040. FIRE, WATER

Uncle was screaming … with laughter.

It worked!

Uncle was laughing now! The funny feelings worked!

He was laughing so hard he’d sat down on the floor, pounding his flaming knees with his fists as he wheezed with scream-laughter.

“You dare! Ha! Ha! Good! Good! Good!”

“Liu Baozi! Stop that!” His father tried to take the red block from him, but Liu Baozi chomped down hard on the block, refusing to release it. “Stop burning your uncle’s pajamas!”

Why? Why stop? Wasn’t Uncle finding it funny?

“It’s fine!” Uncle was crying again but still laughing—laughing and crying at the same time. Very strange. “This Seat’s robes are Rank Nine! I don’t feel a thing!”

“Why are your pajamas Rank Nine!?”

“Oh, my recipes now try to kill me when I sleep. Just let him—he’ll wear out before my robes do. At last, a Liu with ambition! At last, we’ll crush every ant that’s surnamed Liang!”

Uncle sounded happy. The red block felt happy too.

Liu Baozi was very pleased.

Also, suddenly, incredibly tired.

He yawned and lay down.

The steam misting from the walls of his crib thickened and settled over him, taking on the weight of a down blanket. Steam was so comfortable, always so comfortable, steam gave the nicest, most super best feelings …

***

“Nuan! Nuan! Nuan!”

Ming Shi snapped back to the present.

A’Nuan had hopped onto the open book in his hands and now stood atop its pages wielding a ginseng root like a fencing sword.

It was comical. She’d pressed the root against her stubby cloth arm, clearly using her Intent to move it rather than applying any actual grip. But she was committed to the illusion, and her whole body swayed with the motion as she poked his nose repeatedly with the ginseng.

“Nuan!” She brandished a long sprig of sage in her other “hand,” waving it like an exorcist’s whip.

“Sorry,” Ming Shi said, blinking away the memory fog. “Got lost for a moment there.”

She made a stern brewing sound and pointed at the page with the sage, then at him, then back at the page. The ginseng poked him again for emphasis.

“Nuan!”

He got the distinct feeling he was being accused of procrastination.

“I’m not!” he protested. “This was child’s play to me once, you know! I used to …”

He trailed off. A’Nuan’s dot eyes conveyed the most skeptical expression he’d ever seen on embroidered features.

“I used to juggle five building blocks at once,” sighed Ming Shi, “without even thinking about it. Now I’m learning how to pick up a single block. Which, believe it or not, is something I never had to study. I just did it. We all did. Like how native speakers never learn how to speak their own language—they just do. My education started with the Sky Steaming Stance, which assumed the picking up of blocks the way you assume breathing. What I studied was complicated juggling routines, how to throw other things into the mix, how to do somersaults while …”

A’Nuan only looked more dubious.

“Never mind,” Ming Shi said, patting her leafy herb-hair. “You’re right. Let’s study.”

She nodded with satisfaction and slid off the book to settle back onto his lap. Still, she kept the ginseng root and sage out.

“Nuan!” she said one more time. Meaning, obviously, no dusty wool-gathering or face the cleansing herbs!

“Yes, Master.” Ming Shi chuckled.

FIRE
The Transformer

When most beginners think of cooking, they think of fire first. Sure, fire is very dramatic and cool. But fire cultivation goes much further than just heating things up.

[“Like up your sleeves if you’re not careful!” - UndefeatedWokLord

“Or into your eyebrows!” - FlameBrain

“Or BOTH” - FuturePeakMaster99

“We get it, everyone burns themselves. Moving on!” - ActuallyTryingToStudy]

Ming Shi touched his own eyebrows reflexively. Still there. Not deleted by the Dao. Small victories.

Fire is transformation itself: the bridge between what is and what could be. The master of the Steady Flame Path understands that fire is not a thing but a movement.

Hm. Ming Shi grinned. Yes, I suppose that’s true.

The five Primary blocks he’d played with as a child had all wanted to move, in their own way. They’d each possessed their own sort of perpetual motion. But it was undeniable that the red block moved in the most movement-embodying way, with its warm tickles.

The red block was movement, unencumbered. As opposed to the blue block which moved with a carrying-feel, and the green block that moved with a scent-blooming-feel …

A’Nuan poked him.

“I was engaging critically with the text by way of lived experience!” he protested.

“… Nuan,” she said begrudgingly. Fine.

Fire is always consuming while being consumed. It is ravenously greedy, yet it exhausts itself in giving. This multi-existence as both the catalyst and the changed, the creator and the created, is what informs the food of a Steady Flame Path master.

Understand the liminal aspects of food and flame, and you will understand how to tell an infinity of stories with your cuisine—to reach and move the hearts of all who taste your food.

…and also how to set your uncle’s robes on fire, thought Ming Shi. Did Uncle hold a grudge this whole time, perhaps? But he never—“Hey!”

A’Nuan had popped up and slapped him with the sage. “Nuan!” she exclaimed. Clean thoughts! Stay clean!

“Sorry, sorry,” said Ming Shi. “Yes, I agree, psychological repression keeps the emotional mess contained. Shall we continue?”

PRACTICAL EXCERCISE

Next time you’re stir-frying, don’t besiege your ingredients like a warlord. Feel how the fire wants to rise and dance, how it hungers for fuel and air while reveling in the light and heat it throws. Work with that movement instead of trying to force it. Your flame will burn cleaner, your food will cook more evenly, and you won’t waste half your fuel.

Again, true. Ming Shi nodded.

Liu Baozi had a toy kitchen as a toddler, and the stove was feisty. Sometimes the flame came instantly, sometimes it sulked and needed coaxing. He’d thought that sensing its moods was just part of the game and he delighted in it. By the time he moved on from the toy kitchen, it had become an unconscious habit to be in conversation with his fire.

[“Speaking of wasting fuel...has anyone ever tried manifesting flame with Sugar-qi?” - Sweet Lin

“Tian Lin, cultivating Elevated techniques is NOT permitted in the Lower District without a license!” - CulinaryPolice

“Excuse you, I am now a RESPECTED MIDDLE DISTRICT BUSINESSWOMAN.” - HoenyPhoeneix

“Who still can’t resist adding notes to the beginner’s guide” - CulinaryPolice

“I’m encouraging INNOVATION!” - HoneyPhooenix

“You’re encouraging trauma.” - CulinaryPolice]

Remember: fire corresponds to the bitter flavor. This isn’t just poetry—try burning something and taste that bitterness. Understanding this consequence is key to mastering heat control.

[“Learn the rules to break them! Bittersweet is a thing!” - HoneyPhoenix

“Can you leave margin space for those of us who still live here, please?” - NewTenantCooking

“NEVER!!! I pay extra rent just to keep adding notes!!!” - HoneyPhoinex

“... I can’t tell if she’s joking” - NewTenantCookingHelp

“She’s not. I have receipts.” -LandladyZhang]

Ming Shi snorted. He had to admit a certain relief that this infamous Honey Phoenix (or Phoinex, Phoenix, Phoonix, Phoeneix, et cetera, depending on her levels of agitation) had graduated to the Middle District before he’d moved in. Her margin notes had the manic energy of a cultivation technique fueled by spirit-Ranked Red Bull, if that existed.

He had a feeling that all those “Thou Shalt Not” rules posted in Madam Zhang’s hallways had a lot to do with her experiments.

“Nuan!” bubbled A’Nuan affirmatively.

WATER
The Governor

The characters rippled across the page, and Ming Shi couldn’t help but run his fingers over them. They came away damp.

You think fire’s the most important element? Try cooking without water. No broths, no soups, no steaming, no braising. Even your “dry” dishes need moisture. Water is the messenger that carries every other flavor. Without it, your spices would be painful dust.

[“Everyone thinks they want to be a Steady Flame Path cultivator until they meet their first soup master” - SoupremacyNow

“Supreme. It’s written Supreme.” - ImmortalWord

“Who pissed in your tea today, you humorless hater of puns? Do you also hate rainbows and soup-based Kitchen Spirits?” - SoupremacyNow]

Water is the governor of dissolution and combination. It corresponds to the salty flavor and through it all flavors flow. A cultivator who has mastered the water element can extract the essential tastes from any ingredient, combine flavors in perfect harmony, and dictate sensation through moisture with the lethality of a poet choosing words. Distillation and synthesis, extraction and diffusion, the master of Water is the ultimate kingmaker, able to place a single flavor on the throne or enjoin a thousand flavors in revolution.

Huh. The governor. The kingmaker. They personify Water so forcefully down here.

Of course, he knew Water was powerful. All Elements were powerful. This was obvious.

But Water always made me feel sort of … hmmmmm …

Ming Shi thought of his blue block. He’d always considered it the nice one. Soothing, flowing, smoothing the frowns from his forehead with cool, light touches, carrying his frustrations away.

Meanwhile, if he sought out the feeling of power in the raw, dictatorial sense, it was Steam-qi that always felt the most powerful to him—more forceful than any Primary.

Yet, he realized, even if the blue block had never felt the most powerful to him, perhaps it was most empowering, in the way it had balanced the essence of his infant qi when he was having baby deviations.

The governor. The kingmaker, even. Huh.

Come to think of it, the Liu family’s Steam cultivation had harnessed this aspect of Water without conscious acknowledgment.

Actually, Uncle once explicitly said we should change our—ah, but then Mother got upset—

“Nuan!”

“Sorry,” said Ming Shi. “Yup. No shady Uncle-thoughts. Just nice, clear-headed studying.”

PRACTICAL EXERCISE

Before you try any Water cultivation techniques, do this: hold a sip of tea or broth on your tongue. Feel how the liquid wants to move, how it carries dissolved essences, how it yearns to combine with other ingredients. That sensation, young Water chef, is what you must become.

Oh … that’s what it was, eh?

Liu Baozi’s toy kitchen had required him to wash his hands at the pump and swish and swallow three mouthfuls of water before any equipment would unlock.

Now he realized it had been training his toddler tongue in precisely this exercise so that as an adult he’d begin all his cooking the same way: waking his hands and palate to the possibility of flavor.

[“Tip: If your tea starts feeling your tongue back, you’ve gone too far” - TeaWhisperer

“Or not far enough!” - SoupremacyNow

“Ew. Gross. Someone call the culinary police.” - Sweet Lin

“Forget soup, Grandmaster Chun once extracted the essence of spring from morning dew on tea leaves!” - TeaWhisperer

“Speaking of dew on tea... what do we think of the Jade Leaf scandal?” - TeaSpill

 “Treason. You mean treason.” - ImmortalWord

“SCANDAL is right! The evidence was too perfect! The Meis were obviously framed!” - JusticeForJadeLeaf

“There were thirty eye-witnesses who saw the Jade Leaf Princess prepare the tea with poisoned spirit-dew.” - CulinaryPolice

“Sorry, were you one of them?” - SoupremacyNow

“Yeah, this just means there are thirty other suspects who could have caused the Crown Prince Consort’s qi-deviation!” - ZenChef420]

Ming Shi sucked in a breath. It looked like opinions about the Jade Leaf scandal in the Lower District were as divided as they were in the Upper District. Personally, he agreed with ZenChef420. From his understanding of the Jade Leaf Teahouse, poisoning the Crown Prince Consort was completely at odds with their Dao.

But there were those who argued that the Jade Leaf Dao made them the perfect poison assassins.

Has Xiaoye seen these comments? Could one of them be hers?

“Nuan!” A’Nuan covered the margin notes with her sage sprig and shook her head—her whole body—with agitation. She was manifestly upset with the topic of discussion. This was unsurprising. A’Nuan was born from the accumulated Cleansing-Intent of three thousand detoxifying medicinal soups. Reading a bunch of gossip about a salacious poisoning was probably making Ming Shi taste terrible.

Especially since it was making him remember the terrible mass execution that followed. A’Nuan was likely tasting his memory of watching the whole Mei clan drink poison and die. Ming Shi felt a wave of nausea. He wasn’t sure if it was his own reaction or A’Nuan’s Intent affecting him. Both, probably.

Still there were a few more margin comments he hadn’t yet read.

“I’ll read quickly, I’ll be quick.” Ming Shi nudged the sage sprig aside.

Or tried to.

Something whipped across his vision in a blur and came down in a sting on his nose.

“Ow!” Ming Shi’s eys flinched shut as the blow of the sage sprig landed.

He opened to discover A’Nuan floating directly in front of his face, her embroidered features transformed.

“Nuan.” Her voice was flat. The cheerful curve of her stitched smile had inverted into a decidedly displeased frown. Her bubbling purr had escalated to a rolling boil that sounded like a long, constant growl. Heat radiated from her small form.

Wait. No. She’d grown bigger. She was definitely a medium now.

Old Man Zhen’s words echoed in Ming Shi’s memory as she pressed in closer, until she was right up against his nose.

Kitchen Spirits are fickle. Never forget that.