Ying Yang and the three older children stared at one another, wide-eyed. Gongzi Gao sat on the ground chewing his hand, gazing blankly at his brothers and sisters.
Third Gongzhu said, “Didn’t A-Fu send you lots of books? Can’t Wu Niang recite them all already?”
Ying Yang issued a triple denial.
“Not me. Never happened. A-Jie, stop making things up!”
“I used to be simple-minded. I couldn’t even speak, much less read characters and recite poetry. I’ve only learned a handful of characters recently.”
She plopped herself down on the ground.
Third Gongzhu stared at her in a daze.
Eldest Gongzhu said, “Fine. Then we’ll explain Tangdi and Jiaogong to you!”
“I have a way to teach Zhong-Xiong this very principle,” Ying Yang said. “Are you willing to try it?”
Eldest Gongzhu was immediately distracted.
“What way?”
Fusu remained resolute. “First, we discuss the poems.”
“Are you being foolish?” Eldest Gongzhu said impatiently. “She understands perfectly well! Explaining more won’t help. Let’s hear Wu Niang’s idea first!”
Third Gongzhu said, “Wu Niang, you’re lying!”
Ying Yang: “I’m leaving.”
“Hey, hey, hey!”
Three pairs of hands reached out simultaneously to stop her. Gongzi Gao hastily extended his saliva-covered hand as well.
Ying Yang crooked a finger, slipped an arm around each of her sisters’ shoulders, and bent her head to whisper…
Well. Actually, Ying Yang didn’t need to bend down.
Four little heads drew together, whispering and muttering.
Gongzi Gao became so anxious that he stood up, babbling “Ah! Ah!” When his brothers and sisters ignored him, he tried to force his way into the circle.
Fusu held the top of his fourth brother’s head at arm’s length.
“Will this scheme really work?” he asked doubtfully.
Ying Yang was entirely unconcerned.
“Whether it works or not, we won’t know until we try. Besides, what happens if it doesn’t?”
“Very well!”
Ying Yang added, “I need to prepare my equipment. Off you go, everyone!”
Eldest Gongzhu was eager to participate.
“Wu Niang, I’ll come with you!”
After entertaining children for so long, Ying Yang was approaching the limits of her endurance.
She could hardly refuse outright. After thinking a moment, she put on a troubled expression.
“This is the first time I’m making something new. I need to prepare a great many ingredients and implements, and there may be things I can’t obtain in time. I’ll have to look for them as I go.”
She continued, “I’ve already made such extravagant promises before all my brothers and sisters today. If I can’t produce anything tomorrow, I’m afraid I’ll be too ashamed to show my face ever again.”
After that, the others could only stop where they were and watch her leave, some disappointed, others gazing after her longingly.
…
Huicao Hall.
Ying Yang dispatched people to find beans, a stone mill, a funnel, bittern, and gypsum.
She did not know what bittern and gypsum were called in Qin times, so she described them approximately and instructed the attendants to consult medical officers they knew.
She also wanted a wooden mold three chi in length and width for shaping tofu, together with fine white cloth of a corresponding size.
“The shu beans should preferably be yellow. Oh, never mind—green and black beans will do as well. But get more yellow ones.”
Soybeans, mung beans, and black beans could all be ground to make bean milk. For setting tofu, however, soybeans were preferable.
Mung beans could be made into sweet mung-bean soup.
Qin used the Zhuanxu calendar, which inserted seven intercalary months over nineteen years. This year had an intercalary second month, so although it was now called the fourth month, it corresponded to June on the Western calendar.
That was why Fusu had said the Summer Solstice was approaching.
A figure dressed in lotus-red approached in a fury.
Ying Yang hurriedly waved her hands before her chest.
“Go! Quickly, go!” she whispered.
Several attendants who had received their orders immediately hurried away. Two others hesitated and stayed where they were.
Ying Yang memorized their faces.
Then she turned to face her mother, rubbed her little hands together, and put on a smile of the utmost ingratiation.
“A-Mu~~~”
“What did you promise me this morning?” Xia Xianshi glared at her daughter, hands planted angrily on her hips. “I reasoned with you over and over, telling you not to become obsessed with the work of craftsmen. Yet you played tricks on me and quietly started tinkering again!”
“Have you never heard that a junzi keeps away from the kitchen? You’re a royal daughter of noble blood. There are servants to attend to your meals. If you have to do a cook’s work yourself, it can only mean these slaves have failed to serve you properly! Hmph! Perhaps they should be dragged away and beheaded!”
At those words, the attendants cried out and threw themselves to the ground, begging for mercy.
“Why must A-Mu try to provoke me?” Ying Yang said helplessly. “Even if you really do kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys today, I still won’t obediently keep away from cooking in the future.”
“Kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys?” Xia Xianshi paused. “What an excellent expression. Which classic does it come from?”
Then she realized what her daughter had actually said.
This time, Xia Xianshi was truly furious.
“You unfilial child! What did you say?”
Ying Yang knelt.
“Studying food is the great love of my life. It is what I wish to devote my life to doing. I beg A-Mu to grant me this wish!”
Before her mother could answer, she pressed on.
“Even though Qin has countless talented cooks, none of them can prepare the delicacies I want! But A-Mu needn’t worry. Once I’ve taught the kitchen staff how to make them, I won’t cook for myself anymore! Ah, the kitchens are full of smoke and flame, with earthen walls and blackened floors. I don’t want to spend much time there either. I only regret that I have no cooks and kitchen servants who know how to make the dishes I want!”
She stole a glance at her mother’s expression.
The anger had not disappeared, but it had noticeably softened.
Ying Yang’s eyes darted about. She began recounting what had happened in the bamboo grove and, as the story went on, managed to squeeze out two tears.
Xia Xianshi was first shocked. Then her lips trembled, her eyes reddened, and her heartache was plain to see.
Ying Yang silently apologized to her mother.
Then she recalled the tragedy of her previous life, when she had died so young. Tears began pouring down her cheeks. She wept until she could scarcely catch her breath.
Xia Xianshi’s tender maternal heart felt as though it had been torn into pieces.
“You suffered so much when you were little! Everyone in the palace knows how weak and sickly you’ve been. Yet Second Gongzi couldn’t show even the slightest consideration for his younger sister?!”
“My child, my child!” Xia Xianshi wept. “It’s A-Mu’s fault! In the past, all I hoped was that you would be healthy and able to say a few words. Now that you’re better, I demand perfection from you in everything!”
“Enough, enough.” She stroked her daughter’s hair lovingly. “Do as you please. Who knows how many more years you’ll be able to keep me company…”
Remembering another matter she had discussed with her elder cousin that day, her voice gradually faded.
“A-Mu, I’ll stay with you for years and years!”
“Daughters must marry eventually,” Xia Xianshi sighed. “Who knows where you’ll end up when you reach the age to put up your hair…”
If Ying Yang married an important Qin minister, Xia Xianshi would give thanks to Heaven and Earth.
But if her daughter were married off to Han…
Once Ying Yang left, mother and daughter might never see each other again!
Ying Yang knew nothing of these anxieties. Had she known, she would surely have comforted her mother with a rather peculiar smile.
“Don’t use such schemes to hurt yourself again.” Xia Xianshi’s face turned stern as she wiped the tears from her daughter’s cheeks. “You’re still very young. Crying so hard is bad for your health.”
Ying Yang blinked, then said in a choked voice, “A-Mu?”
“I gave birth to you. Do you think I don’t know you?” Xia Xianshi snorted. “Would you really be so distressed by Second Gongzi’s thoughtless remarks?”
“…I’ve been wronged, my lord!”
Ying Yang looked positively aggrieved.
“Zhong-Xiong called me short! I really was hurt! Because I really am short!”
She jumped down and began gesticulating.
“The soy milk and tofu I want to make contain lots of vegetable protein. Er—that means they’re very nourishing!”
Xia Xianshi remained skeptical.
“Then why, since ancient times, have noble people eaten meat rather than shu beans?”
Explaining that would be a very long story indeed.
Ying Yang took the simplest possible approach.
“Oh, once I’ve made a few dishes, you’ll understand!”
“You certainly have a lot of tricks,” Xia Xianshi muttered. “Every time you start something, you produce several different things at once.”
Ying Yang rubbed her hands together with a flattering smile and prepared to withdraw.
“Wait!”
Xia Xianshi remembered why she had come.
“That incense you blended to repel mosquitoes and insects works extremely well. What’s the prescription? Who knows how to make it?”
Ying Yang resisted the urge to give her mother a sidelong look.
She grumbled, “You want my recipe for insect-repelling incense sticks, but you still scold me for being obsessed with the work of craftsmen?”
Xia Xianshi blushed. With some effort, she maintained her dignity.
“Incense—incense is an elegant art! It cannot be placed in the same category as craftsmen’s work!”
Ying Yang pursed her lips.
Fine. You’re the grown-up. Whatever you say.
…
Ying Yang took a handful of yellow soybeans and rubbed them between her fingers.
She nodded in satisfaction.
Their skins were smooth rather than shriveled. Their color was bright and glossy rather than darkened with black. The beans were plump and round, evenly sized, and still firm. They did not crumble at the slightest pinch, and none were split or worm-eaten. When she brought them to her nose, they carried a faint, pleasant fragrance.
Excellent fresh soybeans.
She took small handfuls of mung beans and let them fall. Those that made a crisp sound were kept; a dull sound suggested inferior quality, and those were discarded.
She checked the black beans for gray-white or yellow-green mold and for any beans darker than normal. Then she asked A-Liao to peel a dozen or so to make certain the sprouts inside showed no signs of mold.
Xia Xianshi sat above her, slowly waving a round fan as she watched her daughter sort the beans with meticulous care.
After a while, she said, “My daughter by the Junshang—this is the first time she’s ever done such work, yet her hands are so deft!”
Behind her sat Chen Jiang and Fang Shuji, both with silver at their temples. They smiled.
“Junshang is quite right. The Gongzhu possesses divine gifts.”
“This is a blessing. Why is Bazi not happy?”
Xia Xianshi answered quietly, “I’m afraid her gifts are too extraordinary, and I won’t be able to keep her.”
If her elder cousin gave birth to a boy, Yangzi’s marriage to Han might be settled within two or three years. Xia Xianshi could find no joy in that prospect.
If her cousin bore a girl, then the third generation of Xia women would still have produced no son for the Qin royal house. The unrest gathering beneath the surface would eventually break through. What would become of the two cousins and their children then was impossible to say.
…
Ying Yang knew nothing of her mother’s inner turmoil.
She washed the acceptable beans thoroughly and placed them in basins of water to soak.
Now all she had to do was wait until tomorrow…
At the thought of fragrant, sweet soy milk, silken tofu pudding, firm tofu, and mung-bean soup, Ying Yang’s face shone with a smile almost as radiant as divine light.
The attendant sent to find a stone mill returned.
His head hung low. He kept wiping away sweat. His shoulders were hunched, and his back bent pitifully.
One look at the young eunuch, and Ying Yang knew what had happened.
“This slave has failed in his duty…”
“Have some water first. Catch your breath.”
The young eunuch’s eyes filled with tears.
“This slave is clumsy of speech and has failed the Gongzhu’s command. I wouldn’t dare drink…”
“It’s not that serious. Not that serious at all.” Ying Yang waved her hand. “How big a matter can it be? Drink first. Then tell me why you couldn’t find one. Does it not exist, or did someone refuse to give it to you?”
The young eunuch looked from his little mistress to the pottery cup.
His throat moved involuntarily.
At last, hesitantly, he took two sips.
The flavor blossomed on his tongue.
His eyes widened.
Heavens above! There was salt and honey in this water!
He could not help drinking the entire cup, earning himself a glare from Duan Lun, the eunuch in charge.
Wiping his mouth, the young eunuch said timidly, “This slave went to the kitchens and the craftsmen’s workshops to ask. Everyone said they’d never heard of such a tool.”
That shouldn’t be right.
She remembered that the stone mill had been invented during the Spring and Autumn or Warring States periods.
“Did you tell them the stone mill was something made by Gongshu Ban, the craftsman of Lu? That it was also called a stone grinder, a pestle mill, or a wei? That it was a device made of two circular stones with holes, a stone or wooden trough, a frame, and a handle for turning it? Did you explain all that?”
The young eunuch nodded repeatedly.
“This slave did! I explained everything! I even spent money asking people whose ancestral homes were in Qi or Lu, but they all said they’d never heard of it…”
“Huh?”
Ying Yang frowned and scratched her head in distress.
“What am I supposed to do now… I shouldn’t have promised to make it tomorrow… Oh, forget it. I’ll postpone it! I’ll invite everyone again once I’ve gathered the materials…”
Her skin was thick enough, after all. She would not actually be too ashamed to show her face.
She wondered how the people sent to find bittern and gypsum had fared.
Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao appears.
The two eunuchs charged with locating bittern and gypsum hurried toward her, leading two unfamiliar people. All four wore anxious expressions.
“Gongzhu! Gongzhu, why do you wish to purchase poison?!”
Ying Yang stared at the man who bowed deeply before her, his expression a mixture of urgency, grief, and an almost heroic determination.
She made a bewildered sound.
“Huh?”
“I’m buying poison?”
Author’s Note
Stone mills appeared quite early, but became widespread much later. There was a gap of four or five hundred years between their legendary invention and their general adoption~
– Zhuanxu calendar: An ancient calendrical system.
– Gongshu Ban: The legendary craftsman also known as Lu Ban.