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Xie Lian had waited a year for San Lang to return, and now that he had the other back in his embrace, he found it nearly impossible to let go even for a few hours. Xie Lian still had duties in heaven, and San Lang still had duties in hell, but that didn’t make their required separations any harder.
So they agreed, every day they would have dinner together. Whether it be a restaurant of unique cuisine in Ghost City, or a mortal delicatessen, whatever dinner there was to be had, it would be had together.
Today while Xie Lian waited at PuQi shrine, he thought of where the two could go,
‘San Lang always treats me these days, I want to get him something, but what?’ Xie Lian didn’t have much beyond himself, and while San Lang wouldn’t mind at all, he refused to serve himself as a meal.
‘I could try and cook something, but I don’t know if I could make something good enough, something fit for San Lang…’
While Xie Lian racked his brain for what to make, he heard the characteristic creaks of PuQi shrine as someone walked across its front porch,
“San Lang!” Xie Lian called out as he jumped up, running out the cloth door of his shrine.
Xie Lian burst through the cloth, jumping out like a jack-in-the-box, spun quite a few too many times. He wrapped his arms around San Lang as he collided with a force so strong if San Lang wasn’t a ghost king he would most certainly have been floored.
San Lang quickly embraced Xie Lian back, gently spinning side to side as he did, “Oh how I missed you when I was gone GeGe,”
Xie Lian loosened his grip to lean back and look up at San Lang, “I missed you too, San Lang,” Xie Lian stood up on his toes and gave his husband a quick peck, it wasn’t much for a married couple, but little things like this still made San Lang blush.
He had waited eight hundred years, after all, he was allowed to enjoy the little things. He was allowed to feel new in this relationship. He was finally allowed to be happy.
Xie Lian had relaxed back onto the heels of his feet after giving his husband a simple peck, but that was nowhere near enough for San Lang who wrapped his arm around Xie Lian and pulled him up into a kiss.
He wrapped his other hand around Xie Lian’s head, gently caressing the back of the other’s head as he deepened the kiss.
Xie Lian wrapped both of his hands around San Lang’s torso, crossing them in the back, pulling San Lang close to him, close enough for the other to never escape, to never leave Xie Lian again.
Xie Lian felt like he was suffocating in San Lang’s embrace like he should be gasping for air rather than being kissed, but he didn’t need to. San Lang’s kiss gave him oxygen, it gave him life. And he wasn’t suffocating, he was being swaddled, being loved.
When San Lang finally loosened his hold on Xie Lian’s hip and let the other down, Xie Lian looked up at him with a smile and a face flushed pink. Xie Lian leaned up and gave San Lang one final peck, before leading the other back inside of PuQi shrine. The emptiness of waiting that once was in Xie Lian’s heart had been filled by the boundless love San Lang had for him and that he had for San Lang.
As Xie Lian sat down on the bed mat of his shrine, San Lang sat down right next to him, laying his head in Xie Lian’s lap,
“What would GeGe like to have for dinner today?” He asked looking up at Xie Lian, he was too damn cute.
“You always get dinner for me, I wanted to get you dinner tonight,” Xie Lian said, gently playing with San Lang’s hair while he spoke.
“How about you make something here in PuQi then? Its been so long since you made us dinner, I miss your cooking,” San Lang’s face was now beaming as he looked up at Xie Lian.
“You missed my cooking? It was never that good though?” Humble as always, though it isn't being humble if it is true.
“It’s not the taste that matters, it’s that GeGe made it for me. I like anything GeGe does, especially if you do it for me.” San Lang batted his eyes up at Xie Lian,
‘I guess he really wants me to cook for him… how sweet,’
“But I don’t want to just make a dish for you that you like because I made it, I want to make a dinner for you that is truly good.” Xie Lian was earnest in this, he wanted to do something properly for San Lang, the other had done so much for him, so he wanted to give back in any small way he could.
“Well then let’s make the dish together, but I’ll only help, you take the lead. You always make such unique dishes with such fun names!” San Lang stood up as he spoke, lending a hand down to Xie Lian before he continued, “Let’s go into town and get some things for soup before it gets to late,”
Xie Lian took San Langs's hand and let himself be pulled up, but San Lang’s help came at a price. As he pulled up Xie Lian, he wrapped his arms around Xie Lian's waist once more and pulled the other into a kiss. This was a price Xie Lian was willing to pay, no, he was glad to pay it.
It was an incense time before the two began towards town in earnest, they couldn’t resist each other while in PuQi shrine, a fact which made leaving the shrine quite an arduous task.
When the two finally did leave, they left with San Lang carrying a woven basket Xie Lian had made recently in one hand, and he held Xie Lian’s hand in the other.
Xie Lian had originally been the one holding the basket, but San Lang insisted he carry it. After all, Xie Lian would be cooking him dinner with whatever they put in the basket, so San Lang carrying it was the least he could do.
As the two reached the market they were quickly surrounded by villagers overjoyed to see them, well, to see ‘Xiao Hua’. It wasn’t that they didn’t like their local Daoist, but rather that he was a common sight, and Xiao Hua was a rarer find. Now that Xie Lian and San Lang spent most of their time together within PuQi shrine or ghost city, the villagers rarely saw him out and about helping them like he used to.
“Xiao Hua! You look so skinny! Here here, come have some of this,”
“Xiao Hua! Here, my daughter just made some dinner, come have some!”
And many many other calls of the same vein rang out in their ears, young ladies and mothers were all trying to catch Xiao Hua, Xie Lian had already told them San Lang was married, but they seemed to forget every time they saw him.
San Lang initially didn’t react to the calls of the women, but when he noticed Xie Lian’s face, a face covered with jealousy, he forced himself to interact with the riff-raff. “I’m sorry, but GeGe is making dinner today, we are just here for ingredients.”
Upon hearing this most of the women shut their mouths, but their silence was barely appreciated before the calls of stall owners rang out, promoting the goods they had. There were far fewer shop owners than women throwing themselves at San Lang, but they somehow managed to be twice as loud as the previous group.
“Xiao Hua, Daoist Xie! Come look here! I have the freshest produce in this town! Cabbage to potato, I’ve got it all!”
“Freshest in town? I’ve got the freshest food this side of the Yellow River! Daoist Xie, Xiao Hua!! Come try my produce!”
Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so instead he ignored their calls and looked at the stalls on the street, “San Lang, this stall has lentils, how about a lentil soup?”
“Soup sounds nice! Warm and comforting,”
‘Warm and comforting, that’s how I see you, San Lang. You’re my lentil soup’.
San Lang proceeded to go buy a small bag of lentils, Xie Lian tried to purchase them, but San Lang wouldn’t let him get anywhere close, “I’ll pay, GeGe is cooking tonight, you go find the other ingredients you will need.”
So Xie Lian went and found the other ingredients he wanted, onion, bean paste, garlic, white and black pepper, cumin, and a few exotic-looking fruits he found. One was a reddish short-looking eggplant-like fruit called a tomato. The other was a pear-shaped ‘fruit’ with a leathery exterior. They certainly looked strange, but strangeness had never avoided Xie Lian’s cooking before now so why should he stick to normal?
Xie Lian tried to pay for these ingredients but only managed to pay for a handful before Xiao Hua swooped in and footed the bill. It was generous, infuriating, and irresistibly cute. Xie Lian wanted to kiss San Lang to distract the other enough to let him pay, but they were in public, and the villagers of PuQi might not be able to handle such a sight.
So Xie Lian waited a painful few minutes before they finished shopping and were well on their way back to his shrine before he gave San Lang a quick peck on the cheek. The other blushed as he smiled at Xie Lian,
“GeGe, you can’t even wait till we get home?”
“Don’t blame me! You aren’t innocent, acting too cute and kind in the market!” Xie Lian protested laughing as they walked, he didn’t know how he ever survived the moments without San Lang.
When they reached Xie Lian’s shrine, they barely had set their feet over the threshold before Hua Cheng leaned down and kissed Xie Lian. It wasn’t a deep embrace like earlier, but still tender, still a moment to be cherished.
Xie Lian then began unpacking their ingredients on the table and started to prepare them, setting RuoYe to work chopping as he peeled the garlic.
“GeGe, how can I help?”
“Let me make dinner for you, I’ll only let you taste test okay? You can help me by letting me know what to add, but I want to make it for you,”
“What ever GeGe wants,” San Lang said as he took a seat at Xie Lian’s measly table, leaned back in his chair, and watched as Xie Lian began to cook.
Xie Lian pulled out his big pot, his only pot really, and went to fill it with water by the stream. When he came back RuoYe had finished his cutting, wrapped itself into a small coil, and now lay on the ground next to where E Ming sat.
‘They really take after us, don’t they?’ Xie Lian chuckled before he turned his attention to the task at hand. He had a hungry husband waiting at the dinner table, and still no dinner to serve. This was a crisis demanding his immediate and full attention!
He quickly got to work rinsing the lentils, cleaning off any dust on them, and separating any small pebbles trapped in their midst. He then dumped the water out of the window before filling his pot with a little bit of oil, garlic and a lot of onion. Xie Lian loved onion, hopefully, San Lang did too.
Lighting his stove, Xie Lian got to work sauteing the ingredients to the best of his meagre abilities. When they started to brown slightly he took this as a sign to move on to the next ‘step’ in the recipes he made up along the way. He added the bean paste and some spices to the saute. Cumin, crushed pepper, and salt were all he had, so he added them all.
Common logic would dictate that one add a stock to your soup, whether it be bone broth, chicken stock or vegetable stock. But Xie Lian had none of those, so he rather added some water and mixed vegetables into the pot, ‘Same Difference, right?’ he thought to himself as he cooked. One of the vegetables he added to make his stock was a carrot Xie Lian thought bore a striking resemblance to Mu Qing, though he could never tell Mu Qing that.
He hadn’t tasted anything yet, but this dish already smelled better than his usual cuisine, if you could even call it that.
After letting the vegetables soak into the water he added for a little while, he added the tomato, the leathery ‘pear’ which was somehow green inside. He now finally added the lentils into the soup, the star of the dish.
“San Lang, come try this,” Xie Lian called out, cautious optimism filling himself, he watched closely as San Lang took the spoonful full of the watery soup and took a taste,
San Lang smiled ear to eat, “This is much better than previous! I’m impressed GeGe!”
Xie Lian’s cheeks flushed a slight pink, “Thank you, but is there anything else I should add? I made it after all, it couldn’t be perfect.”
“It could use a little more onion, and maybe a little more salt, but beyond that, just let the soup simmer and we will have a beautiful dinner!”
“Okay okay, go sit now, I’ll finish the soup.
After adding the suggested ingredients, and mixing the soup all together a bit more, Xie Lian gave the soup another slight taste. He decided the soup was ready to simmer for a while, so Xie Lian went and sat down next to San Lang.
“How does it smell?” he asked. Xie Lian was a little worried, but also strangely confident in his cooking after only receiving minor criticism on San Lang’s taste test.
“It smells perfect GeGe,” San Lang replied, “What is today’s dish called?”
Xie Lian laughed a little as he answered, “Juicy Lentil Soup (多汁扁豆湯)”
“What’s that name from?” San Lang asked, he couldn’t help but laugh as well, it was a name very fitting for a dish Xie Lian made.
“Well when I added the Lentils into the soup it looked very juicy, so it seemed like a fitting name,”
“But won’t the water simmer off and leave the soup more condensed?”
“See but that’s when the lentils look juicy rather than being surrounded by juice, hopefully, I’m not too sure really” Xie Lian laughed, “I’m too tired today to make the soup a fancy name, so I just stated what I saw,”
“Why is GeGe so tired today? What did you work on while I was gone?”
“Nothing really,” Xie Lian replied with a soft smile, “It’s just that while I am waiting for you, it takes a lot of energy for me not to run straight into Ghost City and find you.”
San Lang smiled as he scooted his chair closer to Xie Lian’s and pulled Xie Lian into a hug, “It hurts me to leave you, all day I just want to hold you, to unfold you,”
“Unfold me? San Lang!” Xie Lian jested. As much as he joked he loved moments like this, he liked it whenever San Lang would profess his love for Xie Lian, no matter how strange the language he used to do it was. It came from San Lang, and it was meant for him, that was all that mattered.
The two of them just sat like that for a while, Xie Lian leaning into San Lang’s soft embrace. San Lang would caress Xie Lian’s shoulder, and Xie Lian would trace over the butterflies on San Lang’s varambraces. It was a peaceful little while, it was a little while spent together.
Xie Lian only moved from San Lang’s arms when the other reminded him, “Shouldn’t you go check on your soup?”
“Ahh!” Xie Lian cried out as he jumped up and ran over to his pot, as he stood above the pot he could smell it, and it was amazing. “San Lang, try it again!”
San Lang walked over and tried a small mouthful of the soup, it was really good, and not just ‘I love GeGe, so I love anything he makes’ good, but it was actually good. With San Lang’s help, Xie Lian had made a dish not just passable, but genuinely delicious. San Lang hadn’t been more proud in so long, “It’s delicious GeGe, truly. It’s the perfect dinner made by my perfect husband.”
But as much as San Lang’s advice did help Xie Lian’s cooking, and as much as the pressure of cooking for his husband helped as well. The real factor that changed the success of Xie Lian’s dish was the luck he had. Xie Lian had so much luck as with each kiss the shared with San Lang, a little luck slipped over into him.
It was a fact neither of them knew, but in reality what made the dish today so delicious was the love they had for each other. Love that manifested in the subconscious transfer of luck. Luck manifested into a good soup, which in turn manifested more love in the hearts of these two husbands if their hearts could even hold more love.
Xie Lian served them both a bowl of soup as he garnished each with a few rings of purple onion, and roughly chopped green onion. He sat down next to San Lang at the table as the two of them dug into their dinner.
It was a great soup, and while Xie Lian had probably had tastier dishes in his life, this was the best meal. A meal is a process, an experience, and the process of making this dish with his beloved, and the experience of getting to eat the meal side by side with that same beloved elevated this dish. It took the dish beyond its status already comfortably resting at delicious, and skyrocketed the meal into a truly divine moment.
This wasn’t a day they would soon forget, a day they would ever forget. In truth, none of the days they spent together would ever be forgotten by either, as each cherished the other more than the other. But this day would be truly special. Today was A day of joy, of time spent together, of a delicious meal and the best company with which to share that meal.
Once they both finished their meal San Lang looked at Xie Lian with those childish eyes characteristic of his skin as San Lang, “Thank you GeGe, I loved this meal, thank you,”
Xie Lian just leaned into San Lang’s shoulder, “I love you San Lang, so don’t ever leave me again okay? Never for more than a day?”
“I’ll never leave you, I’ll never put you down.” San Lang said as he wrapped his arm around Xie Lian, “I’m sorry I let you down GeGe,”
This caused Xie Lian to burst upright, “Let me down!? San Lang I’m not mad at you, I know you did what you had to, but I just want that to never happen okay? I don’t blame you, I just missed you so much, okay? I waited with a stake in my heart for you, but that wasn’t your fault, I just need to hold on tighter to you from now on,”
San Lang just smiled at Xie Lian, the infallible Ghost King was tearing up. He always gave such grand professions of love to Xie Lian with a smile on his face, but as soon as he received one it was too much for his ghastly heart.
Xie Lian just leaned back in and squeezed San Lang close, “I’ll never let you go again okay? It’s me who will never put you down, It’s me you will never let you fall apart,”
“Thank you- GeGe” Was all San Lang uttered before the two enjoyed each other’s embrace long into the night. Everything was alright because they were together, everything would always be alright when they were together.