. "For the pain I have brought you - for the suffering you have wrought - for the lives we have taken and given, all for naught - I free you, my brother, I forgive you, my brother… to judgement, I send you, my brother… " Her face twists into something full of grief.

"You face only Heaven alone. / I face only Heaven alone…" they sang together, harmonizing in a cruel reprise of their first duet where they declared they would face Heaven together.

When the light fades, he was gone - I couldn't actually say when he did slip off the stage. She slowly lowers her sword, seemingly struck with grief and regret for a long while, but when she rose back up, she did so with a fiery gaze, launching into the final song - and swearing to rise to the Heavens, so she could lift her brother's soul out of Hell and grant him true mercy.

As we slowly leave the theater afterwards - and I'll admit, after I had some time to dry my eyes a little - I decide to voice some questions to Shan Guojin, seeing as he seems familiar with the story. "How… accurate was that?" It was more… 'balanced' than I expected, given it was about a powerful Immortal, but it also showed the villain with more humanity than I would've thought anyone would given what they also showed him doing in that selfsame story.

Which was murder a lot of people.

"Who can say?" He replies glibly, "Only the Immortal of Mercy truly knows but these stories are said to be collected from many of her companions and students, who were there with her at parts of the way. The stories say she secluded herself centuries ago however."

Centuries…? I didn't realise they were so long ago. That probably meant the story had been twisted more than a pretzel.

"I don't understand," Zhou Cheng announces, frowning a little, "How can she still love and care for him like that after all he did?"

A fair question. "I do not know. Love is strange like that. If it were easy to understand or grasp, we would not write so much of it, would we?"

Shan Guojin nods sagely, stroking the thin wispy beginnings of what might be a beard if he keeps at it. "Indeed. Hei Lian speaks wisely - but I suppose you are still young, Zhou Cheng. You will surely understand one day."

That, naturally, just makes Zhou Cheng frown harder. "Frankly, if any brother of mine behaved in such a way, I would never forgive them."

"I think if it were Senior Brother, I would try to forgive you." Maybe it's just that the opera put a sympathetic spin on him, with his feelings of neglect and overshadowing, jealousy burning until it turned to hatred and resentment… or maybe I'm just a softie.

The frown melts into a pout, which isn't quite the reaction I was expecting. "I would never do such things," he mutters and I suppose I can see the implication. "But if I did, I would surely deserve to be struck down for it."

I don't think it's really a question of deserve, if I'm honest, but that's probably a philosophical debate I can save for when we're all older. "Well, the sun is beginning to set I think - should we return?"

Shan Guojin and Zhou Cheng both seem to startle at that, and then share a look. "It should be about time," Zhou Cheng declares. "Let us return."

… Okay? I definitely feel like I'm missing something here.

----------------------------------------

"Hei Lian!" Tian Mingfei greets as we return, grinning madly as is her nature, a fact that only becomes increasingly clear the more I get to know her. She was waiting for us with everyone else, sitting around a table already, which is a bit of a diversion from normal given they usually wait for me to finish cooking…

"You did not tell me it was your birthday!"

… It's my birthday? Wait, is this a surprise birthday party? I shoot Zhou Cheng an inquisitive and only slightly accusing glance, and he returns it with a bright beaming smile. "... To be honest, Senior Sister, I didn't remember it myself."

She balks at that rather visibly, and I can tell she's not the only one - the others are just better at hiding it.

"I had to ask to check the records," Zhou Cheng adds helpfully, which kind of implies that he's been planning this the entire time and you little bastard you have been planning this the entire time…!

"How can you not remember such a thing…? It would be like forgetting your own name!"

It's not my fault, Sister. It's just… well, I've only been Hei Lian for a few years from my perspective. Or… no, I have been Hei Lian for Hei Lian's entire life, it's also just muddled up with my previous life and honestly, it's not like I've been celebrating it these past two years! I don't think I've celebrated it at all since I… well, since I 'awoke', for lack of a better term.

It's not like the Sect really made note of anyone's birthdays, let alone an Outer Disciple like me. "We've never celebrated my birthday before," I note, keeping myself from sounding accusing as Zhou Cheng fidgets a little.

"It's only proper I show appreciation to my dedicated Junior," he says after a moment, which in Zhou Cheng-speak is probably more of a 'I should've been doing this earlier but it literally didn't occur to me until recently'.

I restrain the urge to sigh. I've never really liked celebrating my birthday. An excuse to drink and have fun, sure, but a big party or celebration? Awkward. Still, I have to give face where it's due, and it at least doesn't seem like a big hullabaloo. "Thank you, Seniors, This is very thoughtful of you to celebrate someone like me."

That gets Zhou Cheng to brighten some more as he nods. "I had the cooks prepare your favourite too."

"My favourite?" I echo, raising an eyebrow. "Which would be…?" I half expect him to answer 'Nian gao' or something.

But no. It truly is a day of surprises. "Mapo Tofu, of course."

Alright, Senior. I'll concede defeat. You did actually remember.

"We look forward to many more years with you," Shan Guojin adds, grinning widely - although that may be because he's pouring what looks like some rice wine for himself. "A toast, to Hei Lian. May you reach the Heavens."

"To Hei Lian," the others echo, taking up their cups.

It feels… odd to be celebrated like this. I have memories of my parents throwing larger celebrations of course - they were rich merchants, and I was their eldest son. Of course they were celebrating me. My ninth birthday was basically a miniature festival. But since the Sect - and mostly in my past life - it was… very little of anything like that. I never really expected anything either. Who would celebrate an Outer Disciple, after all?

Zhou Cheng elbows me gently. "Come on, Lian-er, stop staring and drink."

Right. I tip my head back, draining the little cup of rice wine. "Fwah…! Seniors, you didn't warn this poor Hei Lian that it'd be so strong…!"

There's a small chorus of laughter at my expense. "It wasn't that strong," Song Ren teases, as though he weren't a whole realm above me.

Yeah, yeah, yuck it up, jerk. But with our toast done, the food is brought out, and everything dissolves into the pleasantly inane chatter of dinner, with Tian Mingfei mostly dominating as she relates her latest Hunt to the rest of us, with even Kong Meiling just politely nodding along even though I'm pretty sure she was there.

I think, as far as birthday celebrations went, it was easily one of the best of mine - in recent memory, at least. It was the kind of peaceful, quiet scenario I'd love to have again and again in the future.

Here's hoping I could make it reality.

"Another toast! Ganbei!"