Chapter 4

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

After guarding the alley properly for a whole day, Song Miao more or less figured out the situation.

It turned out this alley was separated from Zhuque Lane by only one alley; the low wall on the left bordered Taixue and Guozixue, while the high wall on the right was behind the Song Family Eatery, belonging to Nan Lu Academy.

Taixue and Guozixue were both under the administration of the Imperial Academy, together totaling over a thousand students, but students were not required to live on campus, nor were the doors forcibly locked; those coming out of that small gate at this moment were Taixue students.

Nan Lu Academy was different: students had to live on campus and could not come and go freely.

Both Taixue and Nan Lu Academy had canteens, but they served communal pot meals with the same dishes over and over; no matter how tasty, one would tire of them, and besides, the cooks' skills were not outstanding—who with outstanding skills would come here?

Although students have always been the most easily perfunctory diners under heaven, if given a choice, who wouldn't want to try some fresh flavors?

Taixue students were fine—they could just find time to go out and forage for food—but it was a pity for the Nan Lu Academy students, who had only three days of leave per season and needed a batch slip to go out.

Managed so strictly, the scholars, apart from cursing the Shan Chang as an old bastard in their hearts, naturally felt blocked on all sides and sought their own way out—so they dug several dog holes in hidden places, crawling out from inside either to buy food or to secretly play.

But to Song Miao, Taixue plus Nan Lu Academy had over a thousand people; even if only twenty or thirty percent came out to buy food, that could support the business of this whole alley.

She wandered around near Zhuque Gate for half a day and found no location more suitable than that alley; considering the ingredients at home, she pondered for a while and preliminarily decided what she should sell during this period, and without further delay, she soon went out to buy ingredients everywhere.

After working through the night, early the next morning, before dawn, Song Miao pushed her cart out of the alley.

She had little strength, stopping and starting, and by the time she reached the alley it was nearly chen shi.

The weather was still bad that day, with wind and snow mixed together.

Song Miao found a suitable open space and set up her stall.

On her left and right were a noodle seller and a small flower cake seller, both busy with their business and temporarily had no time to pay attention to her.

Song Miao was not anxious either; she warmed her hands by the stove on the cart.

She had barely warmed them for a moment when she saw a scholar-looking person walk over; that person was not in a hurry to buy things, but carefully examined the signboard hanging in front of her cart.

Nowadays, those without filling are called steamed buns, and those with filling are called meat buns.

Cheng Zijian had come out to buy mutton meat buns.

As an external student of Taixue, with the monthly private examination approaching, he had been studying hard at his desk for many consecutive days.

To save time queuing, he recently bought fifteen or twenty steamed buns at a time, gnawing one when hungry.

The canteen used cheap flour to make steamed buns, and who knew how many years it had been stored; when just out of the pot it was edible, but once cold, a moldy taste would always rush into his nose when chewing.

After enduring for several days, he really couldn't stand it anymore.

Thinking that the Food Alley behind the rear gate was closest, and that there seemed to be a shop selling meat buns there with quite a variety of styles; although the meat was given sparingly, it was still more generous than Taixue's own canteen and had at least some flavor.

However, quite a few people loved that shop's mutton meat buns; if he went late, he couldn't grab any, and since he wanted a lot, it wasn't good to ask classmates to bring them, so he might as well buy them himself.

He left through the rear gate early in the morning with a clear purpose, soon bought the meat buns, counted the quantity, and felt that with so many stored up, even if he got hungry at midnight he wouldn't panic; he was very satisfied in his heart, carrying a food box and about to return home, but after walking only a few steps, he saw a signboard on a cart by the roadside.

It was a wooden plaque, quite large, with the vertical black characters "Song Ji Bean Paste Glutinous Rice," and below the characters, written in vermilion, were small words like "Soft and glutinous," "Salty and fragrant," "Filling," "Portable"; beside it, it specially noted "Glutinous rice bloats the stomach," "Do not eat greedily"—this explanatory sentence had a red circle drawn around it three times, each circle larger than the last, looking very serious.

The black characters were in the Guan Guan Ti style, while the red characters were in clerical script.

What beautiful calligraphy, all written with proper form, especially the clerical script, which was full of spirit between the strokes.

Cheng Zijian couldn't help but stop; after admiring the calligraphy for a while, he finally looked up, about to speak, but upon seeing the stall owner's appearance behind the large pot, he couldn't help but be stunned.

What a striking young lady, dressed in a clean, simple garment washed very cleanly, with her head wrapped in cloth, looking very refreshing.

Although thin with a pointed chin, her face was white and clean, her features extremely beautiful, really making people unable to help but look a few more times.

Cheng Zijian's originally somewhat hesitant steps stopped all at once; only then did he cast a glance at the stall, seeing that on the pushed cart there was only a large steamer basket, a pot, and some bowls and dishes, and he asked: "This... what does the mung bean paste glutinous rice look like? How big is a portion?"

Song Miao saw a customer coming over and hurriedly leaned toward the steamer basket, pointing to the two bowls placed in front and saying: "By the bowl, a large bowl is eight coins per portion, a small bowl five coins."

She added: "Salted duck eggs can also be added separately, half an egg for one coin."

As she spoke, she lifted and moved aside the lid of the large steamer basket in front of her.

With a "splash," white, billowing, hot steam mixed with a fragrance rose out of the steamer pot.

The fragrance was like zongzi, yet different from zongzi, a unique taste of glutinous rice products, smelling very comfortable.

White steam hit his face; Cheng Zijian subconsciously closed his eyes and stepped back, but couldn't help deeply inhaling two breaths.

So fragrant.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a large steamer basket full of glutinous rice before him, the rice grains soft and crystal clear, one grain next to another, with various condiments sprinkled in between.

White mist rose, making it hard to see clearly what exactly had been added inside, but lured by the fragrance, he couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Jingcheng was in the Central Plains, where people loved wheat-based food, but Cheng Zijian had come to the capital from Jiangnan West Circuit to study; since childhood he had eaten more rice than noodles; smelling this flavor, his mind already recalled the zongzi his elder sister made for him before he entered the capital.

Glutinous rice is filling; wouldn't eating this be more convenient than eating those mutton meat buns?

Besides, mutton when cold would freeze into white oil and develop a gamy smell—if he had known this, he wouldn't have bought so many mutton meat buns.

He calculated the price, looked again at the small and large bowls the stall owner had pointed to earlier, and immediately said: "Give me... give me two small... two large bowls!"

Song Miao agreed; taking a dried lotus leaf, she placed it at the bottom of the bowl as a liner, and with one hand used a spoon to serve him glutinous rice while with the other she pointed to two rows of large bamboo tubes beside her and asked: "Young Master, is there anything you don't eat?"

Cheng Zijian looked closely; most of the things inside the bamboo tubes he recognized: diced white radish, diced sour cowpeas, salted eggs cut in half oozing oil, crushed cornel...

But there were also some he didn't recognize.

"What are these few?" he pointed to several bamboo tubes and asked curiously.

Song Miao explained them one by one: "The yellow one is mung bean paste, skinned, steamed and sieved, with no seasoning added; it tastes only of mung bean's clear fragrance."

"This is crispy fried noodle skin, fried with egg-flour batter, with a bit of salty fragrance..."

"This is shredded luo bo gan made in the Shu Region style, used for seasoning."

Hearing this, Cheng Zijian decisively said: "I want them all, one bowl with half a salted duck egg!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the stall owner layer glutinous rice, a thin layer of mung bean paste, and a layer of various condiments, stacking them repeatedly three times, then dig out half a salted egg and press it into the middle, making the bowl, as big as a fist, bulge into a small mountain shape, before she stopped and drizzled two small spoonfuls of sauce on top.

After she had ladled out two bowls, wrapped them with lotus leaves, she raised her head and asked him with a smiling face: "Glutinous rice easily causes food stagnation; it's best to eat it while hot. My family also has Chenpi Mung Bean Soup Drink for regulating qi and harmonizing the middle, three wen per bamboo tube. Young Master, would you like to try some?"