By midnight of the fourth day of that All-You-Can-Eat City-Wall Barbecue Festival. The culinary torment drifting over the locked walls of the Inner Imperial Palace City had reached a level that no mortal—or immortal—willpower could endure.
For four consecutive days and nights, Gu Changsheng, Grandpa Yao, Auntie Qin, Master Dan-Chen, and the three kids had turned the five-mile Outer South Wall into a twenty-four-hour gourmet wonderland:.
Day One was Honey-Glazed Cumin Whole Roast Boar;.
Day Two was Chilled Crystal Crocodile Sashimi & Bouncy Beef Tendon Hotpot;.
Day Three was Hickory-Smoked Thunder-Horn Bull Brisket & Garlic-Butter Bone Marrow;.
And tonight, on the fourth night, chubby Grandpa Yao. Gu Changsheng had rolled out fifty giant clay-lined Earth-Pit Tandoor Ovens along the South Gate plaza to slow-roast Eight-Treasure Chestnut-Stuffed Whole Spirit Piglets basted with osmanthus maltose and crispy scallion oil!
Meanwhile, inside the locked Inner Palace City, the three-year-old weevily millet gruel had run out at noon, leaving three hundred royal dukes, earls. Court ministers chewing on boiled leather-hard dried beans while the southern night breeze filled their bedrooms with the heavenly crackle and aroma of chestnut-stuffed roast suckling pig!
At twelve-fifteen past midnight, in a shadowy corner of the southwestern Inner Palace Wall fifty yards from the main gatehouse, a heavily padded bundle landed on the inner walkway with a soft thump.
