Chapter 41

Yunkai drove Yueming past the stall of the young widow Yuman and stopped. He stepped on the pedal with one foot and the ground with the other, then turned to Yueming and said, "Get off."

Yueming looked at the young widow who had caught her eye when she first entered Yunxiang. Her butt was firmly glued to the back seat. She asked suspiciously, "Are you going to teach me how to ride a bike here?"

Without waiting for Yunkai to answer, the charming young widow Yuman put down the work in her hands and came over with a twist of her waist.

"Oh! Second Young Master, it's been a long time since you last visited me. What's the wind blowing today?"

Yueming, a well-read man, was horrified by Yuman's standard brothel clientele greetings, and even more reluctant to leave. This woman in pink and green was definitely the kind of prostitute the old maid had described. What had the shameless Han Yunkai brought her here for?

Yun Kai gestured to Yu Man, who was about to climb onto his shoulder, to stop, and said to her, "Two bowls of rice noodles, two bowls of cold shrimp, and one bowl without the chili pepper."

Yueming frowned when she heard that he didn't leave and ordered food: "I'm not hungry."

Yun Kai readily changed his words and said, "Then I'll have one bowl of rice noodles and two bowls of cold shrimp. And I'll add as much chili as I can to the rice noodles."

Yu Man covered her mouth with her hand as she giggled. She swept the handkerchief over Yun Kai's shoulder and said, "I'll make sure you're very excited."

Yunkai turned around and said to Yueming, "Why are you still sitting there? Get out of the car. You need to eat first so that you can have the strength to help you with the car later."

Didn't you just have breakfast before coming here? Yueming jumped down angrily and found a random seat in front of the stall. Just as he was about to sit down, Yunkai, who had just set up the cart, grabbed him and tilted his head towards the back of Yuman's stall: "Sit there."

Yuman got an unpainted orchid pendant from somewhere, wiped it with a handkerchief and blew into it, then placed two bamboo stools and invited Yunkai and Yueming to sit down.

The people sitting at the stall eating rice noodles stood up and greeted Yunkai. After Yunkai led Yueming to sit down, they exchanged glances and whispered to each other.

Everyone was wondering why Yunkai was parading the eldest daughter of the Lan family around. The Lan family was probably too high-ranking to marry into the Second Young Master's family, so asking the eldest daughter of the Lan family to become his concubine was something that Lan Ye, with his influence, wouldn't have done.

Although he had a bad impression of the seller and felt forced to eat the bowl of cold shrimp, Yueming had to admit that the bowl of cold shrimp was really delicious.

The ice jelly was kneaded thoroughly, its texture reminiscent of the smooth pudding you get at Western restaurants. The brown sugar syrup for the cold shrimp was also carefully prepared. Those without the necessary skills often end up with a clear, sweet syrup devouring the brown sugar flavor, or it's too thick and has a burnt taste. Yuman's was perfectly cooked; the unique sweetness of sugarcane mixed with the crispy, roasted peanuts was incredibly tempting. Yueming devoured spoonful after spoonful, unable to stop, and soon the bowl was empty. Watching Yunkai suck his tongue in the spiciness of the rice noodles before quickly sipping the cold shrimp, Yueming couldn't help but lick his lips with satisfaction.

She regretted that she had said she was not hungry out of spite just now, but now she couldn't bring herself to ask for a bowl. She could only watch with her chin down as a few children came to Yuman's stall with copper coins to buy rice noodles.

Although it was a negligible small business, Yuman neither despised nor neglected it. She took the copper coin from each child, sliced ​​a piece of rice noodles as thick as a finger for each of them, dug a hole in the square piece of rice noodles with a knife, and handed it to the child, asking him to add seasoning himself.

The kids didn't leave after putting the seasonings in. A few of them formed a circle in front of the stall, carefully ripped a piece from the edge, dipped it into the small hole containing the seasoning, put it in their mouths and ate it with smiles on their faces.

The rice noodles, which were only the size of a child's palm, were not very durable. The seasoning was torn in a few bites, and the sauce flowed all over their hands. The children exclaimed and stuffed the remaining rice noodles into their mouths, sticking out their tongues because of the spiciness, and licking the sauce on their hands reluctantly.

The greedy kids had put too much chili in the drink, and the spiciness was overwhelming. They sniffed and glazed over the clear, springy ice jelly on the stall. A group of them searched their pockets thoroughly, scraped together two cents, and handed them to Yuman.

Yuman smiled and said something, and the children all jumped up and down with joy. Yuman took a ceramic bowl of rice noodles and filled them with ice jelly without the cold shrimp. One child took a spoonful and passed the bowl to the next one.

Yueming watched the children eating with great relish. Yunkai saw her absorbed in watching and said to her with a smile, "If you finish eating, I will teach you a few words of Dai language. If you learn a little bit every day, you will soon be able to go out and play with these children.

Although Yueming showed no expression on her face, she was rolling her eyes in her heart. In her eyes, the second young master was not as good as the child who was licking his hands with a runny nose!

She asked Yun Kai, "Second Young Master, have you finished eating?"

Yun Kai didn't respond, pointing to the bowl of rice noodles and saying, "Eating is called Jin Hao. If you want to drink vinegar, let's call it drinking water. Drinking water is called Jin Nan. Come on, read it again."

Yueming's calm expression almost broke. You're the one who's jealous, your whole family is jealous. She was angry and her tone became rude: "Eat faster."

Yun Kai laughed heartily. He just loved seeing Lan Yueming gnashing her teeth in anger. He drank the cold shrimp in his bowl in one gulp, took out two half-opened shrimps and threw them on the bamboo table that Lan had arranged. Pointing at the children who were still sharing their ice jelly, he said to Yu Man, "Don't worry about the rest. Miss Lan is treating her good friends to pea jelly."

Pea flour is more expensive than rice flour. When Yuman told the children, they put their hands together and bowed to Yueming, and Yueming's face twitched.

Sitting on the bicycle's back rack, Yunkai took Yueming out of the city. Outside the city, the road was all dirt. A gust of wind blew up the dirt and sand, and Yueming quickly covered his mouth and nose with his arms.

There were fields on both sides of the dirt road. A group of people had set up a large pot next to a sugarcane field, boiling something. Yueming lowered his arm and sniffed curiously. His face immediately changed color, and he covered his nose again and asked Yunkai, "Why are they boiling cow dung?"

Yunkai laughed so hard that he couldn't control the steering wheel, and the bike swayed sideways. Yueming didn't care about the smell of boiling cow dung. He screamed and hugged Yunkai's waist with both hands, cursing, "Hold on steady, or I'll fall."

Yun Kai managed to suppress his laughter, glanced back at her and said, "If they knew you were talking nonsense like that, they would definitely give you a good beating. They're making brown sugar, and you're saying they're cooking cow dung."

Making brown sugar? Yueming sniffed again, half-believing and half-doubting. No, it still smelled like cow dung.

Yunkai rode for a while before stopping. He turned the bike around and said to Yueming, "Come on up and try."

Yueming didn't want to try. She just wanted to play with the wild chrysanthemums that were used to make the fence. She put her hands behind her back and said, "I told you I can't ride."

Yun Kai encouraged her, "I'll teach you. It's very easy."

Yueming's eyes rolled, and an idea came to her mind. She pretended to be afraid and said, "I dare not. I'm afraid of falling."

Yun Kai patted his chest and said, "What are you afraid of with me here? I'll hold you up so you won't fall."

Yueming then hesitantly stepped forward, clumsily climbed onto the car, and holding the handle, he anxiously warned Yunkai: "You have to hold on well, don't let me fall."

Yun Kai held onto the back frame and assured, "Don't worry, you won't fall."

Seeing Yueming's awkward posture on the bike, but holding the handlebars with a steady hand, Yunkai let her pedal while he followed slowly from behind, holding onto the rear rack. After a short distance, he noticed that Yueming was riding slowly but in a straight line, so he nodded in praise, "Good riding."

A barely perceptible smile crossed Yueming's lips, but he said lightly, "Even if you haven't eaten pork, you've seen pigs run. Many students in my school ride bicycles to school, just like this."

In fact, she considered whether she should act more realistically and ride the bike in an S shape, but she was afraid that if it was too crooked and Yun Kai couldn't hold her up, she would fall again, which would not be worth it.

Yun Kai took the time to reply, "You've got it the other way around. You've eaten pork, but you've never seen a pig run."

Yueming complained in his heart, who said I haven’t seen it before? You are such a big-headed pig running around in front of me every day and I can’t chase you away.

Seeing Yueming riding well, Yunkai thought he could increase the difficulty. He said to Yueming, "I will slowly let go of your hand later. Don't panic. Just ride slowly according to this rhythm."

Yueming screamed, "No, you can't let go."

Yunkai pretended to still hold on but quietly let go, saying to Yueming, "Don't worry, I won't let go."

Yueming kicked hard and found no resistance. She shouted, "Don't let go," while quietly speeding up her movements.

Yunkai responded from behind, "I won't let go." He rested his hand on his forehead, watching Yueming ride further and further away. The breeze blew up her skirt, a truly beautiful scene. He felt that he was a really good teacher. He had effortlessly helped Lan Yueming learn to ride a bicycle.

Watching Yueming's back disappear from sight from a small black dot, he suddenly realized that he had been fooled by Lan Yueming!

The moment Yunkai let go, Yueming began to accelerate furiously, pedaling like a roller coaster, her chest breathing heavily as if it were about to explode. She only slowed down when she felt Yunkai couldn't catch up to her. Looking at the cloudless sky, she almost wanted to laugh wildly at the heavens.

She remembered Sun Erniang's famous saying in "Water Margin": "Even if you are as cunning as a devil, you have to drink my foot washing water." She was now filled with excitement at the success of her evil plan.

She rode for more than a quarter of an hour to cover the five or six miles, and stopped at Yuman's stall with sweat all over her forehead. She leaned her bike against the wall and said to Yuman, "Give me a bowl of broad bean powder, cut it finely, and don't put any chili in it." She saw broad bean powder on the stall when she was eating cold shrimp. When she was in Kunming, she loved to buy a bowl of it from the Dali stall. The plum vinegar and finely chopped pickled cabbage made her drool just thinking about it.

After ordering, she plopped down on the bench in front of the stall, fanning herself with her hands. Her face flushed, a blush that she couldn't tell if it was from the sun or just the excitement. She leaned her bicycle against the wall, leaving it alone. Everyone in Yunxiang knew it belonged to the Second Young Master, and unless that idiot thief had no eyes, no one would dare steal it.

Yuman used the bowl that held the cold shrimp to serve her a bowl of papaya vinegar and said with a smile, "Miss, I cooked sour papaya with brown sugar. It will quench your thirst. Please drink one bowl first."

Yueming was indeed very thirsty, so he said thank you and took the drink and drank it all in one gulp. After drinking it, he smacked his lips and savored it. It was indeed thirst-quenching, sour and sweet and very delicious.

She placed the bowl on the table, just like the knights in martial arts novels, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said to Yuman, "Another bowl."

The momentum echoed Wu Song's temperament when he drank eighteen bowls of wine at Jingyang Ridge.

Yu Man smiled and handed her the broad bean powder with seasoning, and advised: "Miss, this papaya vinegar tastes good, but it will hurt your stomach if you drink it on an empty stomach. Eat the broad bean powder first, and I will make you another bowl for you to drink slowly."

Yueming took the large earthenware bowl, mixed it with chopsticks, and was about to eat when Yuman, holding a small earthenware pot, said to her, "Miss, are you not used to Yunxiang's spicy food? I have some non-spicy ones here. Would you like to try them? Eating jelly without spicy food always tastes wrong."

Yueming said to her, "Bring it here for me to smell."

Yuman brought the mouth of the jar close to Yueming's nose. Yueming sniffed it, but besides chili and vegetable oil, she couldn't detect any other strange smells. She asked, "Is it really not spicy?"

Yuman smiled and said, "I fried this can of chili oil specifically for my son, but he can't handle spicy food."

Yueming held the bowl closer and said, "Give me a spoonful then."

Yuman scooped a spoonful of chili oil into Yueming's bowl. Yueming took a sip and found it wasn't spicy at all, but rather fragrant. She asked Yuman, "Does your chili oil also have this aroma?"

Yuman added a spoonful of papaya vinegar to her small ceramic bowl and said, "This is for the children. I don't put too many seasonings in it. The chili oil I use at my stall is much more fragrant than this."

Yueming thought that Ai Ye and Ye Hu were also unable to go out, so she brought two bowls back for them. She said to Yuman, "Madam, please fill me three more bowls of pea flour. I can eat one bowl here and take the other two bowls away."

Yuman's eyes widened: "Miss, do you want another bowl?"

Yueming ate the broad bean flour and shook his head: "No, someone will come to eat it later."

Yuman cut the pea flour and placed it on banana leaves. She added various seasonings, rolled up the leaves and tied them with thin hemp ropes. She took out two bamboo tubes with thin hemp ropes from the wooden basin under the stall, poured papaya vinegar into them, and stuffed them with banana leaves.

Yueming was very pleased to see her quick hands and feet, and forgot his previous prejudice against her. He said to her, "Boss, please hang the things on the car."

She had almost finished her meal when Yunkai arrived in a donkey cart carrying watermelons. He stood in front of Yueming with a fierce look on his face, gritting his teeth and saying, "You've become quite capable, Lan Yueming!"

Yueming looked at him. His champagne leather shoes and the hems of his trousers were all dusty. He must have walked a long way to stop this donkey cart. His face was covered in dust and white dirt, and there were several grooves from sweat, which was very funny.

Seeing him in such a state of disgrace, Yueming felt secretly pleased. She pouted innocently and turned the tables on him: "Didn't you say you wouldn't let go? Do you know how long I rode before someone helped me down?"

Looking at her lips covered in red oil, Yun Kai was puzzled. Did he wrong her?

Seeing that he was confused, Yueming quickly said to Yuman, "Boss, the pea flour is ready."

Yuman handed the pea flour to Yunkai and said with a smile, "So this bowl was bought for the Second Young Master. Miss is really thoughtful."