Early the next morning, Lin Wu was still tidying things inside the house. Today was the last day they would be making pastries for the academy.
She wrapped several small square cakes in oiled paper, then packed a small stack of the honey-glazed dried meat she had experimented with the day before. She placed them all in Lin Jing’s little cloth satchel.
Though the boy had only gone to the academy for two days, he had somehow run into Master Yun Jianshan twice in succession—and, with a single cake, traded his way into acquiring a reclusive great scholar as his teacher. It was a wonderfully strange twist of fate.
Lin Jing was fearless around strangers. Whenever he met someone he liked, he loved to go over and share his snacks with them. Most of the time, however, he was really trying to drum up business for the family food stall, treating the exchange as a sort of free sample.
Lin Wu deliberately packed extra for him, in support of his great sales campaign.
She had just finished tidying up when a loud knock sounded from outside the courtyard gate. It seemed more urgent than usual. Presumably Tigerhead had arrived; for the past two days, he had come to escort the two of them to the academy.
Lin Wu locked the door of the main room and led Lin Jing outside. When she opened the courtyard gate, she found Tigerhead already waiting there, unable to conceal the excitement on his little face. Sparrow was standing beside him as well.
“Is Sparrow going to the academy for lectures today too?” Lin Wu asked, surprised.
“No, no.” Sparrow hurriedly shook her head.
Tigerhead had already begun shouting, “Sister Lin, we’ve come to talk to you about a huge bookmark business deal!”
“Keep your voice down!” Sparrow quickly patted him on the shoulder before turning to Lin Wu. “Sister Lin, we’ll explain everything in the carriage.”
Still rather puzzled, Lin Wu climbed into the Shen family carriage with them.
Inside, Sparrow and Tigerhead took turns explaining what they had discussed at home the day before. Only then did Lin Wu learn that the Shen family elders had deliberately decided to lend them a hand.
Sparrow wore a hint of pride on her face. “Sister Lin, you see? That business selling dried noodle cakes didn’t work out last time, but the right opportunity has come along now!”
Tigerhead hurriedly added, “My elder brother’s treasure shop is enormous! It’s called the Curio Pavilion, and it’s on the brightest, most prominent stretch of the main street. There are two stone qilin guarding the entrance, and the inside is tall and brilliantly lit. Every display shelf is packed with treasures from the Southern Cliffs—coral ornaments, spice boxes, gilded wooden carvings, you name it! If we put our bookmarks in silk-lined boxes there, they’ll look incredibly expensive and important!”
Sparrow picked up where he left off. “Exactly! If we put them in the Curio Pavilion, they’re sure to sell well!”
Listening to them, Lin Wu felt a surge of emotion. The value of their Jade-Soul bookmarks had risen steadily all along. At first, they had casually quoted a hundred taels, which of course was no longer worth mentioning. Then they had considered selling them for thirty-five copper coins, followed by fifty copper coins at the academy. Now they were about to enter the famous Curio Pavilion.
Naturally, Lin Wu knew of the shop. It stood beside a silversmith’s and a silk merchant’s, with a grand and spacious storefront. The people who came and went were always wealthy and elegantly dressed. She had no idea what the interior looked like. No matter how many times she passed by, she would never have had reason to walk inside. She simply had not expected it to be one of Shen Guanting’s businesses.
“Would our bookmarks really be suitable for a place like the Curio Pavilion?” Lin Wu could not help asking. She felt that such a shop and their little trinkets made from leaves and peach gum did not quite belong together.
“Suitable? They couldn’t be more suitable!” Sparrow replied with absolute certainty. “Our bookmarks are beautiful, and their name is beautiful too. The Curio Pavilion is exactly the sort of place that needs objects that are both elegant and ingeniously designed.”
Lin Wu thought for a moment, then asked, “Does the Curio Pavilion have anything that costs fifty copper coins apiece?”
Sparrow was taken aback. She knit her brows and thought carefully. The cheapest things in the Curio Pavilion seemed to cost at least a hundred copper coins. A small cloisonné enamel sachet cost no less than two hundred, while even the cheapest Southern Cliffs spices sold for a hundred copper coins per liang. There truly was nothing there that cost only fifty copper coins.
She honestly shook her head. “The cheapest items seem to be around a hundred copper coins.”
Tigerhead, who had been listening from the side, looked confused. “Wouldn’t cheaper be better? If things are cheap, everyone will come and buy them!”
Lin Wu shook her head and explained, “In a place like the Curio Pavilion, being too cheap would actually seem out of place. Customers go there because of the words ‘curios’ and ‘treasures.’ They want something dignified, rare, or refined. If an item sells for only fifty copper coins, and it is placed beside treasures that cost several strings of cash, people might not think it’s a bargain. Instead, they might feel that it… well, that it doesn’t measure up to the shop’s grandeur, and lacks the proper elegance.”
She paused, then offered an example. “It’s like a grand and prestigious restaurant. It would never serve a three-copper bun with sour filling from a street stall to an honored guest, nor would it offer a one-copper piece of malt candy as a tea accompaniment.”
Tigerhead nodded thoughtfully. The Riverbank Tower really did not serve malt candy.
Sparrow’s eyes suddenly lit up, and she immediately came up with a new idea. “Then we can raise the price! We can make the bookmarks more elaborate—for example, hang a little jade ring or set a small pearl beneath the tassel, then put each one in a brocade box. That way, we can sell them for a much higher price. Two hundred copper coins apiece might work!”
Tigerhead and Lin Jing both thought this made perfect sense and cried out in unison, “Yes! Two hundred copper coins!”
Lin Wu, however, fell into deep thought. Sparrow’s suggestion did have merit, but deluxe gift bookmarks and the ordinary bookmarks they were making now would be aimed at different customers. There was no conflict between the two.
Take the fans of Huzhou, for example. Plain bamboo fans cost only a dozen or so copper coins each and were bought by ordinary households for fanning themselves and keeping cool. But a fine silk fan painted and inscribed by a renowned scholar could cost dozens or even hundreds of times as much. Such a fan was no longer merely a tool for creating a breeze; it was an elegant object through which literati expressed their ideals, as well as a refined gift.
Still, ordinary bamboo fans were certainly sold in far greater quantities than fine silk ones. There was no need for them to abandon the practical market of ordinary students simply because of this. They would have to think the matter through more carefully.
Lin Wu explained her concerns, and Sparrow and Tigerhead agreed that she had a point.
Moreover, she had another concern. If the bookmarks were truly placed in the shop for regular sale, relying on her alone to make them little by little would ultimately be like trying to fill the sea with a cup of water. And if they were to add the intricate work of setting pearls and jade, she could not manage it herself at all. She could not possibly handle every step from beginning to end; if she did, the business would never grow beyond a tiny scale. Though at present the bookmarks might not seem like a very large trade, this was precisely the concern Madam Shen had raised: What if they could not keep up with demand?
“If we really intend to sell them in the shop properly, we’ll probably have to find some reliable people to help,” Lin Wu said.
Sparrow had an idea as well. “We can find different artisans to handle different tasks! It can work like the silk business in our family. Some people reel the silk, some weave the cloth, and others dye and print it. We can have some people process the leaves, others tie the cords, and still others boil and brush on the peach gum. If we divide up the work, won’t everything go much faster?”
Tigerhead grew excited too. “Exactly! We’ll divide up the work, then split the profits with Sister Lin and Jing!”
The four of them continued discussing the matter in the carriage. They did not reach a conclusion on any of the questions, but they came to realize that this seemingly simple little business involved quite a lot of details to sort out.
Just as they were in the middle of an animated discussion, the carriage gave a gentle jolt.
They had arrived at the academy.
Lin Wu lifted one corner of the carriage curtain and looked at the academy’s familiar walls. With a sigh, she said, “There’s more to this matter than meets the eye. Let’s all think it over carefully. There’s no need to rush.”
As they continued talking, they climbed down from the carriage together and followed the flagstone path toward the kitchen.
Suddenly, a clear, ringing child’s voice called out from behind them. “Shen Linzhou! You’re going the wrong way! Our schoolroom is over there!”
Sparrow and Tigerhead stopped and turned around in unison.
Lin Jing continued forward for a few more steps. When he noticed that the other two had stopped, he turned back in confusion.
Seeing his expression, Lin Wu couldn’t help laughing. “Linzhou is probably Tigerhead’s given name. That little gentleman behind us is calling him.”
Lin Jing suddenly understood. So Tigerhead’s name wasn’t Shen Tigerhead after all—he was Shen Linzhou. After spending so long in Huzhou, little Lin Jing had only learned his friend’s real name today.
A plump little boy in a brand-new silk robe hurried over. It was Qi Lang.
The moment Tigerhead saw him, he familiarly introduced everyone. “This is my classmate, Qi Lang. He’s the one who ordered twenty bookmarks.”
Then he turned to Qi Lang. “This is Sister Lin and Jing. They’re the ones who made our Jade-Soul bookmarks.”
The introduction was certainly direct, getting straight to the point.
As soon as Lin Jing heard that the customer who had ordered twenty bookmarks was standing right in front of him, his gaze toward Qi Lang immediately changed.
Qi Lang’s eyes widened as well, and he looked at them in delight. “So you’re the ones who made the Jade-Soul bookmarks! They’re wonderful! I brought them home, and Father, Mother, and all my brothers and sisters praised them. They all want some too.”
“Thank you for your patronage, Young Master Qi,” Lin Wu said with a smile.
Tigerhead then explained to Qi Lang, “I’m not playing truant. We’re discussing something important! Besides, it’s still early, isn’t it?”
Qi Lang nodded. “I was wondering why you came so early today. What’s the important matter?”
Sparrow and Tigerhead immediately perked up and chattered away, giving him a brief account of everything they had discussed in the carriage.
Lin Wu felt as though a great commotion had suddenly erupted beside her ears. Before she had even fully grasped what was happening, the round little Young Master Qi had naturally joined their group. Together, the procession continued toward the kitchen in grand fashion.
Watching three little boys and one half-grown girl walk along, discussing their important affairs with each voice brighter and more spirited than the last, Lin Wu felt both helpless and amused.
When they reached the pavilion near the kitchen, she simply left them there to continue their deliberations while she went into the kitchen herself.
Inside the pavilion, several little heads gathered together. They talked over one another for quite some time, yet still failed to come up with any clear plan.
Tigerhead let out a sigh far beyond his years. “Ah, who would’ve thought doing business would be so difficult?”
Lin Jing had listened to the whole discussion in the carriage without understanding much of it. He only said, “It’s not difficult. We can do it the same way we sell cakes. We take them to a stall, and when someone buys them, we collect the money. Isn’t that all there is to it?”
Sparrow lowered her voice and explained, “If we only sell them at a little stall, not many people will see them. If we put them in a large shop, more people will see them, and perhaps more people will buy them.”
At that moment, Qi Lang smacked his chubby little hands together. “You can sell them at my family’s shop! My family has a stationery store!”
Sparrow and Tigerhead let out a simultaneous cry of realization and turned to look at him.
“That’s right! How could we forget your family?”
The Qi family’s main business was in restaurants, but they had indeed opened a stationery shop a few years earlier. The reason was simple enough: the family had produced such a promising scholar in Qi Lang that Master Qi had been delighted and promptly opened a stationery shop. It was convenient for his son to obtain paper and ink, and it also allowed the family to make connections with scholars and literary gentlemen.
The Qi and Shen families had always been close. The young master of Huzhou’s largest restaurant, Riverside Tower, was a good friend of Shen Guanting.
Now that the plan seemed much clearer, Sparrow stretched out her hand and counted off the ideas one by one. “This will be much easier! We can ask the artisans at the workshop to help us and assign some people to make the bookmarks. Then we’ll be able to produce lots and lots of them. The ordinary leaf-vein bookmarks can be sold at Qi Lang’s family’s stationery shop for students to use. We can also make some more delicate and luxurious ones, place them in brocade boxes, and sell them at my family’s Jizhen Pavilion as elegant gifts!”
The others nodded repeatedly as they listened.
Qi Lang added, “And we don’t have to use only sweet-gum leaves. We can use all sorts of other leaves too! Maple leaves, for example, can express parting sorrow and longing—‘I stop my carriage, charmed by the evening maple grove.’ Parasol tree leaves would work too—‘Lonely parasol trees, the deep courtyard locked in autumn.’ And bodhi leaves as well—‘The body is a bodhi tree; the heart a bright mirror stand…’”
Apart from Qi Lang, who was quoting texts with great confidence, the others were left dizzy and bewildered. But once he put it that way, didn’t it mean there could be all kinds of bookmark designs? Their excitement rose once more.
Lin Jing asked curiously, “What kind of tree is a bodhi tree? I’ve never seen one.”
Qi Lang scratched his head, looking slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know what it actually looks like either. That’s just what the books say.”
Tigerhead waved his hand boldly. “Then we’ll ask the teacher later. The teacher will definitely know!”
After finally managing to work out the beginnings of a plan, the children were satisfied and temporarily settled down.
Lin Jing took out his little cloth pouch and gave each of them a small square cake, along with a thin slice of bright red dried meat.
Their attention was immediately diverted.
Sparrow and Tigerhead had already tasted the little cakes before. They picked up the thin slice of dried meat first and exclaimed in unison, “What kind of new cake is this? It’s red!”
Thinking of the Jadeite Cakes, Sparrow guessed, “Red-Jade Cake?”
Qi Lang also examined the dried meat first. “Is it meant to go with the Jadeite Cakes? One is green and the other is red.”
Lin Jing shook his little head, looking rather pleased with himself as he corrected them. “This isn’t cake. It’s dried meat.”
“Dried meat?” The children were even more astonished.
Tigerhead held it beneath his nose. “Hey, it really does smell like meat!”
“See?” Lin Jing puffed out his little chest and took a bite. “It’s delicious. My mother made it recently.”
Qi Lang also bit into his piece. His eyes immediately narrowed in delight, and he exclaimed again and again, “It’s so delicious! Fragrant and sweet, with just the right amount of chewiness. Is this really dried meat?”
The flavor was simply too wonderful, while the portion was only a single little slice, so he ate it with extraordinary care, taking one tiny bite after another. Even so, he soon finished it.
Still savoring the taste, he licked his lips and gazed at Lin Jing with longing. “Does your family sell this dried meat?” As he spoke, his little hand had already reached for the small ingot-shaped purse at his waist.
Lin Jing shook his little head. “Not yet. We only made it as a trial batch, to give Master Jianshan as a gift for teaching us.”
When he heard that it wasn’t for sale, Tigerhead’s little head drooped as well. He muttered softly, “Master Jianshan really is blessed to have you as his student…”
Qi Lang was also stunned. For a moment, he couldn’t decide whether he should envy Lin Jing for having such a renowned teacher as Master Jianshan, or envy Master Jianshan for getting to taste such delicious dried meat.
“When you start selling it, you must tell me!” Qi Lang’s chubby face was filled with solemn determination. “I’ll buy lots and lots.”
Lin Jing nodded. “Mm. We’ll tell you when the time comes.”
Coming to the academy to study had indeed been a good decision. There were so many customers here that, from now on, he would be able to keep up with both his studies and his business without neglecting either.
Tigerhead pointed at the little square cake beside him and urged, “Qi Lang, hurry and try this! This one is delicious too!”
Qi Lang picked up the little cake and took a bite. The pastry was fragrant with vinegar, while the filling was soft and delicate. Sure enough, it tasted wonderful.
“Jing, your mother is amazing!” he exclaimed sincerely. “Are you not selling this one either?”
Lin Jing thought back to the clay stove and flat pan they had recently bought at home, and answered uncertainly, “We might start selling it soon. Our family has already bought the stove for making pastries.”
“That’s wonderful!”
Just as the little boys were becoming more and more enthusiastic, making plans to visit Lin Jing’s family food stall together someday, Lin Wu came out of the kitchen during a break in steaming the cakes to take a look. Seeing the children gathered together, sharing snacks and chatting happily, she felt reassured.
However, she suddenly seemed to remember something and still made her way toward the pavilion.
“Tigerhead, Young Master Qi, shouldn’t you be in class at this hour?” As a responsible adult, Lin Wu cruelly reminded them of the fact.
Tigerhead let out a loud wail and leaped to his feet.
Qi Lang also slapped his chubby little hand in dismay. “Oh no! I forgot! Thank you for reminding us, Sister Lin. And thank you for the cakes and dried meat. We’ll be going now!”
With that, he and Tigerhead grabbed their book satchels and hurried toward the elementary school.
While Tigerhead was rushing about in a panic, Sparrow rose excitedly to her feet and eagerly began reporting the important results of their discussion.
Lin Wu listened patiently, her heart filled with admiration as she heard them out. These children were truly remarkable, coming up with one idea after another. It was no wonder Canglang Academy was such a famous private academy—even a random classmate of Tigerhead’s came from a family that owned a large restaurant and a stationery shop.
“Young Master Qi made a very good point. Using different leaves to make bookmarks with different meanings is an excellent idea. Bodhi trees are indeed rare in Huzhou, but they can be found in Nanya. As it happens, we can ask your elder brother about this.” The thought reminded her that the Shen family’s trade routes could provide them with excellent resources.
Sparrow’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! Let’s ask Big Brother!”
Lin Wu’s thoughts had also been opened up by the idea. Smiling, she added, “And I just remembered—doesn’t Jizhen Pavilion often sell spices brought from Nanya? Besides bodhi trees, Nanya also has agarwood trees. If we could use the leaves of agarwood trees to make bookmarks, we could give them the meaning of ‘calming the heart and clearing the mind.’ That would be quite fitting, and it would also complement Jizhen Pavilion’s spice business.”
At the time, the “Four Arts”—tea preparation, incense burning, hanging paintings, and flower arranging—were widely popular among scholars and refined gentlemen. Burning incense could soothe the emotions, cultivate the mind, and inspire literary thought. Fine agarwood, in particular, was highly prized as an elegant treasure.
If they could use agarwood leaves to make bookmarks, they could both draw on the meaning of “calming the heart and clearing the mind” and make use of a rare material. After all, no one would travel all the way to the remote mountains of Nanya simply to gather leaves for bookmarks. This could become a unique specialty of Jizhen Pavilion.
Sparrow nodded repeatedly. “Then let’s write to Big Brother today and ask him to bring us some leaves from Nanya!”
At that, Lin Wu could not help laughing helplessly. For a moment, she did not know whether she ought to feel sorry for Young Master Shen, who was far away in Nanya and still knew nothing about any of this.
Judging by the current situation, although they had yet to work out a proper plan for their bookmark business, Shen Guanting’s tasks had already been arranged with perfect clarity. His elders expected him to promote the goods, while his younger siblings were counting on him to bring back leaves.
