Shen Shaoguang sat in the mule cart with A’Yuan beside her. The newly bought A’Duo was driving, with Yu San sitting by the shaft, and Lin Yan with his two servants following not far behind.
While in the city, Lin Yan maintained this neither far nor near distance, but once outside the city, he rode his horse closer—like most lords traveling with their wives, riding beside the cart. Through the gaps in the bamboo curtain, Shen Shaoguang could see his silhouette with a slight turn of her head.
Through the bamboo curtain, Shen Shaoguang studied Junior Governor Lin’s profile and concluded that people with attractive side profiles mainly had it due to their noses and chin. Shen Shaoguang touched her nose, feeling somewhat regretful that her bridge wasn’t high enough.
Beside her, A’Yuan, with her fleshy nose and wide nostrils, happily rolled up the curtain on the other side to look at the scenery, “Young Miss, Young Miss, look, those beans should be almost ripe, right?”
Shen Shaoguang languidly withdrew her gaze and turned her head to follow A’Yuan’s line of sight, smiling, “Yes, almost ripe but not quite. Boiled with some Sichuan pepper and salt, they make excellent drinking snacks.”
A’Yuan nodded, “They’re well boiled, and Young Miss’s rice cooked with beans, shrimp, cured meat, and eggs is also delicious. Last year, when Young Miss made bean cakes by mashing the edamame for juice and mixing it with glutinous rice flour, it was good but not sweet enough…”
Shen Shaoguang laughed at A’Yuan’s purely Tang Dynasty taste aesthetics…
Shen Shaoguang teased her, “Let’s try a new way this year, you’ll probably like it. First, boil them, then coat them with starch and deep-fry them—crispy outside, tender inside.”
A’Yuan clapped her hands, “That must be delicious! Didn’t Young Miss say before, if you don’t know how to eat something, just fry it?”
Yu San, who endured such torment from them daily, had gotten used to it, but today he coughed lightly with furrowed brows—after all, there were outsiders present. Yu San slightly turned his head to look at the figure behind them, habitually furrowing his brows again, but remembering how that day he had exchanged himself for the Young Miss, he turned his head back.
The “outsider” Lin Yan naturally also heard the casual chatter between mistress and servant in the cart, and couldn’t help but smile. Lin Yan loved hearing her talk with her maids and servants, finding a leisurely domestic charm in it.
Due to the recent continuous rain, the road was rather bumpy and difficult to traverse. To avoid jolting the Young Miss, A’Duo drove very slowly. Shen Shaoguang wasn’t picky—if slow then slow, they had the whole day anyway. Lin Yan was even less rushed, just leisurely following alongside. The group had set out early morning, and it was already mid-morning when they reached the City God Temple.
The lame Taoist priest bowed to Lin Yan and Shen Shaoguang. Seeing the honey offerings brought up by A’Yuan and Yu San, the old priest remembered—wasn’t this the Young Miss who offered those exquisite pastries last year? Even when staying at Daguan Temple in the city, he rarely saw such complete and fine pastries.
Looking at Lin Yan again, this seemed to be the noble who had donated quite a bit of silver last year, but last year they hadn’t come together…
Though the old priest harbored suspicions inside, he was very attentive outwardly, helping arrange the offerings, setting up incense and candles, and calling disciples to chant Taoist scriptures.
Shen Shaoguang thanked him, and the old priest hurriedly returned the courtesy: “This is this poor priest’s duty.”
Shen Shaoguang lit incense and candles, burned paper money, and respectfully kowtowed, silently praying for the peace of her family’s spirits in this life.
As Shen Shaoguang rose, Lin Yan also took some incense and paid respects to the Shen couple as a disciple would.
Shen Shaoguang pressed her lips together, saying nothing, and properly curtseyed to thank him after he finished paying respects.
Lin Yan also properly returned the courtesy, just like those young lords visiting their future fathers-in-law’s homes, meeting their fiancées for the first time under their father’s watchful eyes.
After Shen Shaoguang’s ritual, it was Lin Yan’s turn to pay respects.
Shen Shaoguang also offered incense, not to return Lin Yan’s “favor,” but because she felt emotional about how similar the two families’ fates were. She had heard that Lord Cui was also a man of great talent, and wondered if he had any connection with the Shen family. Young Lady Cui was passionate, taking death lightly and valuing righteousness heavily. Though Shen Shaoguang couldn’t do the same, she admired it.
Regarding Junior Governor Lin’s words from the other day about being “more familiar with Lord Cui and the young lords of the Cui family,” Shen Shaoguang believed him. Even in more open times, noble ladies’ marriages still generally started with fathers and sons-in-law “taking a liking to each other”—the old father approving of the young man’s character, learning, family background, and appearance, while the son-in-law appreciated the future father-in-law’s learning, character, official reputation, and power. The young lady, on the contrary, wasn’t so important.
Shen Shaoguang imagined that if her family hadn’t met with misfortune, whether it was her transmigrated self or the original body, her husband would probably have been chosen this way. However, the wheel of fate had taken a different path, and then everything became different.
Shen Shaoguang naturally couldn’t help thinking about Junior Governor Lin’s direct confession. After a while, Shen Shaoguang smiled, rubbing her hand where Ming Nu had left red marks, thinking she needed to trim its claws again properly.
When the incense had burned out and Lin Yan came out, he gently asked Shen Shaoguang, “It’s getting late, shall we eat here at the City God Temple, or find an inn in a nearby village?”
With only a few Taoist priests at the City God Temple, Shen Shaoguang didn’t want to trouble them, “Let’s go find an inn outside.”
“There’s a village by the river where we went last time, shall we look there?”
Shen Shaoguang felt this “we” wasn’t exactly wrong, but it still sounded somewhat awkward…
The small path was extremely narrow and uneven, so Shen Shaoguang walked instead of riding, and Lin Yan naturally accompanied her.
The fields were a sea of green, with shepherd boys and sheep flocks on the slopes, occasionally seeing farmers returning with hoes—a scene of peaceful and beautiful pastoral life.
Shen Shaoguang’s gauze sleeve was blown by the wind, brushing against Lin Yan’s arm. Lin Yan instinctively caught it lightly, then let the gauze flow through his fingers.
Shen Shaoguang suddenly felt her face grow warm and timidly moved away a bit.
“Move any further and you’ll fall into the ditch,” Lin Yan said softly.
Shen Shaoguang pressed her lips together, so, shouldn’t you be the one moving over?
But Lin Yan just smiled, showing no intention of “moving away.”
Shen Shaoguang could only press down her sleeves, regretting not wearing the narrow-sleeved Hu-style clothing today.
Lin Yan stopped teasing her and moved aside, gentlemanly putting his hands behind his back, though his thumb and index finger lightly touched, seeming to reminisce about the texture of the gauze from earlier.
Their luck was truly good. After going around the river to reach the village, they found a small tavern at the village entrance—two thatched houses with a sun-bleached wine banner hanging outside.
The tavern mistress was quite a capable woman who welcomed them enthusiastically, saying they had “excellent roasted pork”—because it was the Ghost Festival today, many people were offering ancestral sacrifices, and the village had slaughtered two pigs. The tavern had gotten an eight or nine-jin pig leg, all cut into large pieces and steaming. They had originally planned to sell it to the Taoist priests at the City God Temple, but unexpectedly noble guests had arrived.
Shen Shaoguang also asked what vegetables and staple foods they had. The tavern mistress said they had home-grown scallions, eggplants, and cabbage, along with freshly boiled edamame.
Shen Shaoguang smiled, asking first for two plates of edamame, some stewed cabbage, and steamed eggplant. Hearing they had buckwheat noodles, Shen Shaoguang said, “Please make us some cold buckwheat noodles, just topped with sesame paste, clear sauce, vinegar, and minced garlic.”
The tavern mistress figured out that in this family, the lady called the shots, while that handsome lord was just for show. Since the Young Miss had ordered thus, there was naturally no reason to refuse, though she secretly thought these city nobles had strange tastes, not eating white wheat noodles but preferring buckwheat noodles instead.
The tavern mistress first brought out the beans, then carried out her roasted pork in a basin.
The beans were only boiled with salt, lacking some flavor, but they were tender enough to be tasty.
As for the meat, rather than “roasted,” it was more “steamed,” not marinated in clear sauce, maintaining its natural white color, with a coarse porcelain bowl of three-combination sauce made of vinegar, garlic, and ginger on the side. Shen Shaoguang and Lin Yan kept only a small plate at their table, giving the rest to Yu San, Liu Chang, and the others.
Shen Shaoguang picked up a piece of meat and put it in her bowl, then spooned some vinegar-garlic sauce over it. The meat was steamed until very tender and was surprisingly delicious.
The tavern mistress brought out wine jars and poured them for everyone, “Noble guests, please try our home-brewed wine. Not to boast, but our wine is the most presentable in these parts.”
Shen Shaoguang picked up the large shallow bowl, blew away the green foam on top, and took a sip. It was very good; the tavern mistress indeed hadn’t exaggerated.
This was the first time Lin Yan had seen her drink wine with a bowl as big as her face. He couldn’t help but smile.
Shen Shaoguang raised an eyebrow.
Lin Yan just smiled without speaking.
Shen Shaoguang knew he was laughing at her eating large pieces of meat and drinking from big bowls. He was making a fuss over nothing—in her previous life some girls could down half a bottle of wine in one gulp, and in this world, there were palace maids who drank alone from small wine jars. This was nothing in comparison.
With the boiled edamame, Shen Shaoguang finished a whole bowl of wine.
Seeing the flush on her face, Lin Yan advised, “Don’t drink anymore, be careful about needing to relieve yourself on the road.”
Shen Shaoguang nodded. Though the alcohol content wasn’t enough to get drunk, drinking too much might mean looking for a toilet halfway—that would be awkward.
Lin Yan didn’t know what she was worried about, just finding her obedient manner especially adorable.
“Proprietor!” A scholar in his forties wearing a white robe now turned grey, walked in from outside with a wine gourd in hand, “Please fill this up.”
Seeing both tables in the shop occupied, the scholar didn’t sit. The tavern master went outside to the riverside to pick some small lotus leaves, wrapped some boiled edamame for him and gave him a flatbread. The scholar put the bread in the cloth bag on his back, holding the beans and gourd, mounted his donkey outside, and slowly rode away.
Seeing that carefree figure, Shen Shaoguang couldn’t help but smile, wondering how good his poetry was, though his poetic demeanor was certainly complete.
Lin Yan looked at her.
Shen Shaoguang said: “A limping donkey, a worn hat, a jar of village wine, half a package of edamame—this gentleman is quite unrestrained.” Then looking at Junior Governor Lin, who ate methodically and never drank wine at lunch, she wondered how two Confucian disciples could be so different.
Lin Yan smiled, saying softly: “It’s good enough that you have poetic abandon; I’ll take care of worldly matters.”
Shen Shaoguang felt the village wine had quite a kick, making her head a bit light.