The moment the children turned their heads and saw Lin Wu and Shen Guanting lying on the grass, they came running over, their arms crooked around the dry branches and firewood they had gathered earlier.
They dropped everything on the ground, then flopped down between Lin Wu and Shen Guanting, lying flat on their backs.
“I want to bask in the sun too!” Tigerhead shouted. He rolled around and used his shoulder to shove against Lin Jing.
Lin Jing pushed him away. “Tigerhead, stop crowding me.”
“I’m not crowding you. I’m just moving over a little.”
“Moving over is crowding me,” Lin Jing said. Then he suddenly rolled over onto his stomach and muttered, “We need to leave some space between us so we can dry evenly.”
Tigerhead had no idea what he meant. He propped up his head and asked, “Jing, what are you doing?”
Lin Jing rolled back over and said solemnly, “I’m drying myself. That’s how we dry radishes at home. We have to lay them out neatly, without letting them touch. At noon, I have to come out and turn each one over so they dry faster.”
Clearly, the Little Shopkeeper was quite experienced in the art of drying radishes.
“Wow!” Tigerhead’s eyes lit up. He immediately copied Lin Jing, rolling onto his stomach and lying flat on the ground. “I want to dry myself too!”
Sparrow laughed so hard she rolled around. Once she had laughed enough, she rolled onto her stomach as well. “Then I’ll dry myself too!”
Lin Wu watched from the side, both amused and exasperated.
It was supposed to be such a beautiful early-spring day, yet they had somehow turned it into a session of drying radishes.
The five radishes lay in neat rows on the grass, all staring up at the sky.
Laifu ran back and forth among them before finally choosing a spot in the narrow gap between Lin Wu and Lin Jing. He lay down there, his tail swaying lazily from side to side.
When they had left that morning, the sky had still been a hazy white. Now that the sun had risen, the clouds were gradually dispersing, revealing a faint blue sky. A few clouds drifted by at an unhurried pace, as though being pushed along by the breeze.
With the children no longer disturbing them, the birds flew back into the woods nearby, chirping merrily.
They had been lying there for only a little while when an incongruous rumbling sound broke the peaceful quiet.
Tigerhead rubbed his stomach. “I’m hungry!”
Lin Jing sprang up from the grass. “I want to eat rice pouches.”
Tigerhead sat up too. “What are rice pouches?”
He knew what a pouch was. A crab-roe pouch was filled with crab roe mixed with mutton. Was a rice pouch filled with rice? Could that really taste good?
Lin Jing tilted his little head and racked his memory of what Lin Wu had prepared that morning. He counted on his fingers as he muttered, “There’s egg, cucumber, and meat floss…”
“Meat floss!” Sparrow’s eyes lit up. “Then it has to be delicious!”
Several pairs of eyes turned toward Lin Wu in unison.
Lin Wu had been lulled into drowsiness by the gentle sunlight and warm breeze. She yawned, then slowly sat up. “All right, all right. We’ll eat now.”
Shen Guanting rose with her and turned to look at her. “A Wu, see? Isn’t this suffering? We have to keep them entertained and feed them too.”
Lin Wu said helplessly, “Guanting truly has more experience. Since you’ve already taken charge of entertaining them, I’ll handle the food.”
He brushed the bits of grass and dust from his clothes and looked down at her. Sunlight fell perfectly across his shoulders, warming even his smile.
“With the two of us working together like this, wouldn’t you say we’re a perfect match?”
Lin Wu had to admit that he was right. On a rare day off, if she had to spend the whole morning accompanying several energetic children—shooting arrows, riding horses, and running all over the place—she would never manage it. All she wanted was to find somewhere to lie down, bask in the sunshine, and do absolutely nothing.
The children had already dashed ahead. After running a few steps, they turned around and shouted, “Hurry up, Sister! Hurry up, Brother!”
After washing their hands, they went to the pavilion beside the estate’s pond.
Lin Wu placed the bamboo basket she had brought on the stone table and lifted the cloth covering it. Inside were several small bowls, neatly arranged: shredded fried egg, shredded cucumber, crispy bits, meat floss, diced sausage, and a stack of steamed mung-bean starch sheets. Beside them sat a small jar of mayonnaise, as well as a bucket of rice that had just been reheated over the estate’s large stove and was still steaming.
The children gathered around, their little heads pressed together as they craned their necks to see.
Lin Wu set out the bowls one by one, cleared her throat, and announced with a smile, “All right! Double-Wood Pastry Shop is open for business at the Shen estate today. Customers, take a good look and tell me what you’d like!”
She pointed to each ingredient in turn and introduced it.
Lin Jing’s eyes lit up. He scooted over beside Lin Wu, straightened his little body, and declared, “I’m the Little Shopkeeper. If you want to buy something, you have to pay me!”
Tigerhead immediately pushed to the front. “I’m first! I’m first!”
He waved his hand grandly. “I want one of everything!”
Lin Jing solemnly held out his little hand. “One rice pouch costs one of your roundest little stones.”
Tigerhead lowered his head and rummaged through the little pouch at his waist. He pulled out several small stones he had picked up by the pond, selected one that was round and white, and placed it carefully in Lin Jing’s palm.
“Will this one do?”
Lin Jing held it up to the sunlight, examined it seriously, and nodded. “It will.”
Seeing that the Little Shopkeeper had accepted payment for the rice pouch, Lin Wu cooperated by laying a starch sheet over a leaf, spooning rice onto it and spreading it flat. She added a little of every ingredient, drizzled a spoonful of mayonnaise over the top, then wrapped the starch sheet around everything into a plump rice ball.
She handed the rice pouch to Tigerhead.
Tigerhead took it and immediately sat down to eat, opening his mouth for a huge bite.
After chewing, he shouted indistinctly, “It’s so good!”
The rice pouch was packed with sausage, meat floss, and fragrant crispy bits. The sweet, smooth sauce coated the refreshing strands of cucumber. Every bite was bursting with flavor—savory, fragrant, and wonderfully satisfying.
The others each ordered one as well.
Lin Wu kept her hands busy, but out of the corner of her eye she noticed Shen Guanting sitting nearby. Remembering the strength he had shown while drawing his bow earlier, she spread on a thick layer of rice, added extra helpings of every ingredient, and wrapped a rice pouch far larger than the children’s.
Shen Guanting accepted the rice pouch, which was plainly a full size larger than the ones in the children’s hands, and asked with a smile, “Shopkeeper Lin, are you worried I won’t get enough to eat?”
Lin Wu answered frankly, “You have to draw an eight-dou bow, Guanting. I imagine you need to eat more to replenish your strength.”
Shen Guanting nodded thoughtfully. “So A Wu supplies food according to the amount required—the bigger the bow, the bigger the rice pouch. Then I’ll have to work harder and reach one shi and two dou soon, so A Wu will have to wrap me an even bigger one.”
Lin Wu had not yet replied when Lin Jing, already chewing his own little rice pouch, turned his head toward the enormous one in his brother’s hands.
“I’ll be able to draw a big bow too someday, and eat a big rice pouch.”
Tigerhead joined in at once. “I’ll definitely be able to draw a two-shi bow one day and eat a rice pouch that’s this—much—bigger than Brother’s! This big! This big!”
As he spoke, he swept his arms around in a wide circle, nearly smacking Sparrow in the face.
Sparrow leaned back to protect her rice pouch and glared at him disdainfully. “A two-shi bow? First, try straightening that two-liang bow of yours! You can’t even draw it open, yet you want to eat something that big? Is that a rice pouch or a dream pouch?”
Shen Guanting watched the children, then lowered his head and took a bite of his rice pouch.
Sure enough, taking children on an outing was nothing but trouble.
They could argue and bicker all they liked, but they still had to eat.
The group sat side by side on the stone benches in the pavilion, with a lake before them and misty green mountains in the distance. Each held a rice wrap in their hands, taking bite after bite, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Shen Guanting lowered his head and examined the rice wrap in his hand. It was called a wrap, but it was much lighter and fresher than the ordinary kind. It had presumably not been steamed in a pot, so the fillings had not been cooked soft and mushy. Instead, they had retained their original textures. The shredded cucumber was crisp, the pork floss dry and fluffy, and the sausage tender and smooth. Together with the soft, chewy starch wrapper and grains of rice, it was soft yet crisp, smooth yet fragrant—a truly distinctive combination.
“This rice wrap is so convenient. You can just roll it up and eat it,” Sparrow said between bites. “And it’s delicious, too. One is enough to fill you up. A Wu, are you going to sell rice wraps at the shop?”
She added, “From now on, whenever everyone goes out for an excursion, they’ll definitely go buy these!”
Lin Wu thought about it, and before long, she was seriously considering the idea.
The method was essentially the same as making the shop’s regular wraps: fillings enclosed in a starch wrapper. The crispy crackers and shredded cucumber already had to be prepared for the savory pancakes. If she fried some strips of meat along with the crackers, she could put them in the rice wraps as well.
These days, meat was generally steamed, pan-fried, boiled, or roasted, though deep-frying was hardly unheard of. There were such dishes as fried duck gizzards, fried whelk entrails, fried oyster entrails, deep-fried spring fish, and deep-fried false pufferfish—the names alone were numerous. Frying strips of meat would hardly be considered unusual.
She was still lost in thought when Shen Guanting laughed beside her. “Shopkeeper Lin, even when you come out to have fun, you can’t stop thinking about business.”
Lin Wu came back to herself. “The Twin Wood Pancake Shop has only just opened. I have to think of more ideas. Besides, Sparrow was the one who asked.”
Sparrow spoke with perfect self-assurance from the side. “Wasn’t it a good question? I came up with a new business idea for A Wu!”
Shen Guanting leaned against one of the stone pillars. “You’re just craving one. Why go around in such a big circle? Aren’t you tired?”
“Brother!” Sparrow raised her voice. “Then don’t go to the shop to buy rice wraps anymore!”
The sun gradually slanted westward, and the rice wraps were soon gone. They had ridden horses and shot arrows, and although the children were reluctant to leave, Shen Guanting still hauled them into the carriage for the journey home.
The carriage rocked gently along the road. Lin Jing sat beside Lin Wu, clutching the little wooden bow in his arms. Every so often, he reached out to touch it, treating it like a precious treasure.
It had been given to him by Shen Guanting, who said it was payment for the rice wrap he had eaten that day.
Lin Wu thought to herself that Young Master Shen was once again making a losing bargain.
After taking one day off, she opened the shop as usual the next morning.
Lin Wu was busy at the stove. Since she was introducing rice wraps that day, she had specially prepared some crispy pork strips. She cut tenderloin into thin strips, coated them in a batter made from wheat flour, mung bean starch, and beaten egg, then deep-fried them in oil. The starch made the coating crisp, while the egg made it light and airy. Once fried, the strips turned a beautiful golden yellow.
Before she had even begun putting them into the rice wraps, Lin Jing came in, so Lin Wu promptly picked up a strip and handed it to him.
He chewed it and said, “This is so delicious!”
He reached for another and crunched away, saying indistinctly, “I want to take some to the academy and eat it at lunchtime.”
He was planning to share a little with his classmates and get them all to come buy some.
The Little Shopkeeper had made a fine business calculation, but Lin Wu’s answer was not what he had hoped to hear.
She scooped the fried pork out of the oil and let it drain. “Crispy pork turns soft if it sits too long, and then it won’t taste good. It has to be eaten fresh from the wok.”
Lin Jing gave a world-weary sigh and had no choice but to abandon the idea.
Seeing his solemn little face, Lin Wu smiled. “You can take a bowl to the Shen residence and eat it with your Brother Ting and Tigerhead.”
“Mm!”
Once the shop opened, Lin Wu pasted the new handwritten sign she had made onto the wooden stand outside. Rice wraps cost five wen each, and an extra serving of crispy pork cost two wen.
She had barely finished putting it up when several familiar customers arrived.
“Shopkeeper Lin, you’re finally back!” a young man in a brocade robe said with a smile as he stepped forward. “We wanted to come buy some food yesterday, only to learn that you hadn’t opened.”
It was Third Young Master Tao. Standing beside him were Zhou Wenjin and the Jieyuan, Fifth Young Master Han.
All three were regular customers at the shop. Fifth Young Master Han was particularly fond of the five-wen savory pancakes without crispy crackers or egg, and came by every few days.
Lin Wu smiled and greeted them. “I took yesterday off. Why are you gentlemen here so early today?”
Zhou Wenjin stepped forward and cupped his hands. “Shopkeeper Lin, we’re setting out for the capital today. We want to prepare some food for the road, so we’d like to buy more of your crispy crackers and dried meat.”
Only then did Lin Wu remember that they had all passed the qualifying examination and were traveling to the capital to take the metropolitan examination. The examination was administered by the Ministry of Rites in spring and was also called the Spring Examination. Those who passed would then proceed to the palace examination.
“Then congratulations to all of you! I’m sure you’ll all make the honors list.”
Third Young Master Tao waved his hand with a laugh. “We’ll borrow Shopkeeper Lin’s good wishes!”
Lin Wu turned inside and packed several large bundles of crispy crackers and dried meat for them. “Be sure to wrap these well for the journey and keep them dry. Store them in a jar, and seal the opening whenever you’re not eating them. If you put a layer of lime at the bottom, they’ll keep even longer.”
The men accepted the oil-paper packages. “Thank you for the advice.”
Third Young Master Tao noticed the small pot of golden-fried pork strips beside the pancake griddle and leaned closer for a look. “Shopkeeper Lin, is this some new kind of pastry?”
“Not a pastry. It’s crispy pork. You can put it in savory pancakes and rice wraps.” Lin Wu picked up a small strip with her chopsticks, set it on the cutting board to cool, then cut it into several pieces and handed them over.
“Try some, gentlemen. I seasoned it, so it’s flavorful even on its own.”
Third Young Master Tao took a piece and tasted it. He immediately praised it. “Crisp on the outside and tender within, with just the right amount of saltiness!”
He swallowed it in two or three bites and instantly said, “Shopkeeper, I’ll have one savory pancake, and one of those new rice wraps as well. Put two portions of crispy pork strips in each!”
He thought for a moment before asking, “Can the crispy pork strips be sold separately? I’d like to buy some for the journey.”
“They can,” Lin Wu replied as she spread batter for a pancake, “but you’ll have to eat them quickly. Once they soften, they won’t be fragrant or crisp anymore.”
Third Young Master Tao nodded repeatedly. After discussing it with Zhou Wenjin, the two of them immediately bought up the entire small pot of crispy pork strips.
Lin Wu watched the men walk away carrying their purchases, then turned back and poured another plateful of meat strips into the wok.
They had traveled only a short distance when Third Young Master Tao could no longer resist. He opened the oil-paper package and took a bite of a crispy pork strip.
“These meat strips are truly delicious—crisp and satisfying.” He chewed as he walked, not forgetting to praise them with his mouth full.
Fifth Young Master Han held the hot rice wrap he had just received. He had seen the notice on the wooden stand and learned that the rice wrap was made with a starch wrapper and rice. It looked substantial, so he assumed it would be as filling as a savory pancake.
Sure enough, the rice wrap was packed tightly, with the rice spread evenly inside. It contained shredded cucumber, strips of egg, and crispy crackers, all drizzled with a spoonful of sweet bean paste. Once rolled up, it was satisfyingly heavy in the hand. He took a bite and chewed, unable to stop himself from nodding. It was fresher and lighter than a savory pancake, and each had its own flavor. Both were delicious.
“It’s a shame that once we reach the capital, we won’t be able to eat such good food anymore,” Third Young Master Tao sighed, picking up another crispy pork strip.
Zhou Wenjin laughed. “Brother Tao, are you going to the examination or to a feast? All you can think about is food. Though I hear the capital has plenty of novel dishes as well. We can go try them when we get there.”
Fifth Young Master Han shook his head. “I hear things in the capital are terribly expensive. A place like Shuangmu Pastry Shop is still the best.”
Affordable, tasty, and filling.
The three chatted and laughed as they made their way toward the city gates.
Meanwhile, at the Huzhou docks, someone else had just arrived from the capital.
Shen Guanting had risen early that morning to meet the Jincheng Trading Company’s cargo ship at the docks.
It was the company’s first voyage of the new year, and its owner, Fang Qian, had come in person. He had arrived at the beginning of the second month, which meant he had likely set out from the capital before the Lantern Festival. It was clear how seriously he took this visit.
Fang Qian was all smiles as he made his way to the Shen residence together with the Shen family. Along the way, they exchanged the usual pleasantries, discussing what they had seen on the road and how the new year had begun in the capital, as though this were nothing more than an ordinary post-holiday visit.
But once they entered the tea room, the smile vanished from Fang Qian’s face.
Shen Zhongming set down his teacup and got straight to the point. “Qian, you rushed here in such a hurry. Is something wrong?”
Fang Qian sighed and did not beat around the bush. “It appears this may have been brought about by our Fang family. Someone from the capital will likely be coming down soon to investigate the Shen family in secret.”
As he spoke, he lifted his eyes toward the young man sitting opposite him, whose posture was relaxed and whose bearing was graceful and striking.
“Especially Guanting.”
The tea room fell silent for a moment.
Shen Guanting, however, remained composed. He slowly said, “Is it related to Nan Ya?”
Fang Qian nodded.
Shen Guanting asked no further questions. He merely leaned back against his chair, his expression faint.
He had expected this sooner or later. He had never deliberately concealed what he had done in Nan Ya. Everything was laid out in the open and could withstand scrutiny; there was nothing to uncover. Trying to hide it would only give others cause to suspect him. It was better to face the matter openly.
He simply had not expected it to come so soon, barely after the new year had begun.
Though, on second thought, it was probably only because the New Year celebrations had delayed them for a while.
He himself had nothing to worry about. He knew the Shen family’s affairs inside and out.
It was just that…
There was Lin Wu.
He had been seeing her quite often of late.
He had thought it best to let things unfold naturally. But now, it seemed he had indeed moved too quickly.
She had only just managed to find a stable life. She could not withstand the slightest disturbance.
At the thought of this, a trace of imperceptible unease stirred in the heart of the usually unruffled Young Master Shen.
