The other three were eating with great relish and didn’t notice the couple’s subtle affectionate gestures.
Su Chi had been busy all morning and was eating a bit hurriedly as well. He held the soup Xie Yushu had ladled for him and sipped it slowly.
Several dishes in this meal had been Xie Yushu’s ideas—how to stir-fry the base sauce, how to place the fish, how to incorporate the side dishes, how to cook the noodles and then stir-fry them.
He’d followed her methods, and the results nearly knocked him over with their fragrance. Even though he’d always considered himself a good cook, praised by neighbors and villagers alike, the dishes made using Xie Yushu’s creative and novel methods were more delicious than anything he’d ever made.
He’d asked her how she knew so many interesting dishes he’d never seen before. When asked, his wife had clearly paused for a moment—just an instant—and a flicker of sadness and nostalgia, hard to catch, passed through her eyes. Su Chi, who’d been watching her closely, naturally noticed this faint trace of melancholy.
Then Xie Yushu simply said that her mother had been a merchant who’d traveled far and wide over the years, and she’d learned a thing or two from her travels. She said there were even more delicious dishes to come, and she’d teach him how to make them all.
Su Chi had buried his face in her embrace, holding her, and said yes.
The large platter of stir-fried noodles was scraped clean, leaving only a sheen of oil. The four-pound-plus grilled fish was also completely finished, with piles of fish bones and spines before each person, stacked like little mountains.
The other dishes weren’t as plentiful as the noodles and fish, but they were mostly polished off as well.
Seeing everyone eating with such enjoyment, Xie Yushu’s own appetite was stimulated. She pulled at the stir-fried noodles in her bowl, pairing them with tender stir-fried water celery and dried tofu. The water celery was crisp and tender—each bite produced a satisfying “crunch crunch” as her teeth met. Adding a chopstickful of pig’s ear in red chili oil—smooth, crisp, and tender—the chili oil wasn’t spicy but was incredibly fragrant. Her husband’s skill at making chili oil was truly unmatched; every mouthful was bursting with flavor.
By the end, everyone was rubbing their round, full bellies and saying how stuffed they were. Su Chi got up and went back to the stove, returning with a plate of white, tender black sesame glutinous rice cake. The cake was sprinkled with black sesame seeds, cut neatly, and carried a sweet aroma of sesame and glutinous rice when brought out.
Xie Yushu had always had the habit of eating something sweet after a meal, saying that after eating savory foods, a little sweetness brought a sense of satisfaction.
Su Chi had listened very carefully. He’d previously thought that simply filling one’s stomach was enough—he’d never realized there was such sophistication to eating. This time, he’d put it into practice.
This rice cake had been made earlier—it needed to cool a bit before it was at its best, and now was the perfect time to eat it.
Seeing that everyone was nearly done eating, Sun Wuyou opened the bottle of plum wine she’d discreetly brought from home and poured a full cup for each of the four adults present. She only stopped when Su Chi waved his hand, saying he didn’t drink.
Su Chi and Guizhi didn’t drink alcohol, so Xie Yushu, Sun Wuyou, and Father Wang enjoyed the plum wine in small sips while eating the rice cake—quite pleasant.
The rice cake was made from glutinous rice, soft and chewy, slightly cool, with a little stickiness to the teeth. As they chewed, the fragrance of glutinous rice and black sesame spread through the mouth—sweet, yet not at all cloying.
Everyone had been full already, but as they ate, they found the rice cake grew more fragrant with each chew, and none could resist having two or three pieces.
Guizhi held her piece of rice cake, eating with her eyes squinted in delight—this cake was truly delicious. Catching the sweet, faintly plum-scented aroma of the wine, her craving stirred again. She tugged at Sun Wuyou and pleaded: “Miss, I want a sip too.”
“Just a tiny sip—not too much.” Sun Wuyou thought for a moment, then poured her just a tiny bit. Guizhi was still young, and she normally didn’t let her touch alcohol, but a small sip now wouldn’t hurt.
The meal had been thoroughly enjoyable. Su Chi and Father Wang went for a stroll in the yard to digest, leaving the three women at the table to chat.
Xie Yushu refilled her cup with plum wine. It was good—smooth, not too sharp—she could handle a bit.
“That day your mother called you home—was there something important?” She’d been wanting to ask for a while.
At this, Sun Wuyou’s face, which had been so happy from the meal, fell. She said somewhat gloomily: “Ah, Xie Da, I won’t hide it from you. My mother wants me to take over a pharmacy in Songwan Town.”
Xie Yushu looked up: “A pharmacy? You don’t mean that quack Li’s pharmacy?”
When she’d walked through the streets, she’d noticed that the quack Doctor Li’s supposedly closed-down pharmacy had reopened. She’d assumed some kind-hearted doctor couldn’t bear to see the people of Songwan Town without medical care and had quickly taken it over.
So it was run by the Sun family?
Sun Wuyou sighed and nodded: “Yes, exactly that one. My mother had someone acquire that pharmacy a while ago. The family’s been managing it for some time, and now she wants me to be the resident physician—calling it ‘training me.’”
She’d always been used to a carefree life, with her mother and sisters holding down the fort at home. She came and went as she pleased, doing whatever she wanted, traveling wherever she liked with Guizhi. Now, with one word from her mother, she had to buckle down and be a resident physician.
Even her beloved father had agreed, saying it would be good for her to see patients and grow up a little, instead of always acting like a child.
“Isn’t that a good thing? Healing the sick and saving lives is your ideal, isn’t it? Besides, I believe in your medical skills.” Xie Yushu said calmly, as if stating an ordinary fact.
“Xie Da! You really think so highly of me?” Sun Wuyou perked up, her worried face instantly brightening, looking at Xie Yushu with puppy-dog eyes.
“Of course. Don’t you believe in yourself?”
“It’s not that.” Sun Wuyou became bashful.
“Mm, I see. You’re just lazy. You want to sleep in every day with Guizhi.”
Sun Wuyou, seeing that Xie Yushu had seen right through her without mercy, averted her eyes somewhat uncomfortably.
She was the youngest in the family. Her father always said she was still young, so of course she needed to sleep more to grow. Xie Da’s words were rather harsh.
Was she really that lazy?
Xie Yushu considered her a friend and genuinely cared about her. She followed up with some questions about Sun Wuyou taking over the pharmacy.
Sun Wuyou shared everything she knew, also mentioning that all the apprentices who’d worked under Doctor Li had been kept on by the Sun family, continuing as apprentices to learn their craft at the shop.
Xie Yushu nodded, thinking the Sun family was indeed kind-hearted. What Doctor Li had done had nothing to do with his apprentices—they were just there to work and earn wages to support themselves and their families.
Something clicked in Xie Yushu’s mind. She’d heard before about Doctor Li being reported to the authorities by a group of people. Now thinking about it, the Sun family might have had a hand in that. And then they’d sent someone to take over the pharmacy—the town had a pharmacy again, patients had somewhere to go, and Sun Wuyou could gain experience. It was quite a shrewd arrangement.
After chatting for a while, Sun Wuyou and Guizhi, their bellies stuffed to the brim, headed back to their lodgings first. Before they left, Su Chi wrapped up the remaining rice cake for them to take.
Guizhi took it happily. Young Lady Xie was a good person, and her husband was a good person too.
The two of them supported each other as they walked back to their lodgings.
After they left, a messy table remained, and the three of them set to cleaning up.
Xie Yushu had drunk several cups of plum wine. Though it wasn’t strong, she was already feeling a bit tipsy.
Su Chi noticed she was off and coaxed her back to the room to sleep, saying he’d take care of the cleanup.
Two hours later, the sun was about to set. The sky in late autumn darkened quickly. Wang Wen had been here for nearly the entire day and was thinking of heading back.
He told Su Chi, who was reluctant to let him go and wanted him to stay the night before leaving.
“No, no. If I sleep here, what about the chickens and ducks at home?” Wang Wen said anxiously.
He’d gotten several more chickens and ducks at home and raised them like treasures. Before leaving today, he’d put out enough rice bran and water for three meals. If he didn’t go back now, they’d definitely go hungry tomorrow morning—how could that be?
Wang Wen took Su Chi’s hand and said earnestly: “Your father is going back now. From now on, I’ll bring you and Yushu some vegetables every seven or eight days.”
Only after hearing this assurance did Su Chi feel at ease letting his father leave. He went to the street to hail an ox-cart, paid the fare, helped his father onto the cart, and watched until the cart disappeared from sight before returning inside.
·
The next day, Su Chi’s shop opened on time. The steam rising from the bamboo steamers drew in the early morning customers. There were still plenty of customers—the weather was cold, and most wanted some hot soup and buns to warm themselves.
During his spare moments, Su Chi had been thinking: besides the daily staples—saucy meat buns, fresh pork wontons, and five-spice eggs—he could add more variety.
Since everyone wanted hot food, he’d make a large pot of vegetable congee. The congee could be paired with buns and five-spice eggs, but the best match would be soft, oily fried flatbreads.
In his mind, he calculated that these two items could be sold together.
Selling vegetable congee and fried flatbreads as a set—customers ordering one would conveniently buy the other, saving the trouble of ordering each separately. This way, more congee and more flatbreads would be sold. The two items would boost each other’s sales, much better than selling them separately.
It would also save time and effort during service. The congee could be prepared in a large pot ahead of time, covered and kept warm, ready to be ladled out when a customer ordered. The fried flatbreads could also be fried in advance, placed in a small square bamboo basket next to the steamers, covered with a clean cloth, so they’d still be warm and crispy when customers ate them.
When he’d first had this idea, he’d mentioned it to Xie Yushu. She’d praised him for being clever and having a head for business, saying he was a natural.
Su Chi had floated on cloud nine from her praise.
Then his wife had said his idea could be defined as a “set meal,” explaining that a set meal was two or more food items bundled together and sold as one, inseparable. This allowed for quick service, and the price should be set fairly. That way, any customer craving something hot would be tempted to order one.
Su Chi thought so too. He planned to define this set meal as one large bowl of vegetable congee plus two fried flatbreads.
He’d sell a bowl of congee for three wen, and each fried flatbread for two wen. If ordered separately, it would cost seven wen. But bundled as a set meal, it would only cost six wen—the same items, same quantity, but a whole wen cheaper than ordering separately.
One wen wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t nothing either. Most customers wouldn’t disregard it—everyone lived on a budget.
Su Chi felt more confident, thinking he’d roll out this vegetable congee and fried flatbread set meal within the next few days.
First, he’d need to buy another oil wok and a deep pot. Then he’d go to the oil shop and negotiate a good price for a regular supply of oil.
Just thinking about it made Su Chi’s heart feel warm. He quickened his pace as he wrapped the buns.
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