After finishing their evening meal, while the sky had not yet fully darkened, Lin Jing pulled a brand new thin notebook out of his book bag, spread it on the table, and prepared to complete the assignment his teacher had set for him that day.
Lin Wu finished washing the dishes, wiped her hands as she walked over, and seeing him hunched over writing with such a focused, earnest look, found it rather amusing, so she leaned in closer to take a look.
To her surprise, the pages of that notebook did not have the neat tracing practice characters she had expected, but were instead covered in strange patterns and symbols, looking very much in line with the style he used when writing letters before.
At the very top were three small circles lined up side by side, next to them a leaf with clearly drawn veins, some square-shaped blocks, a few long strips, and down at the bottom there were lines that looked like little grass blades.
"A Jing, what is this you drew?" Lin Wu could not help but ask. The drawing was far too abstract to make out any usual, obvious logic. Those three circles... surely they can't be the sun?
Normally when children draw, don't they love to draw a sun at the top, a house in the middle, a tree next to it, and then add some flowers, grass and a path at the bottom? Lin Jing's drawing vaguely resembled that sort of scene, but when you looked closely it was nothing of the sort.
The little boy stopped his pen and pointed at each thing one by one to explain to her: "This is a copper coin, this is our jade soul bookmark and our cake, this is the dried radish we sun-dried, and these are the little green onion and coriander sprouts."
Lin Wu immediately understood. The very first thing he drew was a copper coin, which clearly meant that in the Little Shopkeeper's mind, money was the most important thing. Next came the jade soul bookmarks and pastries that could earn money, then the dried radish that could be stored and eaten to save money, and last of all the vegetable sprouts from their own field.
Well now, what Lin Jing the little fellow had drawn turned out to be an asset map all about their family's livelihood and daily expenses. It could be said to have clear priorities, a well-organized line of thought, and was thoroughly practical.
"The teacher said that learning to read characters is just like getting to know people. First you have to learn their appearance and temperament, then remember their names," he straightened his small, straight back, repeating the words Yun Jianshan had said in class that day, "I learned a lot of characters in class today. But when I got back and thought about it, I still don't know how to write the words for our own copper coins, bookmarks, cakes, radishes, and the green onions and coriander. So I drew them all down first, so I can take the notebook to ask the teacher tomorrow."
It turned out that the first assignment Yun Jianshan had given his new young disciple was not the usual tracing and copying practice, but to pay close attention to their surroundings and write down three things they most wanted to learn more about. But of course, the things little Lin Jing cared about were clearly far more than three, and the whole page of the notebook was filled full of his drawings.
Seeing how absorbed Lin Jing was in his drawing and writing, Lin Wu did not disturb him any further. It seemed that even though this Master Yun Jianshan was a great Confucian scholar, he valued connecting children's natural instincts to real life when teaching young pupils, and his methods were truly unique.
Still, he was drawing and writing leaning over the dining table, which was ultimately too tall for him. The little boy had to tiptoe slightly to reach, so she really needed to get him a proper, well-fitted desk and chair for studying as soon as possible.
Lin Jing's very first day of elementary schooling did not come with a heavy workload, and he finished his drawings very quickly. Putting down his pen, he picked up the other notebook beside him that was already filled thick with dense writing, his order book. He looked through it carefully again and again, counted over and over, then reported to Lin Wu, "A Wu, twelve more people placed bookmark orders with me today! They ordered a total of twenty-one bookmarks. I have to bring twenty-one bookmarks to the elementary school with me tomorrow."
"That is truly a huge business," Lin Wu said with a laugh.
"Going to school is such a great thing." That was little Lin Jing's concluding thought after his very first day of attending school.
With that, he scurried off, and soon came back clutching his little wooden stamp and a stack of oilpaper bags, then set to work on his assembly-line stamping task for the bags all on his own.
Seeing that stack of oilpaper, Lin Wu suddenly thought of something. She pulled some larger-sized oilpaper sheets out of her cloth bag and said, "Stamp these with our little leaf mark too. We can use them tomorrow when we set up the stall to sell cakes."
Since Second Aunt Chen had copied their jade cake, there was no other quick fix for the moment. At the very least, they could add their stall's unique mark to the packaging.
Lin Jing immediately caught on, his eyes lighting up. "Right! That way everyone will know at a glance that these cakes are from our family!"
He held up a freshly stamped oilpaper bag and examined it closely. The little leaf mark was crisp, neat, and perfectly centered.
Lin Wu could not help but sigh that this little one was a total natural at stamping. Back when she used to stamp official document seals on paper in her past life, smudged or lopsided prints were a common occurrence for her.
"A Wu," Lin Jing said as he kept stamping, his little mind turning over a new idea, "should we bring some bookmarks to the stall to sell tomorrow too? Then we can earn even more money."
Lin Wu thought it over carefully, then shook her head. "Our food stall's main business is food. If we start selling bookmarks on the side, it will make the stall look too scattered."
While the customers for pastries and bookmarks might overlap a little, most people who came to a food stall were local neighbors or maids and stewards sent to run household errands. There would not be many scholars who came specifically to buy bookmarks. Tea snacks and stationery curios were two completely different types of goods. Mixing them for sale would only blur the stall's positioning.
Besides, a pastry at five wen was quite affordable for ordinary folks, but a bookmark at fifty wen was a far higher price. In the future, the bookmarks would be consigned to specialty shops and stationery stores to sell, especially the Treasure Collection Pavilion, where their price might even go higher. If she sold them at the food stall now, it would unnecessarily cheapen their elegant appeal.
"Our bookmarks will sell well through the shops later, it's just a matter of sooner or later," Lin Wu explained. Then she shifted her tone, "But A Jing, now that you've started school, your top priority has to be your schoolwork. You can't spend all day thinking about nothing but doing business, and you absolutely must not sneak out of the schoolhouse to sell bookmarks."
She had a feeling Lin Jing was exactly the kind of kid who would pull a stunt like that. On the surface, he looked well-behaved and obedient, but deep down he had a very stubborn mind of his own.
Lin Jing looked up at her and nodded vigorously.
Lin Wu pressed on while the iron was hot. "Think about it. Master Jianshan waived our tuition, but an ordinary village school still charges five guan a year for classes. If you wanted to hire a great scholar as learned as Master Jianshan to teach you one-on-one, it would cost at least several thousand guan a year. If you don't pay attention in class, wouldn't that mean you're wasting thousands of guan worth of lessons for nothing?"
To Lin Jing, a few hundred wen was already an enormous sum, so "several thousand guan" sounded like an astronomical number. He was immediately stunned by that reasoning, his eyes going wide and round.
"I will study extra hard! I will never waste the tuition Master Jianshan is giving me!" He clenched his little fist, his voice firm and resolute. If he listened carefully in class, that was as good as earning several thousand guan from the master, and such an important thing could never be neglected.
Lin Wu nodded in satisfaction. She had achieved her goal. She did not really care if every part of her reasoning for encouraging him to study was perfectly sound. She had lived her whole life with no one to rely on but herself, so she never knew any fancy proper parenting methods. As long as the kid was willing to put his heart into his studies, that was all that mattered. If her method worked, then it was a good method.
The next day, Lin Wu, who had closed her stall for quite some time, finally got back on her feet and got ready to set up her pastry stall again.
That day, she only steamed one basket of jade-green crystal cakes, and poured most of her effort into preparing small square pastries. She mixed the fillings properly, kneaded two smooth large dough balls, placed them in a bamboo basket lined with oil paper, and covered the basket with a damp cloth.
Lin Wu carefully packed all the ingredients and tools into a large wicker backpack, then picked up the portable folding camp bed and small clay stove with one hand each. She waved goodbye to Lin Jing, who was carrying his book bag, at the courtyard gate.
One of them was heading to school, the other to run her stall, both had their own proper business to tend to.
Lin Jing had already climbed onto the carriage, yet he still poked his little head out of the window, staring at her with a longing look.
"Don't worry, go on now," Lin Wu waved at him and teased, "I can pack up and rest as soon as the morning market ends. My day is way more relaxed than A Jing's, who has to stay in the academy for the whole day."
Lin Jing shook his little head firmly. "You have to prepare everything the night before making the pastries, and get up before dawn the next day. Selling pastries is very hard work too." He had actually worked the stall with Lin Wu before, so he knew perfectly well all about the early mornings, late nights, trivial and busy tasks, there was no fooling him.
Seeing his earnest look, Lin Wu smiled and said, "Alright, we both work hard, so we should all put in our best efforts."
Watching the carriage drift away, Lin Wu then turned around and walked towards the morning market.
As usual, she set up her stall next to a familiar flower stall. All her regular customers knew to find her here, so for now she had no plans to change her spot.
Second Madam Zhao, who ran the stall next to hers, caught sight of her immediately and greeted her warmly. "Oh my, Mrs. Lin, you've finally come! All these days you were gone, I felt the place was so much quieter, and now I finally have a companion again!"
As she spoke, her eyes swept over Lin Wu, feeling that something was missing all of a sudden. She smacked her forehead. "Oh! I remember now! Where is that little lad of yours who was amazing at collecting money? Didn't he come with you today?"
"I sent him off to start his elementary lessons at the academy," Lin Wu replied with a smile as she set down her wicker backpack. "I've been running around taking care of this for the past few days."
"Going to the academy for lessons? That's wonderful news, congratulations!" Second Madam Zhao said wholeheartedly. She thought to herself that Mrs. Lin looked plain, but she must have had a decent background to be able to send her child to an academy, that was really impressive. Then she thought about how the two of them, a widow and her young son, would have to rely mostly on the boy for their future days, so it was only right for her to put so much effort into this.
She then said again, "You're absolutely right to put your heart into this. A child with a bright future is better than anything else."
Lin Wu thanked her, then nimbly set up the folding camp bed and placed the pastry cutting board on top. She took out the well-rested dough covered with a damp cloth and the basin of fillings from her backpack, and kept the rest of the materials safely stored in the backpack behind her.
The vine-woven bamboo basket that was specially used to hold the jade-green crystal cakes was placed in a noticeable spot. Once everything was arranged, her stall looked full, neat and properly set up, quite a presentable sight.
"You're finally going to make those square pastries?" Second Madam Zhao had tasted the small square pastries Lin Wu gave her before, and they were so delicious that when she brought them home, all her children had been pining for more. "That's wonderful! You have to save a few pieces for me, and I'll take them home after the morning market closes to satisfy those greedy little mouths in my family."
"Thank you so much for thinking of them, I'll definitely save some for you," Lin Wu said with a smile. "Looks like my business today is off to a great start, my very first order is already settled."
As she spoke, a charcoal peddler walked over carrying a basket of charcoal. He was the man Lin Wu had arranged to meet earlier when she first entered the market. Most food stalls in the market used charcoal, which was more expensive than firewood, but its heat was steady and easy to control. When running a food stall, no one could burn firewood on site — not only was the heat hard to adjust, but the billowing smoke and fumes would drive all customers away.
She set up a small clay stove, lit the charcoal, and placed a flat iron griddle on top. Lin Wu pinched a portion of dough off the main lump, rolled it into a ball in her palm, flattened it, wrapped a spoonful of filling inside, pinched the opening shut, then gently pressed it a few times on the chopping board, forming a plump, white cake dough. She made several of these in one go, lining them up on the edge of the chopping board, looking simple and adorable.
Once the griddle was hot enough, she placed the cake doughs on it, and slowly baked them over low heat until they turned golden brown on all six sides. A sweet, fragrant scent drifted gently through the market from her stall.
For the first batch, she only made four pieces, neatly arranged on a porcelain plate for customers to sample. The golden square cakes sat next to the glistening green Emerald Cakes, the yellow and green hues complementing each other beautifully, a truly lovely sight.
Lin Wu kept her hands busy, wrapping more cake doughs, when a somewhat familiar voice called out.
"Ah, the Jade-Cake Lady, you've finally come!" It was the aunt who often bought pastries for her elderly mother-in-law. She hurried up to the stall, "We haven't seen you at your stall for ages, I thought you'd stopped making pastries entirely. My old madam has been thinking about these treats nonstop."
Although the food stall down the way also sold Emerald Cakes at a cheaper price, she had bought some once, only to find the pastries cloyingly sweet, with poorly risen dough that felt sticky and mushy in the mouth. The old madam had taken one bite and refused to eat any more, saying it was not the right taste at all — she had wasted her money for nothing.
"I've been busy with other things these days, so I couldn't set up my stall, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Auntie. This is a new creation I've come up with, the Gold and Jade Cake, would you like to try a piece?" Lin Wu said as she cut a small square cake into four slices. The golden, flaky crust of the pastry split open to reveal the greyish-white, faintly purple taro paste inside.
She had thought up the name for this pastry long ago. Since she already had Emerald Cakes, it only made sense to make this one Gold and Jade Cake, to match the existing line and sound auspicious. She knew she had no talent for naming things, and without the great scholar Master Jianshan around to give her pointers, she could only name her treats after their appearances — Emerald, Gold and Jade, they were certainly wealthy-sounding, if a little plain and unrefined. But when it came to food, good taste was all that really mattered.
"Oh that sounds wonderful, let me try it." The aunt did not stand on ceremony, taking the small slice and popping it into her mouth. The freshly baked pastry was still warm, its crust crisp, and the taro filling inside so smooth and fine it melted on the tongue. Just like the Emerald Cake, the flavour highlighted the natural taste of the ingredients, sweet and pleasant without being cloying.
"This tastes amazing!" the aunt praised. She thought the warm Gold and Jade Cake suited her tastes even better than the cold Emerald Cake. But then she hesitated, thinking of her elderly mother-in-law. Baked pastries tended to be a little heating to the body, and she was not sure if they would be suitable for the old lady to eat.
As she was thinking, her eyes fell on the gleaming golden square pastries, and the interruption had almost made her forget why she had come today.
"Oh my, Mrs. Lin, did you used to make these Gold and Jade Cakes at Canglang Academy?" the aunt suddenly asked.
The moment Lin Wu heard this, she had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Most likely, it was all thanks to the little fellow Lin Jing and his little sales pitch. The day before, when he came home from school, the little guy had reported with great pride all about how he'd shared pastries with his classmates.
"I never actually made this Golden Jade Cake at the academy," Lin Wu said with a soft laugh and a shake of her head. "I only helped out in the kitchen a while back and made a few batches of Emerald Jade Cake. My boy is attending the village academy now, and yesterday I packed some for his midday meal. He's just an excitable little kid, so he probably shared a few bites with his classmates."
Auntie Huang slapped her thigh and nodded repeatedly, her words flowing more freely now. "That's exactly it! That's what happened! My young master came home yesterday chattering nonstop about some incredible cake he'd tried at school, and insisted I come to the flower stall here first thing this morning to buy some. I was confused at first, wondering when a new little square cake seller set up shop around here—turns out it's your stall, Mrs. Lin!"
She no longer hesitated, and waved her hand to place her order. "Alright, wrap up five of the taro paste ones, five of the date paste ones, and five Emerald Jade Cakes too."
She knew all the filling types so clearly, all thanks to her young master's nonstop, detailed descriptions the day before.
"Coming right up, thank you so much for your support, Auntie! Just give me a moment, and I'll get these ready for you." Lin Wu deftly wrapped the pastry dough as she spoke, and added a quick note, "If the Golden Jade Cakes go cold by the time you get home, just warm them up gently on a griddle over low heat, and they'll taste just as good. Though of course, nothing beats the aroma of a fresh, just-out-of-the-oven cake."
"Got it, got it!" Auntie Huang replied with a big smile, her eyes drifting to look over Lin Wu's little stall.
The stall was simple, but it was spotlessly neat. All the dough and fillings were covered with damp cloths and kept in bamboo baskets, ready to use whenever needed, and the sample pastries were loosely covered with a clean white cloth. There was none of the greasy grime you saw on most street food stalls, just a sight that put people at ease right away.
Lin Wu was busy working away when more people started to gather at the stall. A well-dressed woman with shiny pearl drop earrings walked over, spotted Auntie Huang, and called out to her. "Oh my, if it isn't Sister Huang! What are you doing out here so early in the morning?"
Auntie Huang turned around and smiled right back. "I was wondering who it was—Shopkeeper Lü! Your shop does such great business, I never thought I'd see you out rushing to the morning market. What brings you out here today?"
Shopkeeper Lü ran a cosmetics shop, so she had no need to open her store at the crack of dawn, let alone come to the early morning market to do her shopping.
"Oh, don't even get me started! It's all because of my little troublemaker. He came home from school yesterday, going on and on about how there's a little square cake seller by the flower stall at the morning market, and how it's the best thing he's ever tasted. He pestered me nonstop until I had no choice but to come buy some for him, and here I am, dragged out bright and early!"
Auntie Huang laughed out loud when she heard that, and pointed at Lin Wu's stall. "Then you've come to the right place. I'm waiting here right now for these very Golden Jade Cakes. The picky little young master in my household has been raving about the exact same cakes from this stall too."
Lin Wu listened to the two women chatting as she carefully placed the pastries into the griddle to bake, and a little smile tugged at her lips. Her little Lin Jing, the Little Shopkeeper, wasn't even here at the stall, but his influence was impossible to miss.
This great start to her morning business was all earned by his hard work promoting the cakes at school the day before.
