When the ritual was over, Lin Wu had Lin Jing put away the little jade seal and the cinnabar talisman.
Although there was nothing particularly special about the cinnabar talisman and it would have been fine left outside, little Lin Jing insisted, “If we only put away the little jade seal Father gave us and leave it all alone in the box, that would be too sad. Let the cinnabar talisman keep it company.”
In the end, only the small blue-green stone and the ginkgo-leaf bookmark remained on the little table. Lin Wu found a small ceramic vase, selected a few sprigs from the bouquet Second Madam Zhao had given them the previous day, and placed them inside. She set the vase beside the little table.
The little table and the bouquet stood in the center before the main room, where they were quite conspicuous. Whenever Lin Jing went in or out, he could not help turning his head to look at them.
Lin Wu turned and went to the kitchen to prepare their meal for the day.
There was a saying: “Wontons in winter, boiled cakes at New Year.” On the Winter Solstice, every household was supposed to eat a steaming bowl of wontons. Wealthy families would prepare all sorts of fillings and call them “hundred-flavor wontons.” Today, Lin Wu wanted to make something a little different as well.
Once she had kneaded the dough, she covered it with a damp cloth and left it to rest. Then she began preparing the fillings. She finely minced the pork, added the seasonings, and mixed everything thoroughly. She peeled the small shrimp, removed the veins, and set them in a separate bowl. Once the dough had been rolled out and cut into neat squares, they were ready to wrap.
Lin Jing washed his hands and crowded eagerly around the table, watching her.
Lin Wu handed him a sheet of dough and demonstrated as she wrapped one herself. “Look. First, lay the wrapper across your left palm. Use the little wooden spoon to scoop half a spoonful of meat filling into the center, then place a shrimp on top…”
She loosely curled her left hand into a fist, supporting the filled wrapper at the base of her thumb. With chopsticks in her right hand, she gently pressed down and gathered it up. Just like that, she made a wonton with a little tail.
Lin Jing watched with shining eyes, finding the technique wonderfully clever. He tried it several times himself. Since he was small and his hands were small too, the wontons he made were especially tiny and delicate.
Once the water boiled, they dropped the wontons in. They bobbed up and down in the rolling water for a while, and the wrappers gradually turned translucent, revealing a blush of pink. Lin Wu scooped them into bowls of clear broth, then sprinkled on strips of egg, chopped cilantro, and scallions.
“They’re red!” Lin Jing exclaimed, cradling his little bowl. He had eaten wontons before, but never ones whose wrappers turned such a beautiful color.
“That’s because we added shrimp.”
Lin Wu took a bite. The thin, smooth wrapper enclosed springy, fresh shrimp filling, and the broth was light and savory. They tasted excellent.
Lin Jing was even more delighted. He ate one bite after another, his eyes narrowing with contentment. He had deliberately asked Lin Wu to cook the plump, lopsided little wontons he had wrapped himself, and now they tasted especially delicious to him.
He thought happily that in the future, he could make food to sell just like A Wu. His own skills were quite good too.
After breakfast, the two of them got busy again.
Lin Wu had made a new batch of dried meat the day before. Today, she needed to wrap it carefully in wax paper and divide it into several portions to give as festival gifts.
On the Winter Solstice, everyone from officials and noble families down to common folk observed the custom of exchanging seasonal gifts, placing friendship above all else. There was even a saying, “A sumptuous Winter Solstice, a modest New Year,” which showed just how seriously the festival was taken.
Lin Jing skillfully took out his treasured little wooden stamp and went “tap-tap-tap” as he stamped neat little leaf prints onto the wax-paper bags. They did not know many people well in Huzhou. Counting them up, there were only a few households.
The Shen family was a must; they had to pay a visit and offer their thanks. As for the academy, although Lin Jing’s formal apprenticeship under Master Jianshan was to take place after the Winter Solstice, it was only proper to pay their respects to him on such a festival. Then there was Fourth Sister He’s family next door, who often looked after them.
With that in mind, Lin Wu had soon divided up the festival gifts.
Aside from the portion for Fourth Sister He’s family, which was slightly smaller, the other two households would each receive twenty pieces of dried meat, three square cakes, three pieces of jadeite cake, and a jade-soul bookmark. Altogether, the gifts were worth more than a hundred copper coins. Given their current circumstances, they were quite generous offerings.
For Fourth Sister He’s family, she packed five pieces of dried meat and two of each kind of cake. Remembering that there was also a student from the prefectural school in their household, she added a bookmark as well. The portion was smaller, but Lin Wu had considered that the gift could not be too valuable, lest it make things difficult for them when they returned the favor.
Once she had carefully wrapped all the gifts in wax paper and tied them with hemp cord, Lin Wu placed them in a small bamboo basket. Then she went with Lin Jing to knock on the door next door.
Unexpectedly, the person who opened it was not the familiar Fourth Sister He, but a young man she had never seen before.
He was of medium build, with a square face and round eyes, and looked quite amiable. He seemed to be about sixteen or seventeen. He wore a scholar’s square cap and was not tall, standing only slightly higher than Lin Wu.
He stared at the two of them in surprise. After hesitating, he ventured, “Hello. Might you be the… Auntie Lin from next door?”
The form of address came with some uncertainty. His mother had mentioned that this woman was her younger sister in all but name, so perhaps he ought to call her “auntie.” Yet the woman before him had such delicate features and looked far too young.
Lin Wu, however, accepted the seniority without the slightest discomfort. “That’s right. You must be the scholar your mother often speaks of. I hear you study at the prefectural school—how impressive for someone so young. This is my son, A Jing.”
Then she lowered her head and said softly to Lin Jing, “A Jing, say hello to Brother Liu.”
Lin Jing immediately gave a polite bow. “Greetings, Brother Liu.”
Liu Lishu smiled awkwardly and quickly stepped aside. “Auntie, you’re too kind. Please, come in.”
He glanced down at the short Lin Jing and added amiably, “You come in too, little brother Jing.”
By then, Fourth Sister He had heard the voices and hurried out of the house, her face bright with smiles. “I was just saying I ought to go over and see you, and here you are first!”
Lin Wu stepped forward with the bamboo basket and smiled. “Sister-in-law, may your Winter Solstice be peaceful and blessed.”
Fourth Sister He turned to her son. “Scholar, pour Auntie Lin a bowl of boiled water.”
Then she smiled and explained to Lin Wu, “My husband just came home yesterday with some paicao incense. We use it to flavor the water, and it gives it a uniquely sweet, refreshing taste. You two should try some.”
Lin Wu hurriedly waved her hands. “Please, Sister-in-law, don’t trouble yourself. I only came to exchange a few festival greetings. I still have to visit some other friends and relatives later.”
As she spoke, she took a wax-paper package from the bamboo basket and handed it over. “Just a little homemade food, nothing fancy. Please enjoy it with Brother Liu and the scholar, and don’t look down on it. May your family have a harmonious Winter Solstice and may everything go smoothly for you.”
“With your skills, calling it ‘nothing fancy’ is far too modest.” Fourth Sister He accepted the package. “Sit down for a moment. I happen to have something for you too. How fortunate that you came.”
With that, she turned and hurried into the main room.
The layout of Fourth Sister He’s courtyard was much like theirs, and it too had a water well. However, the yard was piled high with all sorts of household items and odds and ends, making it seem considerably more cramped.
Before long, Fourth Sister He came back carrying a wax-paper package as well. “This contains some paicao incense and a small packet of water-chestnut flour. My husband happened to acquire it somehow. They say it comes from the south. Anything made with it turns smooth and soft, with a natural sweetness, much better than ordinary flour. We don’t know how to use it, but you’re clever with your hands. It won’t go to waste with you, so take it home and try it.”
Lin Wu quickly thanked her. Fuci powder was, in fact, water chestnut starch. Water chestnuts might have been fairly common in Nanya, where some people dug them up to stave off hunger, while others made them into powder for cooking. But producing water chestnut starch was an extremely laborious process, and the yield was very low. Getting one jin of starch from twenty jin of water chestnuts was already considered a good result. Thus, in Huzhou, it was indeed a rare delicacy.
“Thank you for thinking of us, Sister-in-law. This water chestnut starch is truly hard to come by. You’ve gone to too much trouble.”
Seeing that Lin Wu knew its value, Fourth Sister He was even happier. “As long as you can put it to good use. If it stayed in my hands, that would be the real waste.”
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Lin Wu left with Lin Jing.
The moment they were gone, Liu Lishu could no longer contain his curiosity and secretly opened the large oiled-paper parcel. Inside was another small paper packet. He took it out and immediately widened his eyes.
“Mother—!”
Fourth Sister He was startled by his shout and hurried back into the room. “What happened? Why are you hollering like that?”
Liu the Third, who had been woken by the noise, also emerged from the inner room with his hair sticking up in every direction. “Son, is this what they teach you at the prefectural school? To shout at the top of your lungs?”
He had not arrived home until the fourth watch the previous night and was exhausted. Even though it was the Winter Solstice today, he had wanted to sleep a little longer.
Liu Lishu paid no attention to his disheveled father. Trembling with excitement, he held up the bookmark before Fourth Sister He. “Mother! Look! A Jade Soul bookmark! Heavens above, I, Liu Lishu, actually have a Jade Soul bookmark!”
Liu the Third was utterly bewildered. “A bookmark made of jade? That new neighbor’s family must be extraordinarily wealthy. This won’t do—the gift is far too valuable, and we can’t afford to return the favor. We’ll have to send it back.”
“It isn’t made of jade. It’s called a Jade Soul bookmark! Father, you may not know this, but a while ago I attended a lecture gathering at Canglang Academy. I heard that Master Yun Jianshan himself gave these bookmarks their name. They’re all the rage at the academy now. Not to mention our prefectural school—even proper students at Canglang Academy might not be able to buy one. I hear only the little children in elementary school have some. I, Liu Lishu, actually have one now!”
The more Liu the Third heard, the more dangerous the bookmark seemed. “Then all the more reason we can’t keep it! Something this rare and valuable—what could our family possibly give in return? Besides, they gave it as a seasonal gift to our entire family, not specifically to you.”
At once, Liu Lishu tucked the bookmark into his robes. “It’s a refined stationery item, and you and Mother have no use for it. Naturally, it should go to me. Besides, I heard one only costs fifty copper coins. It’s not especially expensive, just rare and difficult to buy! Father, Mother, I’m heading out!”
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, he had snatched up his book satchel and dashed away. He was afraid that if he ran any slower, his father would confiscate the treasure. He had to hurry and show it off to his close friends. For the first time, he even found the Winter Solstice break too long, wishing he were at the prefectural school right then so his classmates could all have a look.
Watching her son disappear, Fourth Sister He was both exasperated and amused. “He’s already studying at the prefectural school, yet he still acts like a little boy who’s just gotten a new toy. He hasn’t learned a bit of composure.”
Only then did she turn back and examine the other things in the oiled-paper parcel. Her eyes lit up as well. “Oh, dried meat, square cakes, and jade-green cakes! Lady Lin’s cooking is truly something else. They’re all delicious and so delicately made.”
Liu the Third was still completely lost. “What are all these things you’re talking about?”
Fourth Sister He carefully explained everything to him. Liu the Third remained half skeptical, but he picked up a slice of dried meat and tasted it. His eyes immediately brightened.
“This really is good! Lady Lin certainly has clever hands. What did we give them in return?”
“Lady Lin is practical and skillful, which is why I gave her the little bit of water chestnut starch we had at home. It would only have sat unused in our hands.”
“You’re certainly generous this time.”
Lin Wu and the others naturally had no idea what sort of commotion the bookmark had caused next door. Together with Lin Jing, she returned to the little courtyard, picked up the other two prepared oiled-paper parcels, locked the gate, and headed toward the entrance of the lane.
They had originally planned to hire an ox cart to travel to the northern part of the city, but when they reached the lane’s entrance, they spotted a carriage approaching.
“That’s Tigerhead’s family carriage,” Lin Jing said at once.
Sure enough, before the carriage had even come to a full stop, its curtain was pushed aside, revealing half of Tigerhead’s chubby little face.
“Elder Sister! Jing!”
“Young Master Hutou, please sit properly!” Little Zheng hurriedly called out.
The carriage stopped steadily beside them, and Tigerhead nearly leaned half his body out of it. “Are you two going somewhere?”
Lin Jing tipped up his little head and answered, “We were just about to go to your house.”
Tigerhead clapped his hands. “Ah! My grandfather said you’d definitely come to our house today. And that you’d stop by the academy to deliver a seasonal gift to your teacher along the way, right?”
Lin Wu could not help smiling. “So your grandfather sent you especially to pick us up?”
Tigerhead grinned. “That’s right! Grandfather said the weather is cold and the road is far, so we could all ride together. It’ll be warmer and more convenient, and we can go to the academy together too!”
“That was very thoughtful of him. Thank you, Tigerhead—and please thank your grandfather for taking the trouble.”
At Little Zheng’s invitation, the two of them climbed into the carriage.
At the same time, far away in Huibei County of Nanya, Shen Guanting boarded a carriage bound for the Kapok Workshop outside the city.
The workshop had changed greatly since his previous visit. The crude sheds had been replaced by several neat rows of wooden buildings, from which the humming of spinning wheels and looms rose one after another. A new drying yard had also been cleared inside the walls, where basket after basket of fluffy white kapok could be seen.
The nearby area of bamboo huts looked much tidier as well. Every drafty hole had been carefully patched with fresh bamboo and wooden boards. In front of each household, a sparse fence enclosed a small private space. Short green shoots had already emerged from the freshly turned soil before the houses, while coarse cloth garments, freshly washed and starched, swayed gently on the clotheslines in the breeze.
It was nearing noon, and groups of workers were gradually returning along the mountain path. Their clothes were covered in dust, and sweat had dampened the hair at their temples, but although their faces showed fatigue, their spirits seemed fairly good.
Leaning on a bamboo staff, Gu Qing walked slowly while reminding the lively-footed Gu Jue ahead of her, “Little Brother, slow down. Watch your step.”
At that, Gu Jue slowed and turned around. His eyes shone brightly. “Elder Sister, Brother Shen Qi told me yesterday that today is the Winter Solstice, and the workshop is serving everyone wontons for the afternoon meal! I want to hurry up and get cleaned up so I can go to the workshop early and help sort the kapok.”
At the workshop, he had been assigned light tasks, such as roughly sorting the harvested kapok by quality or carrying small, lightweight items back and forth. The work was not tiring, and he could chat with everyone in the warm, spacious workshop. It was nothing like the quarry, where even speaking a few extra words would earn him a reprimand. More importantly, the workshop provided one meal in the afternoon.
It had been a long time since they had tasted wontons filled with pure meat. Just thinking about them made his stomach ache with hunger.
Chen Wang could not help laughing. “Jue, you’ve been talking about that since yesterday. My ears are practically growing calluses.”
“Heh-heh.” Gu Jue scratched his head sheepishly, but his stomach chose that moment to betray him with several loud growls.
Everyone traveling with them burst out laughing. The exhaustion of their work at the quarry seemed to fade a little.
At that moment, Shen Guanting had already arrived in the study inside the workshop.
Shen Qi was sorting through the ledgers when he heard footsteps. He immediately looked up, his face full of grievance. “My young master, you finally remembered there’s still someone out here in the middle of nowhere! I thought you were too busy with important matters to leave the city, and planned to spend the winter solstice in comfort while abandoning me here to gnaw on cold buns over the ledgers.”
Shen Guanting walked around to the other side of the desk and sat down. He casually picked up a ledger and began flipping through it without even raising his eyes. “Oh? Cold buns? I seem to recall that someone was counting on his fingers just the other day, telling me that with the winter solstice approaching, the workers at the workshop needed to be appeased. He wanted fresh meat and finely milled flour, and even listed the scallions, ginger, and garlic in meticulous detail. The list was more thorough than this ledger. When I came in just now, I distinctly saw that the main stove was roaring.”
“Heavens above! Who would have thought that having a bowl of wontons on the winter solstice would earn me a lecture from you, young master? There’s no justice in this world. What kind of miserable life am I living?” Shen Qi immediately began to cry foul, even making a show of wiping at the corners of his eyes.
He watched Shen Guanting’s expression and edged closer. “Young master, don’t tell me you really had a falling-out with the Old Master and Master back in Huzhou, and that’s why you were sent here? I notice you haven’t sent a single letter to Huzhou, and you haven’t replied to any of the letters they’ve sent you either. Who exactly are you quarreling with?”
At last, Shen Guanting lifted his eyes from the ledger. “If I had truly been exiled here, then under ordinary circumstances, I would be the one eagerly writing home to complain about my hardships and beg for help. Yet from the way you put it, it sounds as though they’ve been sending letter after letter, while I’m the one putting on airs and refusing to reply. At this rate, it almost sounds as though they’re the ones who’ve been exiled.”
Shen Qi was briefly left speechless. Privately, he couldn’t help thinking: That might be true of ordinary people, but could his young master possibly be considered ordinary? If anyone could maintain an air of dignity while in exile—or even turn the tables and make it seem as though everyone else was the one being sent away—it was certainly his young master.
He remembered an incident from the young master’s childhood. Once, for reasons no one quite knew, he had displeased the Old Master and was punished by being sent to the library to copy books and reflect on his mistakes. An ordinary child would have gone in feeling aggrieved or frightened. But this little tyrant had first ordered his writing implements, inkstone, accustomed brazier, and armrest to be moved inside. He had even instructed the servants to deliver tea and snacks at regular intervals.
He looked less like a child going to receive punishment than someone retreating to a private estate for a few days of quiet seclusion.
As it turned out, he stayed in the library for three full days. When he emerged, not only had he finished copying the books, he had also taken it upon himself to sort and reorganize the old volumes that had languished there for years.
And that wasn’t all. Somehow, from some obscure corner, he dug up several pages of poems written by the Old Master in his youth. They were filled with mawkish sentiments and the secret stirrings of a young man’s heart. In front of everyone, the little master read out several lines with dramatic rises and falls in his voice, until the Old Master’s venerable face flushed red and he was reduced to coughing repeatedly.
Just look at that. The Old Master’s punishment for making him copy books had ended up exposing the Old Master’s own secrets instead.
Shen Guanting, who had been the subject of Shen Qi’s muttering, closed the ledger with a snap. His voice remained calm. “The letter from Huzhou should have been sent this way before the winter solstice. Matters here in Nanya are more or less settled. Once the letter arrives, if nothing unexpected has happened, we can prepare to return to Huzhou. We should even make it back in time for New Year’s Day.”
At once, Shen Qi’s voice rose several octaves. “Now that’s something to look forward to! But when exactly is that letter coming?”
Shen Qi waited and waited, practically wearing his eyes out with anticipation. After enduring several more days, he finally saw Shen Quan return, travel-stained and weary. This time, Shen Quan had also brought a modest-sized wooden chest.
Shen Qi hurried over. “Brother Quan, you’ve had a hard journey! What good things did the Old Master send in that chest? Is it a New Year’s gift from Huzhou? Do I have a share?”
Shen Quan ignored him and first handed the thick bundle of letters to Shen Guanting.
Standing to one side, Shen Qi craned his neck to look. “Why are these letters getting thicker and thicker? The last bundle was already as thick as a register. This one looks almost like a volume of popular fiction.”
Shen Guanting went around to the desk and sat down. He untied the heavy bundle and pulled out a stack of letters. His distinct, bony fingers sifted briefly through the sheets of varying thickness, written in several different hands, before precisely selecting one in neat, graceful script.
After all, the family letters from his grandfather, father, and mother contained little beyond the same familiar words repeated back and forth. Lin Jing’s letters were probably filled entirely with circles, lines, and other incomprehensible scribbles, requiring Lin Wu’s appended notes to make sense of them. As for the letters from Sparrow and Tigerhead, they were nothing but pointless chatter and could safely be ignored.
Therefore, in Shen Guanting’s view, opening Lin Wu’s letter first was the wisest and most reasonable choice at that moment. As a pragmatic merchant, he had always valued getting straight to the point and working efficiently. Naturally, that principle applied to private matters as well.
This was not disrespect toward his elders, nor did it mean he cared any less for his younger brother and sister. It was simply the merchant’s nature at work. Yes, that was all.
