After the Shangsi Festival, spring burst forth vigorously, no longer the light, fresh clarity of early spring, but an all-encompassing green, with brilliant sunshine, bird calls disturbing sweet dreams each morning, endless spring outings and banquets, and occasional romantic gossip floating around.

Shen Shaoguang stood behind the counter, calculating accounts while listening to nearby diners chew over gossip.

“This Young Master Zhao has been paralyzed for a year, barely more alive than dead, yet his wife is suddenly with child, claiming she met with her husband in a dream, and Heaven took pity and granted this conception. The Zhao family is even happily distributing celebratory fruits and eggs everywhere – truly, social morals are declining by the day,” one diner shook his head, took a sip of wine, and sighed.

“You don’t understand. The Zhao family has such a large estate but no heir. The old couple, even knowing the truth, must turn a blind eye. Good or bad, at least the child born will be considered their descendant, better than letting the property go to distant relatives,” his drinking companion explained the circumstances.

“Distant relatives are still Zhao family descendants, far better than this fatherless illegitimate child… As expected of merchant families, no sense of propriety, no understanding of rules…”

The drinking companion snorted with laughter, “Merchant families have no rules? As if others have rules! Have you heard about Princess Fuhui…” The companion stopped, regretting his words, gave a couple of awkward laughs, and just kept drinking.

Unexpectedly, not long after they stopped talking, Assistant Magistrate Lin and his friend Young Master Pei, who had some connection to Princess Fuhui, walked in.

Assistant Magistrate Lin was a frequent sight, nothing special, but this Young Master Pei seemed somewhat haggard. In contrast, Assistant Magistrate Lin appeared rather spring-like and pleased. Shen Shaoguang secretly snickered – generous tips do add thick filters!

Shen Shaoguang led them to a window seat inside. Through the half-open window, one could see the pleasant spring scenery outside, the roadside elms and willows like brides in the sunset light. Most importantly, they were far from those two gossips – otherwise, how awkward would that be?

Shen Shaoguang asked with a smile, “Does Lord Lin still want bamboo shoots stir-fried with meat and sliced chicken with mushrooms? Today’s spinach is very tender – perhaps try some two-colored fish balls with spinach juice?”

Hearing “spinach,” Lin Yan paused, but ultimately smiled and nodded, “Good.”

Pei Fei raised an eyebrow, looking at the warm and gentle Lin Yan, then at the smiling Young Miss Shen. Heh…

“What would Young Master Pei like to order?” Shen Shaoguang asked with a smile.

Pei Fei lowered his head to look at the menu, discovering many dishes had changed. The hot pot items that previously filled an entire page were now reduced to two lines, with spring stir-fries and fresh tender vegetables in prominent positions, and spring platters listed separately.

Seeing Pei Fei’s gaze fixed on the spring platters, Shen Shaoguang, as a responsible and conscientious proprietor, warned him to be cautious – eating spring platters at night probably wasn’t good for his health. More than a few people had gotten stuffed on spring platters here; from now on, they’d give out digestive pills with spring platter orders.

Pei Fei laughed, and even Lin Yan’s lips curved up.

As the joke-teller, she couldn’t laugh herself. Shen Shaoguang recommended he order some vegetable stir-fries, “Unlike boiled or stewed dishes, these stir-fries are made with a light wok and small spatula, fresh and crisp-tender, perfect for eating at this time.”

Her description of fresh and crisp-tender made her want to eat some herself. Pei Fei studied the menu carefully, tempted to mischievously order several spinach dishes, but after glancing at Lin Yan quietly drinking tea, he ultimately didn’t follow through. Instead, he ordered several meat and vegetable dishes: stir-fried celery with eggs, sautéed preserved meat with green onions, stir-fried eel strips, and bean sprouts in vinegar.

Shen Shaoguang took the menu, “Please wait a moment, gentlemen. Your food and wine will be ready soon.”

Taking it to the kitchen, she handed the menu to Yu San, watched A Chang tend the fire and sort vegetables, A Yuan cut and prepared ingredients, and Yu San worked at the stove. The three worked together very smoothly, so Shen Shaoguang withdrew and returned behind the counter.

In autumn and winter when the weather was cold, the tavern mainly offered stewed and steamed dishes – soft, steaming hot food that warmed the heart. Now that spring had arrived, people wanted to eat something crisp, fresh, and tender, so the tavern mainly offered spring platters and spring stir-fries.

In this dynasty, popular cooking methods were steaming, boiling, roasting, and stewing. “Stir-frying,” though already emerged as a future mainstream cooking method, wasn’t widespread – mainly due to the era’s limitations. Not every household had works suitable for stir-frying, and cooking oil was also an issue.

But as a tavern, these weren’t problems. Since opening, Shen Shaoguang had specially ordered various sizes of pots and woks, and stocked all kinds of vegetable and animal oils – as they say, “To do good work, one must first sharpen one’s tools.”

Stir-frying was actually particularly suitable for taverns: short cooking time, quick service; vegetables stayed crisp-tender with bright colors, looking beautiful without special plating; and multiple meat and vegetable combinations could create endless variations.

They had stir-fried dishes in autumn and winter too, though not as prominently. Now with spring’s arrival and the menu adjustment, more people ordered stir-fries. Various vegetable stir-fries were very popular with customers, like Assistant Magistrate Lin.

Recently, Assistant Magistrate Lin often came to sit at the tavern, mostly ordering stir-fries, particularly loving bamboo shoots with meat.

Fresh tender bamboo shoots casually stir-fried with strips of pork belly were delicious enough, but Shen Shaoguang suspected Lin Yan’s love of bamboo shoots probably had more to do with scholarly sentiments.

Didn’t that great Scholar Su, the foodie Dongpo of later generations, say, “Better to eat without meat than live without bamboo. No meat makes one thin, no bamboo makes one vulgar. One can fatten up from being thin, but vulgarity in a scholar is incurable.” His friend also teased him, “If you’re returning for bitter bamboo shoots, tomorrow you can truly shed your spring robes.” Listen, just listen – he’d give up his official position just to eat bamboo shoots.

Lin Yan, that flower on high, naturally wasn’t vulgar. Moreover, since he already had bamboo at his residence, he also pursued “having bamboo shoots to eat.”

Thinking of the bamboo at his home, Shen Shaoguang felt somewhat melancholic. Ah well…

With no new customers arriving, Shen Shaoguang went to help in the kitchen. Seeing A Yuan had finished slicing fish meat but still had vegetables to cut, she let her go cut vegetables while she took the knife to scrape fish paste.

Scraping fish paste was a skilled task – one had to secure one side and slowly scrape from the fixed side to the other with a sharp knife. Scrape onto the knife, transfer to the bowl, layer by layer, bit by bit, couldn’t rush it. If one carelessly chopped it up without proper technique, the resulting fish balls wouldn’t be as soft and tender and would need starch, otherwise risking becoming a pot of fish porridge.

A Yuan most disliked this kind of painstaking work, preferring the quick chop-chop of cutting vegetables. Seeing the young miss willing to take over, she grinned and handed it over, going to cut vegetable strips instead.

After Shen Shaoguang finished scraping the fish paste, she added a little salt, pepper, and water to the fish meat, beat it vigorously with chopsticks in one direction, and the fish meat was ready.

Then she mashed the blanched spinach, put it in cheesecloth to squeeze out the juice, mixed half the fish meat with this juice and stirred, then using the remaining white half of the fish meat, scooped them separately with small spoons into boiling water to cook – making fresh and tender two-colored fish balls.

While mashing the spinach, new customers arrived outside, so Shen Shaoguang handed the half-finished products to A Yuan and went out to attend to the customers.

It was a grandmother and grandson – since elderly women and children rarely came to the tavern, Shen Shaoguang recognized them as the grandmother and grandson who came to eat tang yuan during the Lantern Festival.

Shen Shaoguang invited them to sit, and the elderly woman ordered meatball jade-tip noodles and spinach egg drop soup, without ordering any other dishes.

Shen Shaoguang brought them a hawthorn drink and smiled, “It’ll be ready soon, please wait a moment, grandmother and young master.”

In a short while, Lin and Pei’s dishes were ready, and the grandmother and grandson’s soup was also done.

More customers arrived one after another, and as Shen Shaoguang was attending to them, she heard a child crying from the main hall.

Shen Shaoguang hurried over.

The elderly woman was frowning, the little child pouting, looking ready to cry.

“What’s wrong? Does the young master not like the jade-tip noodles?” Shen Shaoguang asked with a smile.

The elderly woman looked apologetically at Shen Shaoguang, “He likes the steamed bread well enough, just doesn’t like vegetables.”

Shen Shaoguang nodded, “Has the young master heard of someone called Popeye?”

“Once upon a time, there was a sailor who was quite weak normally, but whenever he ate spinach, he became strong-boned and incredibly powerful,” Shen Shaoguang patted her biceps and made a fist, “The muscles here would all bulge up, very impressive!”

“Like a martial hero?”

Well, Western and Eastern legends have merged now. Shen Shaoguang nodded, “Yes, just like a martial hero, fighting the strong to help the weak, upholding justice, a great hero.”

The child frowned, looking at the bowl of spinach egg drop soup, “Fine, I’ll drink it.”

“That’s right, good boy.” Shen Shaoguang praised with a smile.

The elderly woman also smiled, “Remember what the young miss said,” and thanked Shen Shaoguang.

As Shen Shaoguang walked back, she looked up to see Young Master Pei watching with a mocking expression, while Assistant Magistrate Lin lowered his eyes, calmly drinking his fish ball soup.

These friends were having a spat? Although Lin Yan might not be very talkative, Shen Shaoguang always felt that Young Master Pei was the one being suppressed. Since they wouldn’t cry and make a fuss, Shen Shaoguang naturally didn’t need to manage them and went straight back behind the counter.

As night gradually deepened, Shen Shaoguang stood at the door seeing off her important customers, “Have a good evening, gentlemen.”

Pei Fei returned the greeting with a beaming smile, while Lin Yan smiled slightly and nodded.

The moon was round and bright. Lin and Pei walked slowly back to the Lin residence in the moonlight.

Pei Fei tilted his head to look at Lin Yan, then snorted with laughter.

Lin Yan just kept walking forward, ignoring him.

“So you’ve come to this…”

Lin Yan knew what Pei Fei was referring to, feeling he was making a big fuss over nothing. He was used to moving among silk and beauty, seeing everything with a tinge of romance. Lin Yan pressed his lips together, but finally said, “Don’t overthink it.”

“I’m not overthinking anything, just wondering why you’re suddenly eating spinach that you never ate before…”

“I now find spinach crisp and tender, not bad to eat occasionally,” Lin Yan said indifferently.

This “occasionally” probably specifically meant when at Shen’s Tavern. Pei Fei nodded, “Very good, very good. Perhaps one-day Anran will also ‘ride forth on a white horse with silver saddle, galloping like shooting stars.'”

Lin Yan glanced at him, “You are drunk…” and walked ahead toward the Lin residence.

Pei Fei strolled behind with his hands behind his back, humming a tune: “The night watch drums sound, people grow quiet, flower fragrance and moonlight turn cold, those with feelings always claim to have none, ah…”