The Shangsi Festival was a good day, whether for spring outings or for setting up small stalls.

Shen Shaoguang had hired two mule carts early on, and together with Yu San and A Yuan, prepared various ingredients and semi-finished products, just waiting for the right time to go to Qujiang’s edge to make another big profit.

A Yuan and Yu San had never experienced such a scene before, let alone A Chang. They only knew that the young miss had previously set up a stall selling pancakes, but didn’t know that now they could “transform from shop to stall” at any time.

Shen Shaoguang proudly showed off last year’s Dragon Boat Festival stall achievements to them, “Those several large barrels of iced sour plum drink were all bought up by the Imperial Guard, leaving none for others to buy. After the festival, the officer who bought the sour plum drink came back, so I simply sold him the recipe too.”

The three were shocked by this new business move – so even recipes could be sold?

“How much did you sell it for?” A Chang asked.

Shen Shaoguang kept them guessing, “You guess.”

“Five taels,” A Chang thought for a moment.

A Yuan, who often helped Shen Shaoguang with accounting, felt five taels wasn’t enough to make the young miss so proud, “Ten taels.”

Yu San just focused on his work without speaking.

“Twenty taels,” Shen Shaoguang said with a smile.

A Chang’s eyes widened – a recipe for sour plum soup could buy several people like himself.

A Yuan clapped carelessly and extrapolated, “Then if we sold all our recipes for meat dishes and jade-tip noodles…”

A Chang laughed first, “That wouldn’t work. If people bought all our recipes and opened their own tavern, wouldn’t they be competing with our business?” Shen Shaoguang had briefed the later arrivals Yu San and A Chang about the situation with the Yunlai Tavern to prevent them from being taken advantage of unknowingly.

Yu San couldn’t listen anymore and snorted, “The key is that fools willing to pay twenty taels for a drink recipe are hard to find.”

Shen Shaoguang: “…Fine, you’ve all made your points.”

A Yuan concluded, “The young miss is still the most capable!”

Shen Shaoguang smiled – young girls were still the most considerate.

In the blink of an eye, it was the actual day of the Shangsi Festival. Standing at last year’s stall position, watching A Chang light the stove, Yu San knead glutinous rice balls, and A Yuan fetch water to clean tables, Shen Shaoguang couldn’t help but feel emotional. Last year it was just herself, manning a table, doing everything alone, overjoyed at earning a few thousand coins. Looking at it now… things would get even better, right? They would, right?

Being outdoors limited what they could bring, so they mainly made various flower cakes: pea cakes, mugwort dumplings, green rice balls, red bean pastries, snowflake cakes, and such. They brought the fillings, wrappings, and molds to make them fresh, avoiding dried-out skins or falling apart.

When selling the pastries, the particular customers could have them arranged in paper boxes, while the less particular ones could have them in paper bags, or on skewers to eat while holding.

The tea drinks were even simpler. Due to the season, there were no cold drinks, only jasmine tea and hawthorn-wolfberry drinks. Both the jasmine and hawthorn-wolfberry were sourced from medicine shops, and one could smell traces of codonopsis and astragalus if sniffing carefully. They also added sweet wine-fermented rice balls for hungry customers.

The team of four laid out their stall, with several boxes of colorful flower cakes displayed in the most prominent position, ensuring passing tourists could see them at first glance.

Some people remembered Shen Shaoguang, “The young miss who made those good glutinous rice dumplings!” Upon seeing the mugwort dumplings they had eaten here before, they were even more delighted, “Never had such good bean filling since then!”

Curious bystanders asked what was so special about the bean filling.

That original customer turned out to be quite the connoisseur: “I specifically asked food-savvy friends, this bean filling is called ‘Spirit Sand Paste,’ with the best being fine, rich, sweet but not cloying. This young miss’s version truly deserves these descriptions.”

The customer further explained that reportedly during the Tianbao era, Guo Guofuren’s mansion made the best Spirit Sand Paste.

While they couldn’t taste Guo Guofuren’s mansion’s delicacies anymore, the mugwort dumplings at Qujiang’s edge were readily available. After hearing the historical reference, people naturally wanted to taste these pastries that carried the essence of Tang Dynasty refinement.

Once the conversation opened up, someone asked Shen Shaoguang if she had a pastry shop somewhere.

Shen Shaoguang advertised to them, introducing Shen’s Tavern in Chongxian Ward, then smiled apologetically, “We have pastries daily, but not this many varieties. We make more dishes like agate meat, jade dumplings, and various meat, poultry, and fish dishes for drinking and dining.”

With names like agate and jade, just hearing them was beautiful enough. The customers buying pastries weren’t disappointed, but rather became more interested, earnestly promising to visit Shen’s Tavern in Chongxian Ward someday to try these meat dishes and dumplings.

Yu San looked at Shen Shaoguang somewhat puzzled, while Shen Shaoguang looked innocent – they weren’t hired promoters, this was just the power of return customers.

A Yuan just praised internally, “See? See? I said the young miss just needs to talk a bit to attract countless customers.”

After the peak customer flow passed, food sales began to slow down. The four had time to rest their hands and chat.

A Yuan looked around, “Young miss, will the Flower-Picking Scholar pass by us?”

This Shen Shaoguang really didn’t know, “You can go browse around the Apricot Garden, perhaps you’ll see the Flower-Picking Scholar. It’s not very busy now anyway.” She then said to Yu San and A Chang, “After A Yuan returns, you can take turns going for a walk too. At least then your Shangsi Festival trip to Qujiang won’t be wasted.”

But A Yuan shook her head, “Every time it’s us going out to play, leaving the young miss behind. This time you go!”

Shen Shaoguang smiled, I’m past the age of chasing stars, doing things like saving up pocket money for a long time to buy an idol concert’s cheapest seat ticket – I did all that in earlier years, now there’s no need for this old person to relive youthful passions.

Yu San looked at A Chang, “You go with her.”

Shen Shaoguang raised an eyebrow. Yu San just kept putting filling into green rice ball skins, wrapping them well, then pressing them into molds, creating green cakes imprinted with the character of “fortune.”

A Chang grinned as he took off his apron and sleeves, “I’ll go with the young miss.”

Shen Shaoguang, having been spoken for, accepted their goodwill and also took off her apron, smiling, “Then we’ll go for a walk and come back later to switch shifts.”

Shen Shaoguang led A Chang toward Apricot Garden. There were many people along the way, presumably all waiting to see the new imperial scholars. Not knowing what time the Flower-Picking Scholar would begin his ceremonial ride, Shen Shaoguang didn’t want to wait foolishly and continued forward with A Chang, buying a large bag of sesame candy along the way and getting A Chang a beautiful sugar painting.

A Chang was overwhelmed by the favor – even as a real child, no one had treated him like this, “The young miss should eat it instead.”

Shen Shaoguang liked sweets but couldn’t handle things too sweet, “You eat it. It’s hard to carry, otherwise, we’d bring one back for A Yuan too.”

Shen Shaoguang took the bag of sesame candy to hold, letting A Chang focus on eating his sugar painting.

Looking up at the clear river water, the boats on the river, and occasional water birds flying past, with willows swaying along the shore, looking into the distance was a misty green, truly giving the sense of “willows like smoke.” Shen Shaoguang turned to look at the beautifully adorned ladies and refined young men, each with delicate brows and powdered faces, in spring clothes and youthful – truly beautiful.

After enjoying the river breeze and chewing on a tender grass stem, seeing A Chang had finished his candy, they headed back.

Passing by Apricot Garden, they heard that the Flower-Picking Scholars had just gone by not long ago.

A Chang excitedly said, “Let’s hurry, perhaps we can catch up.”

Shen Shaoguang discarded the grass stem and hurried forward with A Chang, and they did catch up.

Through gaps in the crowd, Shen Shaoguang squinted to look – those two Flower-Picking Scholars were indeed young, looking just over twenty. One wore magnificent brocade clothes, and had sword-like eyebrows and star-bright eyes, thin lips, and a romantic appearance; the other had a face like powdered jade, delicate brows and eyes, refined as orchids and jade trees.

Oh my, this year’s Flower-Picking Scholars had the value of a very high look! Shen Shaoguang compared them to the previous Flower-Picking Scholar she was more familiar with – that one had a somewhat cold temperament, like winter cypress branches, not as approachable.

At this time, some unknown family’s servant girl wanted to get closer, and the sword-browed star-eyed Flower-Picking Scholar seemed to recognize her, so let her approach. The servant girl presented a silk handkerchief.

That Flower-Picking Scholar opened the handkerchief to look, then smiled. This romantic smile made countless young women gasp, and immediately some people threw their handkerchiefs and flower branches toward the Flower-Picking Scholars, as was popular in the previous dynasty.

The two Flower-Picking Scholars smiled as they rode their horses forward.

“Tsk tsk, achieving scholarly success while young, Flower-Picking Scholar at Qujiang, and having famous courtesans from Pingkang send handkerchiefs stained with their eyebrow powder and lip rouge – life’s greatest pleasures are no more than this!”

“If Fourth Brother studies diligently too, perhaps it will be you next year.”

Shen Shaoguang turned her head to look at the two scholars beside her – so the handkerchief was from Pingkang courtesans, and even had “artistic enhancement”… you Tang Dynasty people really know how to play!

Seeing a pretty young miss looking at them, those two scholars also smiled romantically, nodding to Shen Shaoguang.

Shen Shaoguang forced a smile and squeezed out of the crowd.

With the Flower-Picking Scholars ahead, Shen Shaoguang was too lazy to push forward, so led A Chang to wander around some more, bought some other snacks, and waited until the road was clear before returning to their stall.

Upon return they saw Yu San and A Yuan overwhelmingly busy, so Shen Shaoguang and A Chang quickly joined in to help.

Despite being so busy, A Yuan still reported the news to Shen Shaoguang, “Young miss, young miss, just now that Flower-Picking Scholar bought our pastries and even said ‘the cakes surpass the flowers in beauty’!”

Nearby customers also laughed, “Let us try these pastries that even the Flower-Picking Scholar likes.”

Shen Shaoguang: “…” What a strange encounter… perhaps Emperor Qianlong’s chicken and Empress Cixi’s steamed buns were real after all…

While busy, Shen Shaoguang pondered making a big sign for “Flower-Picking Scholar’s Pastries” when they got back.

Thanks to the Flower-Picking Scholar’s help, today’s pastries sold especially quickly. Gradually some varieties sold out, and by late afternoon, nearly all their prepared fillings and wrappings were gone, with only a few snowflake cakes remaining.

There were fewer tourists too, so Shen Shaoguang urged Yu San, A Yuan, and the others to go look around while she watched the stall, just waiting for them to return before packing up to go home.

That former Flower-Picking Scholar arrived at just this time.

Shen Shaoguang noticed he always liked to appear when the night was fading and flower affairs were ending, naturally carrying a hint of loneliness.

Appearing at such a time had one major problem – there was nothing left to eat!

Shen Shaoguang teased with a smile, “The current Flower-Picking Scholar bought pastries and left, leaving the former Flower-Picking Scholar with no pastries to buy.”

Lin Yan’s eyes curved slightly, “Then I’ll just have jasmine tea.”

Shen Shaoguang poured him tea, also brought over those few remaining cakes, and then went to clean up the cutting board.

After finishing cleaning and turning around, she saw Assistant Magistrate Lin slightly lowering his head, gently scraping tea leaves with his teacup lid. Perhaps because his nose was straight, his profile was especially handsome, and he wore his deep crimson official robes very properly.

Compared to those two Flower-Picking Scholars earlier, this one’s handsomeness was refined through settling, perhaps like… Shen Shaoguang thought of the ham hanging in her backyard again.

Shen Shaoguang now felt Assistant Magistrate Lin could count as two-year ham – steamed with good Huadiao wine would probably be not bad.

Lin Yan turned his head, coincidentally meeting Shen Shaoguang’s gaze.

Shen Shaoguang showed no embarrassment at being caught, but rather smiled and said, “When Lord Lin was Flower-Picking Scholar at Apricot Garden back then, was it this lively? Were there…” Shen Shaoguang cleared her throat and stopped. Asking someone if famous courtesans sent handkerchiefs was too frivolous.

Lin Yan smiled slightly, “It’s like this every year.”

“Oh,” Shen Shaoguang nodded.

“Just that back then there weren’t such good pastries to eat.” Lin Yan lowered his eyes slightly, picked up a piece of snowflake cake, and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly.

“…” Shen Shaoguang couldn’t help but smile – did Assistant Magistrate Lin eat honey today? How did he suddenly start speaking so sweetly?

Lin Yan’s eye corners lifted slightly, like an orchid bud just beginning to bloom.