Lin Wu set down her brush and inkstone. Seeing that the siblings were still standing outside, she said gently, “Come in. There isn’t even a table outside the shop yet.”
The awkward siblings finally moved into the shop.
Lin Jing had already crossed the threshold and bounded over to the table. He saw the brush and ink laid out there, then turned curiously to look at the unfamiliar brother and sister.
After studying them for a moment, he suddenly realized what was going on. His voice rose slightly. “Are we hiring someone?”
He still remembered Lin Wu saying yesterday that she wanted to hire another shop assistant.
Lin Wu shook her head and dipped her brush in ink. “We’re not hiring anyone. We’re drawing up a contract with these two young shopkeepers. From now on, the starch sheets our shop uses will be delivered by them every day.”
Lin Jing immediately chimed in, “The starch sheets used to make suofen?”
“The mung bean starch sheets used for rice wraps,” Lin Wu said, lowering her head as she wrote.
The sky outside had yet to brighten, and the shop was rather dim. She reached out and lit an oil lamp, and the table finally had enough light for her to write by.
“Their starch sheets taste very good. I’ll wrap you a rice pouch for breakfast in a little while.”
“Good!” Lin Jing replied. He turned his head again, his eyes sparkling as they moved over the siblings. They knew how to make starch sheets and even took them to the morning market to sell. He felt they were just like the people from A-Fu Workshop—fellow members of the trading world!
Lin Wu had not explained to Lin Jing all the twists and turns behind those starch-sheet shops. Her hand never stopped moving as she asked the siblings without looking up, “May I ask your names?”
The young man seemed to have prepared himself for this. He cleared his throat and said, “My name is Gao Cang.”
The young woman beside him followed up, “My name is Gao Man.”
“Gao Man, Gao Cang…” Lin Wu repeated as she wrote, confirming with them, “Man as in ‘full,’ and Cang as in ‘granary’?”
Gao Cang scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed. “Shopkeeper Lin, I can’t read.”
Gao Man tugged at his sleeve. “I told you to learn to write your own name from the village schoolteacher, but you were too lazy and kept avoiding it. Now you’re at a loss, aren’t you?”
Then she looked at Lin Wu. “Our parents said the names mean that the family’s granary will always be full.”
“A good omen,” Lin Wu said.
She wrote both names into the contract, then negotiated with them over the types and quantities of starch sheets to be delivered each day, the delivery time, the price, and other details. She had them seal the agreement with their fingerprints.
Lin Jing sat to one side, watching without blinking. He suddenly thought of A-Fu Workshop. None of the young proprietors had written up a contract or pressed their fingerprints yet! He would have to tell Tigerhead about it when they got to the academy later. They needed to press their fingerprints too.
The Gao siblings took the neatly written contract from her. Though they could not understand the characters on it, they still leaned together and examined it carefully several times. Only then did Gao Man fold it up reverently and tuck it into her clothes.
After putting away the contract, the two looked as though they had just secured a major business deal. Together, they assured Lin Wu, “Shopkeeper Lin, please rest assured. From now on, we will deliver everything on time every day, with the quality and quantity guaranteed. We absolutely won’t delay the shop’s business.”
Lin Wu watched the Gao siblings leave, then turned around and began preparing the ingredients they had just bought.
At that moment, Fourth Sister He took out all the starch sheets and suddenly let out a cry of surprise. Looking up, she asked, “Why are there only mung bean starch sheets today? Did you forget to buy rice starch sheets?”
Mrs. Sun, who was peeling taro stems, sighed when she heard this and looked toward Lin Wu.
Lin Wu’s expression remained calm. She was mixing water into the wheat flour, and the dough was gradually taking shape beneath her hands. As she kneaded it, she briefly explained what had happened with the starch-sheet shop.
“How could anyone be so vicious!” Fourth Sister He’s temper flared as she listened.
“They’re awful!” Lin Jing’s childish voice rang out as well. He had already run out from behind the counter and was standing by the curtain, his eyes wide and round, his little fists clenched as he waved them in the air.
Being angry was one thing, but there was a more urgent problem at hand.
Fourth Sister He sliced the mung bean starch sheets, her face full of worry. “What are we going to do? Without rice starch sheets, we can’t make suofen.”
“It’s fine.” Lin Wu seemed to be the calmest person in the shop. She gently reassured them, “Haven’t we turned misfortune into fortune? We found the starch sheets made by the Gao siblings.”
As she spoke, she picked up a small piece of the sliced mung bean starch sheet from Fourth Sister He’s cutting board. “Look at the quality. It’s no worse than what the starch-sheet shop made—in fact, it’s even better. And the price is more affordable. As for the rice starch sheets…”
“The Gao siblings said they can make those too. They just couldn’t prepare any today. At the latest, they’ll be able to supply us by tomorrow or the day after.”
She covered the kneaded dough with a damp cloth to let it rest. Then she took a stack of mung bean starch sheets, placed them on the cutting board, and swiftly sliced them into fine strips.
“Besides, this is how running a food shop works. The menu changes with the seasons and with whatever ingredients are available. As the saying goes, ‘Don’t eat what isn’t in season; eat what the season provides.’ We make do with what we have.”
Lin Wu shook apart the strips of starch sheet and put them into a bowl. “The weather is gradually warming up too. Today, instead of making hot suofen soup, we’ll make cold tossed starch sheets. They’re refreshing and whet the appetite. They might even prove more popular.”
As she spoke, she added some of the tender cucumber strips Fourth Sister He had already cut. They had originally been intended for the rice pouches and savory pancakes. Then she added a spoonful of minced garlic and finally poured in half a bowl of freshly prepared sauce before tossing everything together.
The starch sheets, originally white, springy, and refreshing, gradually became coated in a light brown sauce. The fragrance of garlic and sesame mingled with the faint tang of vinegar, making everyone’s mouth water.
She placed the cold tossed starch sheets on the table and beckoned to Lin Jing, who was still pouting. “Come and try some.”
Lin Jing’s attention was immediately captured by the novel dish. He sidled over to the table, climbed onto a stool, and picked up his chopsticks. He lifted a few strands, blew on them, and put them into his mouth.
Only after the starch sheets entered his mouth did he realize they were cold and didn’t need blowing. He chewed, his eyes lighting up, then shoveled in another large mouthful. After swallowing, he announced loudly, “This is delicious! It’s even more refreshing than suofen. And since it isn’t hot, you can eat it much faster!”
Lin Wu smiled. “Later, we can buy some peanuts, fry them, crush them, and sprinkle them on top. They’ll make it even more fragrant.”
The others in the shop gathered around to take a look as well, fascinated by the new dish. Their anxiety over not being able to make suofen was temporarily put aside.
With help from Mrs. Sun and Fourth Sister He, they soon tossed several more bowls. Everyone set aside whatever they were doing, gathered around the table, and began eating noisily.
As she ate, Liang Peilan said, “The grain guild has clearly overstepped its bounds. They can manage their rice and grain, while we run our food business. We should have nothing to do with each other. No matter how you look at it, they have no right to interfere and cut off our supply of starch sheets. Perhaps we should go to the food-and-drink guild and argue our case?”
Lin Wu nodded. “That was exactly what I had in mind. The grain guild interfering in our food shop’s business goes against the rules. Today it’s starch sheets; tomorrow it may be something else. We need an explanation. We can’t let them keep us under their thumb.”
Lin Jing, who had been eating with his head down, immediately looked up, full of energy. “That’s right! Let’s go find the guild head!”
Then he suddenly remembered something, and his eyes lit up. “The wonton shop belongs to the food-and-drink guild too! Let’s have the guild head fine them! No—make it so they aren’t allowed to do business anymore!”
“All right, I’ll remember that.” Lin Wu was amused by the stern little shopkeeper. She turned and began preparing the lunchbox he would take to the academy that day. “Don’t worry about it. This little bit of trouble is nothing. You just focus on studying hard and doing your best. We’ll manage.”
She had not said this merely to reassure Lin Jing. In her opinion, though the grain guild’s move was disgusting and had caused some inconvenience, it was hardly enough to damage them severely.
At worst, they would have to stop selling rice noodles for the time being. The shop now offered so many other dishes that the impact would be limited. The only real problem was the sheer unpleasantness of it all—a clear warning from the newly expanded shop that someone was trying to put them in their place.
Still, Lin Wu could not quite understand it. If the goal was to give the wonton shop some help in making trouble for her, and to take Young Master Shen down a peg in the process, that would at least make some sense. But Shen Guanting was not even in Huzhou. Even if their little cake shop were harassed into closing, he would never know about it, much less be angered by it.
Could it be that Young Master Shen’s past “achievements” had made such a deep impression on people that they now hated everything associated with him? Even with Shen Guanting himself absent, perhaps they still had to cause trouble wherever he had once offered his protection, just to vent a little of their resentment.
Forget it. Lin Wu shook her head. There was no point dwelling on it while Young Master Shen was away. For now, the priority was to figure out how to resolve the trouble in front of them.
The matter involved the starch-sheet shop and the wonton shop, both of which fell under the food-and-drink guild. If the grain guild insisted that this was merely an ordinary dispute over supplies between merchants within the food-and-drink guild, and had nothing to do with them, then it would be difficult to sort out the truth anytime soon.
“I can’t quite understand it.” Lin Wu wrapped the steamed buns in her hands, speaking as if to herself. “If the grain guild does this, aren’t they offending the food-and-drink guild for no reason? All those restaurants and food shops under the food-and-drink guild are major customers of the grain guild.”
Fourth Sister He prepared the meal baskets and the filling for the savory pancakes as she answered, “In the eyes of those truly powerful guild leaders, squabbles between little shops like ours don’t count as a conflict between guilds. The grain guild doesn’t care about us, naturally, but even the people at the top of the food-and-drink guild don’t pay attention to which supplier each little shop uses.”
Her husband had spent years traveling on business, so she understood some of the ins and outs. The guilds overseeing the shops did have rules, and those rules sounded fair and reasonable. But there were different ranks within every guild. The big fish ate the little fish, and the little fish ate the shrimp.
She continued, “If the guilds really handled everything fairly, wouldn’t every business in the world be easy to run? There wouldn’t be so many merchants trying to crush one another, fighting to the death.”
Lin Wu saw the point. “Sister He is right. This matter can be made as big or as small as they like. At its most serious, we could accuse the grain guild of overstepping its bounds and interfering in the food-and-drink guild’s business. At its least serious, it’s merely an ordinary dispute between several shops within the guild. It all depends on whether the guild leaders want to intervene and how they choose to define the matter.”
Liang Peilan frowned. “Then we’ll tell the guild leaders and everyone else exactly what happened. Let them see how the grain guild is abusing its power and breaking the rules.”
Lin Wu slowly shook her head. “That’s precisely the problem—we have no evidence we can present openly. How can we accuse the grain guild on nothing but our word? At most, we can say that all the starch-sheet shops suddenly stopped selling to us. But that would look like an internal dispute within the food-and-drink guild, with no way to connect it to the grain guild.”
Besides, the current head of Huzhou’s food-and-drink guild was Master Qi, Qi Lang’s father. They had some dealings with the Qi brothers, so it would be unwise to act rashly. If things were handled badly, they might only cause trouble for the Qi family. It would be best to speak with them first.
Just then, a regular customer arrived.
“Shopkeeper Lin, I’d like a bowl of rice noodles. The broth yesterday was so delicious it kept me thinking about it all night. I had to come back for another bowl this morning.”
Lin Wu turned her head and smiled. “I’m terribly sorry, but the kitchen was busy today and we didn’t have time to prepare the noodle sheets for rice noodles. We did make a new cold dish with sliced starch sheets, though. They’re refreshing and whet the appetite. Would you like to try a bowl?”
Mung-bean starch sheets could technically be used in noodle soup, but their texture was completely different from rice noodle sheets. They were smooth, springy, and chewy, but they did not absorb broth or take on its flavor. Put them in soup, and the noodles and broth remained entirely separate. Cut into strips and tossed with sauce, however, they showed off their crisp, refreshing chewiness to much better effect.
“All right, I’ll give it a try! Shopkeeper Lin’s cooking has never disappointed me.”
As the morning light grew brighter, more customers arrived, and bowls of cold tossed starch sheets were carried to the tables one after another.
“This sauce is wonderfully fragrant, and the starch sheets are so springy. They’ll be perfect once the weather gets a little hotter!”
“I was in the mood for something hot this morning. Shopkeeper Lin, will the rice noodles be back tomorrow?”
Lin Wu answered with a smile, “We’ll do our best. We don’t have many people, so we can’t prepare too many different dishes. I hope you’ll understand.”
Her tone was perfectly natural. She did not mention the shortage of starch sheets at all.
A customer waiting for a table leaned halfway into the shop and joked, “Shopkeeper Lin, business is booming! You’ll have to expand again, put in a few more tables, and hire two more nimble helpers. Then you’ll really be able to keep up!”
“Thank you for the good wishes.” Lin Wu stirred the starch sheets in the sauce. “If that day really comes, I’ll give all the neighbors on this street a discount.”
Although they were no longer selling rice noodles, the cold tossed starch sheets sold quite well. Before noon, business was nearly as good as it had been the day before. But the mung-bean starch sheets were being used up at an astonishing rate. Between the meal baskets and the cold dish, the tubs and bowls were completely empty by midday—not a single sheet remained.
As the sun began to sink westward, the familiar Shen family carriage slowly came to a stop.
The curtain was lifted, and three small figures jumped out one after another. The moment their feet touched the ground, they rushed toward the shop.
Tigerhead was in the lead. Before he even reached the counter, he shouted to Liang Peilan, “Brother Peilan! I want cold tossed starch sheets!”
Only after Tigerhead had run up to him did Liang Peilan reply, “They’re sold out. Come early tomorrow.”
“What?” Tigerhead skidded to a stop, his head drooping at once. “How could they be gone already?”
Qi Lang, right behind him, ignored his wailing and walked straight into the shop, looking around curiously.
When Lin Jing spotted him, he went to the doorway leading to the kitchen, lifted the cloth curtain, and peered inside. Lin Wu was wiping down the worktable.
“Mother,” he called. Then he turned around and reached out a small hand to pull Qi Lang over to the curtain as well.
Hearing him, Lin Wu looked up and saw two little heads poking through the curtain, one above the other. Before long, Tigerhead squeezed in too, somehow finding a gap between them. Three pairs of bright, shining eyes stared at her.
Lin Jing wore a solemn expression, as though announcing something of the utmost importance. “We’ve thought it over. We’re going to find the head of the food-and-drink guild and ask him to give us justice!”
Lin Wu immediately realized that Lin Jing must have told everyone at the academy all about the starch-sheet trouble.
“That’s right!” Tigerhead immediately slapped Qi Lang beside him. “We’ll have Brother Xuan come forward! If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to Uncle Qi!”
Qi Lang nodded vigorously and patted his little chest. “Leave it to me. Tomorrow I’ll bring my elder brother and Father to the shop.”
Looking at the three people before her, all rubbing their fists in anticipation, Lin Wu could only smile helplessly. “Thank you, young proprietors of A Fu Fang, for taking such thorough care of the pastry shop’s affairs. But since it is our shop that needs the help of the Wine and Food Guild, both sentiment and reason dictate that I should pay them a personal visit.”
Tigerhead waved a hand. “Then go tomorrow. Every day we delay is one fewer day we can sell rice noodles, and just think how miserable all those customers craving them must be!”
The thought that he had been unable to eat not only the rice noodles today but also the newly introduced cold-mixed starch noodles made him feel that this was more than a loss for the shop—it was a major personal loss for Tigerhead.
He shook his head and sighed in an exaggerated, drawn-out voice, “This is a matter of the utmost importance. It can be delayed no longer!”
Lin Jing nodded gravely as well, his little face taut with solemnity. “My teacher said this matter concerns both the Wine and Food Guild and the Grain Guild. It affects the livelihood of everyone in Huzhou. If we let it go unchecked, I’m afraid it could implicate many households.”
Lin Wu thought to herself, Well then—even Master Yun Jianshan knows about it now. They’re piling on a charge bigger than the shop’s front door.
Qi Lang nodded too. “Exactly. Go tomorrow. I’ll tell my elder brother as soon as I get back that he absolutely must stay at Zhenhe Tower tomorrow and not go anywhere. He’ll wait there specifically for you, Sister Lin.”
Looking at the three of them, Lin Wu saw that they had turned a simple request for help into a full-blown confrontation, as if the Grain Guild had committed some monstrous crime.
