Lin Wu quickly calmed down.
Although the order for sixty bookmarks looked impressive at the moment, it was probably mainly because the children found them novel and interesting, along with Tigerhead’s enthusiastic promotion at the academy. But bookmarks were not like ink, paper, brushes, or inkstones—consumable goods that had to be replaced once they were used up. They were durable items. A person might buy one or two and not need any more for a long while.
The market was only so large, and repeat customers would be hard to come by. Sales would probably gradually decline, eventually stabilizing at a modest level if she was lucky. And that was assuming no one else followed suit and copied her.
When all was said and done, it was a business that looked lively on the surface but had limited potential.
Besides, the current sales depended entirely on Tigerhead’s advantageous position at the academy. If she had to sell them herself at the morning market every day, she might not even manage to sell a few in one day. After all, how many scholars would be wandering around the market early in the morning to buy a bookmark that cost fifty wen?
It would be best if she could get them stocked in a stationery shop.
“Sixty bookmarks!” Lin Jing had not thought nearly as far ahead. The moment he heard the number, he cried out, “How much money is that?”
He counted on his fingers but still could not work it out. He suddenly felt that he should have started school sooner! If he could not even calculate how much money they had earned, how would he ever expand the business in the future?
Was this what A Wu meant when she said that once a business grew large enough, even keeping track of the accounts became too much for one person?
At his young age, he was experiencing firsthand the truth of the saying, “One regrets not studying enough when knowledge is needed.” His desire to study gradually grew stronger.
“It’s three strings of cash,” Lin Wu replied with a smile as she watched his troubled little face.
“Three strings of cash,” Lin Jing murmured. “How many cakes could that buy?”
“If we bought our jade cakes, it would be enough for six hundred of them. If we relied on making cakes to earn those three strings of cash, we’d have to rise early and work late for more than ten days.” Compared to that, this bookmark order really was substantial.
“Wow—” The thought of “six hundred cakes” and “more than ten days of hard work” left Lin Jing reeling. He grabbed Lin Wu by the sleeve. “Then let’s hurry home and make bookmarks. We won’t sleep tonight—I want to work all night!”
Tigerhead immediately chimed in, “Yes, yes! I’m not going home either! I’ll help you!”
Seeing how full of energy they both were, Lin Wu found it amusing and exasperating at the same time. “Sixty bookmarks is no small order. Even with all of us working together, it’ll take several days.”
Tigerhead waved a hand with the air of an old hand at business. “I know. Good things are worth waiting for! We can’t rush them.”
With that tone and that little face, he looked exactly like a young shopkeeper who had already mastered the ways of trade.
After carefully confirming the ingredients needed for the pastries the next day with Steward Liang, Lin Wu took Lin Jing by the hand and left the academy beneath Tigerhead’s longing gaze.
On the way home, she kept the eight-tenth of a tael of silver Tigerhead had given her tucked against her chest, deep in thought. Tigerhead had truly been instrumental in making the bookmarks sell so smoothly this time. How should she thank him? If she simply gave him a share of the profits, the child probably would not accept it. She would have to think of something else.
When they reached the main street, Lin Wu stopped to buy a lightweight clay brazier and a small flat-bottomed pan. Although the bookmark business seemed promising at the moment, the food stall was the more reliable long-term livelihood. After all, food was something people needed every day, so she still had to think of some new pastries.
Then she thought of the unexpected gift that was Master Yun Jianshan. She also needed to prepare a ceremony for Lin Jing’s apprenticeship. Though the other party had waived the tuition, the proper formalities could not be neglected.
At that time, when children entered school and took a teacher, they still followed the old customs and presented their teacher with the “Six Gifts of Tuition” as a token of introduction. These consisted mainly of dried meat, celery, lotus seeds, red beans, red dates, and longans, each symbolizing such things as diligent study, good fortune, and success in the imperial examinations. Of them, the dried meat was the most substantial. In fact, the term for tuition, shu xiu, originally referred to dried meat.
There was no shortage of cured meat in the area. Shops already had salted mutton and beef, cured venison, and preserved pork on hand. If she wanted to save herself the trouble, she could simply buy a portion. Besides, there was probably not enough time to cure the meat herself.
Still, Master Jianshan accepting Lin Jing was an enormous favor. When other people hired renowned scholars as tutors, the annual tuition could easily amount to several thousand strings of cash, yet Master Jianshan had not asked for a single coin. For that reason, Lin Wu wanted to put extra thought into this apprenticeship gift.
She deliberately bought a piece of tenderloin, then went to a shop and purchased some clear, golden summer honey. Honey was more expensive than ordinary sugar, but it was also a common ingredient for cooking and making preserves, so it was hardly a rare commodity.
There were many varieties of honey at the time. There was spring blossom honey and winter rice-flower honey, but both tended to carry a slight sourness. Summer honey alone had the purest, sweetest flavor and was often used to simmer various honeyed fruits. The cherry preserves, peach and apricot preserves, and candied kumquats sold at dried-fruit shops all required it.
Only after finishing their shopping did they continue toward the courtyard in Clear Water Alley.
Lin Jing was anything but idle along the way. His eyes kept darting between the ground and the branches overhead as he busily searched for leaves with the best appearance.
Every now and then, he would stop beside a cassia tree and inspect it. Whenever he spotted a leaf he liked, he would ask Lin Wu to pick it for him. When it came to selecting leaves, his bearing and keen eye were comparable to those of a seasoned craftsman.
Thus, Lin Wu arrived home carrying several large packages, while Lin Jing carried a bag of cassia leaves he had personally chosen with great care.
As soon as they got home, Lin Jing did not even pause for a drink of water. He hurried off to the side room to count their remaining bookmarks, while Lin Wu carried her purchases to the kitchen.
Before long, a little fuzzy head poked around the kitchen door. “A Wu, I’ve counted them. We only have six bookmarks left. We’re still short by so, so many—we need sixty in all.”
Lin Wu was arranging the things she had just bought beside the stove and did not turn around. “That’s right. We still need to make fifty-four more. It’s a big job.”
“When are we going to start making the bookmarks?” Lin Jing was clearly eager to begin.
“After we’ve eaten our afternoon meal,” Lin Wu replied. There were only the two of them, with four hands between them. Things had to be handled one at a time, and there was no use rushing. Besides, they had not yet had a chance to pickle the eggplants and white radishes they had bought the day before.
“All right, but remember to call me when we start making the bookmarks.” Lin Jing reminded her again. Apparently, in his schedule for the day, “making bookmarks” had already been ranked as the most important task. Everything else would have to make way for it.
“All right. Off you go and take care of your other important business, A Jing,” Lin Wu said with a smile.
Only after receiving that promise did he turn around, satisfied, and hurry off to deal with his other great affairs.
Their midday meal was simple. They made minced pork with braised eggplant again. There was still eggplant at home, and they had just bought some pork, so they cooked with what they had and did not fuss over the meal.
After eating, Lin Wu carried the basket of eggplants and white radishes into the courtyard and prepared to wash them with water from the well. The weather had been clear and fine these past few days, making it a good time to pickle some vegetables for storage.
Lin Jing had been standing nearby, carefully supervising the growth of his scallions and cilantro. When he heard the commotion, he immediately carried his special little stool over.
On ordinary days, he loved squatting by the vegetable patch, staring at it as though the scallions and cilantro would slack off and refuse to grow if he did not keep watch over them. He looked just like a stern little shopkeeper who could not stand seeing his workers loaf on the job.
But his legs would soon grow sore, so later he simply brought over this little stool and sat there to watch instead. These days, the stool was seeing a sharp increase in use. One person, one stool—each had their own duties, and both were terribly busy.
“Are we really going to eat this many eggplants and turnips for dinner?” Lin Jing stared at the large basket of vegetables, utterly stunned. They had just made a bit of money from selling bookmarks today, but… but surely eating this much in one meal was far too extravagant?
And what if he could not finish it all, being so small?
“We’re not eating them all today,” Lin Wu explained with a smile as she drew water from the well and poured it into a pottery basin. “We’re going to make pickles so they’ll keep longer and we can eat them little by little. Pickled vegetables are savory and delicious with rice, too.”
“What are pickled vegetables?” Only then did Lin Jing breathe a sigh of relief. He scooted his little stool closer to the basin and sat down.
“Well…” Lin Wu sat down too. Picking up an eggplant, she scrubbed it carefully and thought for a moment before explaining, “First, we pickle them in salt, then take them outside to dry in the sun. That way, they can be stored for a long time. When the weather turns cold or there aren’t many fresh vegetables, we can take them out and eat them.”
“Oh, oh, I understand.” Lin Jing quickly rummaged through his limited life experience and found a memory he could connect it to. “It’s like when we dried wild mugwort in the mountains before. Once it was dried, we could sell it for money. Are we going to sell the pickles, too?”
The moment he thought of earning money, the task took on an entirely different importance in his mind. He immediately stretched out his little hands and began scooping eggplants from the water, scrubbing them energetically just as Lin Wu did.
“No, we’re keeping them for ourselves to eat slowly.” Lin Wu could not help laughing.
“For ourselves…” Lin Jing nodded slowly. “That works, too. If we have our own, we won’t have to buy pickles, so we won’t need to spend money. That’s good as well.”
Hearing his uniquely reasoned accounting, Lin Wu could only smile and nod. “A Jing makes a good point.”
After washing the eggplants and turnips carefully, Lin Wu began preparing them. She removed the stems from the eggplants and placed them in a pottery jar, arranging them in layers—one layer of eggplants, one layer of coarse salt. This was a common method of making pickled eggplant in those times. It was simple, though it took some time. First, the eggplants had to be salted for several days to draw out the moisture. Then they were pickled in sauce for several more days. Once the water had been fully extracted, they were wiped dry and placed in the sun for a day, then returned to the crock to soak slowly. Given enough time, they would become fragrant, savory, and wonderfully delicious with rice.
The turnips were simpler to prepare. Lin Wu cut them in half and carried them out to the courtyard, where she spread them over a smooth stone slab to dry. After a day in the sun had drawn out some of their moisture, she would rub them with salt and continue drying them until they became firm and chewy. Then they could be stored away.
Lin Jing was eager to try his hand at drying the turnips. Drawing on his extensive experience drying wild mugwort, he arranged the half-basket of turnips neatly across the stone slab, keeping them in straight rows and columns like a troop of chubby little soldiers undergoing inspection.
When he finished, he stepped back two paces. Only after deciding that everything passed inspection did he lift his head toward Lin Wu and ask, “When can we put them away?”
“When the sun is going down, before it gets dark, we have to bring them back inside. Otherwise, the evening dew will make them damp again, and they won’t keep well.”
Lin Jing nodded vigorously. It seemed another task had been added to the little busybody’s daily list.
Once they had finished, the two of them straightened up and surveyed the small courtyard. On the left, the vegetable patch had already sprouted tender green shoots. On the right, plump white turnips lay in neat rows across the stone slab, while clothes hung from the line, swaying gently in the breeze.
The courtyard, which had once been bare and empty, now had its own color and vitality even in winter. Little by little, the things they had bought filled the space, bringing with them a sense of comfort and satisfaction.
The pickling had barely been put on hold when Lin Wu returned to the kitchen and took out the remaining piece of tenderloin. Soon, the steady thock, thock of her cleaver striking the meat rang through the room.
“Are we making meatballs?” The sound drew Lin Jing over to the kitchen. He sat down on the little stool by the stove, as familiar with the place as ever.
“Oh, A Jing has reminded me,” Lin Wu replied as she chopped the meat deftly. “Since I’ve already started mincing it, I might as well make meatball and turnip soup for dinner. We happen to have turnips, too. But besides the meatballs, A Wu also wants to try making some meat jerky.”
“Meat jerky?” Lin Jing’s eyes lit up. “Are we going to sell it?”
Lin Wu burst out laughing at that. From selling pickles to selling meat jerky, how did this child’s little mind always circle back to business? Could the success of today’s bookmark sales really have awakened his entrepreneurial spirit?
Compared with his enthusiasm, Lin Wu suddenly felt that she, the adult, was the one lacking ambition. All day long, she thought only of how to live frugally, whereas little shopkeeper Lin Jing was always thinking about expanding their ways of making money.
“Not this time,” she explained, unable to contain her amusement. “Didn’t Master Jianshan agree today to take you as his student? By custom, when someone becomes an apprentice, they must present their teacher with the Six Betrothal Gifts. The most important of the six is dried meat. So A Wu thought she would try making some herself to show our sincerity.”
Of course, making the dried meat required baking, and they had no oven at home, so she was not entirely confident it would work. Today, she simply wanted to give it a try.
Lin Jing blinked. “Ah? Then… shouldn’t I be the one to make it? I’m the one becoming his student.”
Lin Wu smiled. “A Jing is still too young. You can’t manage this yet. A Wu will do it for you first. After all, once you learn skills from your teacher, you’ll be helping A Wu with her grand business. Look at it this way: you help A Wu with her business, and A Wu makes the dried meat for you to give your teacher. That’s what it means to help each other, isn’t it? Isn’t that nice?”
Lin Jing tilted his head and thought it over. Finding the reasoning sound, he nodded.
Naturally, dried meat was already sold in the markets, though most varieties were steamed, fried, or simply sun-dried. For example, there was a local delicacy called crystal ba, which was somewhat similar to pork jerky. Lean pork was beaten into thin slices, seasoned, and dried in the sun. It was named for its clear, glossy appearance.
What Lin Wu wanted to make, however, was honey-glazed pork jerky.
She seasoned the minced meat and kneaded it until it became springy, then added a little red koji powder. She had bought it earlier at the grain-and-koji shop, where all kinds of fermentation starters were available, including red koji and lotus koji. Most people bought them for brewing wine. Lin Wu added only a small amount, just enough to give the jerky a brighter, richer red color once it was baked.
After seasoning the meat, she set it aside to marinate while she prepared dinner.
By the time the meatball and turnip soup was ready, the minced meat had absorbed the flavors.
Lin Wu spread a sheet of thick, greased paper over the cutting board and placed the red meat mixture on top. Then she used a rolling pin to roll it out carefully, gradually turning the lump of meat into one broad, even, paper-thin sheet.
Lin Jing watched with his eyes wide, then could not help exclaiming, “Wow! The meat turned into a red cloth!”
“That’s right. Once it’s baked, this red cloth will slowly dry out and become fragrant, shrinking into crisp, chewy, sweet jerky.”
The slices of meat had been rolled out thin and even, their warm reddish hue coming from the red yeast powder. Next came the roasting. Although she had no oven, Lin Wu had thought of a solution. She remembered the charcoal fire in the stove, which Lin Jing usually used to slow-roast yams, and decided to see if it would work.
She brushed a thin layer of oil over the flat-bottomed pan she had bought that day and laid the slices of meat inside. The stove had just been used to cook meatball and turnip soup, so there were no flames left in the firebox—only glowing red coals, perfect for slow roasting.
Lin Wu reached into the stove opening and first set up a short iron rack above the coals. Then she placed the pan securely on top. After that, she moved the large iron pot back into place, but did not cover it completely, deliberately leaving a narrow gap between the rim of the pot and the stove. At the other end, where firewood was added, she used a pottery slab to cover the opening halfway, leaving another small gap. This allowed excess moisture to escape while letting the hot air circulate inside.
The only drawback was that she could not see clearly what was happening in there and had to estimate the timing by feel.
She silently counted the minutes, occasionally bending down to peer through the narrow gap and observe the changes in the meat’s color. After a while, she removed the iron pot for the first time, dipped a small brush into the honey water she had prepared, and carefully brushed a layer over both sides of the meat before putting it back to roast.
When she took it out a second time, the slices had shrunk slightly and their edges had curled upward. She brushed them with honey water again and sprinkled on a small handful of white sesame seeds.
Brushing the meat twice with honey water would give the finished product a brighter sheen. Once would have been enough, really, but this was her first attempt, so there was no harm in experimenting.
Judging that the meat was nearly done, she took out the entire pan. The slices had clearly shrunk considerably, their color deepening to a rich red. They gleamed with an amber-colored sheen of oil, their edges slightly curled, while the sweet fragrance of honey mingled with the savory aroma of meat and wafted toward her.
Lin Wu examined them carefully. Other than the edges, which were a little scorched, the rest looked excellent. Next time, she could place a sheet of oiled paper underneath to soften the heat and prevent them from burning.
After trimming away the charred edges, she cut the remaining jerky into evenly sized thin slices and handed one to Lin Jing, who had been waiting nearby.
Lin Jing took it, but did not put it into his mouth right away. Instead, he held it in both hands and brought it close to his eyes for a careful inspection. “Is this really made of meat? How can meat turn into this?”
Though he had watched the entire process from beginning to end, he still found it astonishing to see a piece of meat transformed into such a thin slice glowing with honeyed light.
He smelled the jerky again. “It smells so good. Sweet, too.”
Only after admiring it to his satisfaction did he put it into his mouth. The texture was chewy yet crisp, and the flavor balanced savory and sweet—a novel taste unlike anything he had ever tried.
“So delicious!” Lin Jing could hardly believe that jerky could taste this good. He had eaten jerky before, but it had either been so salty that it made his teeth ache or so tough that it was difficult to chew. He had never imagined that jerky could be so fragrant, sweet, and delicious.
“Teacher will definitely love it!” he declared with complete confidence. “A Wu, what is it called?”
“Honey-glazed meat jerky.” Lin Wu had just finished a piece herself. It tasted exactly as she had imagined. Aside from the aching arms caused by chopping and mincing the meat, and the trouble of roasting it without an oven, the experiment could be considered a great success. Perhaps she really did have a bit of luck—and talent.
“If we sold honey-glazed meat jerky, it would definitely sell well.” The little boy’s mind had clearly begun to crackle with calculations again, and he started drawing Lin Wu a grand vision for the future.
Lin Wu burst out laughing. “We’ll talk about that after we’ve expanded and strengthened our business. For now, this takes too much work. We’ll just make enough for ourselves to enjoy and to show our appreciation to Teacher.”
The stove and pot in their home were already far too busy. They had to make pastries and cook meals, and now they were being made to produce snacks as well. Oh, and she herself was even busier than the stove and pot: making pastries during the day and hurrying to finish bookmarks at night.
Speaking of bookmarks, Tigerhead had just returned from school and was already in his family’s main room, recounting his sales figures with great excitement.
“Sixty! You know that?” he said, first turning to Sparrow and lifting his chin proudly.
Then he turned to his grandfather and began gesturing wildly. “Wow! The moment I went in, all my classmates crowded around me. They lined up to hand me their money, afraid they’d miss out if they were even a moment too late! That fellow Qi Lang placed an order right away—twenty bookmarks in one go!”
As he spoke, he pulled out his crumpled little ledger and held it high for the entire family to see. “Look! I wrote everything down clearly. Not a single entry is wrong!”
“With you taking it so seriously, anyone who didn’t know better would think this was your own business,” Master Shen teased, setting down his teacup.
Madam Huang, however, gave a snort. “Tigerhead, judging by what you just said, were you selling bookmarks at school? You should be studying properly instead of doing business there. If the head of the academy finds out and punishes you, neither your father nor I will speak up for you.”
“Hmph! What are you talking about?” Tigerhead pouted, then turned his head away so he would not have to look at them. “My elder sister and Jing’s business is my business too! We’re family. The way you put it makes us sound like strangers, and it’s awful.”
“Exactly,” Sparrow chimed in from the side. “Elder Sister gives the very first bookmarks to Tigerhead and me. That thoughtfulness is so precious!”
With an ally supporting him, Tigerhead grew even more confident. “Besides! Master Jianshan accepted Jing as his student today! That makes Jing my elder brother’s junior fellow student. My elder brother’s junior fellow student is my little brother! And Elder Sister is my elder brother’s friend, too. We’re not just ordinary acquaintances!”
“Yes, yes, yes. Tigerhead Shen, you’re the most loyal and affectionate person in the world,” Master Shen said with a nod, teasing him again.
He knew the boy had always been a friendly, familiar sort, but it was rare for him to take to a mother and child so quickly after meeting them for the first time. Aside from the “elder brother’s friend” connection he kept mentioning, the mother and son themselves clearly had something special about them.
He recalled the young woman he had glimpsed from a distance at the docks. She had possessed a quiet, composed air and, now that he thought about it carefully, did not seem like an ordinary woman from the common streets. Today, even Master Jianshan had been willing to make an exception and accept her child as a student. The boy’s talent and character must surely be exceptional.
Tigerhead and Sparrow always claimed that they disliked being bossed around by their elder brother, but in truth, Guanting was still the person they admired and felt closest to most. When the children were young, both their parents and their grandfather had been busy with business matters and inevitably had little time to spend with them. Guanting, their much older brother, had instead been the one to care for them most.
Guanting had been clever and sensible from childhood, with impeccable manners, though his temperament was truly rather distant, and he had very few friends. Since their grandfather had said that the woman was Guanting’s friend, she had immediately been counted as one of their own in Tigerhead and Sparrow’s eyes. Naturally, they would spare no effort to defend her.
Master Shen turned these thoughts over in his mind, then finally shook his head with a smile. The sincere friendships between children were pure and precious. It was best to let them be.
By then, Tigerhead and Sparrow had already begun whispering together about their grand plans for the bookmark business.
“Sixty bookmarks—that’ll take forever to make.” Tigerhead counted on his fingers. “Tomorrow, as soon as school lets out, I’m going to Elder Sister’s place to help!”
“But do you even know how to make them?” Sparrow asked skeptically. The Jade-Soul bookmarks looked so intricate, while Tigerhead was all clumsy hands and feet. If he didn’t end up making things worse, that would be a pleasant surprise.
“I’ll know how once I learn!” Tigerhead retorted indignantly. “We’ll make lots and lots of them and sell them throughout the academy!”
Sparrow curled her lips. “Sell them at the academy? Be careful you don’t get caught by the headmaster and the teachers. Why not take them to one of our family’s shops instead?”
Tigerhead’s eyes lit up, only to droop again a moment later. “But we don’t have a shop that sells bookmarks!”
The Shen family’s main business was the large-scale trade of silk and fine fabrics. They also dealt in spices and treasures brought from Nan’ya. At first glance, none of that seemed to have much in common with these small, refined bookmarks.
Shen Zhongming, who had been examining the Jade-Soul bookmark in his hands, finally spoke slowly. “Although the material itself is ordinary, the design is ingenious and the workmanship delicate. What’s more, it was given distinction by Master Yun Jianshan’s words, ‘Jade Soul.’ That alone elevates its character. If it were presented in a brocade box, it could be sold as an elegant novelty or a modest gift for a cultivated acquaintance.”
Old Master Shen stroked his short beard and nodded. “Your grandfather is right. Such elegant objects—unnecessary, yet charming; intended for pleasure rather than practical use—are just the sort of things suited to the Curio Shop Guanting runs.”
The Curio Shop specialized in rare treasures from the south. Though it displayed no shortage of collectibles worth hundreds or even thousands of strings of cash, it also carried all sorts of exquisite little novelties, such as scent pouches inlaid with mother-of-pearl and small enamel boxes decorated with foreign patterns. These objects were hardly practical, yet their prices were anything but modest, often reaching one or two hundred copper coins. Ordinary people would never buy them, but for scholars whose purses were not especially deep yet who still cared about refinement and taste, they were just right.
Put plainly, these sorts of things made respectable gifts that did not cost too much. A painting or piece of calligraphy priced at one hundred copper coins might be plain and unremarkable, hardly worth mentioning. But a pastry costing one hundred copper coins—or a dainty bookmark like this—seemed rare and worth a closer look. It was something one could give as a gift without losing face.
Madam Huang glanced at Old Master Shen, then at her husband beside her. From the way the two men had spoken, it was clear they had decided to help the mother and son. Then she thought of Guanting, who was currently far away in Nan’ya. Since they were said to be his friends, they presumably had some connection to that side as well.
If they were Guanting’s friends, then of course the family had to lend them a hand. They could not allow their eldest son to toil away far from home while his friend in Huzhou struggled even to find a way to make a living from selling bookmarks.
With that thought, she turned to the two children, who were practically bursting with eagerness, and said, “The idea sounds promising. However, the Curio Shop is currently being managed by your elder brother, so you must first ask what he thinks. Besides, you should formally ask your elder sister and Jing whether they are willing to consign the bookmarks to the shop.”
Her tone was mild, but her words were clear and direct. “This is not something you can simply place there for free. The shop space, the staff, and the shopkeeper’s time and effort all represent capital. How will the price be set? How will the profits be divided? Can the supply keep up with demand? And what will you do if it cannot? All of that must be sorted out and explained beforehand. Sentiment is sentiment, and business is business. You must not muddle the two.”
After being confronted with this string of down-to-earth questions from their mother, Sparrow and Tigerhead were not discouraged in the slightest. Instead, they nodded vigorously.
“We understand! Tomorrow, we’ll go speak with our elder sister and Jing!”
At last, they were going to conduct a proper business of their own—and work together with their elder sister and Jing to get involved in their elder brother’s Curio Shop. Just thinking about it filled them with excitement!
