Warm golden lantern light spilled out from the open cedar doors of Dormitory #404’s dining hall, reflecting off the gently bubbling waters of the courtyard hot spring.
Out by the front garden, Old Ghost Kui and the nineteen Ghost Stewards had finished sweeping the marble paths. Moreover, Were happily sitting around a secondary outdoor stove in their white cotton chef hats, blowing on bowls of Auntie Qin’s spicy beef noodle soup while humming four-part baritone harmonies.
Inside the main dining room, the Gu family sat around a wide, circular table carved from warm sun-jade.
In the center of the table, a two-handled copper hotpot simmered merrily over a core of pure solar charcoal. Half of the divided pot bubbled with rich, milky-white star-ox bone broth bobbing with sweet corn, goji berries, and winter melon. The other half rolled with fragrant, ruby-red chili oil seasoned with numbing star-peppercorns and thirty warming herbs.
Around the pot sat platters of paper-thin snow-beef slices, handmade shrimp balls, crispy fried tofu skin, and pitchers of Grandpa Yao’s freshly squeezed sweet spirit-fruit juice.
Gu Changsheng stood at the head of the table in his yellow bunny apron, using long bamboo serving chopsticks to place cooked shrimp balls and tender beef ribs into each child’s wooden bowl. Before long, Filling Empress Luo Qingxue’s porcelain saucer.
