Lin Changgen arrived at his Second Brother’s house early the next morning to report for duty. Lin Changsong was not in a hurry to take him up the mountain. Instead, he pulled him over to sit in the courtyard.
“Third Brother, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
Lin Changgen’s expression instantly turned serious. Seeing how tense he looked, Lin Changsong smiled and said, “It’s like this. When I was carrying heavy sacks at the docks before, I heard a ship merchant from the Sulu Kingdom say that rice there could be planted two or even three times a year. I made a point of asking around at the time, and I think we might be able to grow two crops a year here as well.”
Lin Changgen stared at him in disbelief. “Two crops?! Wouldn’t that mean double the harvest?”
For farmers who worked with their faces turned toward the earth and their backs toward the sky, whose sweat fell in eight pieces when it hit the ground, two harvests a year were an enormous temptation.
“We haven’t tried it yet, so nothing can be said for certain,” Lin Changsong said.
Lin Changgen nodded. “What do you want me to do?” He trusted his Second Brother very much now and knew that Lin Changsong must already have a plan.
“Then I’ll be direct. The two mu of land by the river are too poor in fertility. I plan to let them lie fallow for one season, then plant late millet there in the second half of the year. There are another two mu as well, and I want to try growing two crops of rice on them.”
The land by the river was what Lin Changdong had “bestowed” on them when the family divided its property, one mu for each of them. The other two mu were in slightly better condition, so Lin Changsong planned to use them for his two-crops-of-rice experiment.
Lin Changgen was now especially willing to take risks. Without much hesitation, he immediately agreed. Even if they could not grow two crops, they would still get one harvest. At worst, they would waste some seed grain, and he could make up for it by carrying heavy sacks himself.
After they finished discussing the matter, the two of them slung baskets over their backs, took sacks and small hoes, and headed up the mountain. Lin Xiaowei went with them as well, intending to cut rice-paper plants.
After cutting down three rice-paper plants, Lin Xiaowei returned home.
The trunks of rice-paper plants were thick and sturdy, and their outer surfaces were no different from those of ordinary plants. However, their inner cores were light and soft, with a pure white color. This pith was called “pith.” By bracing one end with a thick piece of wood and applying force, the entire length of pith could be squeezed out.
Lin Xiaowei inserted a thin wooden stick she had prepared long ago through the center, placed a slender bamboo skewer on either side, and used a blade to slice the pith into thin sheets of pith paper.
This step tested a craftsperson’s skill the most. The pith paper could not be too thick, or it would be difficult to shape, but it could not be too thin either, or the petals would break easily.
When Lin Xiaowei had studied under an inheritor of an intangible cultural heritage craft, she had possessed a high level of talent, yet this single step had still taken her a week to master before she could slice pith paper that was evenly and appropriately thin.
The pith paper she cut was wrapped in a slightly damp towel. After being cut and shaped, it could be turned into petals that looked extremely lifelike.
A single flower required dozens or even hundreds of petals. Thus, besides technical skill, the work also required immense patience and meticulousness.
While Lin Xiaowei worked on the pith flowers, Wang Ya also began her own pastry business.
The first pastry she planned to make was steamed rice cake, as its ingredients were relatively simple and easy to obtain.
She mixed the rice flour and glutinous rice flour ground the previous day in the proper proportions to make steamed rice cake flour. After adding sugar water to the flour a little at a time, she rubbed the mixture until it became loose and reached a state in which it formed a lump when pinched but scattered as soon as it was pressed. She then sifted the flour carefully through a fine mesh.
Wang Ya planned to make three flavors of steamed rice cake. One would have fillings—black sesame and red bean paste—and there would also be plain steamed rice cake.
The plain steamed rice cake was steamed with a light sprinkling of dried osmanthus flowers on top.
For the black sesame filling, she crushed black sesame seeds with white sugar, then mixed in one-third as much steamed rice cake flour.
Using a mold she had made herself, she first spread out a layer of white steamed rice cake flour, then a layer of black sesame steamed rice cake flour, and finally another layer of white flour. After scraping the surface smooth, she lightly scored it into small squares and placed it in a steamer to steam over medium heat for the time it took two quarters of an hour.
While that was steaming, Wang Ya began frying the red bean paste. Once the black sesame steamed rice cake was done, she made another basketful filled with red bean paste.
Fortunately, Hunter Xu’s house still had its original iron pot, saving them a sum of money.
By the end of the morning, all three flavors of steamed rice cake were finished.
The Lin siblings, Lin Xiaowei and Lin Minghao, followed the fragrance of the pastries to find their way there. One of them had spent the whole morning making pith flowers, while the other had dipped a brush in water and practiced traditional characters on a bluestone slab.
Wang Ya cut off a piece and gave some to each of the two siblings. After eating it, they both nodded repeatedly. Their mother had not lost any of her pastry-making skills at all.
At that moment, the two brothers, Lin Changsong and Lin Changgen, returned as well. Wang Ya gave Lin Changgen one of each flavor of steamed rice cake.
When Lin Changgen heard that the pastries had been made with sugar and were intended for sale, he refused to accept them no matter what.
“Third Brother, take them home so Third Brother’s Wife and the nieces can taste them and give me their opinions. This is my first time making them, so I’m not entirely confident either,” Wang Ya urged.
She naturally had confidence in her own skills, but she did not understand the tastes of people in this dynasty. She would simply treat them as taste testers.
Only after hearing his Second Sister-in-Law say this did Lin Changgen stop refusing. “They look soft, fragrant, and sweet. They must be delicious.”
He carefully wrapped the steamed rice cakes in leaves and carried them home, afraid that squeezing too hard would crush the attractive cakes.
This was the first time the three girls had ever eaten pastries. At the Old Lin Residence, the eldest branch often hid away to eat tasty things, but Lin Mingjiang was still a child and would often carry pastries over to show off in front of them.
When Wu Ya had still been small, she had already been unable to eat her fill. Then someone had teased her with pastries, and in the end, she had cried from hunger.
Lin Mingjiang had accused her first, running to Old Madam Liu and saying that Wu Ya had tried to snatch his pastries. As a result, Old Madam Liu had slapped Wu Ya across the face.
The mark from that slap had taken three days to fade.
Now, the little one sat on a stool, swinging her legs as she took small bites of the half piece of red bean steamed rice cake she had been given. This was the first time she had ever eaten anything so delicious. It was better than anything she had tasted before.
Seeing that his wife had not eaten a single bite and intended to leave everything for the children, Lin Changgen forcibly broke off a piece and stuffed it into her mouth.
After tasting the sweet, soft pastry, Shen Shi blushed slightly. She grabbed a large handful of the wild greens she had picked that morning. “Second Sister-in-Law must not have had time to gather wild greens while making the pastries. I’ll take some to her.”
Then she ran off as if fleeing. Lin Changgen watched from behind, grinning foolishly. Thinking of the medicinal herbs his Second Brother had taught him to identify that day, his heart grew even warmer.
Lin Changsong’s family had already begun eating three meals a day. At noon, they simply prepared something to eat. When Wang Ya saw two sacks in the courtyard, she asked, “What’s in those sacks? You and Third Brother dug up that many medicinal herbs in one morning?”
“How could there be that many medicinal herbs? Those are fallen leaves I found in the mountains. I’m going to use them to make compost.”
Wang Ya had never farmed when she was young, but she knew that compost required time. “Weren’t you planning to grow two crops of rice? Will the compost be ready in time?”
Lin Changsong shook his head. “It won’t be. Once the compost has finished rotting, it can only be used for the second crop.”
He had already made his calculations, and he was an agricultural expert as well, so Wang Ya was not worried. She had plans of her own. “The steamed rice cakes are ready. I want to go sell them in town after we eat. It’s only six li there, so it won’t take long to go and come back.”
Lin Changsong understood her eagerness to turn the goods into money. “It’s your first time selling things in town. I’ll go with you.”
“I’m going too,” Lin Xiaowei said.
Wang Ya nodded. She was not very familiar with the situation in town, and Xiaowei could not spend the entire day bent over making flowers either. It would be good for her to walk around that afternoon. Then Wang Ya turned to look at Lin Minghao.
Lin Minghao shook his head. Walking around town was pointless. He still had to practice his calligraphy. Although he had attended calligraphy classes when he was little, his current body was young and weak, and the characters he wrote were crooked and wobbly. Lin Minghao, the top student, could not accept that and had resolved to overcome this difficulty.
Wang Ya was troubled. Could it be that after arriving in ancient times, he had turned into a bookworm again?