Barbecue is a meticulous craft.
By the time everyone had finished preparing and Lu Yang and Lan Ting carried the laurel tree back, night had already fallen.
Lu Yang shouldered the laurel tree and wove through the crowd like a triumphant general returning from war, receiving admiring looks and exclamations wherever he went.
“Why did he bring back an entire laurel tree?”
“I heard it’s for firewood.”
“Really? You can use a laurel tree like that?”
“Sure. If it could be cut down, it must have had the tree ancestor’s permission.”
Lu Yang split the laurel tree down the middle, then cut it into shorter lengths and dried them over fire to drive out the moisture.
He tossed those laurel logs into a big pit that had been dug earlier, set a rack over the pit, and placed the already-marinated demon rabbits on the rack.
With a flick of his fingertip, three-flavored true fire leapt into the pit.
The laurel logs caught flame.