Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 61. A Celebration at Another’s Home Is Not Always a Pleasure—2
The kitchen air had grown so thick with heat rising from the stove that it was nearly suffocating.
“How’s the Jeon Ga Bok coming? We’re running behind.”
“I’m working on it now. Hand me the dried sea cucumber.”
“Evening’s not far off. We need to move faster.”
“Damn it! I’m dying here. Phew!”
Groans of exertion escaped the lips of the chefs toiling at the stove.
Before the fierce flames, they worked without pause, their skilled hands moving with the speed of lightning as they churned out dish after dish. The velocity at which experienced chefs like these produced food was breathtaking.
The problem was that the number of guests who had descended upon Hong Am Mountain Lodge far exceeded all their calculations.
The head chef, Song Hwan, urged his cooks onward.
“Adding the people who arrived today, we need to prepare fifteen hundred servings. Everyone, hurry!”
“Yes, Chef!”
The chefs answered with vigor, their woks and ladles flying.
With each motion of their hands, several servings materialized. Yet despite this frenzy, mountains of food still remained to be made.
“Thank goodness that fat one is here.”
“Really! Who would’ve guessed he could cook with such skill?”
The chefs’ eyes turned toward Bang Jin Bo, who labored with intense focus at one corner of the kitchen.
Even before the searing flames that threatened to cook him alive, Bang Jin Bo’s smile never wavered.
Sizzle!
A slab of beef dropped into the scorching wok. As the meat cooked, pre-cut vegetables went in at precisely the right moment.
Bang Jin Bo moved the wok with fluid grace, his entire being attuned to the dancing fire.
―Cooking is the Art of Fire, he would always say. A great chef must learn to understand fire itself.
His father had told him this countless times.
Only by understanding fire and wielding it with skill could one truly step into the realm of culinary mastery.
Bang Jin Bo worked to understand and feel the flames rising from the stove.
When the fire burned strong, he withdrew the wok; when it dimmed, he brought it closer. The heat within remained steady, and the meat and vegetables cooked to perfect tenderness.
Seizing the perfect moment, Bang Jin Bo added an array of spices.
The dish that emerged was Gold Coin Beef—the very meal his father, Bang Woo Gwang, had loved to prepare.
The assistant cooks could not hide their astonishment at the speed and skill with which Bang Jin Bo completed the Gold Coin Beef.
“Wow! That’s incredible. The way he handles the fire like that.”
“I know! When will I ever be able to do something like that?”
The envy had replaced the jealousy that had gleamed in the assistants’ eyes at first. But So Jin Seo was different.
‘If I were given the chance, I could easily do as much as that.’
Tap-tap-tap!
Even as competitive fire burned within him toward Bang Jin Bo, So Jin Seo never paused in his knife work.
His blade moved with speed and precision—a mastery that every soul in the kitchen acknowledged.
As So Jin Seo ground his teeth and worked on, the chefs continued their relentless labors, and at last, fifteen hundred servings were complete.
“Whew!”
“It’s done.”
The moment the final dish emerged, the chefs collapsed in unison where they stood. Their faces had gone pale, as though the flames themselves had consumed every last reserve of strength.
Bang Jin Bo slumped to the floor as well. Sweat poured from every inch of his already portly frame without cessation.
He must have shed a good pound or more. His cheeks had grown noticeably more hollow because of it. Yet Bang Jin Bo was too exhausted even to register such a fact.
“Are you all right?”
At Song Hwan’s question, Bang Jin Bo barely managed to lift his head and look up.
“Yes, Chef!”
“You worked hard. Thanks to you, we managed to finish everything on time.”
“Not at all, Chef.”
The head chef was right. Thanks to you, we could finally catch our breath. I’m grateful,” added Woo Bok Gyeom, the second-ranking chef, joining in with his praise.
He draped a damp arm across Bang Jin Bo’s shoulders, running his sweat-soaked fingers through the young man’s disheveled hair.
“You’ve done enough today, lad. Go rest. There’s nothing more for you to do here.”
“But there’s still work left. The kitchen needs to be cleaned, and—”
“Leave that to the assistant cooks and the servants.”
Bang Jin Bo glanced at the assistants. They were just as worn out from the day’s labor as he was. It didn’t seem right to leave them with the work while he rested.
But Song Hwan and Woo Bok Gyeom thought differently.
“There is a clear distinction between a chef and an assistant. If you are to walk the path of a chef, you must never forget this.”
“The head chef speaks truly. Skill with the knife alone does not make a chef. A true chef must feel the fire. These assistants still have far to go before they understand it. They must train more. Until then, such work falls to them—it is part of their training regimen.”
“Yes, Chef.”
In the end, Bang Jin Bo could only accept their words.
Menial work too was part of one’s training. He had learned the same thing from his own father, Bang Woo Gwang. But he couldn’t shake the discomfort he felt in his heart.
“Go on and rest now. You’ll need your strength—the real battle starts tomorrow.”
“But will you be cooking with this same number of people tomorrow as well?”
“Of course.”
“Then won’t that be quite difficult?”
“There’s no way around it. We’ll simply do what we can.”
“By the way, why did all the chefs who were here before quit? Was the work too hard?”
“How would I know? They vanished without a trace and never came back.”
“What?”
Bang Jin Bo’s eyes widened.
Song Hwan wore a bitter smile.
“He’s right. Whether it was the difficulty or something else, they simply disappeared one day and never returned. It’s not like them to do such a thing.”
“Damn it all! If they were going to leave, they should have at least waited until the banquet was over.”
Woo Bok Gyeom’s face fell.
They were chefs he had invested tremendous effort in training. They weren’t the sort to abandon their work over mere hardship, so their sudden departure felt all the more regrettable.
“Enough talk. Go on and rest now.”
“Yes! I’ll head inside first then.”
Bang Jin Bo was ushered out of the kitchen by a gentle push from Song Hwan.
“The rest of you—aside from the chefs—tidy up the kitchen at once.”
Woo Bok Gyeom’s booming voice echoed behind them.
Looking up at the sky, Bang Jin Bo saw stars twinkling overhead. It was already late. The day had passed so quickly, he thought.
Yet as he made to leave, something tugged at him.
“I should prepare a small snack for them.”
Bang Jin Bo recalled that he had some fine Dried Sea Cucumber. He turned his steps back toward the kitchen.
The lamps in the kitchen had all been extinguished—it seemed everyone had already finished and left.
Bang Jin Bo opened the kitchen door and stepped inside. In that instant, a look of mild surprise crossed his face.
Flames were rising from one corner of the darkened kitchen.
Sizzle!
Fire leaped from the stove, and a glowing wok danced above the heat.
“Ah!”
The one tending the stove was So Jin Seo, one of the assistant cooks.
He was so absorbed in his work that he hadn’t noticed Bang Jin Bo’s arrival.
“Blast it! Understand fire? How in the world am I supposed to understand fire?”
A dish was taking shape inside the wok. Yet neither its aroma nor its appearance pleased him.
He’d used the same ingredients and followed the same technique as the other chefs, yet what emerged was inferior—lacking the refinement of their work.
“Damn it!”
Finally, So Jin Seo hurled the wok and ladle in his hands to the ground. The wok clattered loudly across the floor before coming to rest at Bang Jin Bo’s feet.
So Jin Seo’s and Bang Jin Bo’s gazes collided in the space between them.
“You?”
“It’s me!”
“What are you doing here at this hour? Fat boy, because of you—”
So Jin Seo strode toward Bang Jin Bo with a heavy scowl, ready to throw a punch at any moment.
Bang Jin Bo flinched but did not step back.
“If you hadn’t come, I could have finished this dish.”
Tears had begun to well up in So Jin Seo’s eyes as he glared at Bang Jin Bo.
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault—”
“Seven years. Seven years I’ve trained here. So why can you do it and I cannot? What am I lacking?”
So Jin Seo’s voice cracked with anguish.
Bang Jin Bo closed his eyes at the cry that trembled with unshed tears.
He himself was merely passing through this place. Perhaps he might return here someday, years from now, but not to work—not like this.
So Jin Seo, by contrast, had made this place his life. His dream was to become a true chef and open a restaurant bearing his name in Nan Zhou.
To him, Bang Jin Bo was an obstacle far too great—an existence he could only resent.
Bang Jin Bo picked up the wok that lay scattered on the floor. It still radiated intense heat, but he bore it without flinching.
His hands bore thick calluses from rigorous training to become a chef. These were the marks of his diligent practice.
So Jin Seo’s hands bore similar calluses. It was proof of how hard he, too, had worked.
Bang Jin Bo placed the wok back into So Jin Seo’s hands.
“I’ll be leaving soon. If you keep training earnestly, you’ll become a chef before long.”
“What does it matter if you leave? If I can’t understand that cursed fire, I’ll never become a chef.”
“Before understanding fire, you must learn to feel it first.”
“What do you mean?”
“My father told me so. Feel the fire first, he said. Understanding comes after.”
“How do you feel fire? Does that even make sense?”
“Come here, brother.”
Bang Jin Bo seized So Jin Seo’s hand and pulled him forward.
The moment they stood before the stove, intense heat washed over them. His face flushed crimson in an instant.
So Jin Seo flinched and tried to retreat, but Bang Jin Bo refused to let go of his hand.
“No matter how hot it gets, you can’t run from the fire. You have to love it. The fire loves me as much as I love it.”
……
“Open your heart and feel the fire. Try to listen to what it’s telling you. It won’t be easy. But if you listen, the fire will whisper to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just try.”
So Jin Seo wanted to protest that this made no sense. But when he saw the innocent sincerity in Bang Jin Bo’s eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
In the end, So Jin Seo gave in and followed Bang Jin Bo’s words.
The fierce heat felt as though it would roast his face. Sweat streamed down his forehead and cheeks without pause, and even breathing became a struggle.
So Jin Seo’s cheeks twitched involuntarily. Just as he moved to step back without thinking, Bang Jin Bo’s thick palm pressed against his back, holding him steady.
“You have to endure it.”
“But——”
“Cooking is the Art of Fire. You must feel and follow the rhythm of how the fire breathes.”
Mm!
So Jin Seo found himself drawn into Bang Jin Bo’s words without realizing it. Before long, his eyes closed and he was feeling the presence of the fire.
Bang Jin Bo smiled softly as he watched. Memories were stirring in him.
When cooking, Bang Woo Gwang had always been particularly harsh with Bang Jin Bo. At the time, he had resented his father greatly, but now those memories had become something precious.
Now Bang Jin Bo had nothing left to do. What mattered was how So Jin Seo felt. Bang Jin Bo left him to himself and went to the empty stove.
Bang Jin Bo lit the fire in the stove and began preparing the ingredients.
The main ingredient was dried sea cucumber he’d purchased at the market in Nan Zhou. He soaked the dried sea cucumber in water to rehydrate it, then sliced it into flat strips.
He cut various vegetables into bite-sized pieces and blanched the mushrooms in boiling water.
Once the ingredients were ready, he heated oil in a wok, then added green onions, garlic, ginger, and other aromatics, stir-frying them until fragrant. When the flavor was balanced, he poured in broth and brought it to a boil again.
In another wok, Bang Jin Bo stir-fried the mushrooms and the rehydrated sea cucumber.
The entire process unfolded in moments. The resulting dish was a variation on Jeon Ga Bok.
The main ingredient—abalone—was missing, and prepared in such haste the contents were sparse, but it looked respectable nonetheless.
He could picture Dam Ho and Cho Yeon Un waiting for his cooking.
“I’d better take this to them.”
“You look truly happy.”
“Huh? Brother?”
So Jin Seo had come to stand watching him. His face was flushed a deep red from the intense heat.
Though he appeared somewhat exhausted, his eyes shone with a clarity unlike any he’d shown before.
Bang Jin Bo’s words about feeling the fire still seemed vague and uncertain to him. Yet it seemed he might grasp the sense of it after all.
But what moved So Jin Seo’s heart even more was Bang Jin Bo’s smile as he cooked.
Throughout the cooking, Bang Jin Bo wore an expression of irrepressible joy.
Now that he thought about it, in all his years of learning to cook, he had never smiled like that once. He had always been desperate to catch the eye of Chef Song Hwan, the head chef, striving to cook well, but he had never once thought about making someone happy through his cooking.
Bang Jin Bo was different. He had thought of the people who would taste his food and be made happy by it. That feeling had been transmitted directly to So Jin Seo.
‘Defeated in every way.’
So Jin Seo shook his head.
Someone who cooked with such joy—he had no confidence whatsoever that he could ever compete with that.
“In any case, I’m grateful. I’ll repay this debt someday.”
So Jin Seo turned away without waiting for Bang Jin Bo’s response. He felt oddly embarrassed.
Bang Jin Bo watched So Jin Seo’s retreating figure for a moment, then grabbed the plate holding the Jeon Ga Bok and rushed toward the Guest House.
“I’m here! Hehe!”
Dam Ho was inside the room.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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