Lin Wu smoothed out the letter paper. The sheet had a faint yellow tint, and felt slightly rough to the touch. She lifted her brush, but for a moment, had no idea where to start writing.
When she thought about it carefully, she and that Young Master Shen had only properly met three times in total, and had barely exchanged a few words at all — they could hardly be considered acquainted.
Yet the help he had extended to their family was absolutely real and tangible.
Since she had already bought the paper, it would be a waste to leave it blank. She weighed her words as she put brush to paper, first offering polite greetings, then expressing her gratitude, before fumbling a little awkwardly to ramble about trivial things.
Lin Jing sat quietly at her side, his small hands propped on the edge of the table, his shiny black eyes following the movement of the brush tip.
At the end of the letter, Lin Wu asked Lin Jing to sign his name too. He had just started learning how to hold a writing brush, and could already manage simple strokes and character shapes, so he had a bit of basic skill.
But the character "Jing" had quite a lot of strokes. Lin Wu first took a small wooden stick, led him out to the small courtyard, and drew the character on the ground for him, stroke by stroke. She taught him over and over again, until the little one had memorized the order of the strokes. Only then did they go back inside, where she used her fingertip dipped in water to write the character "Jing" on the empty part of the tabletop, before handing the ink-soaked brush to him.
Lin Jing took the brush, his small hand gripping it tightly. Each time he finished a stroke, he would look up at Lin Wu, and only when she nodded would he carefully move on to the next one. He wrote very slowly, treating every stroke with the utmost seriousness, his little face flushed red from concentration.
When he finally finished, little Lin Jing stared at the wobbly but perfectly formed "Jing" character, and a burst of confidence welled up in him. He then volunteered to add the even more complicated character "Xie", meaning thanks, right next to it. The two large, boldly inked characters took up almost half the sheet, making their gratitude feel utterly sincere.
Seeing there was still a little empty space at the corner, Lin Wu simply had him trace the four copper coins that were going to be sent along with the letter, copying their shape right onto the paper.
This task was much easier for him, so he immediately leaned down and carefully drew four round outlines, clumsily sketching the square hole in the middle of each one.
Once the ink was fully dry, Lin Wu picked up the letter paper and looked it over. The two sheets she had once worried she could never fill were now completely packed with content.
She folded the letter paper carefully, slipped it into an envelope, and then had Lin Jing tuck the four copper coins inside too, before she sealed the flap firmly.
She looked up at the sky; it was still early. Under the warm, gentle sunlight, the small courtyard, now cleared of all weeds, looked a little bare, almost desolate. Lin Wu thought of the little scallion patch Lin Jing had been longing for, and an idea came to her.
When they had weeded the yard earlier, they had bought a small hoe, which would be perfect for tilling a few rows of soil. The courtyard was not large, but there was more than enough space in one corner to grow some scallions and green vegetables.
"A Jing," she turned around, looking at the little one who was still squatting on the ground, earnestly practicing the characters "Jing" and "Xie" with his small stick, "let's grow some scallions."
At Lin Jing's words, he immediately dropped his stick and jumped to his feet. "Yes, yes! That's great!"
"But first we have to buy some scallion bulbs," Lin Wu said with a soft laugh as she stood up, straightening his slightly loose small topknot and retying his headscarf for him.
Stepping out of the gate, a draft wound through the alley, carrying a cool chill. Perhaps because there were few people around, Lin Jing's steps grew noticeably lighter, and he hopped along ahead, unable to contain his glee.
When they reached the alley entrance, he suddenly squatted down, stretched out his small hands, and began rummaging carefully through the ground covered in fallen dead leaves.
Lin Wu followed him, and saw him holding up two whole, sweet osmanthus leaves high in his hands, presenting them to her like a precious treasure. "Look! These leaves are thick and sturdy, perfect for making bookmarks."
There was an old sweet osmanthus tree at the alley entrance. Its leaves were still green, but after a light rain a few days earlier, now when the wind blew, they would patter and drift all over the ground. Lin Wu remembered the ginkgo leaf bookmark tucked in his small pouch, and realized he clearly had quite a bit of experience collecting leaves to turn into bookmarks.
"Then A Jing can pick out all the good ones," Lin Wu said as she brushed a fallen leaf off his shoulder. "Let's make several bookmarks. You can use them when you go to the schoolhouse later, and we can also give one each to Sister Qing, Brother Jue, Sparrow, and Tigerhead."
Lin Jing nodded, no longer saying a word. He squatted right there, sorting through the leaves carefully, and stuffed every nice leaf he picked one by one into his small crossbody cloth bag.
Only after he had stored all these little treasures away to his full satisfaction did the two of them head to the seed shop, where they bought half a jin of plump shallot bulbs. There were not many vegetables that could be grown in winter, and their yard was small, so on the shopkeeper's recommendation, they also added a small packet of coriander seeds. The shopkeeper was warm-hearted and even taught them how to plant them properly.
Back in their yard, Lin Wu first used a hoe to loosen the soil. She did not actually know much about farming, and was relying entirely on the faint memories from her childhood, working as she thought things through, to build up four raised planting beds.
Lin Jing watched curiously from the side, his little hands twitching with the urge to try. Lin Wu then handed the hoe over to him to give it a go. He imitated Lin Wu's appearance, holding the wooden handle with both hands, but unfortunately he was too small to lift it. He did not get upset though, and handed the hoe back to Lin Wu, before picking up a well-sized stick to draw and dig in the soil in a very serious, practiced manner.
Once the soil was loosened, she cut the shallot bulbs properly, demonstrated the method, and then worked together with Lin Jing to press the shallot bulbs one by one into the soil. As for the coriander seeds, she followed the shopkeeper's instructions, first gently pressing to crack open their outer shells with the stick before sowing them one by one into the dirt. The shopkeeper had said that cracking the shells would help the seeds sprout better.
"How long will it take for them to grow up?" Lin Jing squatted at the edge of the planting bed, holding his small wooden bowl that he usually ate from, and scooped up water to pour little by little onto the soil.
Lin Wu was holding a gourd ladle, and when she saw that he had used his own eating bowl to water the plants, she could not help but laugh. "A Jing, why did you bring your own rice bowl out here? Now that the little shallots are drinking water from A Jing's bowl, they are definitely going to grow as fast as A Jing does."
"But will they be full just drinking water?" Lin Jing frowned worriedly. "I get hungry if I only drink water."
"They are different from us. They love basking in the sun and drinking clean water the most. When the sun shines warm on them, and their roots get all the water they need, they will slowly grow taller and stronger," Lin Wu explained carefully.
She thought for a moment, then added, "Later, we can also sprinkle some of the wood ash left over from the stove fire onto the soil. They eat that too, and after eating it, they will grow up really fast."
"Wow! They just need water, sunshine, and eat ash? They are so easy to take care of!" The little boy Lin Jing thought this was absolutely amazing.
After they finished planting the shallots and coriander, the whole yard looked different now. A gravel path in the middle led straight to the front door of the main room. To the left were the well and the newly planted bed of shallots and coriander, while the right side was still empty, with only a stone slab placed there. Maybe they could do something else with that space too.
Raise chickens? The thought crossed Lin Wu's mind, but she dismissed it right away. The smell would be unpleasant, roosters would crow early in the morning, and hens would make noise when laying eggs. The neighbors might not be happy about that, so it was better to put that idea aside for now.
While she was lost in these thoughts, Lin Jing had already run into the kitchen, squatted in front of the stove opening, and craned his neck to peer curiously inside.
"What is A Jing doing?" Lin Wu asked, seeing him holding a small stick, poking and sifting carefully through the wood ash in the stove fire pit.
"Saving food for the chives and cilantro," he said without lifting his head, still focused on his task, "I want to save plenty, so they can eat their fill."
"We can't do that just yet," Lin Wu explained softly. "They've just been planted, they're still tiny, just like little babies, and they can't eat such coarse food. We'll have to wait a while, until they've taken firm root in the soil."
"Alright then." Only then did Lin Jing stop his movements, patting the ash off his hands.
"Didn't A Jing collect those osmanthus leaves earlier? You can go sort them out to make bookmarks now," Lin Wu reminded him.
"Oh right!" His eyes lit up, and he finally remembered the small cloth bag he had set aside and forgotten about. He turned around and scurried out of the room with quick, thudding steps.
Lin Wu glanced at the half-dug-out pile of wood ash, and a sudden little thought popped into her head. She followed him out to the courtyard, where she saw Lin Jing had already emptied all the leaves out of the bag, and was smoothing them out one by one on the stone slab.
"What does A Jing plan to do to make the bookmarks?" she asked, squatting down beside him.
"Wash them clean, dry them out completely, then tuck them inside a book," Lin Wu said, sounding like he knew exactly what he was talking about, before he furrowed his little brows. "But if I do that, the leaves will get all crispy after a while, and crumble the second you touch them."
As he spoke, he pulled that ginkgo leaf out from his small embroidered pouch. "This one was made by... the teacher. There's something brushed on top of it."
Lin Wu took it and felt it. The leaf was stiff and glossy, with a slightly firm texture, so it must have had a thin layer of lacquer brushed over it.
"We can make an even more special kind of vein bookmark, that will look even prettier," Lin Wu said, gently placing the ginkgo leaf back into his little pouch.
"What's a vein bookmark?" Lin Jing tilted his small head and asked.
"It's a bookmark that only keeps the thin little veins of the leaf, like a sheer, see-through mesh. It's light, and so beautiful."
"Wow!" Lin Jing, little as he was, did not fully understand what she meant or had ever seen such a thing, but he cheered in full support anyway.
Making this was not particularly troublesome, and Lin Wu got right to work. First, she scooped some wood ash from the stove pit, wrapped it up in a clean old fine cloth, and soaked it in hot water, kneading it slowly. Before long, the clear water turned a pale yellowish brown — that was simple homemade lye.
"Next, we put the leaves in to boil," Lin Wu said as she spoke, placing all the osmanthus leaves that Lin Jing had carefully picked out into a clay pot, pouring the lye water over them, and setting the pot on the stove to simmer over low heat.
"A Jing, you can help watch the fire for me. I'm going out to buy a small brush," she told him, then turned and left the house. The stationery shop was not far away, and she spent ten copper coins on the cheapest coarse bristle writing brush. It was not good enough for calligraphy, but it worked perfectly as a brush for this task.
When she got back, the leaves had finished simmering just in time. Lin Wu fished the leaves out, dipped them in clean water to wash off the slimy residue, then used the brush to gently scrub them little by little.
As the brush moved, Lin Jing's eyes grew wider and wider, and he let out one gasp of amazement after another: "Wow! Wow!"
He watched as the thick, fleshy green outer layer of the osmanthus leaf slowly peeled away under Lin Wu's fingers, revealing the fine, detailed veins beneath. Those veins were as delicate as a cicada's wing, thread by thread, translucent and light.
"It's almost done. Once it dries, we'll flatten it out, brush on some melted peach gum, and wait for the peach gum to set," Lin Wu said, placing the now nearly transparent leaf vein gently onto Lin Jing's open palm.
Lin Jing held it carefully, holding it up to the sunlight to look at it again and again, and could not help but sigh: "It's so pretty! It's absolutely beautiful!"
He suddenly turned his head to look at Lin Wu, his eyes shining brightly. "We can sell them for money!"
Lin Wu was amused by his sudden suggestion. "Aren't you going to give them to Tigerhead and Sparrow anymore?"
It seemed that their discussion about making dried cake strips with Tigerhead and Sparrow at the inn a few days ago had filled this little one's head with business ideas. Well, actually, this wasn't something new—back when they were still in the cave, he had already cherished that pile of mugwort they could sell for money so dearly.
Lin Jing answered without a moment's hesitation, his tone completely unapologetic. "Of course we'll give them some! But we can make tons more, and sell the rest, just like how we sell our cakes."
Lin Wu held back a laugh and asked him on purpose, "Who are we going to sell them to?"
He immediately stretched out his little finger and counted carefully. "To the uncles and aunts who come buy our cakes, to the older boys at the school, and to Tigerhead too."
At that point, he paused and lowered his voice a little. "We'll only give Tigerhead one piece. If he wants more, he'll have to pay for it."
It was clear that in his mind, little Tigerhead was their family's biggest regular customer.
"That makes sense," Lin Wu said with a smile, rubbing his soft hair. "We really should make some to sell, so we can earn more money."
She started planning in her own head too. Most of the regular customers who bought their emerald green cakes were refined scholars or people from respectable families who appreciated elegant little things, exactly the right crowd for these delicate bookmarks. If she bought some dye to color the vein pieces, they would surely be even more well-received.
Lin Jing carefully laid the leaf vein he treasured on a clean thin cloth to dry. Then Lin Wu continued to process the rest of the leaves, and he followed her example, picking up a small brush and brushing them very gently and carefully.
By the time the sky began to darken, the two of them had made sixteen leaf vein pieces in total. They were laid neatly on the cloth, waiting to dry completely.
Lin Wu saw that Lin Jing was still lingering by the thin cloth holding the drying leaf veins, staring at them without blinking, and finally could not help but remind him, "They won't be fully dry until tomorrow at the earliest. And after they are dry, we still need to brush them with glue. Oh right, A Jing, remember to remind A Wu to buy peach gum tomorrow."
"Okay!" Lin Wu answered immediately. With this new task assigned, he finally shifted his attention away from the leaf veins, but from time to time he mumbled the words "buy peach gum" quietly to himself.
When night fell, Lin Wu prepared the spinach juice and date paste filling she would need for the next morning as usual, then blew out the oil lamp and lay down on the bed.
She had just settled down when a very soft murmur suddenly came from right next to her. "Tomorrow... remember to buy peach... peach gum."
She turned her head to look, and saw Lin Jing curled up under the quilt, turning over with his eyes shut tight—he was clearly fast asleep. The sight made her want to laugh and cry at the same time.
She tucked the quilt tighter around him before she closed her own eyes.
Right now, she and Lin Jing still had to share this one bed, since it was the only bed they owned. Getting a new bed would cost a lot of money—bed frames, bedding, mats, every single part of it added up. There was still so much empty space in the room. When their finances got better later on, she would buy him a separate bed, and put it in the side room. There were so many things they needed to get, they just had to take it one step at a time.
With these thoughts in her head, drowsiness soon overtook her, and she fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, with the experience they had gained the day before, Lin Wu was much more skilled at the process of making steamed sponge cakes. That day, she made one extra steamer, for a total of seventy-two pieces, though she ended up leaving the house a little later than she did the previous day. Three full steamers were already the absolute limit of what she could handle on her own—any more than that would be too much for her to manage.
This time, seventy-two pieces of steamed rice cake would never fit in just a bamboo basket. So she nested the two bamboo baskets, one large and one small, inside a big wicker back basket and slung it over her shoulders. She could have just used the back basket to carry the cakes directly, but for a nicer, more presentable display when she set up her stall to sell them, the cakes looked far better arranged in the bamboo baskets.
Luckily, steamed rice cake is very light, so even seventy-two pieces did not weigh much at all, and carrying the backbasket was no strain on her.
Over at Lin Jing's side, he had already finished getting ready. With quick, deft movements, he hung the water gourd on his body, slung the small drawstring pouch for collecting money across his chest, picked up the small parcel of oil paper, and then tightened the small headscarf on his head at last. At a glance, he had all sorts of little supplies strapped to his person, looking just like a very capable young shop assistant.
The little young shop assistant Lin Jing lifted his face and looked at Lin Wu with a completely serious expression. "A Wu, remember to buy peach gum today, okay?"
"Alright, thank you A Jing for reminding me." Lin Wu silently counted to herself in her heart, this was already the fourth time this morning. Every time he finished one thing, he would bring it up again. The first time was when he got up and walked past the kitchen, the second time was after he came back from checking the vein-patterned leaves that were drying, the third time was right after they finished their breakfast, and now, just as they were about to head out the door, he was solemnly giving her the reminder once more.
Lin Wu shook her head with a soft laugh, hoisted her back basket onto her back, and then took his hand in hers.
