Taoist and Little Fox – 05

He was carried even after leaving Satin Wing Pavilion, and was only finally sat down in a private room at the Drunken Fairy Restaurant. Despite the table before him being filled with many fragrant dishes, Su Tang heart had not yet ease from Ling Si’s previous words.

“He is delicate, must be carried.” Su Tang replayed the sentences in his mind again. In his heart, he felt that Ling Si’s voice at that time was really pleasant to hear, clean and pure like spring water, bringing forth a smile. The feeling was the same as when wanting to eat roasted chickens.

Pei, pei, pei! What is this analogy? Su Tang quickly shook his head, only to just now discover that in front of him were already various kinds of chicken dishes. Be it braised, steamed, stuffed, poached, soy-fermented, or stewed, the table was full of everything. Eyes lighting up, at this very moment, the speck in his little heart had been displaced and completely blown away by the savory and appetizing smell of chicken meat.

“Wow! Amazing! So many that I like to eat!” Su Tang’s eyes curved upward. He rubbed his hands together and was momentarily unsure of which would be best to eat first.

“How about I break off a chicken leg for you first?” Ling Si asked.

“En, en, en!” Su Tang nodded.

The chicken legs were fresh out of the oven. The top, glazed with a layer of glistening osmanthus honey, emitted a sweet smell that harmonized with the chicken natural scent and neutralizing the greasiness. Su Tang opened his small mouth and chewed a mouthful. The skin was crispy and the honey was sweet. He finished his mouthful and was ready to go in for a second bite.

“Delicious, delicious!” Su Tang’s mouth was filled with meat, making his words unclear. However, this small appearance of his was especially cute and looking at it made Ling Si’s heart feel like he was eating honey.

“Eat slowly, this table is yours.” Ling Si poured him a cup of tea and smiled as he watched Su Tang’s eating appearance.

Su Tang very elatedly focused on eating everything. The system who had been watching from the side finally could not help but ask: “Have you forgotten your task?”

“What task?” Su Tang asked vaguely.

“You are really infuriating me!” If the system could grow hands, it would have forcefully taken away Su Tang’s chicken legs and ruthlessly knocked him on the head, scolding and cursing him. Unfortunately, it had no physical body and could only be angry and argue: “The female lord, ah! Have you forgotten the female lord? If you can’t find the female lord, you could at the very least mention her and let the male lord have some kind of impression, ah!”

“Oh, oh, oh, right, if you hadn’t said it, I would have forgotten.” Su Tang immediately woke up from his eating and felt that he should not ignore his duties like this anymore.

Taking a firm bite out of his chicken leg, he said to Ling Si: “Let me tell you, I like to eat chicken legs, my sister also likes to eat. My sister likes to eat so much that once, when she took me out to eat, she ate ten chickens in one breath!”

Finished, Su Tang looked to the system, seeking praise for an achievement. “How was it, a good boasting?”

System: “…”

Su Tang wanted to continue telling Ling Si about his sister’s accomplishments but the system was unable to stand it anymore and finally said: “For a girl from a distinguish family, do you think having the ability to eat a lot is a worthwhile thing to show off?”

Su Tang, not really understanding, eventually forced himself to whisper: “Things my sister doesn’t like to eat, I can eat.”

Amused by him, Ling Si pushed a plate of braised chicken wings in front of Su Tang. “Okay, okay, okay, no one is going to rob you.”

“En, en.” Feeling especially satisfied, Su Tang began eating one chicken wing after another.

The system, completely angry, ran away.

It was very inconvenient to eat chicken pressed between chopsticks so Su Tang simply and directly began using his hands. In regards to this, he had a skill to eating chicken wings. First, take hold of the bones protruding from either side of the chicken wings. Then rub and twist until the bone and the meat separate. Afterwards, with both hands, toss the bones onto the table. Finally, toss the chicken meat into the mouth.

Conveniently, he licked his lips, making it delicious just to look at.

Ling Si looked on in endless admiration. Ladling a spoonful of soup, he moved it to the side of Su Tang’s mouth. “Try this soup.”

“Oh.” Su Tang’s eyes were still staring down at the plate and did not care to notice what the other person had sent, only opening his mouth for it to go in.

His mouth that had just eaten was dripping with oil and also scalded a little red. As the porcelain white spoon went in, his whole mouth bulged. The white spoon contrasted against his red lips and in passing, his small tongue licked out a few times. Seeing this, Ling Si was barely able to control himself.

After drinking the soup, Su Tang used his tongue to push out the spoon. There were still some droplets left on the spoon and he did not pay attention to what the other person was up to. He simply lowered his head to continue eating.

Ling Si sat there staring at Su Tang in a daze, looking at him for a long while before returning to his senses. He ladle out a spoonful of soup, drank it, and felt that it was sweeter than honey.

The two people began to eat and drink in silence. When Su Tang had eaten until he was half full, he looked up again and found that Ling Si had not touched anything aside from the soup on the table which the bottom of the bowl could be seen.

“Wow, was that soup tasty? Leave me some,” Su Tang said in wonder.

“It’s okay, good to drink.” Ling Si nodded and passed what was left of the soup over to Su Tang. However, he had forgotten to take out his spoon and Su Tang did not seem to have notice either. He only cheerfully received it and straightaway, began to ladle out soup to drink.

He drank a few mouthfuls and also thought that it was okay. He then pushed what he thought was delicious towards Ling Si and said, “You try this and also this. I think it’s sweet and good to eat.”

Did he love to eat sweets? It was quite like his name

Ling Si ate a few bites but was unaccustomed to sweet things and simply smothered the taste with a few mouthful of rice. He then proceeded to eat the dishes that Su Tang handed him.

In truth, anything he ate was all the same to him as he was used to eating light food when he was on the mountain. He was not like the other apprentices who would sneak out to hunt wild games when there was nothing to eat. Today was different however. He felt that everything that Su Tang handed him was delicious. Even the things that were not tasty, he still felt that they were delicious.

He suspected that he had been given a Tame Head[1].

And the person who had given him the Tame Head looked like he was finally full. The plates were all empty and his two eyes were empty as well. The food had been very satisfying. Though he was satisfied, at the same time, he was also sighing at how good a person Ling Si was.

“You are indeed a good person.” Su Tang reclined in his chair and once again sent Ling Si the good person card[2].

“Just by inviting to eat a meal can succeed in becoming a good person?” Ling Si asked.

“Of course!” Su Tang boldly patted his belly. “From now on, the two of us are friends. Later, if you come to me for anything, I will definitely help you.”

Ling Si wanted to smile a little. This Su Tang with a cultivation base[3] of a thee-legged cat[4] could not help him. Just the fact that the other person could talk to him like this though was already enough for him to be satisfied.

With Su Tang reclining in his chair for digestion, Ling Si began to fiddle with the magic tools in his bundle and pulled out a few to use and place them on his person. Once again feeling around, he fished out a letter and carefully examined it.

“What are you looking at?” Su Tang opened his eyes and asked curiously.

“A case,” Ling Si said.

“A case?!” Su Tang suddenly sat up, realizing finally that he was entering into the main plot. His heart feeling both nervous and excited, he hurriedly hopped over to Ling Si’s side and stretched out his little head, wanting to see the letter. Ling Si directly placed him on his lap, hugging him, and read the letter together.

The writing on the letter was too densely packed, with there being several sheets in total. Su Tang glanced at it and his two eyes began to feel sore. He decided to have Ling Si read it to him instead.

Ling Si did not conceal anything. Propping Su Tang up with care and confirming that he was stable, he started to speak. “In the past month, every three days, a young girl has gone missing in the capital city. There are eleven altogether now. At first, the government official suspected it to be a flower thief and sent people to search all over but still had not been able to solve the case. Later, every household began locking their daughters in their room with only a serving girl to accompany them. However, the result was that they still disappeared without a trace. Overtime, some people began to suspect that it was the doings of something evil.”

“So they sent you to catch this demon?” Su Tang asked.

“The letter was delivered to my master. After explaining the matters, he sent me and my senior apprentice brother to collect the demon.” Ling Si spoke up to here and stop, some matters obviously not willing to mention. Su Tang knew that several of Ling Si’s senor brothers were not good to him. Just because he did not have parents, he had been pushed aside since childhood. Furthermore, there were also rumors of him being a half demon.

Ling Si obviously skipped over the matter and pretended that nothing had happened. Taking out a map from his bundle, he spread it out to reveal a complete picture of the capital city. A red cinnabar dot marked the address of all the missing girls and was connect with several lines. Su Tang looked at it and felt that it seemed familiar. In the end, he thought that it look a bit like a sealing formation.

Ling Si traced the lines with his finger tips once through before finally stopping at one of the dots. He frowned and said, “There is a spirit converging formation here, with the eye of the formation on an old locust tree in West Street. But I looked there before and did not find anything peculiar.”

His master had high hopes for him, yet he was not able to discover anything. Several human lives were in his hands. If he could not find anything again, he truly was not as good as his fellow apprentice brothers had said and should just let go of his self-ego.

Ling Si tightly knitted his brows, showing a rare lonely appearance. Su Tang heart trembled and he thought to himself: If he helps Ling Si……

But will the system not let him and then proceed to scold him?

Su Tang nervously pursed his lips and clenched his teeth before eventually speaking. “I…… I seem to know this place.”

He placed his finger on the old locust tree, just so happening to bump into Ling Si’s fingers that was there.

Footnotes:

1. Tame Head // 降头 // jiàng tóu – also called ‘gong tau’ in Cantonese; a kind of witchcraft or Taoist black magic, that is prevalent in South East Asia. It is often executed for the purpose of revenge, relationship matters and money issues.

2. good person card // 好人卡 // hǎo rén kǎ – it basically just mean that the person is an all round good guy. However, the phrase can also be used to friendzone someone: ‘You’re a good person, but I don’t see you romantically.’

3. cultivation base // 修为 // xiūwèi – the amount or capacity of refined energy that a cultivator has.

4. three-legged cat // 三脚猫 // sān jiǎo māo – means that someone is a jack of all trades and master of none; at first, the word referred to a three-legged cat which was mistaken by people for a flying bear. Later, the word indicated the cats which were skillful in hunting but had difficulty in walking. Gradually, the word was changed to mean being unprofessional in doing things. Ling Si is pretty much saying that Su Tang cultivation is to low/bad and doesn’t have the skill to help him at all.

TN: Su Tang’s name

If you didn’t know already, the characters in Su Tang’s named are Su(苏) meaning to revive/resurrect and Táng(棠) for crabapple. This is the Táng(糖) for sugar/candy/sweets. Yay for homophones

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