At dinner time, Madam Jiang smiled and asked, “The rose essence was bestowed by His Majesty? I didn’t see the yellow imperial tag. It must be from the palace though, as it’s so rich and fragrant.”
During festivals and holidays, the Emperor would bestow gifts upon noble officials – yogurt and cherries in summer, lip rouge and face powder in winter, along with meat, vegetables, and wine for various celebrations. These weren’t particularly precious gifts but rather expressions of imperial favor. Since Lin Yan had returned from his provincial post to serve as Deputy Magistrate in the capital, such gifts had become common.
“It wasn’t bestowed by His Majesty,” Lin Yan said, carefully picking out the Sichuan peppercorns while ladling some fish pieces into a small bowl for his grandmother. “I happened to get some roses, and it would have been a waste to throw them away, so I asked Shen’s Tavern to help make some preserved flowers in honey and sugar.”
Lin Yan paused, then added, “Young Miss Shen was kind enough to help distill some flower essence for us as well.”
Madam Jiang laughed, “No wonder I didn’t see any yellow tags! So young ladies nowadays still enjoy distilling flower essence. Young Miss Shen’s skills are excellent. When I was young, my girlfriends also loved doing this – jasmine in spring, roses in summer, osmanthus in autumn, and some even tried with plum blossoms, saying it had a cool fragrance.” Madam Jiang was speaking of her maiden days.
“When your grandfather was posted in Hangzhou, I tried distilling many different flowers together, which turned out quite well. I called it ‘Hundred Flower Essence’ and gave it to relatives and friends.” This was after her marriage.
“Later things got busy, and I gradually did it less. Your mother also—” Madam Jiang stopped herself and smiled. “How strange that I can remember these trivial things from long ago so clearly, yet I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast today. My forgetfulness is quite peculiar.”
Lin Yan handed her the bowl and said gently, “You seem much better since switching to Doctor Fang’s prescription. Besides, it doesn’t matter if you can’t remember breakfast.”
“Not remembering breakfast isn’t important, but forgetting people and events isn’t good. If I were well, I could help you find a suitable bride.”
Lin Yan lowered his eyes and smiled slightly, “That’s not important either.”
Madam Jiang shook her head in disagreement.
Lin Yan used a small plate to serve half a glutinous rice dumpling – these were hard to digest, so he only let the elderly lady have a taste. With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, this was the first batch of new dumplings this year.
Looking at the dumpling on the plate, Madam Jiang suddenly said, “My eldest grandson is so attentive, and handsome too. How could we worry about finding him a good wife?”
The servants were startled, then burst into laughter. Even Lin Yan smiled.
Looking at her grandson who had grown into such a handsome young man, Madam Jiang felt both bitter and proud, silently sighed in her heart, and smiled too.
After the meal, Madam Jiang reminded him once more, “Be careful of the slippery roads.” Lin Yan agreed, made his farewell bow, and came out. He put on wooden clogs under the corridor, held up an umbrella, left his grandmother’s courtyard, and slowly walked back to the inner study.
The evening rain had made business at Shen’s Tavern quite slow. By just after the second watch, there were no more customers.
As the four of them were cleaning up, Yu San asked, “What shall we have for dinner?” Even the best cooks sometimes don’t know what to make.
Shen Shaoguang smiled and said, “Didn’t we just get new skewers for barbecue? I see we have some meat left, why don’t we have a barbecue?”
Yu San frowned, “Don’t we have a special barbecue stove coming? It won’t be delivered for two more days.”
Shen Shaoguang laughed, “Silly, we can make do with the winter brazier for now.”
Yu San: “…”
Knowing the young miss would have her way, and seeing A-Yuan already going to fetch the brazier, Yu San resigned herself to cutting and marinating the meat.
Shen Shaoguang went to help too. After Yu San finished cutting, she marinated the meat with pepper powder, salt, sugar, light sauce, yellow wine, and starch powder. The cumin powder would be sprinkled on while grilling.
Cumin was called Anxi fennel at that time, and like wolfberries and hawthorn, it was bought from medicine shops. It was said to have effects of regulating qi, improving appetite, dispelling wind, and relieving pain. Whether it could dispel wind and relieve pain, Shen Shaoguang didn’t know, but it improved appetite – sprinkled on the barbecue, it increased the fragrance by 30%.
Too bad its good friend chili pepper wasn’t available, or the aroma would truly spread for miles, filling the entire ward with its fragrance.
Through the window, Shen Shaoguang looked at the rain outside. The rain had been frequent this year. If it weren’t raining, it would be nice to barbecue in the courtyard – the smell would be quite strong inside the house…
As if by chance, by the time the meat was marinated and vegetables prepared, the rain gradually stopped, and a few new stars even appeared in the sky.
Shen Shaoguang arranged to move the tables, brazier, meat, vegetables, and everything to the courtyard.
After the rain, the summer heat had retreated, and the blue brick ground had been washed clean. They laid out bamboo mats that were previously used in the shop, arranged the tables, and scattered a few round cushions around the table. Shen Shaoguang brought over a backrest to lean on, fanning herself with a small fan while watching Yu San grill.
A-Yuan couldn’t wait and started cracking walnuts with a hammer for a snack. Shen Shaoguang would occasionally reach out, and A-Yuan would share half a piece with her.
Shen Shaoguang suddenly found some meaning in the poem “Night colors on the palace steps cool as water, lying watching the Cowherd and Weaver stars” – though that was about the Qixi Festival, while they hadn’t even reached the Dragon Boat Festival yet. That scene was quiet, while here was filled with the fragrance of barbecue. As for “Autumn light cold on the red-lit screen” – should they bring out the painted screen sent from the Lin residence to match the scene?
But Shen Shaoguang suspected that the “painted screen” in the poem wasn’t this kind of full-standing folding screen, but rather the small headrest screen placed at the head of the bed to block wind, as in “bamboo pillow, silk quilt, plain small screen,” or “autumn scene on small bedside screen,” or “paper screen, stone pillow, square bamboo bed, hands tired from reading books, afternoon dreams long.”
A headrest screen was a private thing, with all sorts of paintings on it. She had seen a romance novel where a beautiful woman stepped down from a scholar’s headrest screen. Shen Shaoguang smiled mischievously – that scholar’s headrest screen must have been a set with the erotic Magic Mirror from Dream of the Red Chamber.
Thinking of screens naturally reminded her of the person who sent the screen. She wondered what kind of painting was on the headrest screen of that seemingly proper Deputy Magistrate Lin.
This Deputy Magistrate Lin left Shen Shaoguang quite puzzled. She knew her shop’s food was good, but was it really good enough for a noble young master, a worldly Deputy Magistrate of the capital to treat it as his daily dining hall?
And those excessively polite return gifts – the first time was understandable, as it coincided with buying property, but this time…
Yet besides this, there was nothing else unusual.
Surely someone like Deputy Magistrate Lin – so cold and rational, talented and from a good family – hadn’t fallen in love with her?
Shen Shaoguang laughed to herself. Self-importance was an illness that needed curing. Perhaps he was just wealthy and extremely courteous? The noble class was just a fussy bunch – what habits didn’t they have?
Even Wang Ziyou once took a boat in the middle of a snowy night to visit a friend, only to turn back at the friend’s door. If Dai Andao had overthought it, he might have assumed the young man had some unspeakable secret feelings for him.
To take it further, even if Deputy Magistrate Lin did have such intentions, so what? Marriages between different social classes had a very low chance of happiness. Marriage was like a corporate merger, involving cooperation and competition in assets, personnel, and many other aspects. “Having feelings” alone couldn’t guarantee smooth, long-term cooperation and mutual benefit.
Thinking of “having feelings,” Shen Shaoguang smiled. A-Ji’s life had been tumultuous enough; there was no need to add more waves in marriage. Living like this in a common courtyard with barbecue and flatbread was quite nice.
Shen Shaoguang looked up at the stars in the sky, wondering if when she got old, she would regret not having a passionate romance like Young Miss Chu, or being more unrestrained like Princess Fuhui…
Hearing someone say “Mind your step, sir,” she turned her head to see Deputy Magistrate Lin at the courtyard gate.
Shen Shaoguang: “…”
A-Chang apologized with a smile, “I went to get wine in front, and happened to meet Master Lin…”
So you just directly brought him to our home in the back? Shen Shaoguang knew A-Chang’s problem – he became flustered at the sight of “noble people.”
Well, since he’s here, might as well make the best of it. “If you don’t mind, sir, please join us for some barbecue,” Shen Shaoguang stood up and smiled.
Lin Yan nodded, “I’m sorry to intrude.”
This was Lin Yan’s first time entering a woman’s residence at night, such an “improper” thing, and he felt quite uncomfortable, though his face became even more serious.
Shen Shaoguang looked at him – here to share a barbecue, yet looking like he was attending a regular business meeting…
Yu San expressionlessly handed the grilled lamb skewers, chicken skewers, pork belly skewers, grilled tofu, gluten, and vegetables to A-Chang, who placed them separately on large plates to serve the guest and their young miss. Not knowing whether to help the guest remove the skewers and cut them into small pieces, Lin Yan said gently, “I can manage myself.”
Yu San took the rest of the grilled food and a plate of flatbread and led A-Chang and A-Yuan back to their rooms to eat.
Shen Shaoguang smiled at Lin Yan, “Please help yourself, sir. Don’t stand on ceremony.”
Lin Yan smiled and nodded, “Thank you for your fine wine and food, Young Miss.”
Originally planning to recreate the nightlife of small stools, casual clothes, shirt-rolling, skewer-grabbing, and beer-drinking, it had turned into a social dinner instead. Shen Shaoguang couldn’t just bite directly into the meat anymore, and had to remove it from the skewers onto the plate and eat with chopsticks – it didn’t taste quite the same.
At such times, “silence while eating” would be awkward, so Shen Shaoguang ate some meat, drank some wine, and started chatting, “Today’s charcoal isn’t ideal. Pine branch charcoal would be better, giving a pine fragrance, or fruitwood or jujube wood charcoal, which add a sweet aroma.”
“If we don’t have such charcoal, putting some pine cones on the fireworks just as well,” Shen Shaoguang added.
“Is this a palace method?” Lin Yan asked with a smile.
“The palace wouldn’t bother with such trouble – this was an idea from Master Liang.” Shen Shaoguang had great respect for Master Liang Shiqiu and thought they could look for pine cones in the pine forests during the Double Ninth Festival autumn excursion.
“Even like this, it’s already very delicious,” Lin Yan said with a smile, looking down at the table before him with half-lowered eyes.
Shen Shaoguang smiled with narrowed eyes – Deputy Magistrate Lin had become increasingly good at giving compliments.
Shen Shaoguang continued, “I haven’t properly thanked your household for the screen. The Madam is too kind.”
“Today my grandmother highly praised Young Miss’s distilled flower essence, saying it was rich and fragrant. Please don’t stand on ceremony.”
Hearing him speak so frankly, Shen Shaoguang thought perhaps she had overthought things and became cheerful, “It’s just that my thatched cottage with bamboo windows is too simple – putting such an elegant and luxurious thing here seems almost a waste.”
Lin Yan looked at the peach tree by the window, the wall full of vines and green leaves, and the lush vegetable patch over there, and smiled, “Elm and willow shade the back eaves, peach and plum adorn the front hall – what simplicity is there?”
Ha, sure enough, every scholar has a hermit dream – when in high office, they long for garden retreat and the life of woodcutters and fishermen; when far from court, they dream of advising the emperor and wearing purple robes and jade belts, tsk tsk…
“The Deputy Magistrate has lofty tastes that we common folk cannot match,” Shen Shaoguang said with a smile.
Lin Yan glanced at her smiling face – insincere, clever with words…
Thinking of “clever,” Lin Yan lowered his head and took another sip of wine. In his peripheral vision, the red gauze lamp’s light made that pretty face put peach and plum blossoms to shame.