Strange World Little Cooking Saint

Chapter 80 Radish & Pork Bone Soup (f)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

On top of Cloud Beast, [1] San Pang took it upon himself to act as big brother to Wen Xian and began pointing out the sights.

“See those huge mountains there? That’s the Spiritual Beast Mountain Range,” they were leaning over the edge of Cloud Beast now. “That’s where Cloud Beast Bro and I met Shiyu.”

“I heard it’s really dangerous there,” said Wen Xian.

“Eh, not for the likes of us!”

They soon passed over the mountain range and were flying over large forest reserves. At the foot of mountains were picturesque little villages clustered between green farmlands. Houses grew larger and appeared more frequent until finally, they came upon a large black wall that rose up straight from the ground.

They have reached Qing Shan City.

It was not polite to ride spiritual beasts into the city, so Shiyu leapt off Cloud Beast and ran through the gates with Wen Xian. [2] Cloud Beast reduced in size and attached itself onto Shiyu’s hair while San Pang was left to make his own way…

As they were all Cultivators, humans and Radish Demons alike, running hard and fast posed no problem for them. By the time someone noticed them, there was nothing to be seen but swirling leaves and floating dust. The actual people were long gone.

After having been away from more than half a year, the Lin Clan Estate looked the same as before. When Shiyu greeted the gatekeeper, she could see the upright posture of a servant who was proud of the house he served. Not only him, but other servants they encountered also have a similarly proud stance. Looks like the past six months have treated the Lin Clan very well

Shiyu rapidly strode through the Lin Clan Estate towards Lin Fan’s personal courtyard. However, when she reached the entrance of the courtyard, she suddenly hesitated. She was a little afraid of what she would find beyond the gate. [3] Grandpa had been the first adult who was kind to her here. In this world where Might is Right, how many people would go out of their way to share what little they have with miserable little street urchins? Who would take in a girl who was basically a useless idiot?

She really did not know what she would do if something were to…

While she hesitated at the gate, San Pang came running up from behind them. Without pausing, he ran passed Shiyu and rammed into the gate, causing the door to swing open

Now that the door was opened…

Shiyu took one stepped forward and was assaulted by the scent of medicine. Only living people required medicine! Hope surging through her heart, she charged into the courtyard and saw a servant busy boiling medicines in the garden. Beyond that, she spotted shadows moving about in a room and ran towards it instinctively.

“Grandpa!” Shiyu walked quickly towards the room and threw open the door. She immediately saw a thin and shrunken figure of an old man lying on the bed. He looked old, too old. His hair was completely white and he was much, much thinner than before. Shiyu could see his chest moving as he breathed, but it was very minimal.

He was clearly still fine and was even helping to run the restaurant before she left, so why…

Lost in thought, Shiyu walked to the bed. The old man was unconscious, [4] the physician looked sympathetically at her. “You are Shiyu? I’m glad that you are here to send your grandfather off,”

“Is there really no cure?” Shiyu’s voice was surprisingly steady compared to the turmoil in her heart.

The doctor remained silent, but he did not look positive.

“Thank you for your trouble, sir, Wen Xian, please see the physician to the gate,”

The physician looked to the steward for direction. When the steward nodded, he got up and left with the man. [5] Wen Xian left with them to ‘escort them out’, knowing that Shiyu must want some private time with her grandfather.

Finally, there was only Shiyu and San Pang in the room with the patient. Shiyu quickly picked up San Pang by the scruff of his neck and practically shook him over Grandpa, “Hurry up and take a look! Can he still be saved? Whatever rare medicines is needed I’ll get it so quickly, quickly!”

San Pang was shaken so much that he practically a blur.

“Alright! Alright! Put me down and I’ll have a look! Sheesh! With me around he’ll definitely be saved, don’t you worry your pretty head about it!”

At the words’ ‘will definitely be saved’ Shiyu’s heart calmed down a little and she dropped him onto the bed. San Pang crawled over to have a closer look at the old man’s face and then dive under the covers to root about the area near his chest. Fat Cat had also appeared, but he only sat quietly on top of the blanket, observing their antics with an impassive face.

The room was quiet, Wen Xian came back from escorting the other people out. Knowing that something important must be happening, he said nothing to Shiyu, but observed the bed with curious eyes. Presently, San Pang’s head popped out from under the blankets.

“Well?!” Shiyu asked agitatedly. “Can he be healed?”

“Can, but it would be quite difficult. If you want to save your grandpa, you cannot use any kind of medicine. No matter how good the medicine, you absolutely cannot use it. Otherwise, it would overwhelm his body.”

“Then, what should I do?”

“I don’t know,” San Pang scratched his head. “I can still advice you if we can use medicines, but I really don’t know for cases like this. Hey, Sir Cat, do you have any ideas?”

To Wen Xian’s surprise, the cat spoke, “You may use the Spring Water to preserve his vitality first. Be sure not to use too much. Just one drop a day. His body cannot withstand the impact of ordinary medicines, so you’ll have to water down the strength of any medicines before giving them to him. He must be strong enough before we could administrate medicines that would actually heal him.”

Neither San Pang nor Wen Xian understood what Fat Cat was saying, but Shiyu immediately understood. The Spring Water could only be Spring of Life Water. That very precious thing in her space. She withdrew a small bottle from her space ring, she always has some Spring of Life Water on hand for whatever reason. Cooking being one of them.

Since Fat Cat said one drop, she must only administer one drop.

Taking a stiff little leaf from her space ring, she dipped a tiny corner of the leaf into the bottle and withdrew a single clear drop. She carefully placed the little droplet to Grandpa’s mouth and watched as it disappeared into his opened lips. [6] Then, she corked the jade bottle and gripped it in her hand, as though clutching at a talisman. All four of them watched as the patient continued to breathe shallowly on the bed. After a while, Shiyu noticed that, while Grandpa still looked quite ill, he did not look… quite as laboured as before. His complexion did not improve by much, but he looked a little less close to death’s door.

Beside them, San Pang was practically drooling all over the floor as he stared at the little jade bottle in Shiyu’s hand.

“That Spring Water… could it be…?” he sucked in the excess saliva back into his mouth and advanced almost unconsciously.

Fat Cat threw a casual glance at him, before sweeping his thick black tail around San Pang, stopping his momentum. As for the other person in the house. Well, he was not really worried about the one with the surname [7] Wen…

Shiyu did not seem to have noticed their antics. Instead, she was staring intently at Grandpa’s face. Presently, she cheered, “Grandpa’s complexion seemed to have improved a little.”

“That’s because his vitality has improved,” said Fat Cat, still keeping a tail around San Pang. “You must now find a way to get him to take some watered down medicines safely to improve his health.”

Now that she knew he was out immediate danger, Shiyu could focus her attention on other things. Such as her stomach. While flying over, they hadn’t had much appetite, occupied as they were about getting to where they were heading safely. Shiyu, of course, was twisted up with worry over Grandpa’s health. However, now that they have arrived at the Lin Resident and had seen to it that Grandpa was now out of immediate danger, her stomach began to gurgle in protest.

Just as her thoughts turned to food, Shiyu remembered her brothers and sisters. Nothing occupied the minds of beggars and former beggars more than food, after all.

Why hadn’t she seen them?

Surely at least one of them should be here to stay by Grandpa’s side even if the others were busy, right? Just as she was puzzling over the matter, she saw [8] Xiao Liu trotting in with a packet of medicine in hand.

After not having seen him for over half a year, Xiao Liu looked a little taller than before, although the heaviness of his shoulders and the solemn look on his face belied his 10 years old. He too must have been very affected by Grandpa’s illness.

“Xiao Liu,” Shiyu called.

Xiao Liu blinked and looked around, clearly confused. However, when he realised that his eldest sister was really standing before him, he rushed forward and threw his arms around her waist.

“Sis, sister! Elder sister!” Xiao Liu’s voice was hoarse as he cried into her waist. All the fear and responsibility he had been carrying on his little shoulder finally fell as he allowed himself to cry like a little child he was.

“Elder Sister is finally home!”

[Gumihou: I forgot that young as Shiyu was in this world, the rest of the little kids are just that. Little kids.]

[1] Added Details for Comedic Purpose: According to San Pang’s obnoxious personality, he would totally consider himself Wen Xian’s senior, so I added this element into the story. Also the dialogue. Turned some exposition text into a dialogue between Wen Xian and San Pang.

[2] Additional Detail for Logistic Purposes: How does San Pang travel? Was he carried or did he run on his own? Decided to go with ‘run’ since San Pang was described as having ‘run into’ the door later.

[3] Additional Information for Introspection: Because Grandpa deserves it.

[4] Additional Information for Minor Characters: Just because their roles are minor, doesn’t mean you should just not give them a little personality and dialogue.

[5] Additional Information for Logistic Purpose: There was no mention of Wen Xian going with them, so I supplemented it.

[6] Additional Information for Logistic Purpose: Place drop of water > Grandpa breathed better. Nothing about putting the bottle away or them watching for the change. Patch!

[7] Surname Wen – Why yes, this Wen (溫) is one of the 6 prominent human race families who defended the humans before they were driven out of Heaven’s Realm. Mentioned back in Chapter 61

[8] Xiao Liu – the child that went with Xiao Wu (the one with the actual cooking talent) to work the restaurant together.