— One Girl’s Adventure in Another World, v1.0, by qing cha
“You are the new Tea Master because you wished for a story,” Cha said, polishing his spectacles. “And because the tea leaf chose you. You have three days to brew the One True Brew and stabilize the Bazaar. Fail, and this place—and everyone in it—will scatter into the space between spaces.” One Girl-s Adventure in Another World -v1.0- By qing cha
The creature sighed, a surprisingly human sound. “I am Cha, the Keeper of the Spice Routes. And you, Lin Yulan, are the new Tea Master of the Drifting Bazaar.” — One Girl’s Adventure in Another World, v1
“I wish,” she said, but this time she didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to. Fail, and this place—and everyone in it—will scatter
The Hollow Depths were worse. A cavern of total silence, where the shadow-root grew only in the soil of forgotten fears. Yulan had to kneel in the dark and remember every small humiliation, every quiet terror of her old life—the fear of being invisible, of being too ordinary, of dying without having lived. As she wept, the shadow-root coiled around her fingers, bitter and real.
“The jasmine. You were supposed to arrive with the first brew of the morning. It is now the second brew.” He pointed a clawed finger at a nearby table. On it lay a single jasmine flower, its petals turning brown at the edges. “The contract is quite clear.”