Book 1: Fire
A prosperous and peaceful town lay in the Valley of Peace. In the mountains stood a magnificent jade palace. Even if peace dwells in this town, you can't say it doesn't have its minor problems…
It was midnight. Ping was sleeping peacefully in bed, dreaming of his noodles and happy customers, when suddenly
a loud crashing sound like metal pans clattering on the floor.
"Gah!" Ping squawked and jumped from his bed in fright at the suddenly loud sound. He shook off the drowsiness of sleep and hurriedly ran down the stairs to his kitchen. The goose hesitantly grabbed a broom in self-defense in case of a break-in. He saw some of his metal pans scattered across the floor, knives out of place, and bits of his supplies littered on his shelves. Ping couldn't help but cry silently inside because of the state of his kitchen. In the dark, something hurried behind him; Ping yelped, turned around, and raised the broom.
In a shaky voice, he called out, "Who's there? S-show yourself, or I will…not hesitate to scream at the top of my lungs!"
Then, a small figure poked its head out behind a crate. The intruder had messy fur, crumbs in his muzzle, amber eyes, and an innocent face. It was a tiger cub, all filthy and wearing only ragged shorts. Ping was relieved it wasn't a brute but also quite mad because the cub was eating and stealing his supplies.
"Shoo! Leave this place! Those are not for you!" the tiger whimpers and recoils, his stomach growling more loudly than usual. Ping stops and realizes how skinny and weak he looks as if he hasn't eaten for days.
The Tiger cub begins to flee, but Ping calls out.
"Wait! I'm so sorry, young one; please come back!" The cub stopped and hesitantly strolled back to the kitchen.
"Wait here, ok?" Ping then prepared a cauldron, placed it in a furnace, and poured water into it.
He struggles to light the stove when the cub approaches him and stretches his paw on the furnace. Out of nowhere, a fireball forms in the cub's paw, and he throws it on the firewood, lighting the stove. Ping gawked in shock, and his lower beak seemed almost to reach the floor; this cub had just summoned fire from his paws! How? Is he some mystical child? A lost spirit in the form of a mortal? A fire god?
"H-how?" Ping stuttered; his only response from the cub was to tilt his head.
"N-Nevermind." After a while, Ping cooked a steaming bowl of noodles; the young cub was attracted to its aroma and went closer to Ping.
"Here, you must be hungry." Ping bent down and placed the bowl in front of the cub, who crawled toward it and tried to pick up one of the noodles, but upon touching it, he recoiled and hissed in pain
"Careful! It's hot!" Ping said, taking a pair of chopsticks and giving them to the cub, who stared at them and wondered what he was supposed to do with them.
Ping noticed and sighed. "Here, let me feed you." he took the chopsticks, scooped a few noodles, and blew into them to reduce the heat,
"Open wide~~," he sang; the cub listened and opened his jaws, revealing his small yet sharp fangs. Ping fed him the noodles, and the cub delightfully ate them with a smile curling in his muzzle. Ping felt joy seeing a cute face like that smiling, reminding him of another upstairs sleeping.
"Do you have a name, little cub?" Ping asked, but the cub didn't understand what he meant, meaning he didn't have one.
Ping thought for a while, trying to devise a good name. Huo means fire, but it doesn't have a ring; Hui means ash, but it is the same as Huo. It doesn't feel and sound right. Ping snapped his feathers after deducing and crossing out names when he finally got one.
"How about Jing Yang? Jing means peaceful and gentle, and Yang means sun. Do you want it as your name?"
The cub, who was slurping and had his face on the noodles after it was warm enough, seemed to like it because he responded with a chuff noise coming from his throat.
"Oh dear, you look messier than before," Ping gently wipes the cub's muzzle and face. The cub purrs and rubs his head on Ping, who tries so hard not to let out a squeal at such cuteness.
Suddenly, something stumbled down the stairs. Ping and cub turned their heads and saw a chubby panda sniffing the sweet smell of noodles and crawling toward the source.
"Po!" cried Ping, making his way to the panda and picking him up. "Are you ok?"
The panda giggles and glances at the tiger cub's noodles. He coos and flaps his arms, trying to reach the mouth-watering dish. The tiger cub tilts his head but raises the bowl towards the panda with a slight grin on his muzzle, intending to share his meal. Ping then gently lays the panda down on the floor, and the panda gets closer to the tiger and begins eating the remaining noodles.
"Po, this is Jing Yang. Would you like to have him as your brother?" Ping asked the panda, who only giggled in joy, and the tiger cub playfully pounced on him.
"Oh, thank the heavens, for I have two beautiful sons now!" prayed Ping.
~~~Years later~~~
"Jing! Are those noodles ready?" called Ping from the counter. Outside the counter, a line of hungry customers patiently awaited their meals.
"Yeah, Dad! Just wait for a moment!" A tiger wearing a red bandana around his head, a sleeveless black shirt with a flaming pattern across it, and black baggy pants came out of the kitchen, both paws carrying two trays with bowls of steaming noodles.
"It's in tables 3, 6, and 9," Ping told him, pointing at each table he had just mentioned. The tiger nodded and quickly served the customers their meal, and they thanked him in return. As he continued serving Noodles, the tiger realized that young girls were staring at him curiously. He whipped his spiky hair using his paw and gave them a handsome grin; the girls blushed and giggled.
"Jing! Hurry! Someone ordered ten bowls of dumplings and five bowls of noodles, and please wake up your brother!" Ping ordered, who then turned his attention back to the customers.
"On it!" Jing Yang dashed back inside, went upstairs, and reached a room cluttered with cups and bowls stacked on top of one another but neatly placed on the shelves. On the walls are posters of five famous warriors in the Valley of Peace: Monkey, Viper, Crane, Mantis, and Tigress. These warriors fought powerful foes using Kung Fu. Jin Yang walked over to a giant sleeping black-and-white panda, snoring loudly but peacefully.
"Po, wake up!" He shook the panda's shoulder to no avail. "Come on, Po. You'll be late for work. Dad says it's time to get up."
Yet again, nothing, so Jin Yang roared, "WAKE UP, BROTHER!"
The panda yelps and jumps from his bed; Jing Yang's eyes widen, and before he can utter a word or make a sound, the panda's large body squashes him.
Po rubs his eyes and groans. He feels something behind his back and hears Jin Yang's pained groan.
"Po…get..off….!" he gasped. "Can't… breathe..!"
"AHH! Jing, I'm so very sorry!" The giant panda gets up, and Jing Yang releases a huge gasp. He inhales as much air as he can, relieved to breathe again finally.
"Uh…you need some help?" Po said innocently. Jing Yang raised his hand without a word, and Po pulled him up from the floor.
"I think I dislocated a shoulder..." said Jing Yang, moving his right arm in a circular motion and stretching his back. He groaned in satisfaction and flexed his neck left and right.
"Come, we have lots of work to do!" Jing Yang went back down. He heard Po doing his daily routine of mimicking kung fu moves with his action figures of the Furious Five and the sound of him throwing shurikens on the wall with a scribble on a mean-looking ox. Jing Yang went to prepare dumplings when Po came tumbling down the stairs and landed with his face planted on the floor.
Ping arrives at the scene carrying a load of supplies; he sees Po and shakes his head.
"Sorry Dad.." Po muttered
"Sorry doesn't make the noodles," Ping said."And what were you two doing up there with all that noise?"
"Uh, it was nothing. I...uh, it was just a crazy dream," Po said in reply, his eyes wandering in different directions as he picked up radishes and vegetables lying on the floor.
"And that Po accidentally crushed me with his large body," added Jing Yang while stuffing dumplings
"Oh dear, are you ok?" Ping asked in concern, putting his hand on Jing Yang's arm.
"Well, I'm still moving strong and mobile, am I not, Dad?" Jing Yang Replied with a smug smile
Pinged laughs. "Oh, alright," and turns to grab a cleaver and some leaks, places them on the cutting board, and begins cutting them; the goose then turns to Po.
"And Po, what did you dream about?"
The panda's head jerked up and stared at Ping. "Uh, I…dreamt about…"
"Dreamt about what," Asked his father again
"I dreamt about…noodles?" said Po, squinting his eyes at Jing Yang, who let out a fake cough.
"Noodles?" repeated Ping, his eyes still focused on the leak he was cutting. "You were really dreaming about noodles?"
"Oh boy…" muttered Jing Yang
"uh ..yeah! What else would I be dreaming about…" said Po as he handed out noodles to the customers. He didn't notice that one of his shurikens was on soup and gave it to a rabbit. Po finally realized and tried to stop them.
"Oh! careful that soup is...sharp." Po then sighed and gave up.
Jing Yang chuckles, "Always watch where you put your 'toys,' dear brother. Someone might 'shurik-en' cry, and it may get us sued."
Po rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, "Oh, haha, how funny! Do you hear that? I'm laughing, hahaha."
Jing Yang shrugs. "Eh, I tried making up a better one."
The tiger noticed their father was happy and hopped around the kitchen like a bunny. "Happy day! Both of my sons are finally having the noodle dream!"
Jing Yang tried to protest, "I-I didn't dream about noodles, Dad."
But their father was too happy to notice or even care. He went to take a pair of old and stained-looking aprons with a bowl of noodles as a symbol in the center. Ping tied both aprons around his sons; One looked uncomfortable and could only smile awkwardly, and the other was unphased.
"You two don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment, my sons; this is a sign!" he cheered.
"A sign of what?" both sons asked in unison
Ping smiled even more, "You two are almost ready to be entrusted with the secret ingredient of my secret ingredient soup!" Ping said excitedly; one of his eyes twitched a bit
He points his feather finger at them, saying, "Both of you will fulfill your destiny and take over the restaurant!"
He leaped onto the shelf, picked up a wooden spoon, and went to a wall with portraits hanging.
"Just as I took over from my father," he says, pointing at a portrait of a goose with a dark beard.
"Who took over from his father," he pointed at another portrait of another older-looking goose.
"Who won it from a friend in a game of mahjong." he pointed at another portrait, only this time it was a frowning pig rather than a goose.
Both brothers stared at each other and back at their father. "But who would...?" Jing Yang asked
"Both of you, of course! no need to fight over ownership; I don't want that, else I would take back the restaurant." Ping replied
"Uhhh, maybe you can give it to Jing? I'll pass." Po said and received a slap on the head from his brother.
"Don't you dare leave all this to me; we're doing this together!" Growled Jing Yang
Po angrily whispered to him, "Come on, Jing! You know this isn't for me!"
Jing Yang only rolled his eyes. "Like there is anything else for you in the valley."
"There is!" snapped Po.
Ping walks to them and tries to calm them down before it escalates further
"Come now, you two, no need to fight."
"We're not," both brothers said
"And dad, it was just a dream," protested Po
Ping laughed it off, chuckling: "No, it was the dream. We are noodle folk! Broth runs through our veins!"
"But in Po's case, broth and noodles already is running in his veins," Teased Jing Yang, earning a groan from his brother
"But dad, didn't you ever...I don't know. Can I do something else besides noodles?" Po said
Ping replied as he began cutting another batch of leaks. "When I was young and crazy, I thought about running away and learning how to make tofu."
Jing Yang raises a brow. "Tofu?" Can't Ping learn to make it along with noodles?
"Yes...tofu. Back then, I was interested in how to make them," Said Ping
"So why didn't you?" asked po
Ping sighed. "It's because it was a stupid dream."
Po frowned, and Jin Yang snorted at his remark,
"Can you imagine me making tofu?" Ping said with a laugh, "Tofu.."
His laugh faded into sadness, but he shook it off and threw his cleaver on the cutting board. "No! We all have our places in this world, mine is here, you and Jing-"
"I know, it's here," Po said, rolling his eyes.
Ping shakes his head. "No... It's a table two, five, seven, and twelve!" the goose juggled six bowls of freshly cooked noodles into Po's arms. Ping put a noodle hat on Po's head and
put his feathers into Po's mouth to make him smile. "Don't forget, service with a smile!"
Ping then turned to Jin Yang " Jing! Are you done with those dumplings?"
"Yep! Here they are." The tiger delicately places each dumpling into its ceramic bowl, puts them on trays, and carries them to show his father.
Ping inspected the dumpling and smiled. "Beautifully handmade as always"
He took one dumpling and stuffed it in Jing Yang's mouth. "I promised I wouldn't let you go hungry ever again, did I not?"
Jing Yang chewed and gulped down the dumpling and nodded. "Yeah, I do, Dad, but not too much. I don't want to end up like Po."
Ping laughed, "Oh, of course!"
End of Chapter 1...