Five thousand floating spirit-lanterns bathed the grand gravel courtyards of the Palace of Versailles in warm amber light, turning the historic royal estate into an open-air feast worthy of an immortal sect.
Long mahogany banquet tables stretched from the gilded Honor Gate all the way to the marble fountains. Instead of cold caviar or pretentious foam appetizers, ten massive bronze cauldrons billowed with fragrant white steam at the center of the courtyard.
Behind the central cauldron stood Grandma Chen [Goodness: 98 / 100], proudly wearing her newly altered two-hundred-thousand-spirit-stone diamond haute-couture evening gown as a kitchen apron. Two deep front pockets had been stitched across the starlight-silk skirt by Master Jean-Paul himself, holding her bamboo tasting spoons, ginger graters, and white pepper shakers.
“Come, children, don’t be shy!” Grandma Chen called out, her voice ringing warmer than the Parisian winter breeze as she ladled steaming bowls of broth for the three hundred Alpine orphans. “These shrimp wontons were wrapped with spirit-wheat flour and simmered with thousand-year nine-leaf ginseng and snow-lotus stems grown by Little Han Shan [Goodness: 95 / 100]! Eat three bowls each so your fingers never feel cold in the winter again!”
At the long tables sat Sister Clara [Goodness: 98 / 100], twenty-one-year-old master watchmaker Lukas [Goodness: 93 / 100], and his First Elder Uncle Hans Gerber [Goodness: 86 / 100]. Newly appointed Paris Haute-Couture President Amelie [Goodness: 91 / 100] sat right beside them. Around them cheered three hundred orphans in fluffy snow-white vicuna coats and…
