Chapter 101 – Sea Buckthorn
Madam Chen was boiling malt sugar in the courtyard with Old Aunty Chen. As soon as he stepped through the front door, the sweet scent of malt wafted over.
“Aunt!” Yu Yuan went forward and greeted Madam Chen.
Madam Chen wiped her hands on the apron around her waist and asked with a smile, “Ah Yuan, you’re here to find your uncle, right? He has gone to deliver New Year cakes to supervisor Tong, so he probably wouldn’t be back before noon today. If it’s something confidential, you can head to the study and leave a message there for your uncle.”
Tomorrow will be the New Year’s, and everything for the New Year’s celebrations were already prepared. Rice cakes was an essential component of the New Year’s celebratory food for all families, and the making of rice cakes was Madam Chen’s specialty. Unfortunately, Madam Chen’s health was not good in years past, so she did not make it herself. This year, although Madam Chen’s health was still poor, but it was much better than the past years. Not only was Yu’s household delighted, Madam Chen was also very happy and made more than ten pounds of rice pudding with her own hands and gave some to relatives, friends and neighbors.
“I’m looking for Ah-tang.” He said as he helped Madam Chen move the malt sugar that was simmering in the pot next to him into the kitchen, “Is Ah-tang here? We saw some new patterns during our last trip to Hangzhou City, and I wanted to discuss them with her.”
Madam Chen didn’t suspect anything at all as she smiled, saying “She’s in the study!” After saying that, she cut a piece of malt candy with a knife and handed it to Yu Yuan in a bowl, “Here, you siblings taste it and see if it’s good.”
Yu Yuan happily took the bowl and went to the study.
Yu Tang was holding a brush in her hand and was drawing something.
The warm rays of winter shone in through the windows covered with high quality white paper, casting a golden light on her figure, gentle and soft.
Yu Yuan froze for a moment before calling out “Sister”.
Yu Tang looked up and immediately smiled.
The smile spread out under her eyes, which made her look lively and vibrant.
“Why did Brother come over?” She placed the brush down and stood up from behind the desk, welcoming Yu Yuan to sit on the tai shi chair by the window, “Aren’t you busy with preparing the New Year’s greetings for your in-law’s?”
The wedding date was set and the marriage certificate was drawn up. Although the wedding ceremony was not carried out yet, but Yu Yuan was already considered the son-in-law of the Xiang family, and as a rule, Yu Yuan had to go to the Xiang family to pay respects on the second day of the first month. Madam Wang fretted over the congratulatory gifts to deliver for the New Year’s and blamed Yu Yuan for not taking this matter seriously and not buying anything back when he went to Hangzhou City.
Yu Yuan laughed sheepishly. He had completely forgotten about it, saying “Isn’t there still my mother and aunt? I don’t understand this kind of thing, if I were to buy the wrong items it would be better not to buy them at all!”
The last time someone from Xiang family came, it left a bad impression on him, and he was reluctant to visit the Xiang family. However, for the sake of Lady Xiang, he decided to put all that behind him and go to the Xiang family to pay his respects humbly. But that doesn’t mean he enjoyed talking about it.
He placed the malt candy on the small table and said to Yu Tang, “This is from aunt, try and see if it’s good.”
Her mother got up early this morning just to make this candy.
When she was younger, she used to wait impatiently by the stove at this time, and every time she would be forcibly carried away by her mother. She would start crying and be placated with a piece of malt candy.
This continued until she was ten years old when she got her tongue burned for secretly snacking on some malt candy before it was ready. After seeing the physician and drinking medicine for a month and more, and then seeing all the delicious food during the first month celebrations, but being unable to eat it, it made her less greedy over the malt sugar candy.
For Madam Chen and the others, this only happened five or six years ago, but for her, it has already been more than ten years ago.
She smiled as she got a little emotional and went to prepare bowls of malt sugar water for herself and Yu Yuan, saying, “Brother, try it too,” and sat down across from Yu Yuan.
Yu Yuan tasted the sugar water, aromatic and rich, sweet but not drying, he could not help but remark, “I did not expect that Aunt’s malt candy is so well-made, this year we are really blessed.”
This malt candy was not only an offering for the kitchen god, but it was also for the friends and relatives who came to visit during the New Year’s, and a large part of it was prepared for Yu Yuan’s marriage.
Yu Tang pursed her lips and smiling knowingly.
Yu Yuan realised his mistake, and not daring to say more about the malt candy, he directly spoke of the reason for his visit “I thought it over carefully, and like you said, I’ll go manage the family’s fields and forests, and we’ll plant the kind of trees you said to make preserves.”
Yu Tang guessed things would turn out that way too.
In her previous life, although Yu Yuan was doing well in managing the business, her eldest uncle still remained uneasy and occasionally supervised and instructed Yu Yuan. In this life, Yu Yuan was merely a helper following behind eldest uncle, so eldest uncle was even less likely to let go of the business and hand the reins over.
“I was just about to find you to discuss this.” Yu Tang said as she got up and went to the desk, “Brother, you see, this is the drawing of the kind of tree I mentioned. This New Year’s, the businessmen who travels frequently would be back home, so see if you can ask those people to take a look and see if anyone knows this tree?”
Yu Yuan walked over and looked carefully at the drawing before rolling up the painting. “Okay, I’ll take care of this. I’ll give you news before the 15th.”
Yu Tang breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt uneasy. After Yu Yuan left, she drew a new picture of a sea buckthorn tree and showed it to Yu Wen, who had just returned from delivering the rice cakes to Big Supervisor Tong. “Do you know what kind of tree is this? Can you find people who know this kind of tree?”
Many of the literary scholars liked to grow various flowers and plants, so there might be someone who knows.
Yu Wen laughed, as he replied “Are you giving me yet another challenge to solve?”
Previously, Yu Tang suggested to invite all the distinguished families and scholars in Lin’an to come to Yu Yuan’s wedding reception. Therefore, Yu Wen was busy running about settling this. Now when everything was more or less arranged, Yu Tang drew a strange tree and asked him if he recognized it……
Yu Tang laughed apologetically and hugged her father’s arm, saying “This tree is called sea buckthorn, my brother and I are going to plant this kind of tree in our forest land, so father please help to ask around for me. Since you are going to invite people for my brother’s wedding anyway.”
Joyous events lifted peoples’ spirits, furthermore, his daughter’s words and actions were too cute, so course he was delighted to help. He teased Yu Tang for a while before bringing the drawing with him as he went out to deliver the wedding invitations.
Much to Yu Tang’s surprise, the person who knew about the tree was actually Shen Shanyan, the teacher at the local school.
He smiled and asked Yu Wen, “Why are you asking about this? Although this tree is resilient, but the local conditions here are not favourable for its growth. If you are not convinced, you can head to the home of Xia Guang and have a look. Their family planted several trees, which were all brought back by Zhou ZiJin when he visited Gansu Province that year. It bore plenty of fruit in Gansu, but after it was transplanted here, the trees remained barren. Because of this, ZiJin teased Xia Guang by saying that their family’s soil was no good at all.”
Yu Wen didn’t expect to receive such news. He paused for a while before saying, “I heard about this tree from my daughter. She said she heard of this tree before and wanted to plant this kind of tree in our family’s forest land, and asked me to inquire about it.”
Shen Shanyan came to Lin’an to avoid dealing with politics and people. He heard of Yu Wen’s character and also had a few encounters with him, like attending a few flower gatherings or occasional walks. Listening to his words, he could not help but chuckle, “It’ s a shame that she’s your daughter. If she had been a son, even without studying, she could have done some great things as well.”
Shen Shanyan was the master of the Shen family, a rare genius among Jiangnan’s brilliant minds. It was already a great honour for an ordinary scholar to receive a word of praise from him, let alone a young girl like Yu Tang.
Yu Wen was elated, but he said humbly, “No, no, she simply has many ideas.”
Shen Shanyan remarked, “To be able think of ideas and do it with a specific direction in mind, that’s already very impressive.” Thinking of Lady Yu’s future marriage, he added, “Your daughter’s marriage, you have to choose carefully, don’t carelessly give her away.”
“Of course I will.” Yu Wen nodded his head repeatedly.
Even if Shen Shanyan didn’t say it, he too couldn’t let his daughter be married to someone arbitrarily, and now that he heard Shen Shanyan say it, it reinforced his desire to find a good son-in-law.
Chapter 101 – Sea Buckthorn
Madam Chen was boiling malt sugar in the courtyard with Old Aunty Chen. As soon as he stepped through the front door, the sweet scent of malt wafted over.
“Aunt!” Yu Yuan went forward and greeted Madam Chen.
Madam Chen wiped her hands on the apron around her waist and asked with a smile, “Ah Yuan, you’re here to find your uncle, right? He has gone to deliver New Year cakes to supervisor Tong, so he probably wouldn’t be back before noon today. If it’s something confidential, you can head to the study and leave a message there for your uncle.”
Tomorrow will be the New Year’s, and everything for the New Year’s celebrations were already prepared. Rice cakes was an essential component of the New Year’s celebratory food for all families, and the making of rice cakes was Madam Chen’s specialty. Unfortunately, Madam Chen’s health was not good in years past, so she did not make it herself. This year, although Madam Chen’s health was still poor, but it was much better than the past years. Not only was Yu’s household delighted, Madam Chen was also very happy and made more than ten pounds of rice pudding with her own hands and gave some to relatives, friends and neighbors.
“I’m looking for Ah-tang.” He said as he helped Madam Chen move the malt sugar that was simmering in the pot next to him into the kitchen, “Is Ah-tang here? We saw some new patterns during our last trip to Hangzhou City, and I wanted to discuss them with her.”
Madam Chen didn’t suspect anything at all as she smiled, saying “She’s in the study!” After saying that, she cut a piece of malt candy with a knife and handed it to Yu Yuan in a bowl, “Here, you siblings taste it and see if it’s good.”
Yu Yuan happily took the bowl and went to the study.
Yu Tang was holding a brush in her hand and was drawing something.
The warm rays of winter shone in through the windows covered with high quality white paper, casting a golden light on her figure, gentle and soft.
Yu Yuan froze for a moment before calling out “Sister”.
Yu Tang looked up and immediately smiled.
The smile spread out under her eyes, which made her look lively and vibrant.
“Why did Brother come over?” She placed the brush down and stood up from behind the desk, welcoming Yu Yuan to sit on the tai shi chair by the window, “Aren’t you busy with preparing the New Year’s greetings for your in-law’s?”
The wedding date was set and the marriage certificate was drawn up. Although the wedding ceremony was not carried out yet, but Yu Yuan was already considered the son-in-law of the Xiang family, and as a rule, Yu Yuan had to go to the Xiang family to pay respects on the second day of the first month. Madam Wang fretted over the congratulatory gifts to deliver for the New Year’s and blamed Yu Yuan for not taking this matter seriously and not buying anything back when he went to Hangzhou City.
Yu Yuan laughed sheepishly. He had completely forgotten about it, saying “Isn’t there still my mother and aunt? I don’t understand this kind of thing, if I were to buy the wrong items it would be better not to buy them at all!”
The last time someone from Xiang family came, it left a bad impression on him, and he was reluctant to visit the Xiang family. However, for the sake of Lady Xiang, he decided to put all that behind him and go to the Xiang family to pay his respects humbly. But that doesn’t mean he enjoyed talking about it.
He placed the malt candy on the small table and said to Yu Tang, “This is from aunt, try and see if it’s good.”
Her mother got up early this morning just to make this candy.
When she was younger, she used to wait impatiently by the stove at this time, and every time she would be forcibly carried away by her mother. She would start crying and be placated with a piece of malt candy.
This continued until she was ten years old when she got her tongue burned for secretly snacking on some malt candy before it was ready. After seeing the physician and drinking medicine for a month and more, and then seeing all the delicious food during the first month celebrations, but being unable to eat it, it made her less greedy over the malt sugar candy.
For Madam Chen and the others, this only happened five or six years ago, but for her, it has already been more than ten years ago.
She smiled as she got a little emotional and went to prepare bowls of malt sugar water for herself and Yu Yuan, saying, “Brother, try it too,” and sat down across from Yu Yuan.
Yu Yuan tasted the sugar water, aromatic and rich, sweet but not drying, he could not help but remark, “I did not expect that Aunt’s malt candy is so well-made, this year we are really blessed.”
This malt candy was not only an offering for the kitchen god, but it was also for the friends and relatives who came to visit during the New Year’s, and a large part of it was prepared for Yu Yuan’s marriage.
Yu Tang pursed her lips and smiling knowingly.
Yu Yuan realised his mistake, and not daring to say more about the malt candy, he directly spoke of the reason for his visit “I thought it over carefully, and like you said, I’ll go manage the family’s fields and forests, and we’ll plant the kind of trees you said to make preserves.”
Yu Tang guessed things would turn out that way too.
In her previous life, although Yu Yuan was doing well in managing the business, her eldest uncle still remained uneasy and occasionally supervised and instructed Yu Yuan. In this life, Yu Yuan was merely a helper following behind eldest uncle, so eldest uncle was even less likely to let go of the business and hand the reins over.
“I was just about to find you to discuss this.” Yu Tang said as she got up and went to the desk, “Brother, you see, this is the drawing of the kind of tree I mentioned. This New Year’s, the businessmen who travels frequently would be back home, so see if you can ask those people to take a look and see if anyone knows this tree?”
Yu Yuan walked over and looked carefully at the drawing before rolling up the painting. “Okay, I’ll take care of this. I’ll give you news before the 15th.”
Yu Tang breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt uneasy. After Yu Yuan left, she drew a new picture of a sea buckthorn tree and showed it to Yu Wen, who had just returned from delivering the rice cakes to Big Supervisor Tong. “Do you know what kind of tree is this? Can you find people who know this kind of tree?”
Many of the literary scholars liked to grow various flowers and plants, so there might be someone who knows.
Yu Wen laughed, as he replied “Are you giving me yet another challenge to solve?”
Previously, Yu Tang suggested to invite all the distinguished families and scholars in Lin’an to come to Yu Yuan’s wedding reception. Therefore, Yu Wen was busy running about settling this. Now when everything was more or less arranged, Yu Tang drew a strange tree and asked him if he recognized it……
Yu Tang laughed apologetically and hugged her father’s arm, saying “This tree is called sea buckthorn, my brother and I are going to plant this kind of tree in our forest land, so father please help to ask around for me. Since you are going to invite people for my brother’s wedding anyway.”
Joyous events lifted peoples’ spirits, furthermore, his daughter’s words and actions were too cute, so course he was delighted to help. He teased Yu Tang for a while before bringing the drawing with him as he went out to deliver the wedding invitations.
Much to Yu Tang’s surprise, the person who knew about the tree was actually Shen Shanyan, the teacher at the local school.
He smiled and asked Yu Wen, “Why are you asking about this? Although this tree is resilient, but the local conditions here are not favourable for its growth. If you are not convinced, you can head to the home of Xia Guang and have a look. Their family planted several trees, which were all brought back by Zhou ZiJin when he visited Gansu Province that year. It bore plenty of fruit in Gansu, but after it was transplanted here, the trees remained barren. Because of this, ZiJin teased Xia Guang by saying that their family’s soil was no good at all.”
Yu Wen didn’t expect to receive such news. He paused for a while before saying, “I heard about this tree from my daughter. She said she heard of this tree before and wanted to plant this kind of tree in our family’s forest land, and asked me to inquire about it.”
Shen Shanyan came to Lin’an to avoid dealing with politics and people. He heard of Yu Wen’s character and also had a few encounters with him, like attending a few flower gatherings or occasional walks. Listening to his words, he could not help but chuckle, “It’ s a shame that she’s your daughter. If she had been a son, even without studying, she could have done some great things as well.”
Shen Shanyan was the master of the Shen family, a rare genius among Jiangnan’s brilliant minds. It was already a great honour for an ordinary scholar to receive a word of praise from him, let alone a young girl like Yu Tang.
Yu Wen was elated, but he said humbly, “No, no, she simply has many ideas.”
Shen Shanyan remarked, “To be able think of ideas and do it with a specific direction in mind, that’s already very impressive.” Thinking of Lady Yu’s future marriage, he added, “Your daughter’s marriage, you have to choose carefully, don’t carelessly give her away.”
“Of course I will.” Yu Wen nodded his head repeatedly.
Even if Shen Shanyan didn’t say it, he too couldn’t let his daughter be married to someone arbitrarily, and now that he heard Shen Shanyan say it, it reinforced his desire to find a good son-in-law.
