Cai Jingxing had once been a master chef, too. Back then, he had a bustling meat bun stall and a loyal crowd o…
Cai Jingxing had once been a master chef, too.
Back then, he had a bustling meat bun stall and a loyal crowd of diners. Though he had never taken a wife, his parents were free from illness and disaster, both hale and hearty. The diners all said that Cai's father was a blessed man.
Cai Jingxing felt the same way. From a young age, he had been learning to make meat buns from the old master in the village. When the day came that he mastered the craft, his master told him that with his skills, he could become the head chef even at a grand restaurant in Kaifeng. Cai Jingxing just smiled, saying he wasn't going anywhere. For him, the greatest happiness was simply staying right here, keeping his parents company, staying by the villagers who had watched him grow up, and making delicious food for everyone every day.
Cai Jingxing held onto this kind of happiness for over twenty years. He was so happy that he sometimes thought it wouldn't matter even if he remained a bachelor for his whole life; so happy that he believed these peaceful days could last for another twenty or thirty years.
Until the warhorses of the Khitan trampled his stall to pieces with a single hoof, and set the entire village ablaze, including, of course, the home he had lived in for over forty years.
Just as the flames were about to swallow Cai Jingxing, a sudden torrential downpour fell from the sky. The fire died, and he survived. But other than this life, it seemed he had nothing left.