Several days later, two men arrived from Fuzhou with maps, saying they came on their master’s orders to invite Lin Hong to construct a garden for him in Fuzhou.

Since the Southern Crossing, scholar-officials all loved building garden pools for entertaining parents and themselves, hosting gatherings and poetry exchanges, enjoying the pleasures of forests and springs. The gardens of noble officials invariably featured artificial hills and waterways, cool pavilions and painted towers, high terraces and precarious structures, planted with exotic flowers and rare plants, fine trees and auspicious grasses, seeking places suitable for living, touring, and storing song and dance. To find an ideal garden designer, they would spare no expense in hiring.

It was only then that Zhenzhen learned that Lin Hong didn’t subsist entirely on wind and dew, indifferent to worldly affairs. A considerable portion of his and the garden residents’ daily expenses came from income earned through garden construction.

“The young master comes from a family of poetry, books, and high officials, but his parents died early, leaving little family property. The young master passed the imperial examination at eighteen, but having no interest in an official career, he resigned from office and went into seclusion at Wuyi Mountain. It’s been five years now,” A’Che told Zhenzhen.

Zhenzhen understood completely: “Teacher Lin has noble character and is indifferent to fame and profit. He probably couldn’t stand the personnel affairs in officialdom either.”

A’Che continued: “He built this garden at Wuyi Mountain for his own residence, but when friends visited, they all praised it endlessly and invited him to build gardens for their families. The young master found it difficult to refuse, so he built two. Who would have thought that more and more people came seeking his garden construction services. Seeing that he excelled at this and it could also support his livelihood, he decided to take on two projects each year. But only two projects—the young master is naturally indifferent and doesn’t pursue excessive profits. In all matters, he strives for perfection. Each project he accepts requires repeated deliberation, striving to do it perfectly, which is extremely mentally taxing, so two projects per year is already the limit. Though the quantity isn’t large, the income earned is sufficient to support all of us.”

Fuzhou was quite far from Wuyi Mountain, and Lin Hong initially wanted to decline, but the visitors repeatedly entreated: “Our master says you have natural landscapes in your heart, so you can display ingenious craftsmanship that others can only look up to and cannot replace. Therefore, our master specifically instructed us to invite you no matter what. If you refuse, we need not return either—our master won’t take in such incompetent people as us again.”

Seeing their sincere attitude and that their master was also a well-known literary figure who had dealings with his father, Lin Hong finally agreed. However, he indicated that because it was difficult to supervise construction in a distant place, he would only go to Fuzhou for a few days to survey the terrain, design drawings, and make rough estimates for the project. The specific construction matters should be arranged separately by the master.

Having taken on this task, Lin Hong added some preparatory surveying and calculation work each afternoon, often writing and drawing over maps in his study or calculating the approximate material needs. Once, Zhenzhen saw him writing with great fatigue and offered to take dictation while he spoke. Lin Hong hesitated, then actually agreed.

After Zhenzhen had been recording for a while, she suddenly heard Lin Hong mention the term “chuanjue” (rafters). Not quite sure how to write it, she opened her mouth to ask Lin Hong. Lin Hong stood up and came over, intending to take the brush from her hand to write it for her to see. However, at that moment, Zhenzhen was raising her hand, and his outstretched hand to take the brush suddenly covered her raised hand.

This was their first direct skin contact. Zhenzhen felt that Teacher Lin’s hand was very cold. When she turned to look at him, he had already quickly withdrawn his hand. Zhenzhen instinctively looked toward his retracted hand and discovered a strange phenomenon.

“Above his wrist, goosebumps had actually appeared,” Zhenzhen was puzzled. Later, she described this incident to A’Che: “Were my hands very cold? They shouldn’t have been—I felt his hands were even colder than mine.”

A’Che laughed so hard he bent over: “I think the young master’s feeling when touching your hand was probably similar to touching a mouse.”

After dodging Zhenzhen’s pursuit, A’Che said seriously: “Honestly, the young master’s love of cleanliness exceeds that of ordinary people. Not just with you—he avoids skin contact with everyone. If he accidentally touches someone, he will wash his hands repeatedly. We’re used to it. In daily interactions, we all try to stay a bit farther from him. You should pay attention to this in the future too.”

Zhenzhen agreed, somewhat understanding why Lin Hong, well past the age of twenty, still hadn’t married. He was obsessively clean, never sharing personal items or dining utensils with others, always dining alone in a room, sitting upright by himself, silently tasting dish after dish, and so afraid of skin contact with people… Zhenzhen sighed inwardly. With such a temperament, he was probably destined to live alone until old age.

After several days of preparation, Lin Hong took A’Che to Fuzhou, saying he would return after completing the survey work. Before leaving, he carefully arranged practice tasks for Zhenzhen, clearly writing out what ingredients to use for knife work practice each day, what techniques to practice for cooking, and specifying one dish she must make each meal, leaving the rest to Zhenzhen’s own discretion. He also didn’t forget to have Xin Sanniang supervise.

Xin Sanniang was secretly delighted and assigned Zhenzhen not only cooking tasks but other household chores as well. Zhenzhen knew she harbored resentment and didn’t argue, doing what she could manage and using little tricks to get by when there was really too much. When Xin Sanniang discovered this, she would always scold loudly: “The young master kindly took you in, teaches you cooking, doesn’t even charge you tuition, lets you eat and live well, and shouldn’t you do more household chores for the young master? You push back and make excuses for such small matters, showing you’re used to being lazy and gluttonous. If you went to someone else’s house, you could at least be a concubine, but our young master is pure and self-disciplined. Keeping you here is like inviting a Buddha statue for us to worship.”

Zhenzhen didn’t argue with these words. Instead, the two old gardeners couldn’t stand it and often advised Xin Sanniang: “She’s a young lady, and the young master treats her very politely. You should speak more kindly and not hurt her dignity too much. After all, we see each other every day.”

One night, Zhenzhen was awakened by smoke. Opening her eyes, she saw fire flickering outside the window with occasional shouts.

Zhenzhen immediately put on clothes and got up, seeing flames shooting skyward at a distance outside the garden. The thatched shed housing livestock in the back courtyard had also caught fire, probably because sparks were blown onto the thatched roof by wind. Zhenzhen hurried to fetch water with the old gardener to fight the fire. Fortunately, the fire in the thatched shed wasn’t too large, and after some firefighting efforts, the flames were completely extinguished.

Only after the open flames disappeared did Xin Sanniang emerge from Lin Hong’s room, clutching a bundle full of gold and silver valuables. Seeing Zhenzhen and the others, she said repeatedly: “Fortunately, the young master gave me the key before leaving. Otherwise, if the fire had spread, these family treasures really would have burned completely clean.”

Though the open flames were extinguished, the thatched shed still billowed with thick smoke. After being choked into several coughs, Xin Sanniang suddenly realized: “Oh no, the young master’s painting! I don’t know if it’s been blackened by smoke.”

She immediately ran toward the study. Zhenzhen also followed into the study. Xin Sanniang saw that the Luoshen portrait was temporarily safe, but smoke continued to invade, so she stuffed the bundle in her hands to Zhenzhen and reached up to take down the hanging painting.

Zhenzhen looked at the heavy bundle, walked outside to observe the direction of the fire, pondered briefly, then suddenly ran quickly toward the back courtyard, led out the donkey kept in the yard, mounted it herself, and carrying the bundle, trotted all the way down the mountain.

Hearing the sound, Xin Sanniang looked back and discovered Zhenzhen had taken the bundle. She chased for a while, but seeing Zhenzhen had already disappeared, she beat her chest and stamped her feet in anger, crying and cursing: “That damned girl, I knew she wasn’t a good person. Now she’s really run off with the young master’s wealth…”

Xin Sanniang had the gardener report to the authorities overnight, but seeing the fire outside the garden hadn’t diminished and worried the garden might catch fire again, the gardener didn’t dare leave on his own. One stayed to guard the garden while the other went out to fight nearby fires. Fortunately, the next day brought rain and snow. The two worked until noon the next day, and seeing the fire outside the garden was under control, they finally had a moment to breathe. Xin Sanniang was still urging the two collapsed men to hurry to town to report the case and catch Zhenzhen when they saw Zhenzhen riding the little donkey, carrying the bundle, returning unhurriedly.

Xin Sanniang quickly approached and snatched the bundle from Zhenzhen’s hands. Weighing the bundle, she immediately felt it was much lighter. Opening it, she indeed saw that most of the money was gone. Xin Sanniang’s blood surged with anger: “You deadly girl, while we were busy fighting fires, you stole money to go enjoy yourself!”

She raised her hand to hit Zhenzhen but was stopped by the gardener, who advised: “No one would brazenly steal money, use it, and still dare to come back. Let’s hear what she has to say first.”

Zhenzhen dismounted from the donkey, bowed to thank the gardener, then said to Xin Sanniang: “I went to town to buy materials for garden reconstruction and also hired over ten craftsmen for half a year’s work.”

Xin Sanniang scolded: “We only had the thatched shed catch fire. The materials needed for reconstruction are very few, so where would we need over ten craftsmen for half a year’s work?”

Zhenzhen said: “I saw this fire spread from the gardens of several nearby scholar-officials. This place has beautiful scenery and good feng shui. After the fire disaster, they certainly won’t let their gardens remain desolate. Since they’re not short of money, they’ll likely rebuild quickly. The bricks, tiles, rafters, and other materials needed for construction must be bought in town, and quantities are limited. Several gardens caught fire, some quite severely damaged. If they all rebuild simultaneously, there will be shortages of materials and carpenters, tile workers, and masons. So I went down the mountain overnight, quickly bought large quantities of materials, found craftsmen to negotiate work periods, and paid deposits. Because of the large quantities and long work periods, they gave very reasonable prices.”

Turning to the two gardeners, Zhenzhen continued: “You two have followed Teacher Lin for many years and often do carpentry work, so you understand construction well. I hope you’ll discuss with me to determine repair plans and pricing. If people come asking, we’ll take on these jobs with materials and labor included. For reconstruction and repairs, the owners have their own blueprints, so there’s no need to trouble Teacher Lin. If he has time and can give some guidance, that’s best. If he doesn’t want to get involved, the craftsmen can work on their own, and we’ll just ask you two to supervise a bit.”

The gardener was very surprised and asked Zhenzhen: “Miss, at such a young age, how do you know so much about these construction and business matters?”

Zhenzhen said: “I learned business from my mother. Whenever changes occurred, she would quickly judge what ingredients would be in short supply next, then prepare them before others acted, giving us the advantage. As for construction, I helped Teacher Lin prepare for garden construction work a few days ago and heard him mention some things, so I know where to find building materials and craftsmen. In negotiations with the craftsmen this time, when they heard it was work for Teacher Lin, they were all very willing. They said they had worked with Master Wen Qiao many times before—he was kind and generous, and they learned skills from him that they couldn’t learn elsewhere. So they all agreed immediately, quickly signed documents, and accepted deposits.”

The gardeners all approved of Zhenzhen’s decision. Xin Sanniang was still unsatisfied and questioned Zhenzhen: “What if those disaster-struck scholar-officials find other building materials and craftsmen? Wouldn’t we lose money?”

“That won’t happen,” Zhenzhen said. “Our pricing must be fair. No matter how they calculate, going elsewhere to buy materials and hire craftsmen will only cost more, not less.”

Indeed, before long, people came to inquire about garden reconstruction, saying that when they went to town looking for craftsmen, the craftsmen all directed them to negotiate with Wen Qiao Inn. Zhenzhen and the gardener estimated plans and prices, and the visitors quickly accepted them. Two families originally wanted to find other materials and craftsmen, but after inquiring about prices and calculating, they found it would indeed cost more, so they finally came to Wen Qiao Inn to place orders.

Zhenzhen then asked craftsmen to investigate the cause of the fire, learning that it was because one garden owner had tried to imitate Lin Hong by installing underfloor heating in the bedroom. The construction was improper—the fireplace was positioned in the bedroom itself, igniting curtains and furniture. Fortunately, the residents escaped in time, and the surrounding affected gardens were mostly villas with few permanent residents, so there were no casualties.

Zhenzhen examined the structure under the bedroom floor tiles and saw crisscrossing brick channels below, with the floor tiles laid over these channels. The ground furnace opening was outside the kitchen, with channels leading to the bedroom. After burning charcoal, hot air would flow along the channels through the bedroom and exit through a chimney hidden in a corner.

Zhenzhen then said to the gardener: “Then we can also take on the job of building ground furnaces. Letting people who don’t understand build randomly is a great hazard.”

Nearby wealthy households heard the news and came to ask Wen Qiao Inn to build ground furnaces for them, whether their homes had experienced fire or not. After Zhenzhen’s calculations, she found that after taking on these orders, the hired craftsmen’s work schedules were already full, and they might need to extend hiring periods.

Xin Sanniang had received so many deposits for these projects that her hands were tired. Looking at the huge numbers on the order sheets, she finally showed Zhenzhen a smile: “You clever girl, you’re quite smart. This income is enough for our garden’s expenses for one or two years. When the young master returns, I’ll tell him to give you ten or twenty percent.”

Zhenzhen put her arm around her shoulder: “Sanniang, saying that makes us seem like strangers. If we can earn some money this time, consider it my teacher’s fee for Teacher. You don’t need to give me a percentage. As long as Teacher continues letting me learn skills and you smile at me daily, I’ll be completely satisfied.”

Xin Sanniang added: “Though you did well, such important matters should have been discussed with me first. Don’t run off silently with money—you almost made me report to officials to have you arrested.”

Zhenzhen asked back: “If I had discussed it with you first, would you have agreed?”

Xin Sanniang thought about it and answered honestly with a smile: “No.”

After Lin Hong completed the garden survey work in Fuzhou and returned to Wen Qiao Inn, Zhenzhen went to meet him, telling him about what had happened during his absence and requesting punishment for acting on her own initiative. Lin Hong had noticed traces of the fire when entering the mountain and immediately frowned slightly. After hearing Zhenzhen’s words, he neither praised nor scolded, just walked quickly and directly toward the study. Only after pushing open the study door and seeing the Luoshen portrait intact and still hanging in its original position did he quietly breathe a sigh of relief.