The Kitchen God’s Feast [Supernatural Road Trip]

Updates at 9 p.m. every night. As of 9/19: Red Seeds (9) Volume One: Snowbound Changbai Platform: Complete Red Seeds: Updating Open the Coffin: Drafting The Headman: Drafting Bai River: Drafting 【Supernatural road trip + Chinese folk customs + a touch of ensemble cast】 Zhou Zhiyao is probably the unluckiest Taoist priest in the world. Not only has she lost her master, she's also plagued by nightmares and can't sleep peacefully at night. A mysterious commission comes her way, and the client even carries her master's aura. To uncover the truth, she's forced to travel far away. Not a single person traveling with her is normal: Zheng Yuanfei, her boss, works in the high-risk field of folklore studies. He attracts ghosts and is afraid of them; his only superpower is being incredibly rich. The whole way, he pours tea and runs errands for her, as if he enjoys paying to be someone's servant. Ji Youci claims to be the finest spirit medium in the Northeast, yet there's only one spirit in her retinue. While others summon spirits to duel, she fights hand to hand with a whip, shedding tears as she lashes people. Zhou Zhiyao is left gaping at her. Chen Zhiqing, the traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who is also her senior fellow disciple, is someone she's never met before. He's a benevolent, savior-like doctor, but inexplicably allergic to spirit mediums. With a spirit whispering in Zhou Zhiyao's left ear and her senior disciple scoffing in her right, her temples throb with worry. The Kitchen God's old recipe book implicates several families, and a handful of stove ashes bind the fates of the group together. Zhou Zhiyao can't run away fast enough. Changbai Mountain, snow stretching to the horizon. A fire reveals old bones in the Old Headman's shrine. Beneath the ice of the Seven-Bend Bai River, dark red currents surge, and a hidden power of sin rises to the surface. The North China Plain, vast with yellow earth. Locust blossoms drift down over a town built on a tortoise's back. At the third watch of the night, gongs and drums sound by themselves. From the village opera stage comes the quavering sound of singing, and at its center stands a familiar face from her nightmares. The rust-colored land of Shu, where a bronze tree reaches for the sky. Leaves engraved with ancient bird-script hang from its branches. Each one is a shaman's tongue, and the entire forest tells the same history. Paper figures on a green train, a mountain god hosting a grand wedding banquet, mirages in the desert wastelands… Zhou Zhiyao travels south, crossing mountains and fording rivers. She eats a bowl of rice and hears a story, resolves a grudge and repays a debt. Her master waits at the end of the journey. The old stove fire burns brightly, and the water in the pot boils as something bobs up and down. Zhou Zhiyao looks down and sees only her own face. 【A flirtatious, scheming ghost-attracting man × a high-offense, low-defense Taoist woman】 A reader's guide: 1. The story is entirely fictional, with a world of my own creation. It includes folk customs and fantasy elements, so please don't mistake it for reality. 2. The leads have no past partners. The woman is stronger than the man. It contains plenty of male-female romance, and the male lead isn't just a background character. 3. Please add the story to your collection, leave comments, and point out typos, but kindly don't give me writing advice. 4. May you find success wherever you go, gain what you seek, and have your wishes come true. Theme: See the mountains, see the waters, see all living things