0015 Nine-flowered Gardenia (Part 2) [Bonus Chapter for 100 Pearls]

People loved tea at the time, and women from high-ranking families, from ladies and daughters to maids and servants, all possessed excellent tea-making skills.

Shu Yin wanted to please Shu Fu, but not for the sake of their deep sisterly bond; rather, she was thinking about her future in the Liang family.

As expected, she will quietly move into the Liang family after Shu Fu and Liang Zhiyan's wedding, and from then on, she will live like her aunt, a cautious and timid wife.

Shu Yin crushed the tea cake with a silver tea grinder with a gold wild goose pattern, but her thoughts drifted away.

Actually, she wasn't unaware of Shu Wei's scheming at the Spring Festival banquet that day, but after the initial panic, she let it unfold as it was.

If this had not happened, Father and his wife would most likely have kept her for another two years, and after the imperial examination, they would have chosen a poor scholar to marry her.

This way, she would not only be spared the mistreatment of entering a high-ranking family due to her inferior background, but also gain an excellent gamble—if this scholar were to one day rise to prominence and become a dragon, the Shu family would thus form another good marriage alliance.

But the road to success is not so easy. Just look at the top scholar in the first year of Chongde. Wasn't he still stuck in the Hanlin Academy compiling history at nearly forty years old because he was not tactful enough?

Moreover, the husbands who marry into these families are mostly impoverished, relying on the dowry of daughters from wealthy families to fill their financial burdens. Shu Yin felt a chill run down her spine just thinking about it.

No one in the entire household understood the bitterness of poverty better than her. Her birth mother, Consort Yu, came from a poor background and only began to live a better life after being sold to her father as a concubine.

In stark contrast was her aunt.

It wasn't Shu Fu's maternal aunt, who was an official's wife; it was her own maternal aunt.

According to the laws of the Dali era, it was forbidden to associate with relatives of a concubine by marriage. Therefore, she only met that aunt from afar on the street.

After the awkward and reserved woman asked for her name, she stood there for a while, then timidly pulled out a small paper packet from her faded white clothes. Inside was a piece of maltose that had melted most of its way.

But she didn't know that even the servants in the Shu household wouldn't eat such candy.

Much later, she learned that her aunt and her maternal aunt had originally lived next door to each other and were of similar age. One had married her childhood sweetheart and become his principal wife, while the other had been brought into a wealthy family as a concubine.

In just over a decade, the two have changed drastically.

Aunt Yu still looked young and beautiful, while her aunt had aged and looked haggard.

Shu Yin remembered that scene for a long time, and she still hasn't forgotten it to this day.

So after figuring out Shu Wei's scheme, she hesitated for only a moment before accepting it readily.

Rather than marrying a poor, unsuccessful scholar who has no future, it's better to become a concubine with Liang Dalangjun, a man with a promising future and a wealthy family.

Besides, her own sister is Zheng Tou Niang Zi, so she would never make things difficult for her.

If Liang Zhiyan had liked her even a little more, would she one day...?

Thinking of the words whispered in her ear when that dashing young man thrust into her that day, Shu Yin's face flushed slightly, and she didn't even notice that the tea in the stove was almost boiled dry.

Shu Fu called her twice before she suddenly came to her senses. She hurriedly poured the remaining tea into the cup, barely managing to fill it completely, but the aroma of the tea had already vanished.

Shu Yin apologized, "I was distracted for a moment and ended up making the tea like this. Why don't you throw it away, Second Sister, and I'll make another cup?"

Shufu told her not to bother anymore and slowly sipped half a mouthful of the bitter tea. After swallowing the tea, Shufu froze in her seat, holding the teacup.

Shu Yin assumed that the tea she brewed was so bad that her apology deepened: "Why don't you just throw it away?"

Shu Fu quickly forced a smile: "It has nothing to do with you. I drank it too fast just now, and it was a bit hot."

Shu Yin believed most of it, and then she heard Shu Fu say, "We haven't left the city yet, and it will take some time to get to Xiangji Temple. Why don't you close your eyes and rest for a while to conserve your energy for the worship later?"

Shu Yin wholeheartedly agreed, rested her head against the car wall, hugged a soft pillow to her chest, and closed her eyes.

Seeing this, Shufu let out a long sigh of relief, and then, as if venting her anger, she ground her toes down.

He was incredibly audacious! With her sister still sitting in the car, he took advantage of the large felt covering her legs to secretly open the lining, slip her feet inside, and remove her shoes and socks.

Shu Fu's heart leaped into her throat, fearing he might pull some trick she couldn't resist. But all she felt was a cool sensation on her ankle as the young man's slender hand covered it, gently massaging it with the ointment.

Zhan Yaoguang lay in the interlayer, where the light was very dim, with only a few slivers of light coming through the tiny gaps between the wooden planks.

Using the dim light, Zhan Yaoguang peered at her feet. Her toes were white and round, with a faint pink blush, both beautiful and adorable.

She's beautiful from every angle.

Zhan Yaoguang was somewhat embarrassed.

He stretched out his finger and wrote a few words on her slender, smooth calf: Don't move, I'm applying medicine for you.

Shu Fu, however, felt her legs go numb and weak from the warmth of the temperature on her calves. A strange sensation spread through her limbs. At the same time, she secretly thought to herself: "He can clearly write the characters of the Dali era, but why did he write the characters of the Southern Frontier in her palm to tease her on the day we exchanged names?"

The carriage moved slowly and heavily, and the sounds of people gradually grew louder as they arrived at the West Market.

The ointment on Shu Fu's ankle had been massaged in until it was absorbed well. Zhan Yaoguang was about to put her shoes and socks on when he suddenly heard the girl's clear voice: "A-Jian, keep an eye out for the peddler selling rock candy hawthorn fruit. If you see him, buy me a string of them, wrap them in glutinous rice paper, put them in an oil paper bag, and bring them to me."

Rock sugar hawthorn has always been a favorite snack for children in Chang'an, and the West Market was the most prosperous and bustling area in Chang'an, so finding rock sugar hawthorn was not difficult.

A-Jian quickly found an old man carrying a huge straw target, bought hawthorn berries from him, and then passed them in through the crack in the door.

Along with the hawthorn fruit came A-Jian's question: "I remember that you don't usually eat this, Miss. Could it be that you're craving it today?"

This is exactly what Zhan Yaoguang wanted to ask.

She didn't eat a single one of the rock sugar hawthorn fruit soufflés she brought from the first floor last time, and he got them all. It was obvious that she didn't like them. But now she stopped the carriage and counted breaths just to buy a skewer like this.

Could it be that she's giving the same thing to him, or is she going to give it to someone else?

A bittersweet feeling welled up in the boy's heart.

But Shu Fu deliberately stabbed him in the heart again. As she found a rectangular wooden box and put the hawthorn skewers inside, she said with a sweet smile:

“I don’t really like eating this, but when I left Xiangji Temple last time, I promised Master Cunhui that I would bring him some rock sugar hawthorn fruit next time I went to Xiangji Temple so that he could try it.”

Zhan Yaoguang immediately conjured up an image of a slender and elegant young monk in his mind.

He guessed sourly that she probably had some scholarly air about her, and perhaps was also quite handsome.

But can a bald monk who hasn't even grown all his hair be better looking than him?

She kissed him just a few days ago, and today she's giving gifts to another young man!

How could she be so fickle!

Zhan Yaoguang thought indignantly.