Chapter 14

Ma and La

‘Could it be?’

Chung, who was sharp, could not help but feel uneasy about the last words her father had left.

A sense of unease that tickled her spine.

It was the same feeling she had when her father was about to do something.

Like when she fell and broke her knee as a child, causing the servant with her to wet herself.

Or when she beat up the person who was whispering about her deformed appearance after the strange illness had struck.

“Our daughter is the most precious treasure in the world to her father.”

Her father’s words, which he used to say like a mantra, echoed in her mind.

‘It can’t be, right?’

But the face of the man who had praised her eyes as beautiful came to mind.

However, Chung knew the reality well.

She knew her face and body, deformed by the strange illness, would naturally repel him.

No matter how much her father pushed, there was no way he would say he liked her.

He must have seen her face in detail last night.

‘It can’t be, right?’

But if he threatened or pressured the man, who was just a commoner, or used the prestige of the Jiega family, who knows what might happen.

The Jiega family, since the time of the martial marquis, has valued the principles of benevolence, righteousness, and harmony, and thus supports the martial world.

In reality, it was a somewhat unique position, even for a martial family.

Of course, they do practice martial arts, but it is just one of many means.

They also accept guests with special talents, not necessarily martial arts, and many have entered the government.

From this perspective, the man was a very precious talent, and his ability to revive the dead was something her father would covet.

His culinary skills, which had satisfied her father’s picky tongue.

And it was obvious that he would want to keep the man close because of her condition.

Even if the man told her the cause of the illness and what precautions to take, her father, who always prepared several plans for any situation, would likely covet him.

After all, having the man close would be the most reassuring.

Lost in these thoughts, she anxiously waited with a restless heart. Then, in the morning, her father entered the room without even knocking, his face unable to hide his joy.

‘Ah!’

Seeing her father’s face, she realized the man had another talent besides cooking and medicine.

The ability to make the head of the Jiega family, who had trained to hide his expressions, so happy was a talent in itself.

Her father, who burst into the room with a joyful face, spoke with an excited voice.

“Chung, I had a talk with that guy, and he says he’s an orphan. I was worried about how to marry you off, but he seems like a really good match. What do you think?”

As expected.

Her father had already decided to make the man her husband.

The wedding would naturally be decided by her father, so her preferences were meaningless.

The only fortunate thing was that she wouldn’t be meeting a stranger for the first time on her wedding day, but rather the man who had risked his life to save her.

And the fact that he had liked her eyes.

Her father was very satisfied, as if something had greatly pleased him.

“Doesn’t he dare to say he admires the martial marquis? I thought it was just flattery, but he can recite the Jiezi Xue by heart. Hahaha! And he seems to really like you. He said you are sharp, and that you inherited the blood of the martial marquis. Ah! And he thought you were a young lady. Seeing that he has good judgment, I’m very pleased.”

Her father, who had been educated to look for deeper meanings in conversations and to read people’s intentions, seemed completely smitten with the man.

‘Didn’t he disperse the medicine he gave me last night with his inner strength?’

And the more unbelievable fact was.

‘Did he really say he liked me? In this state?’

Chung, who had suspected that her father had threatened him and that his words were fabricated, felt a deep sense of guilt when she realized she had doubted his intentions as she held the bowl of porridge he had brought for lunch.

The porridge was so finely made that it felt like water, and even just looking at it, one could feel the effort put into it.

And the words of the servant.

“Miss, your tongue and throat are swollen, so it’s hard to swallow, so he came three times.”

‘He. He did that much?’

And from then on, the porridge and nourishing dishes he brought every few hours.

‘Is he really doing all this for me? Could this be a wild mouse’s wedding (野鼠之婚)?’

Even mice have their matches! Perhaps he was her match.

***

“Miss! Miss!”

Chung snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the servant, who was asking with a very curious face.

“Miss, what’s the content? Please, tell us a little.”

“What’s the content?”

Chung shook her head and slowly read the letter in her hand, her heart pounding. But as she read, her face slowly hardened.

She had thought it was a love letter because it was in a red envelope and given to her directly, but it was only a detailed list of her condition and what precautions to take.

Just as she was about to feel disappointed.

Her father’s voice came from right next to her, by her ear.

Startled, she looked to the side and saw her father leaning in to read her letter.

He must have been unable to resist and was eavesdropping.

After reading the letter, her father said something different.

“To write so detailedly. It seems he was embarrassed and wanted to tell you to take care of yourself.”

‘Is that really it?’

She had a moment of doubt, but the last time she doubted, her father was right. Chung quickly erased her doubt and blushed.

But after reading the letter for a while, her father asked with a doubtful voice.

“But this phrase is a bit strange. What does it mean? Is it a wish for good luck?”

Following her father’s finger, Chung’s eyes slowly read the last line.

“This letter first began in Simu Xian... to bring good luck to the recipient?”

“?”

“?”

***

“Shara ra ra ra. I like it, I like it!”

Was the world this beautiful?

Life with a solid connection was different from yesterday.

The sun was brighter, the sky clearer, and the air cleaner.

A better life than yesterday.

She went to the carpenter to order new chairs and tables and to ask for door repairs.

And she returned to the inn after buying various food ingredients from the market for the first time in a while.

The reason she bought a lot of ingredients even though there were no customers was to practice the dishes she wanted to try when the inn was quiet.

One might wonder why a chef needs to practice cooking, but there’s a reason.

Even though I know and have learned many delicious dishes, there are limits to reproducing them.

The reason for this is the ingredients.

Surprisingly, different ingredients were unavailable in different eras.

For example, in Sichuan, where I am now, Sichuan is known for spicy dishes, and the spicy taste of Sichuan dishes is famous.

Surprisingly, there were no chili peppers!

Sichuan cuisine has a history of 2,000 years, but chili peppers have only been used for 400 years.

So, there were no chili peppers in the Song Dynasty.

‘Sichuan is a liar! Sichuan is a liar!’

When I found out this fact, I couldn’t help but cry out.

Can you imagine?

Sichuan’s famous dish, Ma La Tang, without chili peppers, and Mapo Tofu without chili peppers?

Even doubanjiang without chili peppers?

I couldn’t believe it, so I decided to search the market.

Learning to cook naturally includes learning the history of cooking.

So, while learning the history of cooking, I learned various opinions about the history of chili peppers and started searching the market with a mind to support the non-mainstream opinion.

One of the non-mainstream opinions I studied was that Emperor Huoquan of the Northern Song Dynasty enjoyed eating chili peppers, or that chili peppers were mentioned as a seasoning in the book "Shanjia Qing" by Lin Hong of the Southern Song Dynasty.

But the mainstream opinion that they entered during the late Ming Dynasty was correct.

No matter how hard I searched the market or asked if anyone knew about chili peppers, no one knew or had seen them!

‘I will find Huoquan and Lin Hong and kill them!’

In this cruel martial world, I remembered the names of the two people who had deceived me.

How dare they lie!

Anyway, that’s why there were no chili peppers!

So, I had to practice.

To create a spicy taste with other ingredients.

Since my inn is in Sichuan, I had to practice the spicy taste that the locals love.

Even though most of the customers are travelers, isn’t there such a thing as mood?

“What should I eat today? Since I’m in Sichuan, I should eat something spicy!”

I could see the conversations the customers would have.

So, even if the inn serves simple dishes, they need a bit of spiciness.

Otherwise, how could I do business?

With a determined heart, I took out the spicy ingredients I bought today from the basket one by one.

The ingredients I bought today were Huajiao (Sichuan pepper), Shuyu (Evodia fruit), and Shengjiang (ginger).

Huajiao is the skin of the Sichuan pepper fruit, Shuyu is the fruit of the Evodia tree, and Shengjiang is ginger.

Of course, there was also pepper to create a spicy taste.

I couldn’t buy it, but in the Han Dynasty, one pepper was worth one pearl, and in the Song Dynasty, the price had dropped, but one pearl was still worth a handful of pepper.

The price was so high that I couldn’t afford it.

I looked at the three ingredients I could easily get, excluding the expensive pepper.

First, I took a handful of Huajiao and smelled it.

“Wow... spicy scent”

When I put one on my tongue, it felt like the shock of secretly putting a hard candy in the coin slot of an arcade machine as a child.

The tingling sensation that makes Ma La Tang spicy, the numbing spiciness of Huajiao, tingled on my tongue.

Thinking about the pain the coin slot had to endure to give me one coin, I apologized in my heart for my childhood mischief.

Next, I looked at the next ingredient to find the La.

The reason I say Ma and La is that Sichuan cuisine is based on the harmony of two distinct spicy flavors.

The two spicy flavors are Ma and La.

Ma (numbing) and La (spicy).

So, Ma La Tang means a soup that is numbing and spicy.

Since I already had Huajiao for Ma, I needed La to replace chili peppers.

However, the sad fact is that the spiciness of chili peppers comes from capsaicin, and the only thing that can replace capsaicin is piperine, which is found in pepper.

But if I used pepper to replace chili peppers, it might be better to put half a pearl on each customer’s plate, which I can’t afford.

In other words, it’s not that pepper is expensive, but that I don’t have money...

Money is the truth everywhere, isn’t it?

‘How can I become rich like this?’

Shaking with the price of a handful of pepper...

The thought left a long, strange aftertaste from the numbing spiciness of the Huajiao.