BUBBLE-BUBBLE-SIZZLE!
Across thirty newly warmed galaxies—from the grand central plazas of the Milky Way Spiral Arm all the way to the smallest outer-rim moons of Galaxy #30—twenty billion red lanterns lit up the starry sky at once!
It was the night of the First Galactic Winter Hot-Pot Festival.
On fifty thousand inhabited planets, long wooden banquet tables stretched down every street, courtyard, and train station platform. Sitting in the center of every single family table was a gleaming, tall-chimney Dry-Well Brass Hot-Pot filled half with spicy, numbing red dragon-chili broth and half with milky-white sweet-spring lamb bone soup!
Heaping platters of paper-thin Star-Sheep Mutton Rolls, golden Roast-Beef Turnip Slices, bouncy Beef-Marrow Meatballs, fresh green watercress, and frozen tofu were stacked so high on the tables that people could barely see their neighbors sitting across from them.
In the Grand Central Plaza of Galaxy #30, Pei Xuan sat at the main round table surrounded by his original Dry-Well family and top officials: - Old Wei was calmly pouring warm Sweet-Spring wine into Pei Xuan’s cup with his single arm; - Hong Ling had a napkin tucked under her chin, holding a pair of chopsticks in her right hand while still clicking her bronze abacus with her left hand to count how many free radish plates were left; - Old Guo and Boom-Pot Sun were arguing over whether a drop of alchemical pill-fire made the sesame dipping sauce taste nuttier; - General Tie Zhan was dumping five plates of mutton into his…
