"Ugh..." Li Feng groaned lightly as she groggily opened her heavy eyelids. She squinted as she scanned her surroundings. "Ha... So, I returned to my room before falling asleep, huh?"
She slowly raised her body and yawned as she stretched.
As she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, she caught the faint aroma of something delicious wafting through the air. Curious, Li Feng walked out of her room and followed the scent. Reaching the dining room(or rather the place they used as such), she was greeted by a surprising sight... The dining table was set up with bowls and spoons.
Just then, the sound of footsteps resounded as Haoren approached with a pot in his hands. "...You're awake."
"Yeah, just woke up."
"..."
"..."
Ignoring the momentary silence, Haoren stepped forward and placed the pot on the dining table before sitting down. "Eat up."
'You... aren't going to serve it?' Li Feng felt exasperated at the man. Even though he went through the trouble of making all this, he wasn't going to serve it. What kind of pride is that?! Ah yes, even though you literally made this, you won't serve it because that is a servant's job.
"Haa..." She sighed. It was too early for her to pick a fight, so she just quietly took off the lid. At first, the rich and tempting aroma struck her, and her nostrils widened instinctively as the scent enticed her appetite... until she saw what was inside the pot. "Uwaa..."
The stew(?) had a mix of red and purple colours with various meat(?) chunks and vegetables(?) of strange hues, and a blood-red aura emanated from it. The aura was no euphemism; there was literally a crimson glow that invoked fear coming from the stew.
"...Does it look that unappetizing?"
Hearing the sudden voice of Haoren, whom she had more or less ignored for a while, Li Feng flinched as she raised her head to meet his gaze.
"U-uh, I wouldn't call it unappetizing... It's just... quite unique in appearance."
"Is that so..." Although his face remained expressionless and his voice was just as bland as usual, somehow, Li Feng could feel that his tone was somewhat saddened.
"W-well, it's the taste that matters the most!" She herself had no clue why, but she began making excuses for Haoren.
"Mhm," Haoren nodded, his demeanour already seeming more cheerful. "Well, even if it tastes bad, you will have to eat this."
"Why do I-"
"It's medicine." Cutting in between her words, Haoren spoke firmly.
"..."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Li Feng was immediately silenced by those words.
'It seems like your meridians are slightly blocked,' 'It seems to be the after-effect of consuming some kind of poison...'
The words from the day before echoed in her mind. With a blank expression, she served the food and sat down. 'He could have at least made it look a bit more palatable...' She couldn't help but grumble as she took one last look at the stew from hell. 'I mean, no matter how you look... Ah!'
Her body stiffened as she recalled something she often forgot: Haoren was blind. Of course, as he was always able to go through life without any issues, Li Feng forgot this. Thinking this, Li Feng stared at the stew once again. 'He must've worked real hard to make this...'
She brought a spoonful of the stew to her lips, no longer caring about the godawful taste it might bring.
"Huh?" Only to be surprised as it was deceivingly edible.
...
...
...
Gongsun Haoren, the boy named so, had first tried to cook at a very young age. "Mhm, let's just leave this to the teacher from now on." It was something he tried to do out of his own will, but alas, it wasn't something he excelled at.
He couldn't see at all, and his perceptive abilities had barely developed, so it was quite unreasonable to expect him to perform any complex tasks. Moreover, his teacher always felt worried as Haoren held the kitchen knife and approached the fire in the hearth. However...
'I guess it was when I was... 9?'
...He had eventually learned to cook, and although still an arduous task, he continued to do it.
"Hu..." Something felt amiss to him as if something was missing, but he ignored it for now as he placed the pot with the stew-like thing he had made.
He actually looked quite forward to seeing Li Feng's shocked face as she opened the lid and saw his masterpiece. After all, he had to use his sense of smell and taste to make this stew.
Since his ability didn't work quite well on objects that didn't invoke great memories or emotions, its"traces" became vague. For example, a bush in the wild would be perceived as "a bush" with nothing special about it, and would soon grow blurry.
But if the bush's thorn managed to scratch someone, the traces left behind would be far clearer. Of course, after some time, the traces would become something like "Bush with thorns." And since this "vision" worked by patching up these traces... it was quite unreliable, to say the least.
As for his shadows? Well, the shadows could help him feel around his surroundings, but they worked more like a spatial awareness ability, and he couldn't really tell anything about the colour of things.
So, due to these annoying flaws, he had to taste multiple spices to make sure that they were the right ones. But despite all that, the taste ended up being quite good, and so he wanted to see Li Feng's reaction to his creation.
"Uwaa..."
Haoren wasn't angry, definitely not angry. He wasn't displeased either, definitely not displeased. "Well, even if it tastes bad, you will have to eat this."
He was simply having a little fun teasing Li Feng, definitely not due to his pettiness!
As Li Feng sat before her meal, Haoren could feel multiple emotions emanating from her from fear to guilt, but as they were quickly changing, they seemed blurred to Haoren's senses.
Looking down, he could now see his own bowl filled with the stew(?). It was a mix of blood red, violet, black, and other colours. All in all, it looked suspicious and definitely not safe to consume.
"..."
Haoren was somewhat speechless. His creation, which was now somewhat visible to him, did not seem fit for consumption. But there wasn't much he could do about it.
Not only was he blind, but even his other senses were somewhat muted. He didn't realize this earlier as he had been comparing the food he ate to the bland food from the hospital. But now he had realized or rather remembered that his sense of taste was a bit muted too.
When he began to take care of all the work his master originally took care of, Haoren made sure to cook something that seemed slightly bland to him to make a meal that wouldn't be too salty or too spicy. Although, he didn't like eating the bland food, but he didn't bother adding more spices to his own. 'Well, the master found out about it within ten minutes...'
Even his spiritual sense was imperfect. Spiritual sense is the greatest sense a cultivator possesses, formed through their connection with heaven and earth.
Even within his current environment, as barren as it was, someone of Haoren's calibre should have been able to utilize his spiritual sense, and yet... it was flawed. It wasn't some disease or imperfection; it simply did not work... as if he was cursed. 'Rather than being cursed... it's more so myself who is...'
Unpleasant. That was how Haoren would describe his thoughts that followed after. The world was always like this, unkind and cold. Nothing ever went his way. Even if he was shown warmth, it would fade away as a long, cold night followed soon after.
And now he was neither "Haoren" nor was he the boy who helplessly remained confined to the monotonous hospital room. Yet, at the same time, he was both the sickly boy and Haoren. He truly believed himself to be a curse, an ill omen. Someone who will-
"Huh?"
Bringing a halt to his gloomy thoughts was the sudden noise from Li Feng and a burst of "joyous" emotions. "Hm~" Looking at her eating the stew happily with twinkling eyes, a smile naturally broke out on Haoren's face.