Chapter 11: The Cook Who Flips Pans

The sect kitchen smelled of onions and old smoke, and Mian had never been so happy to see it.

"Old Qiu!" he said, and flung himself at the noodle man with both arms.

"The heir himself," said the old man, laughing, and thumped his back. "I told you that you'd need it."

"Need what?"

"The tally. Did you cash it?"

"It got out of hand," said Mian, into his shoulder.

Over the old man's apron he saw Shouyi in the doorway, rigid in his blue robes, with his ledger under his arm.

"Senior Yan, this is the man from Heron Pass," said Mian.

"He makes the best noodles in the province, and he lets me run a tab."

"He appears to be a cook," said Shouyi, politely.

"I appear to be many things," said Old Qiu.

He turned to the stove.

A pan the size of a cartwheel sat over the fire, full of fried rice.

He took the handle in one hand and flicked his wrist once, and the whole panful rose.

It rose in a clean, spinning column to the rafters, every grain hanging in the air in a perfect spiral.

Then it came down again into the pan as neatly as rain into a barrel, and not one grain landed outside.

Shouyi dropped his ledger.

It was the first time Mian had ever seen him drop anything.

"That wrist," Shouyi said faintly. "That is the Wind-Snapping Wrist."

"I have seen it in the Hall's archives. There is one man alive who can do it."

"Oh, there are probably two or three," said Old Qiu, humming.

"Qiu Wangchuan," said Shouyi.

"Shh," said Old Qiu pleasantly. "I'm cooking."

Mian looked from one of them to the other.

"Wait," he said. "Wait. The man who ate three bowls of noodles on credit is the Sword Saint?"

"I'm ninety-one," said Old Qiu. "I'm allowed to eat on credit."

"But you gave me the tally!"

"It was a tab. I said keep it, you'll need it. You will, in fact, need it. Look how well it's gone."

"It's gone horribly."

"It's been wonderful. Everyone kneels, and the roof gets fixed. Don't you see? The Council spent eight years looking for someone who didn't want it."

He ladled the rice into three bowls and handed them out.

"I'm hiding because every sect on earth wants to worship me," he said.