In the subconscious, Lin Luoran thinks what Liao says is impossible.
She doesn’t have the nerve to say that she is familiar with other places but she has been to Penglai herself. People live there. However, there are no cultivators in the country where warriors are highly valued… The stories of immortals are thousands of years ago. Mortals tend to regard cultivators as immortals. If senior cultivators of Gathering Vitality had been to Penglai in Tang Dynasty, there would have been some clues in the mortal world, unless they have not been to the three Kingdoms of Penglai at all.
The times don’t add up.
Lin Luoran refutes Liao but she doesn’t have the time to dig into details. The horse teams from a distance have already arrived in front of the castle.
Besides the Windsor siblings’ horses, the king’s horse is also coming.
Three most important members of the royal family are here and the entire castle is tightly guarded. This is so different from the farewell banquet Lin Luoran imagines. She doesn’t want to hide her dissatisfaction. However, when the King of Nami gets out of the carriage and apologizes gracefully, Lin Luoran’s dissatisfaction disappears in an instant.
Sure enough, no matter how extraordinary her personal ability is, maybe she is still a little citizen in her subconscious mind.
Lin Luoran invites them to take the seat.
Life of Nami nobles is kind of extravagance. The large dining table for banquets is long and wide but Lin Luoran does not choose to use it. Even though it’s a banquet, she does not want people to keep distant.
In the center of the round table, there is a long-necked green-mouthed white porcelain vase with a half-open peach blossom in it. It is charming but not seductive. Windsor II, King of Nami, nods. He is prodigal of praise.
“Is this beautiful bottle from Lady Lin’s hometown?”
Huaxia’s porcelains were once popular throughout Euroe. The appreciation in the eyes of Windsor II is not totally hypocritical. Lin Luoran’s artistic skills enable her to make the pure color and a flowerless porcelain vase. She herself also likes it very much. Hearing the king asking about her hometown, Lin Luoran thinks of many things. She always thinks that what she cares about is the beautiful land of Huaxia in the past. However, now Huaxia is only a piece of scorched land with mutant monsters but she still misses it very much—even Nami Star is picturesque and it has species similar to the earth, it is still not the earth.
Ma Shuangshuang and Han Weiya are serving. Lin Luoran introduces Colin, Ma Yiming, Liao, including cyan little fox to Windsor II. Windsor II acts so perfect and no one can find any mistakes.
Today, a few people work together to cook. The dishes include all kinds of cooking style. Xiaozhi provides the recipe. Living in the military station, this guy has stayed on the earth for many years. He has collected mineral resources while stealing many Huaxia civilization materials… The Alpha Alliance still wants to find a method of “cultivation” from Huaxia’s ancient books. The Alliance really never let go of anything.
Ma Shuangshuang makes kung pao chicken and boiled fish. The chicken was caught in the forest and the fish was caught in the river by her brother Ma Yiming himself. The glowing red color makes Judith swallow, neglecting his father’s watching. He is drooling without any manners.
Ma Yiming is very lazy so he cooks fried steak. Black pepper is not easy to find so he has done some changes to the dish. Although it is still delicious, it has some tastes which are both domestic and foreign, making fried steak a home cooking.
Han Weiya cooks Dongpo meat and West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy which are famous Jiangsu and Zhejiang dishes before the New Era. The Han family’s ancestors lived on the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. These two dishes are also considered as Han Weiya’s expertise.
As for Colin… it is indeed a bit bullying to ask an alien to make dumplings and steam buns. Poor Colin Weir clumsily kneaded the dough last night.
Lin Luoran is mixing dumpling fillings and buns fillings. She believes the taste can make people ignore their irregular shape.
The dumplings are filled with pork cabbage, beef celery, egg leeks, fresh mushrooms, and agaric. The dipping sauce is made with homemade balsamic vinegar. If these are fairly simple, then the Crab Roe Packages can show her sincerity just from how it is made.
Ma Yiming spent almost all night catching crabs on the riverside between the manor and the forest to make a few cages of small steamed buns.
People can get crab roe at any season. However, only female crabs with a round belly have nice crab roe. There are crabs on Nami Star but they are too small. Ma Yiming has to grab a lot to get enough raw materials.
With enough crab roe, Lin adds cooking wine, salt, minced ginger and fries them all together. After beating the eggs, she adds the same volume of water with a little cooking wine, vinegar, and minced ginger. After the crab roe is fried, Lin pours the egg liquid with brown sugar, crushed fungus, and monosodium glutamate to make a crab roe paste. Before making buns, pork bellies adds a soft flavor of oil into the crab roe. What’s more, with green onion to make it more fragrant… the delicacy is the most impressive when people make it attentively. Although the crab roe bun shape is irregular, even Windsor II cannot help eating two of them when they are served in a small bamboo cage.
This meal is suitable for both guests and hosts. Even Liao looks up to Lin Luoran. He doesn’t look wretched anymore and he has a very happy conversation with Windsor II.
In fact, regardless of appearance, Liao, who has been in Huaxia for thousands of years, is really a good talker.
Windsor II talks about the porcelain displayed by Lin Luoran. He can tell the different characteristics of the Five famous kilns of Ru, Ge, Ding, Jun, and Guan in the Song Dynasty. Windsor II talks about how dazzling the blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty is, the peak hollow craftsmanship in the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty “Linglong Porcelain”, and “Rosey Porcelain” during the Kangxi and Qianlong period.
When Windsor II talks about Nami Alliance’s gods, Liao tells vivid stories about the life of the immortals in Huaxia. He talks about how they dress, how they move mountains and seas, and how they eat dew in an extremely lively way.
Windsor II has regarded Liao as his soulmate. Liao has a pug nose and still looks hilarious but he has extensive knowledge. It makes a few young people who have been together with Liao for a few months and familiar with his true face secretly feel pain in the stomach.
“Lady Lin and Mr. Liao’s hometown is really amazing.”
Windsor II, recovering from his illness, rests for a few months without gaining weight owing to his original physical conditions. When he says these words after knowing things from Liao, he sounds really sincere.
Lin Luoran toasts to Windsor II with a glass of wine, “I also hope that one day, when my hometown is restored, you can bring the princess and the third prince to the Alpha Alliance.”
Windsor II readily agrees.
Lin Luoran says that her hometown is only a Rank One member star of the Alpha Alliance. The king with the Nami royal family’s knowledge secretly shakes his head. In the eyes of Windsor II, with the strength of Lin Luoran and the knowledge of Liao, how can their home planet be a Rank One member star forever? The Alpha Alliance has also been downhill in recent years. With a talent like Lin Luoran, her home planet is sentenced to be a Rank One member star—the Alpha Alliance’s ruling high-level executives are really short sighted.
Invasion and colonization are paths which every galaxy alliance must take. However, possession of material cannot unify the alliance. The Nami royal family has learned a lot of experience from thousand years of ruling. Windsor II puts himself in the place of others and he is distracted for a while.
After cleaning up the dishes, Lin Luoran officially says that they are about to leave this planet.
Windsor blinks at Lin Luoran when the king is having a happy conversation with Liao, indicating that their agreement still counts. Lin Luoran laughs without a world. She quietly gives Windsor a compiled book of “The Secret History of Zetian”—Alliance and Huaxia’s ancient feudal empire have similarities but the alliance is more open. What Windsor needs to learn is not merely the ruthlessness of Queen Zetian.
Judith feels very reluctant and Ma Shuangshuang comforts him, “There is an old saying in our hometown, friends must part. If you get spare time in Nami Star, you can come to the earth to visit us.”
Judith keeps the coordinates mentioned by Ma Shuangshuang in mind.
Three days later, Lin Luoran leads everyone to the Satellite No. 1 star. The Edward is filled with fuel now.
Princess Windsor and Prince Judith are here to see people off in this starship which is not very lavish. If someone knows this news, the Edward will be much safer on its university journey. There are few people like the Hidal family who openly plot the royal family of the Nami Alliance. After all, Nami Star has controlled the alliance for many years. Its strength is far beyond an alliance with several unified planets. It has the most advanced technology and the strongest army, enough to deter thieves and rascals.
Waving to the Windsors, Lin Luoran looks at Derek, a red-haired young man who is a little shy.
“Anyway, the barbecue restaurant has already been sold to you and you have got a lot of chilies seeds. Derek, do you still have no confidence in yourself?”
Derek shakes his head. “Will you guys come back?”
It is late at night and the stars are scattered like chess pieces in the night sky. Lin Luoran squints her eyes and looks at the distant stars.
She can’t answer Derek’s question. Will she come back? When she finds her families one day, she will take them on an interstellar trip. However, she is uncertain about cultivators’ long life span. When she visits Nami Star again, the red-haired young man will be a rickety old man… or maybe he will have been dead at that time?
Lin Luoran smiles at Derek and avoids this question.
Several people are sitting on the airship which is slowly rising. The starship has already warmed up. Among the people coming to see them off, Judith is yelling, waving, and sweating profusely.
As an old Huaxia proverb often says, friends must part. Its counterpart is “fate may bring them together again”.
Lin Luoran thinks of these words and smiles expectantly.
Fate may bring us together again. Goodbye, Nami.
