Chapter 20: Old Serf Happy Tea

When Mikhail descended from his small attic room, the other tenants of the apartment were already seated at a large rectangular table not far from the kitchen, beginning their meal.

The wooden table was somewhat old but still looked sturdy; at this moment, it held some rye bread and two soups of truly mediocre appearance, with pickled cucumbers and mushrooms served as side dishes on the side.

The variety was not great, but the portion size of every dish was large, simply because the landlord Pavlovna's tenants clearly included more than just Mikhail, and according to the rental agreement, the landlord was to provide food and maid service for every tenant.

Thus, besides the old maid Nastasya, the rather spacious apartment also housed a fat cook as burly and broad as the landlord Pavlovna herself; the cooking was passable, and the only advantage was that it was cheap, which won Pavlovna's favor.

As for meals, one could either eat here or have the landlord or the maid deliver them, but this often required waiting until others had finished their meal or paying a little extra to get the landlord and maid to give special attention.

Arriving late usually meant only leftovers remained.

Therefore, the most economical and practical way to eat tolerably well was to come here and arrive a bit earlier.

At this very moment, there were quite a few people seated at the dining table, including the small merchant Versilov mentioned earlier, the minor landowner Tushenbach who had come to visit his family, and the fourteenth-rank minor civil servant Smirnov.

Oh yes, and our dignified landlord Pavlovna.

She seemed to have already eaten; at this moment, she stood heavily to one side, guarding the copper samovar beside her like a sentinel, while inside the samovar, naturally, were tea leaves that had been repeatedly steeped several times and water masquerading as tea.

It is worth mentioning that the samovar is a specialized utensil for drinking tea in Russia, combining tea brewing and heat preservation, occupying an important position in Russian tea culture.

And although the history of tea entering Russia was short, it still swept across the entire country in a very brief period.

At the beginning, only the nobility could enjoy it; later, as tea prices dropped, it gradually entered thousands of households, and in present-day Russia, everyone from nobles to the poorest peasants drank tea.

Even the current reigning Tsar Nicholas I, that great scoundrel, had ordered that tea leaves be provided to imprisoned revolutionaries, because failing to do so would be inhumane.

Of course, Mikhail reasonably suspected that the premise of this order was that during Tsar Nicholas I's time, most revolutionaries were of noble birth...

Otherwise, Tsar Nicholas, that great scoundrel, would care nothing about whether it was humane or not...

Furthermore, what Russians liked to drink most was sweet tea; they often added things like sugar cubes and lemon slices to the tea leaves, but generally speaking, Russians drank tea in three ways:

First, put sugar into the tea, stir with a spoon, and drink; second, bite off a small piece of sugar, hold it in the mouth, and drink tea; third, drink tea while looking at the sugar, neither putting the sugar into the tea nor holding it in the mouth, but looking at or thinking about the sugar while drinking tea.

The first method was the most common, while the second was mostly accepted by the elderly and serfs; as for the third method, it was naturally prepared for those without money, and this group was mostly old serfs.

Therefore, Mikhail was willing to call it Old Serf Happy Tea: cheap, inexpensive, and beneficial for mental health.

Just as iced tea later seemed to become the construction workers' Happy Tea.

Oh yes, iced tea must be chilled.

Back to the matter at hand: although the landlord Pavlovna was a miser, at most she would steep the tea leaves ten or so more times; she would not go so far as to make the tenants gaze at the tea and quench their thirst.

But tea leaves were still not that cheap in these years; therefore, if the landlord Pavlovna did not guard them strictly, they would probably be drunk dry by this group of tenants in no time.

So the landlord Pavlovna stood there in her dignified manner, unmoved amidst cries of "Have mercy!", "Kind-hearted Pavlovna! Another cup!", and "I'm thirsty! I haven't had any yet!"; only when occasionally impatient would she reluctantly take someone's teacup and pour a not-so-full cup.

Oh, dear Pavlovna! You are practically a Tsar!

Although seeing this scene made Mikhail very much want to crack such a joke on his landlord, in order not to be twisted and handed over to the police by this burly woman, Mikhail ultimately had to suppress his nature and soon found a seat and sat down.

Upon seeing Mikhail's arrival, Pavlovna seemed to glance in his direction, then hesitated for a moment, but finally, in consideration of the partial rent Mikhail had paid a few days ago, poured him a cup of tea and brought it over.

To be honest, as bad as it tasted, since they were this poor, being able to replenish some sugar was already good enough.

And just as Mikhail nodded and smiled in greeting, Pavlovna seemed to think of something, so she asked: "Mikhail, how is the novel you submitted? Any response? I heard people say that you scribblers can actually get a sum of royalties; is that true? Then wouldn't you be able to pay back another portion of the rent?"

As soon as Pavlovna said this, before Mikhail could even speak, the small merchant Versilov on the other side of the table could not help but burst into loud laughter:

"Pavlovna, how could it be that easy? If it were truly so simple, university students would be the wealthiest group in Russia! But as far as I know, the facts are exactly the opposite; without their families, they simply cannot survive!

Just moving a pen, neither running nor chasing after others' backsides to smile and say nice things to make money—where could there be so many good things like that!"

"You are wrong, Versilov," spoke the fourteenth-rank minor civil servant Smirnov, whose character was always very gentle: "As long as one finds the right direction, anyone can achieve something in the world of writing.

Just like me; yesterday afternoon I happened to think of a joke, so I immediately told it to my colleagues. Oh God, after hearing it, they almost died laughing! And they even treated me to a drink at the tavern; sooner or later, I will write down all these jokes I have thought of and have a publishing house publish them for me!"

The minor landowner Tushenbach, who was usually quite talkative, said not a word at this moment, merely stuffing things into his mouth as hard as he could.

He was already not young, and his appetite was poor, so he often asked the landlord Pavlovna to reduce a portion of the meal costs he should not have had to pay, but he was met with Pavlovna's flat refusal:

"Tushenbach, my hometown, Khabarovsk Province, has an old saying: the older one gets, the better appetite one has; it is just that often they themselves are unaware of it!"

After the small merchant Versilov and the civil servant Smirnov finally quieted down a bit, Mikhail finally had the opportunity to speak; thus, looking at the somewhat disappointed Pavlovna, he cleared his throat, attracted everyone present's attention, and then spoke:

"Pavlovna, the novel has been published in a certain magazine; however, the royalties still need to wait a while. When I have more money on hand later, I will pay back another portion to you."

Paying back is fine; owing forever is not good, especially since Pavlovna would charge a certain amount of interest...

Just as Mikhail thought this, everyone at the table looked over; even the old maid Nastasya, who seemed to have been busy in the kitchen just now, suddenly poked her head out from another room.

"Oh..."

(End of Chapter)