Boiling bayberries and green plums into a fruit pulp was quick, but after straining through fine cloth and refining the juice into a Thirst-Quencher Paste—one that could hang a flag when lifted with a spoon and, when dripped onto a cold plate, would neither spread nor seep—that was slow work.
It was also a test of patience and control over the fire.
They had begun preparing the fruit when the sun hung high at its zenith, and by the time Yang Tieniang and Hu Xiangdi were ready to load the cart and head out to the stall, Fusheng had only just finished making everything she needed.
Pickled green plums, green plum wine, green plum Thirst-Quencher Paste, and a double-plum Thirst-Quencher Paste made with both kinds of plums.
What needed to be stored in a cool, shaded place was moved there.
What needed to cool before sealing was now at the final stage of being sealed away.
The bayberries had a deep color, so the double-plum Thirst-Quencher Paste came out richer in hue than the one made with green plums alone, and it carried a unique fruity fragrance.
When it had first come out of the pot, Fusheng had tasted it and found it quite good. She had called Yang Tieniang over to try a bite, but Yang Tieniang only said that once the paste had cooled and been mixed with water, the flavor would be even fuller and less tart—better to taste it after it cooled.
Now, seeing that Yang Tieniang was about to head out to the stall and the paste had cooled, Fusheng scooped a spoonful from each batch—the double-plum and the green plum—into two bowls, mixed them with cool boiled water, added a little honey, and carried them over to Yang Tieniang.
"Mother-in-law, please taste these and see how they are?"
Making this stuff was at most a matter of effort, and Second Sister Lansheng had made a batch alongside her, so she knew the little tricks that went into simmering the Thirst-Quencher Paste.
Even without bayberries, the double-plum version couldn't be made, but since it was green plum season, they could easily make some green plum Thirst-Quencher Paste to supply their own stall.
Whether as a free extra or sold on its own, there was a market for it.
For street food, there was no fear of matching another vendor's offerings.
After all, the same thing made by different cooks came out different.
The same went for Thirst-Quencher Paste—each household's choice of ingredients created its own unique touch.
Hu Xiangdi was self-sufficient by nature. With the goods made and sitting right there, she wasn't about to shortchange her own mouth. Seeing Fusheng mixing the drinks, she went into the kitchen to make her own.
Yang Tieniang was checking that everything for the stall was in order. The bowl Fusheng handed her, she took and drank without even looking at it.
"This green plum Thirst-Quencher… has a somewhat different flavor." She had taken the green plum one first: "The sweet and sour are just right, and there's a distinct coolness on the tongue, like the taste of mint… and there's a special fragrance, like… plum blossom."
Fusheng nodded with a smile.
There was mint growing in the family vegetable patch, kept for two purposes: first, to dry into mint leaves to help the scholars in the house stay alert when drowsy; second, to make Minor Four-Harmony Incense with mint added, which, while refreshing the mind, barely passed for refined elegance.
The ingredients were extremely convenient to source.
As for the plum blossom… when Fusheng had been looking for dried osmanthus on the high shelf in the kitchen, Lansheng had said Hu Xiangdi had taken it to steep in hair oil, and had proactively asked Hu Xiangdi for some.
It had originally been dried and stored by Hu Xiangdi herself, with plans to save more fragrant flowers to make a scented pillow for Zhu Hewen.
Now she had given a small jar of it to Fusheng to use as an ingredient.
"You handled it well—the fragrance isn't stale at all. It lingers lightly in the mouth and adds a nice touch to the Thirst-Quencher." Yang Tieniang drained the bowl and praised it repeatedly.
With that, she took the other bowl of double-plum Thirst-Quencher and drank it down.
This bowl of double plum drink had no other fragrance—if there were dried osmanthus flowers, Fusheng would have added some.
However, the unique fruity aroma of bayberries and green plums, along with the distinctive tartness that belonged solely to bayberries, enhanced by sugar and honey, created a uniquely fresh flavor.
"This taste is good too, but unfortunately Wenzhou doesn't produce bayberries, and they're expensive—I'm afraid this is the only jar we'll have." Yang Tieniang quite liked the flavor and felt it was a pity.
Fusheng nodded in full agreement.
However, the reasons for her regret and Yang Tieniang's were entirely different.
She was thinking of the sweet-and-sour taste of fully ripe bayberries, and also of the sweetness of bayberry cakes, osmanthus-bayberry-lychee drinks, and bayberry cakes.
She quite enjoyed eating bayberries, but unfortunately… in ancient times, transportation added greatly to the price of bayberries sold in places that didn't grow them, and to prevent them from spoiling en route, fully ripe ones were never chosen for transport.
Just like the plate Lady He had given them—that Master Wang who ran the rice shop could procure plenty of bayberries, but if one wanted to eat fully ripe ones, one could only go to the place of origin in person.
"We can't make more of the double plum, so let's keep it for ourselves to drink." Fusheng linked her arm through Yang Tieniang's. "But this green plum one… Mother-in-law, do you think we could sell it at the stall?"
Yang Tieniang glanced at Fusheng and savored the taste in her mouth.
In past years, their stall had sold refreshing sweet soups in summer, but since their skills were quite ordinary—all their culinary talent having gone into making wontons and dumplings—they would often just pick mint leaves, boil them with sugar, and make the most common mint water found in the market, selling it for one coin a cup.
If they were lucky enough to buy ice, they could chill it and sell it for two coins a cup.
That mint water, the most common and ordinary-tasting drink at night markets, sold quite well, so Fusheng's green plum Thirst-Quencher, with its unique little ingenuity, would certainly not do poorly.
Moreover, Fusheng was learning cooking from Lady He and would only get better—she had a quick mind and would surely innovate and create new things…
Fusheng had no idea that Yang Tieniang hadn't the slightest doubt about whether Lady He had actually taught her these things, and had already begun to envision the future.
Seeing Yang Tieniang looking at her with unusual seriousness, Fusheng smiled obediently.
Yang Tieniang patted her hand:
"These days green plums are in season and cheap. In the next few days, let's buy more and make it together!"
And so, she agreed to Fusheng's proposal. Fusheng naturally responded with a cheerful "yes" and exchanged a delighted glance with Lansheng.
Yang Tieniang shoved the two bowls into her hands, rolled up her sleeves, called for Hu Xiangdi, and was about to push the cart out to set up the stall.
Who would have expected that just as they pushed the cart out the door, they ran face-to-face into two people.
Two people she didn't want to see.
One was Granny Zhang, who had been hiding and skulking around for days but now appeared beaming with joy.
The other was Lin Cui, with red and swollen eyes—one might have thought her own parents had died—exuding an air of misery.
Especially since Granny Zhang was pulling Lin Cui by the arm in an extremely intimate manner, while Lin Cui carried only an empty cloth bundle on her back, with no Lin family members behind her.
Yang Tieniang's face darkened beyond comparison to the soot at the bottom of a pot—did the Lin family not care about Lin Cui as a daughter, or did they simply not take their Zhu family seriously!
The smile that had been lifted by Fusheng's presence immediately flattened.
Even Hu Xiangdi, who was steadying the cart, and Lansheng and Fusheng, who were seeing them off at the door, all lost their smiles.
Looking at Granny Zhang's exceptionally radiant smile, and then at Lin Cui's mournful face.
Fusheng tightened his grip on his sister's hand.
…Today, Granny and Mother probably won't be able to set up their stall smoothly.
There's bound to be a commotion at their doorstep.
And sure enough…
As Granny Zhang drew closer, her exceptionally radiant smile grew so wide that her eyes crinkled into slits.
She seemed completely oblivious to Yang Tieniang's expression, and once she got close, she directly shouted at the top of her lungs, as if afraid she wouldn't rouse the neighbors.
"Sister Yang! I've brought your daughter-in-law back!"
She had always called Yang Tieniang "Tiger Rakshasa," but now, contrary to her usual habit, she called her "sister."
It sounded sickeningly sweet, and also unsettling.
"Look at you—even if your eldest daughter-in-law did something wrong, you can't scare the girl so badly that she doesn't dare come in from the alley entrance! If I hadn't had sharp eyes and spotted her, and if I hadn't been kind-hearted enough to pull her in for you… sleeping on the street would be the least of it—if something happened to her, would your in-laws let you off? And these girls of yours…"
Her voice grew louder, her tone more exaggerated, and her words had already begun to fabricate stories.
Yang Tieniang let out a cold snort and cut her off:
"Old hag, you've come back to life today, have you? Did your lazy, good-for-nothing son and your gluttonous, slothful daughter-in-law not curse you out or complain about you today? You look awfully pleased with yourself!"
Yang Tieniang understood Granny Zhang well, and she knew exactly what to say to make her fly into a rage.
On a normal day, such words would make Granny Zhang jump up and down, then curse recklessly without restraint. Yang Tieniang only needed to trade a few rounds of insults with her to send her storming back into her house.
But today was clearly different.
Granny Zhang didn't get angry at Yang Tieniang's words. Instead, her cheeks flushed slightly as she trembled.
"Why shouldn't I be pleased!"
Granny Zhang shook off Lin Cui's hand, stepped forward, and lifted her chin high.
She hadn't dragged Lin Cui back out of the goodness of her heart—even her desire to watch the Yang family's drama only accounted for thirty percent of her motives.
No, what she wanted was to use the Yang family's commotion to draw in the neighbors, and then naturally spread news of her own great fortune, so that all those people who had been watching her family's troubles these past few days would properly envy her!
"My Yuniang! She's about to have a day of soaring to the heavens!"
She shouted until her throat was raw, her face flushed as if scalded by boiling water, and Granny Zhang's words still revealed only half while hiding the other half.
Still, with that one shout, she did manage to draw all the neighbors' attention to herself—no one was looking at Lin Cui anymore.
After all, the matter of Yuniang being expelled from her master's sect was far more attention-grabbing than Lin Cui returning home after a long visit to her parents, crying all the way back.
As for why she'd come back crying, everyone could guess with eighty or ninety percent accuracy.
But Yuniang—whose future had been all but destroyed, who had been hiding away like a cat these past days—now having a day of soaring to the heavens? That was truly the kind of strange news that made people itch with curiosity.
Who didn't have a girl around Yuniang's age in their family!
If Yuniang's future prospects were good, they could follow her example too!
So someone urged Granny Zhang on:
"Auntie Zhang, what kind of soaring-to-the-heavens future is it? Do tell us quickly!"