Together We Will Always Fly

Chapter 8 - Cookbook

The prompt was cooking. :)

--------

One elegant hand, pale and strong reaches out, the strokes of the brush even and as gentle as a bird's wing. The characters flow across the page, instructions carefully copied.

A sigh can be heard in the quiet room, then the turning of a page.

His work was completed over an hour ago and while Shen Wei could easily find something else to occupy his time, his own research as a prime example, his concentration remains on the book before him.

Zhao Yunlan was invited to dinner, an official invitation to dine with the upper echelons of the Haixing police department. These are the men and women who have no understanding of Dixing. Their remit is the normal crime in Dragon City, however brutal or commonplace, such as assault or burglary.

Yet, Zhao Yunlan does all he can to keep these connections flourishing, forming what he calls 'brothers', that are bound by some strange, undefinable set of rules, where if one brother is asked for a reasonable favor, the said man has to agree.

Shen Wei finds it confusing at best and unnecessary at worst.

Zhao Yunlan; a fox among men with a quicksilver tongue and endless patience for the strangest things, operates a vast network across the country. Most of them have never even met him. They know his name and wild stories. They ask their brothers and words spreads until within this network of people separated by distance, Provinces and age, all of them consider Zhao Yunlan to be near family.

The downside, is that when one these brothers asks Zhao Yunlan for a favor, he is as bound to the agreement as everyone else.

With a glare that could melt concrete his beloved trudged out the door, complaining that Shen Wei should come with him, over two hours ago. He promised not to drink too much and aggravate his stomach, but Shen Wei has no doubt he will be inebriated when he sees him next.

So with nowhere to go so early in the evening, the Black Robed Envoy, shifted in his office chair stretching his legs beneath the table, and set himself to reading his new cookbook, with all the seriousness of an official document.

This is his fourth cookbook and he hopes to gain at least another three recipes, for the mid-week. Perhaps something he could store in the freezer, for the nights when Zhao Yunlan comes home late, or when Shen Wei is absent. He smooths the page and mentally checks the kitchen cupboards of two apartments.

The one on the left side is not very imaginative...he has no ingredients for this one...that one might work...

It is not that Zhao Yunlan is a picky eater. So far, Shen Wei has only discovered two things he dislikes. Western food and watermelon.

To be fair he eats whatever you might set in front of him, with some combinations standing out as clear winners. Anything with noodles and nothing with too much chili owning to his stomach condition. He is always happy at dinner and enthusiastically talks about how much he loves it.

It's simply that Shen Wei has exhausted his current repertoire, of tried and well tested recipes. Most of which he learned cooking over a fire in ancient times, or more recently experimenting with different flavors to better understand this time period.

Kunlun always claimed that he loved his cooking. He fears that might change in this modern time, but so far his luck has held.

He turns another page and reads a recipe for

This is new for him, caring for another. He has loved Kunlun for centuries, waiting desperately for the day when they would reunite, when that old dream of his, where he and Kunlun could live together in peace times, finally came true...