He stirred the soup slowly, brow furrowed not at the food, but at her.
She was watching him too carefully. Too calm. Too... alive for someone who was "stabbed and running from bandits."
Her stomach betrayed her with a loud growl.
"You could just say you're hungry," he muttered.
"I'm not," she said quickly, then winced and clutched her side. "I mean I'm still recovering. I can wait."
He said nothing. Instead, he ladled the broth into a simple wooden bowl and set it aside to cool. The scent of herbs, phoenix bone, and spirit root filled the air like a gentle breeze through sacred temples.
"What's your name?" he asked without looking at her.
She straightened slightly. "Rachel. The third princess of the Kingdom of Asterin."
He blinked. "A princess?"
She nodded solemnly. "We were attacked by bandits. My guards my men all gone. I ran here. It was the only place left."
He eyed her wound clean, bandaged, no longer even bleeding. "Huh. Not bad for someone who just lost an army."
"I'm blessed with strong recovery," she said too quickly.
Scammer, he thought. Not even subtle.
"Well," he said, carefully placing the bowl in front of her, "my name is Samsung A42 Ultra."
She blinked. "What?"
"Samsung A42 Ultra," he repeated without shame.
"That sounds like a spell code."
He scratched his chin. "Actually, sorry. It's Sumson. Just Sumson. Owner of this land."
"Sumson," she repeated, unsure. "What's a Samsung, then?"
He leaned closer, like sharing a secret. "It's a phone."
She tilted her head. "What's a phone?"
"A device from my old world. You can talk to people far away. Play games. Watch moving pictures of cats. You can even see the person you're talking to."
She stared at him like he'd gone mad. "So like a magical mirror?"
"Sort of. It also had WhatsApp and WeChat."
Her face went blank. "You're just making sounds now."
He chuckled and handed her the bowl. "Drink. You'll need strength before you head out."
She accepted it. Only soup no meat. Still, she nodded politely. "Thank you, Sumson."
He watched her take the first sip.
And then he saw it the change.
Her lips parted, breath caught. The warmth of the soup spread through her body like divine light melting snow. The spiritual energy, dense and gentle, flooded through her channels with a softness she had never known. A golden mist poured through her veins.
She gasped, her eyes wide.
It was like she was soaring no, floating, naked and free through the heavens, surrounded by lotus petals and stardust. Every inch of her body tingled as if kissed by celestial wind. The pain in her side vanished. The rot in her bones dissolved.
Her meridians were whole.
"I I she stammered. She looked down at her hands in disbelief.
All her life, Rachel had been cursed with a rare, incurable condition her meridians were devoured the moment she tried to cultivate. No matter how rare the pills, how powerful the healers, nothing had ever worked. Cultivation was a dream she was forbidden from chasing.
But now her core pulsed. The gates had opened.
A flash of light exploded behind her eyes and with it, her first breakthrough.
Qi Gathering. Then mid-stage. Then high.
It didn't stop.
Spiritual force roared around her like a silent windstorm, rattling cups on the shelves. She clutched her chest, tears springing to her eyes.
The bowl fell from her fingers, spilling only a drop of broth onto the floor.
She dropped to her knees.
"I thank you I don't know what this is I don't know who you really are," she said, her voice trembling. "But this this soup it saved me. No. It gave me something I never thought I'd have. A future."
He blinked at her.
"It's just soup," he muttered.
She shook her head. "You don't understand! I was born broken. My body couldn't hold Qi it was killing me. I drank pills that would buy a palace. I crawled to the most powerful sects and they turned me away. But one bowl from you"
She bowed deeply, pressing her forehead to the floor.
"I owe you my life."
He scratched the back of his head, looking away, suddenly flustered. "Tch. Don't go crying now. I just used some herbs. Anyone could've made it."
She looked up at him with eyes shining like twin moons.
"No," she said. "No one else could. This mountain his land and you you're not normal."
He said nothing. Just turned away and mumbled, "Just don't tell anyone, alright? I don't want trouble."
She smiled, still kneeling. " and asked again what's your name again he looked down forgetting his name.