Worldly and Well-Traveled

Daoist Feng stared at the golden, glistening chicken skin, his Adam's apple bobbing as though his eyes were about to fall into the fire.

He waited for a while, but Shen Hui only slowly turned the wooden spit and paid him no heed. At last, he could not help saying again:

"Fellow Daoist Shen, judging by this heat... it should be about ready, no?"

Only then did Shen Hui lift his eyes to glance at him, the corners of his lips curving faintly.

He did not answer. Instead, he rummaged in his sleeve and produced a small, dusty wine jar.

The jar was not large, round-bellied and narrow-necked. Three little words were stamped upon its blue-glazed base: Pineside Glow.

Its mouth was sealed with red clay, and a small wine label was pasted atop the seal, bearing the words, "Winter of the Gengzi Year."

Shen Hui set the jar on the ground and gave it a light pat. The walls of the jar hummed.

"Do not be in such a hurry, Fellow Daoist Feng..."

He said unhurriedly:

"Meat only becomes fragrant when it is fully roasted, and wine must be warmed before it becomes mellow."

Daoist Feng's eyes lit up. "Oh, Pineside Glow?"

Shen Hui raised a brow. "You recognize it, Fellow Daoist Feng?"

"Heh, I have no particular talents, but when it comes to eating and drinking, I know a thing or two."

Daoist Feng leaned closer and sniffed it, his face full of intoxicated delight.

"This wine comes from the little place of Lingzhou, yet it sells for quite a high price. I mooched a taste twenty years ago, and I still cannot forget it."

Shen Hui smiled at that. He planted the stick bearing the roast chicken in the ground and casually broke open the clay seal.