The Eight Immortals Asked Me to Join Them for Hot Pot

I’m “Love a Drink,” a modestly famous online personality in Chongqing’s hot pot scene, and I know all the city’s more than ten thousand hot pot restaurants like the back of my hand. One day, an account called “Eight Immortals Cross the Sea 001” sent me a private message: “We’re the Eight Immortals. Want to meet up for hot pot and shoot the breeze?”

When we met, the eight introduced themselves as Li Tieguai, Han Zhongli, Zhang Guolao, Lü Dongbin, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Han Xiangzi, and Cao Guojiu. I thought they were doing cosplay or were theater actors, so I took them to try all the most authentic hot pot in Chongqing. But gradually, I noticed all sorts of odd things. They didn’t sweat a drop while eating hot pot in the middle of summer. When Han Xiangzi played his flute, the river breeze stopped, yet my phone couldn’t record a sound. He Xiangu touched a lotus, and it bloomed and withered in just three seconds. On Mid-Autumn night, the eight of them had no shadows at all...