When they got home, Lin Jing could hardly wait to sit down on the little stool. He untied the small pouch and tipped out a little round ball.
Lin Wu leaned over curiously.
It was a reddish-brown rubber ball, about half the size of Lin Jing’s fist. It was round and plump, with a faint pattern of entwined lotuses pressed into its surface.
“It’s a little soft.” Lin Jing squeezed it, his eyes lighting up at the peculiar texture. He crouched down, tossed the ball onto the ground, and watched as it bounced half a foot into the air before rolling all the way to the foot of the wall.
Laifu saw it and immediately scampered over on his short legs. He pawed at the ball, sending it rolling another turn, then chased after it. After clumsily picking it up in his mouth, he trotted back to Lin Jing’s feet and set it down.
“Laifu is so clever! He likes the ball.” Lin Jing rubbed Laifu’s head.
Lin Wu found it amusing too. She suddenly thought of the exquisite peach-wood charms in Shen Guanting’s hands and the ornaments in his courtyard. She had no idea where the young master had found so many strange and wonderful things. It had to be said—he certainly lived up to his reputation as the owner of the treasure shop.
Lin Jing and Laifu happily played with the ball in the courtyard.
Lin Wu turned and went back into the kitchen. She arranged the offerings on the stove: vegetables, beans, fruits and flowers, sticky malt candy for strengthening the teeth, and various pastries. She placed each item neatly on its plate.
Lin Jing came running in. Looking at the dazzling assortment of offerings, he suddenly asked, “Why are we making offerings to the Kitchen God?”
Lin Wu lit the incense. “Because today is the day when all the gods ascend to Heaven. The Kitchen God has to return to Heaven as well and report everything our family has done this year. We give him offerings to eat, so when he goes up to Heaven, he’ll say only good things about us and nothing bad.”
Truthfully, she did not know much about the rules of these rituals either. But the major festivals in the palace had always been celebrated with great ceremony, leaving a deep impression on her, and she had picked up bits and pieces from the idle chatter of the palace stewardesses.
She knew that making offerings to the Kitchen God was the most important affair of the New Year celebrations.
After hearing this, Lin Jing immediately clasped his hands and swayed them solemnly before the stove.
“Kitchen God, Kitchen God, please say lots and lots of good things about our family. Tell Heaven that the pastries A Wu makes are the most delicious, that Laifu is the best behaved, and that I do my lessons better than anyone! Oh, and please tell the Old Man in Heaven that A Wu has worked very hard this year. Ask him to let us make lots and lots of money next year without having to get up so early…”
Lin Wu listened from the side and suddenly felt that being the Kitchen God must be a rather stressful job. With nothing more than some vegetables, beans, and pastries to eat, he was still expected to shoulder their grand wish of making lots of money with ease.
After worshipping the Kitchen God, she picked up the wine jug and sprinkled wine onto the ground. Then she deliberately took a handful of lees and carefully smeared it over the stove door.
“This is called ‘getting the Kitchen God drunk,’” Lin Wu explained as she spread it on. “That way, he’ll go up to Heaven tipsy and muddled, and the only words left in his mouth will be good ones.”
Lin Jing found it fascinating and stuck out a finger to smear a little wine lees onto the stove door as well.
Next, she lit the spirit paper. The firelight flickered in the gradually darkening kitchen.
“Now that the Kitchen God has gone up to Heaven, good things will surely come to our family,” Lin Wu said softly.
Lin Jing clasped his hands again, his little mouth moving as he prayed. “Good things, good things! Let us make lots and lots of money! Kitchen God, please bless us. Bless our family so that everything gets better next year. Bless A Wu so she doesn’t have to get up so early every day and won’t be tired from making pastries. Bless me so I’ll grow tall and learn to write lots and lots of characters. Bless everyone in Nanya so they’ll all be safe and sound. Bless Laifu so he’ll grow up quickly and become big and strong, the most powerful gate-guarding general of them all…”
He rattled off a long string of wishes, mentioning every bit of good fortune he could think of—from making money to growing taller, from Huzhou to Nanya, from their own family to Laifu’s future career. He had thought of everything.
Only after finishing did he nod in satisfaction.
Outside the courtyard wall, firecrackers crackled one after another, their sound growing denser by the moment.
The next day, Lin Wu set up her stall as usual.
With New Year’s Day approaching, every household needed to buy pastries. Some were used as offerings to the gods, while others were given to relatives and friends as respectable holiday gifts. Business had been much better than usual over the past few days, especially for the thin crisps, which sold out quickly every day.
Even so, she still packed up after the morning market. It was not that she could not keep up with the work—she simply did not want to tire herself out. To put it bluntly, she wanted to be lazy. And now that it seemed the bookmark business on Young Master Shen’s side was about to take off, she could already picture herself lying back and collecting the profits in the future. That made her feel even more justified in taking it easy.
A few days earlier, she had gone to the treasure shop several times to teach the craftsmen, step by step, how to make leaf-vein bookmarks. The process was not difficult to begin with, and after being shown once or twice, they had quickly learned to do it themselves.
Today was the day the first batch of bookmarks would officially go on display. As someone who had contributed the technique and was, in name at least, one of the owners, she ought to go and take a look.
So after packing up her stall, she returned home to put everything away, then set out again with Lin Jing.
She had passed Jizhen Pavilion countless times before, yet had never imagined stepping inside. The place had always looked like somewhere she had no business entering.
But today, she was visiting in her capacity as an “owner.”
The moment she crossed the threshold, she caught the faint, elegant scent of incense. Ornamental shelves stood in carefully arranged tiers, displaying all kinds of rare treasures. Each item rested in a box lined with brocade. Sunlight filtered through specially designed carved lattice windows, scattering delicate shadows across the floor. The entire place exuded refinement and prestige.
Shen Guanting was speaking with a richly dressed young man.
Today he wore an indigo brocade robe, its collar edged with a layer of silver-gray fur. Whenever he moved his hands, faint patterns on the fabric shimmered in the light. His black hair was bound with a jade hairpin, revealing a sharply defined face and broad, composed features. There was something about his bearing that made it difficult to look away.
His voice was low and calm, unhurried as it resonated through the quiet elegance of Jizhen Pavilion, like a melody slowly flowing along the strings of a qin.
“The jade-soul bookmarks are made from leaves gathered in the deep mountains of Nanya. Traveling from Huzhou to Nanya requires covering several thousand li by both water and land. And the place where the agarwood trees grow is even more remote, with tigers and leopards for neighbors. Without a guide from a family of hereditary incense gatherers, outsiders would have no hope of finding it.”
He paused. Perhaps he had noticed Lin Wu entering through the door. A faint smile, almost imperceptible, appeared in his previously indifferent expression. He turned slightly to reveal a brocade box resting on the shelf.
“These trees are century-old agarwood. Each leaf has been carefully selected, and only the finest are used. They are wrapped layer upon layer in cotton paper, then carried north with the ships of the Zhiyun Trading House. They cross the strait, pass over mountain roads, enter the river waters, and only then finally arrive here.”
He lowered his eyes to the bookmark in the box.
“This single leaf has traveled along a thousand-year-old incense route. What a customer places between the pages of a book is not an ordinary leaf. It is the mountains and rivers of Nanya, the spirit of a distant land, and the essence of a century of sun and moon.”
Lin Wu followed his gaze.
The bookmark in that brocade box was no longer the ordinary sort she had made.
A soft length of satin lined the bottom, and the bookmark rested quietly upon it. Every vein of the leaf was crisp and flowing, while its edges had been outlined with extremely fine silver wire. Even the stem had been engraved with tiny entwined patterns, each detail exquisite.
The tassel had been changed as well. It was woven from dark green silk in an intricate, elaborate design, threaded with several jade beads and a single piece of agarwood no bigger than a green bean, which gave off a faint, lingering fragrance.
Shen Guanting continued in his unhurried, lingering tone. “Agarwood is born of wounds and sickness. This leaf, however, is what the tree looked like before it was ever injured. It gathers its radiance into its roots and veins, quietly awaiting the passage of time—until, one day, inch by inch, it becomes agarwood.”
He lifted his eyes to the young man and smiled faintly. “Our little shop offers this agarwood leaf bookmark to our honored guest as a gesture of ‘gathering one’s brilliance, quietly perfecting one’s substance, and allowing stillness to create fragrance.’”
The young man listened, entranced, his gaze lingering on the bookmark for a long while.
Lin Wu, standing to one side, was somewhat dazed as well.
She glanced at the bookmark in the brocade box, then at the composed Young Master Shen before her. This man truly was worthy of being Master Yun Jianshan’s disciple. He really had studied under a renowned master—whenever he started talking about such things, he could spin out one sophisticated explanation after another.
She could not help reaching out to pat the little shoulder of Lin Jing beside her. He was also Shen Guanting’s junior apprentice brother. Who knew whether he would one day acquire the same skill at talking?
Lin Jing looked up at her, puzzled.
The wealthy young man had evidently been stirred by Shen Guanting’s words. He blurted out, “Master Shen, how much are these Jade-Soul bookmarks?”
Shen Guanting did not answer at once. Instead, he smiled leisurely. “They are only being exhibited today, so that everyone may have the pleasure of seeing them. They are not yet for sale. These bookmarks take considerable effort to make. From selecting the leaves to twisting the silk wire and weaving the patterns, every step must be done patiently. However…”
He paused, his tone still unhurried. “Since this is an object of refinement, our shop would not wish to sully its good name with a vulgar price. Once they are officially put on sale, each will be priced at two strings of cash.”
At the words “two strings of cash,” Lin Jing’s eyes went round.
The wealthy young man, however, nodded repeatedly. “Once they are available, be sure to reserve several for me.”
As the proprietor of the Treasure Pavilion led Lin Wu and Lin Jing inside, Lin Jing was still counting on his fingers, his little mouth murmuring, “How many fifty-cash coins make two strings of cash?”
Lin Wu answered somewhat absently, “Forty.”
She supposed she ought to consider Shen Guanting fairly practical. At least he had not really turned the one hundred taels that Lin Jing and Tigerhead had initially shouted about into reality.
After Young Master Shen finished dazzling the customers outside, he finally turned and entered the tea room.
He sat down with measured steps, his expression perfectly at ease. “Please forgive me for making a spectacle of myself, Shopkeeper Lin. What I said just now was merely to add a little value to the bookmark. That is how business works—we need to give people a story. Truth and falsehood, falsehood and truth; being able to make people listen is a skill in itself.”
As he spoke, he pushed a teacup toward Lin Wu. “The tea has just been prepared. I was waiting for the two of you to come and offer your opinions on our shop’s bookmarks.”
The tea was still steaming, carrying a clean, delicate fragrance.
To be honest, Lin Wu did not particularly care for the whisked tea favored by the refined scholars of the day. First the leaves had to be ground into powder, then sifted, then hot water had to be boiled and added—it took half a day to fuss over, yet the resulting tea was too heavy for her taste. She still preferred the simpler method of steeping tea.
She raised the cup and took a sip. The tea was more bitter and astringent than anything she usually drank. Since it came from the Treasure Pavilion, it was certainly no ordinary tea. Was this simply what fine tea tasted like? Or was she too uncultured to appreciate good things?
Without revealing anything, Lin Wu set down the cup, her expression calm. “Thank you, Young Master Shen, for taking the trouble. I have certainly learned a great deal today. In the hands of the Treasure Pavilion’s craftsmen, this Jade-Soul bookmark has been completely transformed. Compared with my crude handiwork, it has risen who knows how many levels. And after Young Master Shen’s explanation just now, it has become even more extraordinary. I ought to pay you a fee for all that fine talk.”
Young Master Shen smiled at her words. “Shopkeeper Lin, you are too kind. You went to the trouble of making another trip today. I should be the one thanking you.”
The two exchanged polite remarks back and forth, neither willing to let the other come out on top.
Suddenly, Shen Guanting smiled helplessly. “Shopkeeper Lin, you are being so courteous that I suppose I shall have to stop being polite. Speaking of a fee for all that talking, what did you have in mind? A reward for moistening the throat ought to satisfy the appetite as well. Would that be the meat-floss pancakes, or perhaps some pastries?”
At this, Lin Wu could not help laughing inwardly. So Young Master Shen had been circling around the subject because he was still thinking about those pancakes. He truly was willing to go to great lengths for a bite of food.
“Young Master Shen is so intent on them that making me seem stingy,” she said. “Very well. I’ll personally deliver the pancakes to you tomorrow.”
“I would never dare trouble you to make such a trip. I am the one begging for food, after all. How could I ask you to come again? I have to go to the Warmth and Benevolence Home outside the city tomorrow, and I just happen to be passing through Clear Water Lane. I’ll send someone to pick them up along the way.”
At the familiar name, Lin Wu looked momentarily distracted. “The Warmth and Benevolence Home?”
Shen Guanting took a sip of tea before explaining, “With New Year approaching, the Shen family has always given food and coarse cloth to the elderly, the weak, and those without family. This year, the prefecture office said we need only deliver the donations to the Warmth and Benevolence Home. I plan to make the trip myself tomorrow and take a look at the conditions there.”
As he spoke, his gaze fell once more on Lin Jing. “My teacher and Tigerhead are going tomorrow as well. Little Jing, would you like to come along and see what all the excitement is about?”
Lin Jing immediately shook his head again and again. “No, no! I don’t want to go to the Warmth and Benevolence Home.”
Seeing this, Lin Wu briefly explained what had happened when the yamen runner had previously invited them to go there.
Young Master Shen chuckled. “I had no idea such a thing had happened. Still, if Little Jing wants to go, I can certainly make sure he is brought back safely. Well, perhaps it is better that he does not go to a place like that.”
Lin Wu smiled. “Young Master Shen is so charitable, worrying over the suffering of people across the realm and constantly rushing about to help them. Compared with you, an ordinary person like me feels rather ashamed.”
She was not merely being polite. It was true. This young master always seemed to be on his way to help someone—in Lingzhou, he had distributed porridge and provided free medical treatment; in Nanya, he had aided the Gu and Chen families. Even Lin Wu and the others had benefited greatly from his kindness.
And yet the man always wore such a languid expression that no one would ever guess he was so fond of meddling in other people’s troubles.
At her words, Shen Guanting raised a brow and looked at her with an almost-smile. “What is the matter with you today, Shopkeeper Lin? First you mentioned a fee for my fine talk, and now you are praising my charity. If you continue, I may begin to suspect that you are finding one excuse after another to put me off. Could it be that you do not actually want me to taste those pancakes?”
His words left Lin Wu speechless for a moment.
This man—she was clearly complimenting him. How had it become, in his version, that she was trying to welsh on a debt?
Lin Wu might be poor, but surely she was not so poor that she would deny him a single pancake.
She sighed helplessly. “Young Master Shen, you are overthinking it. I was merely speaking the truth. How did it become an excuse to evade payment once it reached your ears?”
Shen Guanting lifted his teacup and took another leisurely sip. He did not answer, merely watching her with eyes full of amusement.
His gaze made Lin Wu feel increasingly uncomfortable. In the end, she could only surrender and sigh. “The pancakes will be ready on time tomorrow morning. Young Master Shen need only wait for them.”
Even Lin Jing and Tigerhead had more restraint than this man. When it came to begging for food, he was truly difficult to deal with. The worst part was that he always spoke so persuasively that she could never find a proper reason to refuse him.
As if sensing her thoughts, Shen Guanting raised his eyes toward her. “What are you thinking about, Shopkeeper Lin?”
Lin Wu kept her expression neutral and replied evenly, “I’m wondering whether I should add an extra egg to tomorrow’s pancakes.”
Young Master Shen was nothing if not considerate. Unable to bear the thought of her worrying over such a matter, he immediately offered a solution.
“Add two.”
Lin Wu: “...”
Seeing her expression, Shen Guanting leisurely added, “What is it, Shopkeeper Lin? You don’t think that’s appropriate? One would do as well.”
Young Master Shen was remarkably perceptive—he even knew when to compromise.
“Two,” Lin Wu said. “And add two sausages.”
The moment she finished speaking, Lin Jing poked his head out from beside them. “Then I want a jianbing tomorrow too. Can I have two eggs and two sausages as well?”
Shen Guanting raised an eyebrow and looked at Lin Wu.
The look gave Lin Wu an inexplicable prickling sensation on her scalp, and she hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, of course. You’ll have them, you’ll have them. Two eggs and two sausages for everyone.”
Lin Jing was satisfied, and Shen Guanting seemed satisfied too.
Who would have thought that here, in the renowned, elegant, and refined Jizhen Pavilion, they would be discussing how many eggs to add to tomorrow’s jianbing?
