Chen Shi was boiling malt sugar with Chen Pozi in the courtyard. As soon as one stepped through the main gate, the sweet fragrance of malt came rushing forward.

“Auntie!” Yu Yuan stepped forward to pay his respects to Chen Shi.

Chen Shi wiped her hands with the apron around her waist and asked with a smile, “Ah Yuan, you’ve come to find your uncle, haven’t you? He’s gone to deliver New Year cakes to Shopkeeper Tong and probably won’t return before noon today. What do you need? If it’s not something you can tell me, then go to the study and leave a note for your uncle.”

Tomorrow would be Little New Year. All the New Year preparations were already complete. New Year cakes were essential food for every household during the New Year, and making them was Chen Shi’s specialty. However, in previous years, Chen Shi’s health had been poor, so she rarely did it herself anymore. This year, although Chen Shi’s health was still not as good as an ordinary person’s, it was much better than previous years. Not only was the Yu family happy about this, Chen Shi was also very pleased. She personally made over ten catties of rice into New Year cakes and sent some to relatives, friends, and neighbors.

“I’ve come to find A’Tang!” Yu Yuan said while helping Chen Shi move the boiled malt sugar to the kitchen. “Is A’Tang here? When we went to Hangzhou last time, we saw some new patterns, and I want to discuss them with her.”

Chen Shi had no reason to doubt him and said with a smile, “She’s in the study!” After speaking, she used a knife to cut off a piece of malt sugar, put it in a bowl, and handed it to Yu Yuan. “Here, you siblings can taste whether it’s good or not.”

Yu Yuan happily accepted it and carried the bowl to the study.

Yu Tang was holding a Hu brush, bent over her desk drawing something.

The warm winter sun shone through the window screens covered with Korean paper, gilding her silhouette with a layer of golden light, gentle and soft.

Yu Yuan was stunned for a moment before calling out “Little Sister.”

Yu Tang looked up and immediately smiled.

The smile rippled out layer by layer from the depths of her eyes, making her expression come alive.

“Why has Elder Brother come over?” She put down her brush and stood up from behind the desk, inviting Yu Yuan to sit in the master’s chair by the window. “Don’t you need to be busy preparing New Year gifts for the Xiang family?”

Now that the wedding date had been set and the marriage contract exchanged, although the wedding ceremony hadn’t been held yet, Yu Yuan was already the son-in-law of the Xiang family. By rights, Yu Yuan should visit the Xiang family on the second day of the New Year, and Wang Shi was worrying about the congratulatory gifts, blaming Yu Yuan for not taking this matter to heart and not buying anything when he went to Hangzhou.

Yu Yuan laughed sheepishly, having completely forgotten about this matter. He said, “Aren’t there my mother and auntie? I don’t understand these things either. If I bought the wrong things, it would be worse than not buying anything!”

The last time people from the Xiang family came, they left him with a bad impression. He was somewhat resistant to going to the Xiang family, but for the sake of Miss Xiang’s dignity, he decided to put all that behind him and visit the Xiang family to pay New Year respects with a humble attitude. But this didn’t mean he liked discussing this matter.

He placed the malt sugar on the small table and said to Yu Tang, “Auntie gave this. Taste whether it’s good or not.”

Mother had gotten up early this morning and started boiling sugar.

When she was little, at this time she would always wait impatiently by the stove. Each time, Mother would forcibly carry her away, and it would always end with her crying and fussing until she was given a piece of malt sugar.

Until she was ten years old, when she secretly ate malt sugar and burned her mouth. They had to call a physician, and she drank medicine for over a month. During the first month of the year, she could only watch all the delicious foods. Only then did she stop being greedy.

For Chen Shi and the others, this was merely something that happened five or six years ago. For her, it was already more than ten years ago.

She sighed inwardly while smiling and went to make bowls of malt sugar water for herself and Yu Yuan, saying “Elder Brother should also try some,” and sat down again across from Yu Yuan.

Yu Yuan tasted the sugar water. It was fragrant and rich, sweet without being cloying. He couldn’t help but praise, “I didn’t expect Auntie’s malt sugar to be this good. We’re in for a treat this year.”

This malt sugar, besides being offered to the Kitchen God and for entertaining relatives and friends who came to pay New Year visits, a large portion was prepared for Yu Yuan’s wedding.

Yu Tang smiled with pursed lips.

Yu Yuan felt awkward and didn’t dare mention the malt sugar anymore. He spoke of his purpose for coming: “I’ve thought it over carefully. Just as you said, I’ll go help manage the family’s estates and forests. We’ll plant the kind of tree you mentioned and make preserved fruits.”

Yu Tang had guessed it would be this way.

In her previous life, Yu Yuan’s business was already doing so well, yet her uncle still wasn’t at ease and would guide Yu Yuan from time to time. In this life, Yu Yuan was just someone doing odd jobs following behind her uncle, so her uncle would even less likely let go and hand over the shop’s business to him.

“I was just about to discuss this with Elder Brother!” Yu Tang said, getting up and going to the desk. “Elder Brother, come look. What’s drawn here is the kind of tree I mentioned. Once the New Year passes, the traveling merchants will all return. Can you ask those traveling merchants to take a look and see if anyone recognizes this tree?”

Yu Yuan walked over and examined it carefully for quite a while before neatly rolling up the painting. “Alright, I’ll handle this matter. I’ll definitely give you news before the fifteenth.”

Yu Tang breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt uneasy. After Yu Yuan left, she drew another sea buckthorn tree and showed it to Yu Wen, who had just returned from delivering New Year cakes to Shopkeeper Tong: “Do you recognize what tree this is? Can you find someone who knows this tree?”

Many literary scholars liked to tend to flowers and plants. Perhaps someone would recognize it.

Yu Wen smiled and said, “What difficult problem are you giving me now?”

Because Yu Tang had suggested inviting all the prominent gentry and scholars who had passed the xiucai and juren examinations from Lin’an City to drink at their home during Yu Yuan’s wedding, Yu Wen had been running his legs thin these past days. He had finally managed to handle things, and now Yu Tang had drawn some inexplicable tree for him to identify…

Yu Tang smiled apologetically and hugged her father’s arm, acting spoiled: “This tree is called sea buckthorn. Elder Brother and I plan to plant this tree on our family’s mountain. Father, please help me ask around! You have to go invite people for Elder Brother anyway!”

When happy events come, spirits are high. Having his daughter act spoiled toward him made him very happy. He teased Yu Tang a few times, and when he went out to deliver wedding invitations, he still took the painting with him.

Beyond Yu Tang’s expectations, the person who knew this tree was actually Shen Shanyan, the instructor at the county school.

He asked Yu Wen with a smile, “Why are you asking about this? Although this tree is hardy, it can’t survive in our region. If you don’t believe me, you can go see at Xiaguang’s house. They have several of them. Zhou Zijing brought them back when he went to Gansu that year. They bore fruit there, but after coming back, they only grew taller without bearing fruit. Because of this, Zijing teased Xiaguang for quite a while, saying their water and soil weren’t good enough.”

Yu Wen hadn’t expected this result. He was stunned for a long while before saying, “It’s my daughter. I don’t know where she heard about it, but she wants to plant this tree in our family’s forest and asked me to help inquire!”

Shen Shanyan had secluded himself here and had heard of Yu Wen’s character. After a few encounters, they got along well and would occasionally go flower viewing or spring outings together. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but smile and say, “Your daughter, what a pity. If she were a son, even without studying, she could make something of herself.”

What kind of person was Shen Shanyan? A young master of the Shen family, a talented scholar of Jiangnan. For ordinary scholars to receive a word of praise from him was already extraordinary, let alone for a girl.

Yu Wen was so delighted his face glowed, though his mouth remained modest: “Not at all, not at all. She just likes to make a fuss.”

Shen Shanyan said sincerely, “To be able to make a fuss, and to make a fuss with real results, is already very remarkable.” Then thinking of Miss Yu’s marriage, he couldn’t help but add, “Regarding your daughter’s marriage, you must be careful. Don’t carelessly betroth her to just anyone.”

“Certainly, certainly.” Yu Wen nodded repeatedly.

Even if Shen Shanyan hadn’t said such words, he was already reluctant to casually betroth his daughter to anyone. Now hearing Shen Shanyan say this, it strengthened his determination to find a good son-in-law even more.