The snow fell for three days, blanketing the imperial capital in white. On the fourth day, the sun finally rose from the east, looking like an egg yolk in a large bowl of white flour.
Shen Shaoguang looked at A Yuan who made this comparison, then at the sun, “Indeed, it does look like that.”
“Still uncooked though,” A Yuan added, covering her cold face and sniffling. A cooked one certainly wouldn’t be this cold!
In the early morning’s north wind, Shen Shaoguang led Yu San, A Chang, and A Yuan to sweep snow at the entrance. Though it wasn’t cold when snowing, it was freezing during the thaw. Fortunately, they had just eaten hot lamb soup noodles, or they would have frozen to death.
Shen Shaoguang also sniffled, each word producing a puff of white mist, “Right, definitely raw.”
A Chang stood nearby, grinning.
Yu San just kept sweeping with his broom, making swishing sounds.
Shen Shaoguang sighed again: “This truly befits the Winter Solstice.”
It was already the Winter Solstice, the day with the longest night and shortest daylight of the year. In this dynasty, Winter Solstice was a major festival, second only to New Year. Court officials received seven days of holiday, and even palace servants got three days off.
On Winter Solstice day, the palace held a grand court assembly and a banquet for all officials. Some years, the Emperor would also worship Heaven at the Round Altar in the southern suburbs, and in the evening, there would be a family feast in the palace – truly a busy and tiring day for the Emperor.
The imperial consorts had it much easier. The favored ones only needed to consider their attire and jewelry for the evening family feast, while the unfavored ones would eat their “imperial-bestowed” lamb soup noodles and then pass time drawing Nine-Nine Cold-Dispelling Charts with their palace maids.
The palace maids were even happier, wearing new festival clothes bestowed in previous years and drinking soup noodles with more meat than usual – though somewhat cold and needing reheating on small stoves, otherwise a layer of white, greasy lamb fat would float on top.
These past few months, Yu San had been preparing breakfast, but this morning Shen Shaoguang made the palace-style lamb soup noodles herself.
The preparation was quite simple. The night before, the lamb was cut into small pieces and stewed until tender. In the morning, the dough was kneaded with warm water, pulled into noodles, and cooked in freshwater before being placed in bowls. The boiling lamb soup with meat was then poured over top. On such a cold day, eating it hot made for an excellent bowl of noodles.
Compared to the minced lamb soup pancakes Yu San made the previous two days, these lamb soup noodles had a longer-lasting fragrance but lacked that “crispy zest.” If there was anything special about them, it was Young Miss’s skilled hands – she pulled the noodles into various shapes: some like chive leaves, some with intricate flower-petal pleats, some like goldfish, and some like butterflies. Each of the four bowls was different.
A Yuan looked at Shen Shaoguang, knowing Young Miss was indulging her, and chose the flower-shaped one first. Shen Shaoguang took the goldfish-shaped one, Yu San took the chive leaf-shaped one, and A Chang happily took the butterfly-shaped bowl.
Worried they wouldn’t be full, Shen Shaoguang also made several egg pancakes using the original pancake pan, though without adding fillings.
Now, after being out in the cold and moving around, that meal had been completely digested.
Shen Shaoguang smiled and told A Yuan, Yu San, and the others: “For lunch, let’s make large crescent wontons.”
The large crescent wontons she mentioned were dumplings. At this time, dumplings hadn’t yet been named as such and were considered a branch of wontons, mostly eaten in soup.
In her previous life, all festivals were food festivals, and for northerners, half of those food festivals involved dumplings, especially winter festivals. During New Year, they would eat dumplings for several days straight, and even with different fillings, it would become tiresome.
Back then, she thought that when she had her household, she would eat rice, hotpot, pizza, barbecue, or even instant noodles during these days, but not dumplings.
Who would have thought that after coming to this different time and space, and becoming the head of the household, she would still be on the dumpling side?
A Yuan, unlike Shen Shaoguang from her previous life, wasn’t rebellious. She excitedly said “Good!” and added that Young Miss’s shrimp and pork wontons from last time were truly delicious.
Shen Shaoguang decided: “Then we’ll make shrimp and pork filling again today.”
A Yuan’s snow-sweeping speed increased noticeably.
On such an important day, every family would be eating reunion dinners and drinking reunion wine, so few would come to the tavern. Therefore, they had only prepared a small amount of ingredients for customers, and Shen Shaoguang felt at ease celebrating with A Yuan and the other three.
Shen Shaoguang washed several copper coins and set them aside, along with a block of white tofu.
A Yuan looked at her curiously, and even Yu San didn’t know what Young Miss was planning.
Just as all parents teach their children, Shen Shaoguang explained while wrapping the coins with filling in the dumplings: “Whoever gets a coin will have great financial fortune next year.”
Yu San snorted with laughter, while A Yuan and A Chang genuinely smiled.
A Yuan laughed, “That’s wonderful! I eat a lot, so I’m sure to get one with a coin.”
Shen Shaoguang nodded, impressed by the probability theory.
“If I get one, I’ll give it to Young Miss. If Young Miss has great fortune, I’ll have fortune too.”
Warmed by the child’s words, Shen Shaoguang smiled.
A Chang also laughed, “If I get one, I’ll give it to Young Miss too.”
Shen Shaoguang looked at Yu San with a smile.
Yu San, while pinching dumpling pleats, said expressionlessly, “They’ve already bitten into them, Young Miss doesn’t mind the contamination?”
Shen Shaoguang smiled: “I don’t mind. They can eat the dumplings, I just want the coins.”
Yu San: “…”
After teasing Yu San, Shen Shaoguang felt refreshed and continued educating A Yuan and the others: “I’ll also wrap a few with just tofu filling. Whoever eats those will have good fortune.” To prevent A Yuan from offering to give hers away again, she quickly added, “I have enough good fortune already, you all eat more to supplement your fortune.”
A Yuan and A Chang both nodded.
Yu San had nothing more to say, just hoping to finish wrapping quickly and get away from these three.
At noon, there weren’t many customers, just a few scholarly-looking men who were probably current examination candidates, or possibly those who had failed previous examinations and stayed in the capital seeking opportunities.
After setting up their hotpot and warming their wine, Shen Shaoguang and the others returned to the kitchen to eat their own “large crescent wontons.”
At this time, dumplings hadn’t yet acquired their deep connection to “hometown feelings,” but as a time-traveler, Shen Shaoguang, with the warmth of human sentiment from a thousand years later, brought a few bowls of dumplings to those scholars far from home.
“These are complimentary festival foods from our humble establishment. As the sun moves through its cycle and reaches its southern limit, I wish the young scholars good health and fortune,” Shen Shaoguang said with auspicious words.
The scholars all thanked her with smiles. Among them, one handsome and refined-looking man gave Shen Shaoguang two meaningful glances. Shen Shaoguang raised an eyebrow, smiled, and nodded to them again before returning to the kitchen.
Another scholar quietly laughed at the handsome one, “Huan Seven is handsome, and this young miss is beautiful – they would make a good match, except that Young Master Seven is from a noble family, so their social status isn’t compatible.”
Huan Seven glanced at his friend, “Don’t talk nonsense. This is the young miss that Scholar Liu Third has his eye on, and he even sent an official matchmaker to propose marriage to her.”
Everyone was quite surprised and turned to look toward the kitchen, but unfortunately, the beauty was hidden behind the door.
“We don’t live in this ward, so this is the first we’ve heard of it. That Recorder Liu is a properly examined and qualified scholar serving as an official in the capital – why would he seek a wife from such a common merchant family?”
Another sneered: “Blinded by beauty, perhaps. Who would have thought that such a seemingly shy and proper Recorder Liu would lose his head over a woman.”
Yet another asked eagerly: “Did the marriage arrangement succeed?”
Huan Seven shook his head: “It didn’t. Liu Third didn’t tell me the details, only said that the young miss declined, citing their mismatched social status.”
The other three sighed again: “She does seem to be a young miss who knows her place and understands propriety.”
“Look at how she speaks and acts – so refined, just like a noble lady. She must be educated. It’s rare to find such beauty in the marketplace. That must be what attracted Liu Third.”
“Or perhaps he was attracted by her culinary skills? Not only would he have a beautiful wife but also good food.” Another one ate a dumpling and laughed, “I’ve never had such delicious wontons before.”
However, the one who had said Liu was blinded by beauty shook his head in disagreement: “They’re still not a suitable match.” After thinking for a moment, he added, “Taking her as a concubine would be more appropriate.” He looked at Huan Seven: “What do you think, Young Master Seven?”
Huan Seven took a sip of wine and smiled: “Each person has their match, like should be with like. For marriage, it’s best to find someone of equal status.”
“Who would have thought that Young Master Seven, with such romantic looks, would be so proper…”
[The conversation continues…]
The few men used others’ “romantic affairs” to accompany their drinking, happily eating hotpot and dumplings. After they were full of food and wine, they paid their bill and left the shop.
Those people had been speaking in lowered voices, and Shen Shaoguang didn’t know that one of them was surnamed Huan, so when the young lady and her maid who had come on that snowy day returned, she could only regretfully shake her head at them again. If she didn’t know three days ago, how could she know now?
The young lady lowered her beautiful head and sighed softly.
Shen Shaoguang couldn’t bear to see a beauty sad and suggested: “Why doesn’t Young Miss write a few notices to post around this ward? It would be better than searching blindly like this.”
The young lady’s eyes brightened, “What Young Miss says makes perfect sense.” She then asked Shen Shaoguang if there was a stationery shop in the ward.
“There used to be a stationery shop on the east side of the ward that sold excellent pine-soot ink. But something happened with the owner, and they haven’t opened since the start of winter. For large stationery shops, you’d need to go to the East Market,” Shen Shaoguang smiled and said, “I have writing materials here if Young Miss doesn’t mind using them.”
Shen Shaoguang’s writing materials weren’t of particularly good quality, just adequate for daily use. This young lady appeared to be from a wealthy family, but at this moment, she would probably be willing to make do.
Sure enough, the young lady smiled and thanked her, “Then I thank Young Miss for your kindness.”
Shen Shaoguang personally went to get the writing materials from the counter and had A Yuan fetch her regular writing paper from the back residence.
The young lady thought briefly, then wrote fluently – it turned out to be an acrostic poem, with each line beginning with the characters for “Looking for Young Master Huan,” and mentioning “Buddhist temple,” clearly indicating where she lived.
Shen Shaoguang was quite surprised – evidently, talented women were common in this dynasty, as she had randomly encountered one. Regardless of whether the poem was good or not, just the speed of composition was praiseworthy, not to mention the beautiful small regular script.
However – while this was certainly artistic, the information delivery rate might be a bit low. After all, this would only work if Master Huan himself or someone who knew him saw it, recognized it as an acrostic poem, and solved the puzzle – quite difficult.
If Shen Shaoguang were writing it herself, she would probably have written it in the style of an official wanted notice.
But then again, if he was in this ward, he would eventually be found, and this way was more dramatic and romantic. Shen Shaoguang suppressed her vulgar impulse to criticize the arts and agreed this was quite good.
The young lady made three or four more copies.
Shen Shaoguang committed to helping, heated some paste, and borrowed A Chang to help them post the notices.
The young lady smiled and requested: “I see your tavern is quite busy with people coming and going. Could we post one outside here?”
Shen Shaoguang smiled and said: “Of course.”
Shen’s establishment connected two shops, with a sizeable frontage. Shen Shaoguang had specifically renovated it, making it look more orderly than the surrounding shops. The outer wall next to the kitchen was particularly flat and eye-catching, having previously hosted several “Crying Man” and “Lost Dog” notices, showing a tendency to become the neighborhood bulletin board.