Qiqiao Fruit
In August, Shengjing was hit by heavy rain, which made the weather a little more humid and hot compared to the dry heat in Zhuyi.
There were many different opinions about what was happening in the palace, but it was true that Emperor Sheng's health was deteriorating and he was bedridden, but it was much more serious than what was said outside.
The roof of the Yunxiao Palace has a single eave with four pointed corners, and the eaves are decorated with golden dragons and imperial seals. It looks as good as new after being washed by rain. The beams are made of sandalwood, and the railings are carved and painted. It is beautiful and exquisite, revealing the majesty of the palace.
Inside the house, a shark silk curtain was hung beside the wide bed made of golden nanmu wood, and the curtain was inlaid with pearls and jade, showing its luxury.
The air was filled with the smell of medicine, mixed with a hint of bitterness, and a very strong scent of ambergris, plus the light scent of perfume on the woman's body, all mixed together, it was a bit strange.
The Imperial Noble Consort came gracefully, wearing a plain crepe tube dress with a crescent-shaped pattern embroidered on the tube. Her hair was adorned with a seven-treasure coral hairpin, and her slender waist was wrapped with a silk ribbon. Her eyebrows were not drawn but dark, and her skin was as white as cream without any powder. She was gentle and dignified.
She gently covered her nose with a handkerchief, frowned slightly, and bowed, not daring to look up.
"Your Majesty, come and drink the medicine." She picked up the white jade bowl and fed Emperor Sheng the medicine spoonful by spoonful in a soft voice. He could not speak, only his eyes stared at her straight.
Emperor Sheng's eyes were wide open, and he kept pushing the spoon with his tongue, not a single spoonful of medicine made it into his mouth. The imperial concubine was not annoyed, and she wiped off the medicine stains for him with a white handkerchief.
She glanced down at her hands, their joints slightly red. The coldness of the cold palace had left a lasting impression. Chilblains, like this, couldn't be cured even by the most exotic medicine. It would always itch and ache on cloudy or rainy days.
"Your Majesty is unwilling to take the medicine, it must be because it is too bitter. Come, bring the sugar pills."
She reached out and pried open Emperor Sheng's mouth. Two palace maids came forward with their heads down. One of them pressed his tongue with a spoon, and the other skillfully inserted the pill, completely ignoring Emperor Sheng's angry eyes.
After the palace maids left, only the sound of Emperor Sheng's babbling could be heard. The imperial concubine felt annoyed and didn't even look at his face. She pulled the quilt up and ignored him.
Then he sat down in front of the desk and read the memorials.
The palace maid stepped forward again, "Your Majesty, Lord Qin is here."
Her eyes showed fear, but her words were full of joy, "Please come in quickly."
"Yes."
Shengjing was shrouded in rain and gloom, and the palace incidents had not yet spread to the border.
After more than half a month of hot weather, Zhuyi finally welcomed a heavy rain.
There were not many guests today, so He Yingchun put the tables, chairs and benches in order and started making Qiqiao fruits.
The Chinese Valentine's Day is coming, and many shops are trying their best to come up with some fancy things to attract young men and women, such as threading a needle to pray for dexterity, planting seeds to pray for children, eating clever fruits, worshipping the Seventh Sister, listening to the voice of the sky, and worshipping Kuixing. There are so many things to do on this festival.
The origin of Qiaoguo can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. She still remembered reading "Dongjing Menghualu". In the book, Qiaoguo was called "Xiaoyaner" and "Fruit Food Flower". It was a food made by women in order to pray to the Weaver Girl to give them a pair of skillful hands.
Ordinary people don’t pay too much attention to it, so they just call it Qiaoguo or Guozi. In fact, it is similar to mooncakes and rice dumplings. They are sold popularly during festivals, but it is rare to see people selling them on weekdays.
Prepare flour, sugar, eggs, lard, yeast, milk and other ingredients. The most important thing is to make more colorful juice. He Yingchun uses red bean water, mugwort water, and water after soaking purple rice. Mix all the ingredients into a dough and make three colors of dough.
Let the dough ferment until it doubles in size, then knead the air out and cut into small pieces.
For the Qiqiao Festival, He Yingchun specially asked craftsmen to customize molds, such as five-petal flowers, goldfish, ingots, etc. The dough was pressed into the mold, then knocked out, and finally put into her simple oven to bake. By controlling the heat well, she could bake a whole pot in no time.
That’s not all. If it were just a baked pancake, it would be too monotonous. It is paired with three different fillings: red bean paste, date paste, and peanuts and sesame, and wrapped in the pancake, giving each pancake a different flavor.
They can be sold individually or put in exquisite wooden boxes as gifts. The Qiqiao fruits of various colors are exquisite and small, and are placed at the entrance of "Welcome Spring", attracting many people to stop and look. Many of them have been sold before the Qiqiao day.
As dusk fell, He Yingchun hung lanterns in the store early.
She looked outside and saw something bright, so she quickly asked the two of them to look outside.
"Madam Wang, Mom, look!"
Lanterns were lit on both sides of the East Market. Looking into the distance, every household had its lights on, like a dazzling star belt.
Men, women, young and old walked towards the lake, holding lanterns in their hands. He Yingchun and two other people also went there pushing a cart.
Every year on the Chinese Valentine's Day, celebrations are held on both sides of the Juyuan Bridge. Young men and women come here to release lanterns. If a man and a woman who likes each other meet at the Juyuan Bridge and give each other tokens of love, they will be able to enjoy long-lasting happiness.
He Yingchun and Lady Wang wanted to join in the fun on the Chinese Valentine's Day, but something happened in the camp, and Wen Jingzhao and Li Bin were not there. Mom had no interest in these activities at all.
Since that’s the case, they might as well set up a stall to earn some money. The three of them decided to go to the lake.
It was not yet completely dark, but quite a few people had already gathered. The three of them set up their stall and began selling Qiqiao fruit.
The exquisite and colorful cookies are well received, and most importantly, Lady Wang has a clever mouth.
"Eating the chocolate cake will ensure that you two will be sweet and loving together until old age!" This made the newly married couple smile.
Madam Wang also explained the Qiqiao Festival in Zhuyi to He Yingchun and her mother, two outsiders.
"Whether this Juyuan Bridge is effective or not is another matter, but most people want to see a good omen. It means gathering destiny, bringing together those who are destined to meet. So many young people will cross the bridge with tokens, hoping they will find someone they like!"
It's a bit like the ancient version of blind date, but deciding on a lifetime at first sight isn't a bit sloppy.
He Yingchun expressed her doubts, but Lady Wang smiled and said, "If you feel that it's not working out later, you can return the token of love and part ways amicably."
Very good, very good, He Yingchun nodded, it’s quite humane.
Mum fanned her face with her hands and wiped away the sweat. Fat people tend to sweat a lot, and it's especially hard to bear in the summer. He Yingchun poured her a glass of sour plum drink and said, "It's still cold."
Mom nodded and drank a glass of sour plum drink to relieve some of the heat.
Speaking of sour plum drinks, He Yingchun missed the ice machine again. In the summer, when the sun shone into the store, even the tables and chairs were hot.
She could only use well water to cool it down, and then change to cold water when it got hot. When she had enough money, she would definitely build a cold storage. He Yingchun secretly clenched her fists, thinking that iced drinks would be more refreshing if they were added with ice cubes.
"Give me a drink too." Passersby saw that Mom drank happily, and their thirst, which was originally three-point thirsty, increased to seven-point thirst, so a lot of iced drinks were sold one after another.
The things sold on both sides of the river were things that girls liked, such as rouge, powder, snacks, and silk jewelry. They had thought that there would be many drinks as well, so they brought a sour plum drink and a mung bean drink this time. Unexpectedly, they sold out even faster than the Qiqiao fruit.
Copper coins hit each other and fell into the coin box, making a clinking sound.
Madam Wang couldn't help but sigh, "It would be great if every day was the Qiqiao Festival." The money she earned in one night was enough to make from running the store for several days.
Who says it’s not!
"If that's the case, we can sell fruits during the day, count money at night, and occasionally take a day off to sleep at home. How happy it would be!" He Yingchun followed Lady Wang in her sweet dream.
Suddenly, there was a commotion on the bridge. A woman in red appeared, one hand on her waist, anger in her eyes. "I thought you looked like a decent person, but how could you be so mean and even touch a girl's butt!"
The woman behind her was wearing a pink dress, her cheeks flushed. She turned around shyly and tried to leave, but the woman in red held her back. "Don't be afraid, sister. I'll take care of it for you! We must punish this shameless man today."
Opposite her was a scholar who waved his hands repeatedly and said, "I just got here and didn't..."
Oh, it turns out to be a place to catch gropers. Joining in the fun is an unchanging nature of human beings since ancient times.
He Yingchun stood on tiptoe to listen; the scholar's voice sounded very familiar.
"Are you still trying to quibble?" She grabbed Liu Feng's arm. "I clearly saw the grey sleeves and the red wristband, and you still say it wasn't you!"
Most of the women around were extremely disgusted with this kind of thing, and they all shouted, "Catch him and bring him to the authorities!"
"Beat him with a stick! Beat him with a stick!"
"I recognize this scholar. He seems to be teaching at Wenxi Academy!"
"Misleading young people, misleading young people!"
"Isn't that Liu Feng?" Madam Wang stood on tiptoe and asked in surprise.
"Misunderstanding?"
Liu Feng is a person with a strong sense of justice. He Yingchun first got to know him because of his accurate and to-the-point complaints in the noodle shop.
There is no way he would do such a despicable thing.
"Let's go! Let's go see the officials!" According to the law, touching a woman's body and humiliating her is punishable, but most women don't dare to report it, so the law is shelved. But Zhu Ning dared. She stared at the scholar who kept making excuses, "I want to teach you all a lesson!"
The woman in the pink dress shook her head repeatedly, tears coming out of her eyes in anxiety, "No, no..." She looked at the crowd, as if looking at something.
"It's me!" A man rushed out from the crowd, seemingly unable to bear it any longer, and took Wu Niang's hand. "Wu Niang and I are just having fun together, why are you meddling in our business!" "Brother Chen..."
Zhu Ning glanced at his hand and saw that it was indeed tied with a red string. The young couple met at Juyuan Bridge, patted each other's butts, and had some fun. She had mistaken him for someone else.
"Then why didn't you say anything when we misunderstood just now?"
"I told you...this kind of thing..." Wu Niang bit her lip. How could she say it in public?
"Hmph! Mind your own business!" The man didn't give Zhu Ning a good look. He left a word and walked away quickly with Wu Niang in his arms.
"Well, I thought there would be something exciting!"
"Who is he?"
"Let's go, let's go, let's go."
…
Zhu Ning knew she was in the wrong, so she touched her nose and apologized to Liu Feng. She had nothing else on hand, so she gave the jade hairpin in her hand to Liu Feng and said, "I'm really sorry. I misunderstood you. This jade hairpin is my apology."
Liu Feng wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "There's no need for this jade hairpin. I'll have to trouble you to clarify it later. It's really not a pleasant feeling to be wrongly accused."
After saying this, he returned the jade hairpin and walked away.
He Yingchun called Liu Feng over. The sour plum drink was sold out, so he could only offer him a mung bean drink. He smiled and said, "Thank you, Boss He. I feel much better now."
At this time, Zhu Ning came over and said, "I, Zhu Ning, said that if I gave it to you, it would be given to you. There is no reason for me to take it back. I was wrong about what happened today. If you are not satisfied with this apology, you can come to Mingyufang to find me anytime." She put the jade hairpin on the handle of the cart and left without looking back.
"Quite cool." He Yingchun looked at her back and said with a smile.
"Zhu Ning? Mingyufang, that's the Zhu family!" Madam Wang reacted. The Zhu family was well-known to everyone. They were engaged in real estate business and could collect tens of thousands of taels of silver in rent every year, not counting the business shops.
Although He Yingchun had only been here for a short time, she had heard a little about it. She handed the jade hairpin to Liu Feng and joked, "It seems that the Juyuan Bridge has come true!"
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