The spring chill bit shrewdly, and Old Wu, wrapped in a wadded jacket, sat wheezing in a rickety wood chair of a yellowish grey. The tavern sign fluttered twice in the wind and fell limply back against its staff.
"There ought to be some good custom today."
The State of Yue lies in the south, where the climate is moist and feverish and snow rare in winter; that great snowfall of last year was rarer still — it pressed so heavily upon the Ancient Li Road that neither cart nor horse could pass, and Old Wu had played host to but three parties of travelers all winter. Now spring had come and the snow melted away, yet the air kept a bitter eight-tenths of cold upon it, and that was season for good drinking.
Old Wu scraped his back lazily against the wood chair, the broken seat creaking and rattling beneath him like a drum of loose boards. Old Wu narrowed his eyes and, peering through the window, saw a puff of yellow dust rise up on the little road afar.
He made haste to rise, and limping to the door, cried in a long voice:
"Meat—wine—! Mutton—!"
The cart and horse drew slowly up and halted before him, and Old Wu hurried to speak:
"Noble lords before me, this humble shop keeps meat and wine, with sharp, cooling little dishes of this and that—"
But the cart's curtain was flung aside, and down stepped two men in fur cloaks. He who led was scarce past sixteen, brisk and spirited, a long sabre in hand, his face yet unseasoned and given over to smiling as he looked the tavern up and down. He behind was five-and-twenty, a treasured sword at his belt, a comely face, and two bright, keen eyes that watched Old Wu with wariness.
"Enter, pray, both of you. This shop's specialty, the snowflake wine, is a true delight of the road."
So saying, he turned and called aloud:
"Custom within!"
The two sat down at a table, and there came a clatter of feet down from the upper floor — two men running, who bowed and grinned with cringing flattery as they stood behind Old Wu.
"A jug of snowflake wine, and a few dishes."
Wan Yuankai set down his long sabre, and seeing the old man send his men off to the work, turned to Li Tongya and explained cheerily:
"This snowflake wine — you take the leanest sinew of a sheep's haunch, slice it thin, boil it soft in the finest wine, and grind it to a paste; you melt marrow from the leg-bone and fat from about the kidneys in a pot, and knead them into the meat paste; and when it is served, you steep it in warmed wine and drink."
Wan Yuankai swallowed hard, and said in a low voice:
"Five years gone I came this way with an elder cousin, and ordered a jug of this snowflake wine, and found it so divine there was no forgetting it. At home the same few ways of eating come round until one's mouth fairly grows weary of them!"
Li Tongya had rocked for days on end in his cart upon the road, eating nothing but dry rations and cold water; at these words his fingers itched with appetite, and he looked forward to the dish.
The two had exchanged a few more words when a great hullabaloo rose beyond the door, and in filed several men in wadded jackets, who sat themselves down with much blustering and shouted:
"Old Wu! Whet the wine!"
"Ah, welcome, welcome, my sirs."
Old Wu hurried up with a smile, and flattered each in turn.
"This spring cold cuts a man to the bone. We watched the Eastern Pass the whole night through, and damned near froze our wits off! We grabbed our chance once the master gave us leave at shift-change, and came straight up for a drink or two."
It was the great strapping fellow at the head, hulking as a tiger with a thick back, who laughed these words, then went on:
"These days nobody rightly knows what's afoot, but the road's watched strict. All the great houses of the prefecture have been sending men out onto the road, and it's so hushed a bird dares not even sing!"
"Dahu, that's where you don't understand. This comes round every year or two; take it in stride! The houses chase tight for a few days, and it all blows over."
Wan Yuankai cocked an ear and listened for a while, then said with a grin, in a low voice:
"We're near Crown Cloud Peak here. I'd wager these men are the secular servants of the Xiao household."
Li Tongya nodded, and the face of Xiao Yuansi rose unbidden to his mind, and he conceived a measure of goodwill toward these rough fellows.
The shop boy brought up a jug of hot wine, with several small dishes and a bowl of snowy white mutton paste. Wan Yuankai snatched up the little spoon, dug out a measure of the paste, dropped it into his bowl, and dashed in wine from the jug; steeped thus, the drink gave off a waft that set the mouth watering.
The great Dahu at the head of the other table wrinkled his nose, and his eyes went bright as he cried in praise:
"A good savour! It's snowflake wine!"
Wan Yuankai did not take up the fellow's remark, but smacked his lips in delight and signed to Li Tongya to try it too. Li Tongya smiled wryly, gave the man a courteous nod, and brewed up the snowflake wine for himself; when it was steeped he took a small sip. The rich bouquet of good wine and the savor of mutton, mingled with a faint suggestion of milk, ran at once over the tip of his tongue, and before he knew it the bowl was empty. He laughed lightly:
"A savour to be prized, indeed."
Seeing that the two paid him no heed, the great fellow puckered his lips in some embarrassment and muttered low:
"Worthless bastards and their money..."
Turning with an envious swallow to look upon their table, Dahu struck up his own chatter with his brothers.
Wan Yuankai had drunk but a few gulps when another uproar rose beyond the door, and from afar came a throng of people, pressing about a young man richly gowned, in a cloak of embroidered fur, as they swept into the tavern.
"Cousin! Never mind that this tavern is a wreck — this snowflake wine is unmatched along the road. Out here at the Eastern Pass, among these cold hills, it's the one comfort to be had."
A man in lavish dress was bowing and scraping before that gowned young man with much gesticulation. He looked to be five-and-thirty, yet he stooped and called the gowned youth "cousin," a comic sight enough.
"Mhm."
The gowned young man's eyes were rather long and narrow, and about him hung a cloak of pure white fox fur, with a pouch of gold embroidery at his waist. His face was handsome enough, of that fine-skinned, pampered sort that has known nothing of hardship; and to all this he answered only with a soft sound of acknowledgment.
"Damnation! What's the steward doing here!"
The great Dahu's face changed at once, and he turned his head away, feigning not to know them; the whole tableful of hulking men bowed their heads likewise, and not one dared speak a word in their fear.
"That gowned youth is most likely a true-born scion of the main house, and the steward, who plays the lord on ordinary days, went fawning before him like a dog."
Dahu stole a glance at the crowd, and barely made out two among them — both great men among the Xiao family's clan troops stationed at the Eastern Pass, standing so respectfully behind the steward that they dared not speak.
The gowned young man cast his eye over the state of the inn and gave the faintest frown — yet that frown stopped the middle-aged steward's heart cold with fright, and he bowed his head and said not a word. He turned his phrasing over and over in his mind, at a loss, when as in a dream he heard the young man before him laugh, and so alarmed was he that his very liver and gallbladder split for terror.
"This cousin has a spiritual aperture and has entered the immortal path, and always carried himself with a swaggering arrogance. In the dozen days he has been holding the Eastern Pass I never once saw him smile; could it be that his rage has turned to smiling at last?!"
But the gowned young man only clasped his hands in a good-mannered salute, and put on a gentle smile, saying softly:
"Who would have thought that here, in this obscure little inn, I would come upon two fellow Daoists!"