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Ghost City is… lively, Xie Lian decides.
It might be because many ghosts lose their inhibitions upon death, letting themselves enjoy their undead life more than their mortal lives.
Thousands of ghosts crowd the main street of Ghost City in all forms and shapes. From normal humanoid ones to animal-looking to almost eldritch horrors. But all of them behave, mostly.
The stalls' offerings range from herbs to human limbs and the restaurants also offer either food for mortals, food made out of mortals and then sometimes both.
It is one of the rare human-safe food stalls that lures Xie Lian in.
It smells amazing and behind the counter stands an old bear-lady with a calm expression while she laddles out soup for him.
It will cost the last of his coins, but it really smells good and Xie Lian's last meal was one week ago.
He pays, then sits down with the soup bowl at her counter and starts to eat.
When the spices hit his tongue, he almost lets out a moan.
“Your cooking is really great,” he praises after swallowing his food.
She gives him a pleased toothy grin.
“Been doing this for over two hundred years now. But cooking has always been my passion. What about you, do you cook?”
Xie Lian nods. Of course, he's been cooking many times in his life!
“Yes,” he answers her with a smile. “I like cooking but it's no good, everyone else hates it, some even collapse.”
She looks with wide eyes at him.
“It can't possibly be that bad? Why don't you try to make a cooking stall for yourself, here in Ghost City? Ghosts are dead and often not picky. You could start a new life here and get more practice in cooking.”
After finishing his food, Xie Lian is left to wander the streets. He had wandered away from the busy market street, too many ghosts and whatnot muddling his thoughts.
The granny's words ring in his ears. It would be nice to do something new, something he'd never done before.
But cooking?
Ah– he really is a bad cook!
But maybe he really could get better with constructive criticism…?
Just the moment he has that thought, he walks past an abandoned stall.
It's more run down than the ones in the main shopping street, but not crumbling yet.
When he walks closer he sees it's an abandoned food stall, plus an abandoned house!
He looks around, there's no one really who looks like he would own this old thing.
So he walks to the next ghost he sees and asks if anyone still owns that stall.
The ghost shakes its head.
“No, the previous owner got into a bet with the city lord, lost and got their ashes scattered. Such an idiot, hahahah,” they laugh.
Ah… well. You snooze, you lose!
Xie Lian spends the day (or night? It's hard to tell) cleaning up the abandoned stall. The previous owner left behind a stove, pans, pots and quite a lot of kitchen tools.
Xie Lian is a little suspicious about all the things he finds – it's quite… unnerving, with his bad luck such a find should've been impossible.
But – Xie Lian is also a very optimistic person, so he'll take all this. (His bad luck will strike soon anyway, so better take what he can get until then.)
When he gets tired, he lays down in a corner of the house. It's not comfortable, but he's confident to find a bedroll or a blanket soon.
The next morning poses a new challenge – it's nice and cool that he has all those tools, but what about food?
Just in that moment two ghosts pass his stall.
“Have you heard about ol’ Baihu?” The shorter one asks his taller companion.
The taller one nods with a grim expression – or Xie Lian thinks it could be grim, because it's hard to tell with a dog-head.
“Yeah, a real shame. I heard he tried to break into Paradise Manor, never came back, but he's a fool to try to rob Chengzhu.”
The smaller one laughs, “Yeah, that's for sure, no one steals from our Chengzhu. By the way, I heard his grocery stall is all free to take now, maybe we should –” their voices slowly fade as they walk away.
Xie Lian has both eyebrows drawn high.
So. A free stall and now free food? Something's off.
Mh, but beggars can't be choosers!
So Xie Lian takes his big scrap collecting bag and heads back to the main street.
Finding the stall is weirdly easy and even though some ghosts are looting the shop already, there's still plenty of food left.
Silently he starts picking up as much as he can fit into his bag and then he heads back.
Back to his own stall he starts the cooking process.
He is planning to make chicken soup, so first he adds water (He found a little river bubbling behind his new abode, talk about luck!) and chicken.
Then he lights the stove and gets back into his house to tidy up some.
Half a shichen later he comes back and finds all the water in his pot gone, even the chicken had started to smoke aggressively.
He quickly starts searching through the bag and finds a jar with liquid. He opens it and pours the contents into the pot – and takes a big step back as flames reach high to the ceiling of his stall.
Ah… that had been alcohol. Ah well. He waits out the fire (by going back to the stream and fetching water) and then he adds more water again.
And then seasonings. And isn't the colour a little off?
He adds vinegar to stretch the liquid and then even more seasonings.
A while later there's cute little balls in the pot, but no soup.
Mn. Something went clearly wrong, but he laddles out the meatballs and places them in a bowl on his counter.
And then he starts to cook more.
Hours later, there's meatballs that were supposed to be a soup, a bright green soup that was supposed to be a stir fry and buns that are actually buns, but they look very crooked.
So far, all ghosts passing his stall ignore his food, but Xie Lian isn't bothered. Even if no one wanted to eat his food, he had at least dinner and even more food for the next few days!
That was until a commotion broke out, a little ways away from his stall.
A young ghost, clearly working for an entertainment establishment was being accosted by a bulky blob of a ghost. The young one was clearly giving this piece of shit all he had and eventually drove it off.
And then the blob turns around, he actually has a sleazy human face, his mean looking eyes searching for its next victim.
And then it's eyes stop at Xie Lian's stall.
Xie Lian, who had been ready to help the young ghost, if he hadn't been able to ward against that blob, let's out a weary sigh.
And this is where my good luck ends , he thinks with a sad pang.
One really could get used to good luck!
The blob wobbles over and almost crashes into his stall. It doesn't speak, just stares at his food. And then, seemingly deciding his meatballs are the best, it reaches out to snatch the whole bowl with a slimy hand and throws all of them in one go into its gullet.
“Hey!” Xie Lian exclaims in clear indignation.
For a moment the ghost only stands there, silent.
And then the next moment it starts trembling, seemingly distressed with the food.
Then, as if suddenly drying out, the ghost starts to flake into dust until nothing remains besides a dark spot in front of Xie Lian's stall.
“Oh. Uhm. Hahaha,” Xie Lian laughs somewhat hysterically at all the starring Ghost City citizens.
Surely they will throw him out of the city now!
But then the spectating ghosts just turn around and ignore what just happened.
…what? Ghost City is a weird place, Xie Lian decides.
Now that his meatballs are all gone though, he needs to cook more soup turned meatballs, so he gets to work.
A shichen later, another ghost approaches his stall. He looks a little shifty and… flat? He's just very flat, but he gives him a smile nonetheless.
“Good Sir,” Xie Lian says,”What can I get for you? And do you want takeout or dine in?”
The ghost looks at his food and zeroes in on the soup, then he looks at the almost done meatballs.
“Actually, I would like all of your soup and the meatballs, when you're done with cooking. Takeout, please.” he replies.
“Certainly, please wait a moment,” Xie Lian replies. He finishes the meatballs and wraps them in paper. Then he pours the soup into the cleaned glass jar he used earlier.
“Thank you so much, until next time,” Xie Lian says with a smile, as he hands him his food in exchange for a, frankly, way too heavy bag of coins.
The ghost smiles a toothy smile at him and leaves.
Ah, business went well today, Xie Lian thinks with a bright smile. He picks up one of his buns and starts to eat.
He hopes business will go well in the next few days too!
🦋
Hua Cheng has many enemies.
One collective enemy would be the whole heavenly realm, after not taking him for what he was, they quickly regretted it after losing 33 Officials.
And then he has countless enemies in demons and ghosts, all eager to wait for one moment of weakness, where they can strike and take his place.
All fools, he thinks.
They should rather try to tackle Mt. Tonglu if they want a place at the peak.
Because they have no chance if not at the power level of a calamity. And even then, he will crush them anyway.
So it's no surprise when he notices something off with his food.
For one, he doesn't really eat, only when the mood strikes him.
For that he has cooks at his very hand and feet, ready to cook whatever he desires at any time.
But he didn't ask for food, which is already suspicious.
When he gets closer, he smells something off and.. are those vegetables in a herbal soup, together with meatballs?
The colour of the soup looks a little too green.
And his cooks know better than to put vegetables into his food.
Next to the bowl stands a wine glass with… wine? No, the colour looks a little weird too.
He sits down in front of the bowl and then casually places his feet on the table.
Behind his chair the doors burst open and his Waning Moon Officer steps in, pulling in at the hair a.. rather flat ghost.
The ghost is wailing pitifully and fighting against Yin Yu's grip, without any success.
He flops up and down like a flag in the wind and shouts, ”Mercy, I just wanted to snoop around a little, I didn't steal anything, I promise!”
Hua Cheng looks at him in mock thought and then motions Yin Yu over.
The ghost is directly thrown to his feet and Hua Cheng smiles at him with the most fake smile he can do.
“Ah, if you were only snooping, then there's no harm done.” He says amicably.
“I would only be a good host, if I share my food with you, though. So please have some.”
Hua Cheng nudges the bowl towards the edge of the table where the ghost stands, trembling in fear.
“N-no my lord, I couldn't possibly inconvenience you any more, I should be on my w–”
“Oh no,” Hua Cheng interrupts him softly, giving the bowl one more nudge.
“I can't have anyone call me a bad host, so please, dig in.”
The ghost is shivering even more now and fails to pick up the spoon thrice.
Then, in a move a normal human would struggle to perceive, he turns around and tries to run – only to end up below Hua Cheng's heel. The ghost's flat ribcage is cracking dangerously under the Ghost King's heel and when he looks up he can only see Hua Cheng's vicious smirk. Next to them the Waning Moon Officer comes closer, the bowl in his hands.
And then the Ghost King lifts up a meatball with his fingers and plops it into three ghost's mouth.
The flat ghost's eyes go impossibly wide and he starts to shake violently.
Then he just disperses into fine ash.
A little awed Hua Cheng stares at the soup dribbling down his fingers?
What in the world is this stuff?
Curiosity wins out and he licks the liquid off his finger – the same moment Yin Yu shouts a surprised, “My Lord?!”
Hua Cheng's eyes go round.
It's good. Unconventional– but good .
The thing is, he had lived on the streets most of his childhood and teenager years, up until his first death.
So scavenging for food was the norm.
And to survive he'd eaten so many unspeakable things. This hadn't gone bad.
The seasonings were very unconventional and… maybe also a little burned. But behind it all he could taste a certain warmth, one could only taste when the food was made with love and passion.
Who made this food?
His head snaps to Yin Yu and even though he wears a mask, he can feel his nervosity radiating from his tense frame alone.
“Find out where he got that food from.” He orders and Yin Yu rushes to comply.
He really hit gold when he took the fallen god in because he was very efficient and didn't ask questions.
Only two hours later he got all informations he needs.
A new stall in the older parts and away from the main road.
A day ago a ghost was assaulting people left and right and the last one was this seemingly harmless food stall. After stealing and eating the food, the ghost dispersed.
So the Ghost King takes a very unassuming and pleasing to the eye appearance and makes to meet this new stall-owner.
He arrives in the old run-down street only a short time later and looks around. There, on the far end of the street is a dilapidated food-stall. He can even smell the food from this far.
All other ghosts give the stall a very wide berth, as if they couldn't take the smell.
Weaklings , Hua Cheng thinks smugly.
He sends a butterfly out so check out the stall before he arrives and then he freezes.
This can not be.
What are the odds?
He checks again through the butterfly and –
It's him.
It's him !
🌸
Today business is bad, Xie Lian thinks a little dejectedly.
Of course his luck wouldn't hold.
Nonetheless , he thinks and straightens, chasing off his pessimistic thoughts, at least I have enough food and even money to get by for at least one week!
That is when another ghost approaches him. The only thing giving away that he's no mere mortal, is his deathly pallor.
But it didn't draw away from his natural beauty. His skin was so fine and his hair…! Maybe even a little too perfect.
In life he must've been a young and rich lordling, his hair looks soft and is bound in a lopsided braid.
His clothes are red and look expensive – unlike many other ghosts in Ghost City.
He hopes this young man can defend himself because there are certainly others who would prey on such a rich looking young man.
Although– There’s something dangerous about the man. The way he holds himself, his bearing.
“Hello,” the man greets him cheerfully and Xie Lian echoes his greetings.
“Yesterday a friend brought me a serving of your amazing food and now I crave more. Do you still have some?”
Xie Lian's eyes widen and then squint into crescent moons, incredibly pleased to have another customer.
The Granny from the restaurant was right, some people really would like his food!
“I do!” He replies quickly and grabs a bowl.
“I also have rice today, do you want some?”
“Sure,” the young man grins and plops down on a chair in front of his stall. He quickly fills the bowl with a generous helping of only slightly burned rice, uses the soup as a sauce and then adds the meatballs on top.
He places the bowl in front of the ghost and hands him chopsticks.
“Here, please enjoy your food!” Xie Lian says with a happy smile.
The ghost takes up his chopsticks, picks up a meatball and places it in his mouth.
He starts chewing and lets out a pleased little sigh.
“Thank you so much gege, I really like your food.” He says after swallowing down the food.
Xie Lian preens at the praise.
“I'm so happy to hear that! I uh… usually hear the opposite,” he confesses with a frown.
The ghost drops his smile.
“Who said that?” he asks with quite a fierce expression on his face.
“Ahahah,” Xie Lian laughs and flaps his hands at the sudden tense mood.
“Just a few people, don't worry about it!”
The ghost doesn't look very happy about it, but drops the topic and suddenly his smile is back.
“Say gege, what are your plans here in Ghost City now? Aren't mortal cities better?” he asks while resting his head on the back of his hand.
Xie Lian smiles faintly at him.
“Say, friend, what can I call you?” he asks instead of answering the ghost's question.
The other blinks at him owlishly for a second before his eyes squint with the force of his smile and he answers, “I was the third son, so gege can call me San Lang.”
“The reason is easy, San Lang. Ever since I came upon this seemingly terrible and evil city, I've been blessed with… mostly good luck.”
And it's true!
That kind restaurant owner?
Finding this stall and house?
Even finding the food!
And.. ah well, not that .
“Mostly, if we ignore that I accidentally dispersed a ghost with my cooking…” Xie Lian mumbles dejectedly.
San Lang sends him an intrigued look.
“I need to know exactly what happened, gege!” San Lang says with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
So Xie Lian tells him the story about the ghost that almost forced themselves on another ghost, just to come over and steal food and then… disperse. And then finally San Lang's friend coming over to buy his food.
San Lang is cackling by the end of the story while Xie Lian sports a pout.
“It isn't that funny San Lang!” he whines.
San Lang tries to compose himself, but fails.
More laughter is spilling from his lips and he's clutching his tummy.
“I'm sorry, gege,” he wheezes.
“It's just, I haven't been entirely honest with you.”
When San Lang sees Xie Lian's mock indignant look, he corrects quickly, “Not about the food, I really think it's delicious!” San Lang continues, “It's just. It wasn't a friend bringing over the food yesterday.”
Xie Lian raises his eyebrows in confusion.
“If not a friend, then why would he bring you food?” Xie Lian asks before his eyes go comically wide.
“Wait, San Lang, don't tell me he was trying to disperse you?!”
San Lang smiles devilishly and nods.
“Yes. But I knew that something was off and fed it to him instead and then that guy dispersed just like the one at your stall.
But my curiosity got me instead and I had to try it too.”
“San Lang, ah! What if it would've dispersed you?!” Xie Lian says, clear worry written on his face.
San Lang laughs a little arrogantly and Xie Lian thinks it suits him.
“Gege,” he says, “ that food is delicious, those ghosts were just weak!”
“Alright, if you say so,” the fallen god agrees easily.
“But Hua Chengzhu must promise me to be more careful in the future. You seem to have many enemies, waiting for any misstep.”
San Lang– no, Hua Cheng, looks at him with wide eyes for a moment, before it morphs into a rueful grin.
He leans in, the lopsided braid sliding slowly over his shoulder to the front.
“What gave me away, gege?”
Xie Lian flusters a little at the close proximity of the handsome ghost and looks away.
“I've never seen a ghost with such a convincing skin.”
And it's true, his skin is flawless, a little bit too perfect even!
And his hair looks so real.
“And aside from that, it makes sense that a calamity like yourself has so many enemies.”
Hua Cheng shrugs with a smile.
“Nothing I can't handle. But say gege, how about I make you an offer?”
Xie Lian is the one who is leaning in this time.
“This street is seedy and I would really enjoy it if I could eat your food more often.
So how about you move in with me? I am offering free quarters and whenever the mood strikes you, you can cook.”
Xie Lian hesitates. He really shouldn't, what if his bad luck strikes and Hua Cheng's house gets destroyed?
“My luck is very bad, San Lang.” he mumbles.
“And my luck is very good, gege. And besides…” Hua Cheng flashes him a winning smile.
“I have an armoury you might like.”
Xie Lian's head snaps up and gone is any sign of hesitation.
“Okay, I would love to!”