Chapter 100 Drinking too much is bad; getting drunk, rubbing against each other, making morning tea? ...
"The crispy pot is so delicious."
Xiangjie and Yanshu ate until their bellies were almost bursting. The two little ones, who had secretly drunk someone's wine, were already drunk and lying on the veranda, burping. They pulled each other's sleeves to cover their belly buttons, their faces still covered with rice grains, and mumbled "delicious, delicious" before falling asleep.
It was late at night, and the courtyard was a mess of cups and plates, with wine jars scattered all over the ground. The uncles and grandfathers, drunk, with their clothes open and arms outstretched, sang as they headed home. The aunts, who were helping Chen Miao clean up the dishes, were so angry when they saw this that they kicked the uncles in the backside: "Eat, eat, eat! All you do is eat and do nothing!"
Gu Dalang was kicked to the ground, but he immediately fell asleep and began snoring loudly. His chubby belly rose and fell with his breath, like waves. Abao immediately climbed on top of him, followed by his younger brother, who climbed on top of his sister. The two little ones giggled and called to their sister-in-law, "Mom, come play human pyramid!"
Sister-in-law Gu, carrying a large stack of bowls and chopsticks, turned her head and saw that Gu Dalang was being suffocated, his face turning red. He looked like he was about to die. "Don't make any more noise!" Sister-in-law Gu hurriedly grabbed the back of the collars of her two little devils and pulled them up one by one. "Get up quickly. Your father may be useless, but being useless is still being alive!"
After Gu Dalang's breathing became easier, he continued snoring. Abao and his younger brother then squatted down again, grabbed a handful of mud from the ground, and first painted two thick black eyebrows on Gu Dalang. Then, they secretly chuckled as they braided their father's hair into two small braids, and then stuck mud balls on the corners of his mouth.
Aunt Gu had seen all the mischief the two little devils had gotten into. She shook her head and smiled as she wiped the table clean. Suddenly, she looked down and saw Gu Tusu, who was so drunk he was slurring his words, still holding onto Lei Ting's paw and babbling, "Ji-ge'er, you must have been studying very hard lately, right? Look, your eyes are all dark circles, hiccup, why is your face dark too? And why do you have so much beard..."
Thunder tilted his big, hairy head, as if he were really listening attentively.
"Who's the one who's dark-skinned? How dare you say that Ji-ge'er is dark-skinned?" Aunt Gu rolled her eyes and kicked her son, who was drunk and slumped over, with her foot. "Stop lounging around here and go home to sleep."
Gu Tusu was kicked face-first to the ground, but was still lifted up by Lei Ting. He finally regained a sliver of his senses and shouted to Lei Ting, "Brother Ji, my second brother is gone!" He then staggered out of the Shen family home.
Ji Ge'er and Chen Chuan also got drunk and somehow huddled in the donkey shed. Shiyilang lowered his neck to look at them and then began to lick their faces with his tongue. By the time Chen Miao noticed, the two of them were covered in donkey saliva.
She hurriedly threw the person into the house, then turned around and saw Ah Tao standing with her hands on her hips talking to a tree. She quickly urged her to go back to the house to sleep.
The smell of alcohol slowly rose up, and she began to sway unsteadily.
After the house was tidied up, and even the Shen family's floor was swept clean, the aunts left in twos and threes. Shen Miao had also drunk quite a bit today. After she forced herself to see the aunts off, she sat blankly under the osmanthus tree, unable to remember what she was supposed to do.
The alcohol churned in her throat and chest, making her mind feel as if it were veiled, causing her to think and act slowly. She hadn't taken this low-proof fruit wine seriously before, but today she was experiencing the aftereffects of her reckless drinking.
The osmanthus branches rustled as the wind passed by.
After a long pause, she finally remembered: today is the Dragon Boat Festival. She watched the dragon boat races, made crispy pot dishes, and even bought Kangji's two-story riverside shop from the anxious Yao Luoge.
Two thousand strings of cash! She was really that generous. She went into the house so readily, took the money, and waited for the lawyer Deng to come and mediate. In less than half an hour, the contract was signed.
Yao Luoge seemed to be repeatedly reminding her to go to the yamen with him to sign the official contract first thing tomorrow morning.
Because she was drunk, Shen Miao felt an even more unreal feeling when she thought about these things—did she really buy it? Just like that? Once she spent those two thousand coins, apart from the daily operating income of her several shops and duck farm, it seemed that her savings were gone again.
Shen Miao tilted her head back and leaned against the tree trunk.
Xie Qi had just helped carry Tang Er and Fu Xing, who were also quite drunk, back into the house. He pinched his nose and tossed them onto their beds, which were stuffed with smelly socks, and came out to find this scene.
In the now empty courtyard, only Chen Miao sat under the tree, looking up at the sky.
Her cheeks were flushed, her expression blank, but her eyes were glistening with moisture, as if illuminated by stars.
Xie Qi patted his wrinkled sleeves and slowly walked over.
He squatted down in front of Shen Miao.
It took Shen Miao a while to realize there was someone in front of him. He slowly and sluggishly lowered his head and looked at him quietly with his eyes, which were a little unfocused from drinking. After recognizing who it was, he suddenly relaxed all his strength and suddenly buried himself in Shen Miao's arms.
Xie Qi instinctively opened his arms and caught her, giving Shen Miao, who smelled faintly of plum wine, a tight hug.
As soon as he put his arm around her, she rubbed against his neck like a Qilin and mumbled a drunken slur: "Ninth Brother, how come you have two heads?"
Xie Qi laughed: "Take another look, how many heads do I have?"
Shen Miao indeed raised her head, pulled her hands out of his arms, cupped his face in her hands, squeezing his cheeks until they chubby, and seriously examined him from left to right before concluding, "Three! There are three heads!"
"That's fine too. Now that's another head, you can split me into three in the future. One can fan Madam Shen, one can massage Madam Shen's back, and one can massage Madam Shen's feet, okay?" Xie Qi smiled and rubbed her face, his gentle eyes as tender as a spring breeze.
Unexpectedly, Shen Miao sighed unhappily, "It's good, but I can't bear to part with it. If it's split into three pieces, it will hurt you a lot." As she spoke, she put her arms around Xie Qi's neck and said softly, "It won't hurt, it won't hurt. I don't want three Ninth Brothers. One is enough. I only want one."
Xie Qi's heart instantly softened and collapsed.
He lowered his eyes, hugged her tighter, and whispered in her ear, "Okay. I only need A-Miao. We only need each other."
After hugging for a while, Shen Miao spontaneously found a comfortable position in his arms, released his neck and wrapped her arms around his waist instead, pressed her cheek against his left chest, and curled up in his arms like a child, squinting her eyes sleepily, as if she was about to fall asleep.
The night was quiet, and Thunder and Qilin lay back down by the door, obediently guarding the entrance.
"I'll take you back to your room." Xie Qi then lifted her up, taking her into a comfortable position, with one hand under her legs and the other around her shoulder.
Pushing open the heavy door, Xie Qi didn't dare look too long and quickly passed through the partition, leading to a small bedroom. The room wasn't lit yet, but fortunately, the night was clear enough that a layer of frost shone through the window, bathing the room in a soft moonlight.
He gently placed her on the bed, took off her shoes and socks, and then hurried out to fetch water to wash her face and feet, making sure she was clean before carefully wrapping her in the quilt.
Then she carefully tucked the corners of the blanket in from top to bottom, and folded the end of the blanket in as well, tucking it under Chenmiao's feet.
Xie Qi then straightened up, propped himself up on his back, looked at Shen Miao, who was wrapped up like a spring roll on the bed with only his head showing, and breathed a sigh of satisfaction.
Then, after a short while, Shen Miao seemed to feel hot. She kicked off the blanket with her legs and swung her arms, immediately turning the neatly wrapped blanket into a mess.
Xie Qi stood there, blinked, and then quickly stepped forward to wrap the person up meticulously again, even patiently smoothing out the wrinkles on the blanket.
He stood by the bed and admired the scene for a moment with satisfaction. Seeing that the restless person was about to kick off the blankets again, he quickly went over, knelt by the bed, and pressed down on Chen Miao's outstretched hands.
But then, his entire arm was grabbed.
"Is Ninth Brother carved from pine wood? He smells so good." Shen Miao rubbed her soft, hot cheek against his palm, her sleepy face pressed against his hand. "I like your scent, like the scent of the forest."
Xie Qi felt a rush of blood to his cheeks, and he knelt down completely, his arms stiff and he dared not move. After a long while, he asked in a low and somewhat nervous voice, "Do you only like the taste?"
Shen Miao closed her eyes and suddenly laughed.
“I like you too, I like you from head to toe.” As she spoke, her voice grew softer and softer, the first words almost inaudible, “...the only person I’ve ever liked in my life is you.”
Xie Qi gazed at Shen Miao, who had fallen into a deep sleep, with his eyes lowered. After an unknown amount of time, the moonlight embroidered ripples on the window frame. When one of the ripples of moonlight reached his brow bone, he slowly leaned down and almost reverently placed a kiss on Shen Miao's forehead.
***
The next day, as the morning light climbed the east wall, Shen Miao rubbed her throbbing temples and sat on the bed, pondering: Last night, the house was lively and joyful, and she accidentally drank too much, so much so that she was unsteady on her feet and dizzy, and she couldn't even remember how she finally found her way back to her room.
But she firmly believed that she was not so drunk that she blacked out, because she vaguely remembered that she forced her eyelids open and waved to Ah Tao to go back to her room to rest.
If that's the case, she must have washed up herself before going to bed. Yes, that must be it.
It's this bedding... Shen Miao looked down at the blanket wrapped tightly around her body and wondered: Was it this cold yesterday? Why is she covering herself so tightly?
I don't understand.
But with the whole courtyard filled with drunkards staggering about, she was already quite resilient.
If anyone's still awake, it seems like Ninth Brother isn't drunk either. He has a pretty good tolerance for alcohol; yesterday, many of his uncles and aunts at the banquet kept plying him with drinks because they were about to get engaged.
He drank every single glass without hesitation.
Watching him drink one cup after another, smiling as he responded to his uncles' and aunts' words of advice and blessings, and downing the cup in one gulp without a word, Shen Miao felt a pang of heartache. Aunt Gu whispered to her from the side, "It's alright. It's an old custom to welcome the new son-in-law in the alley. Even the toughest man has to go through this."
Shen Miao could only watch as he finished drinking and sat down again. Before he could even get comfortable, he was called up to drink again.
Then she secretly changed his teapot.
Xie Qi was stunned for a moment after tasting it, then laughed.
But Xie Qi was indeed kind and gentle, and always treated the uncles and aunts in the neighborhood with great respect. Perhaps it was because he always thought of her as someone who had lost her parents, that the uncles and aunts in the alley became her closest elders, so he treated them with great care.
As Shen Miao rubbed her numb head, her memory began to blur. So when exactly did Ninth Brother leave? She tried desperately to recall, but her mind went blank; she still couldn't remember.
Pushing open the door, she discovered that the sun was already high in the sky. Atao, Tang Er, and Fuxing, who were even more drunk than her yesterday, were all up and working, while she and the children who had secretly drunk alcohol were still fast asleep.
Atao picked a basket of sage, lettuce, and cucumbers from the vegetable garden in the yard. Just then, carrying the fresh, dew-covered vegetables, she passed by Shenmiao's room on her way to the kitchen. Seeing that Shenmiao still looked a little sleepy, she suddenly grinned at her and said, "Hehe."
"?" Shen Miao looked at her, puzzled.
"Did you sleep well last night, my lady?" Atao smiled even more broadly, winking and making faces. "Hehe, you must have slept well, right?"
Shen Miao had barely opened her mouth when she suddenly burst into laughter, covering her mouth and laughing as she dashed off to the kitchen.
Shen Miao's heart pounded wildly—could it be that she drank too much last night and caused a scene? But...but that plum wine was clearly sweet like water, and she had drunk three or five cups in a row before without getting drunk!
Although I drank quite a bit yesterday, more than just a few cups... Sigh! Wine and women can ruin a person!
Shen Miao swallowed nervously, but then she saw Tang Er carrying a fish basket out of the kitchen. She hurried forward and asked, "Tang Er, do you know when Ninth Brother left?"
"He left as soon as it was light," Tang Erhun said nonchalantly. "The Dragon Boat Festival holiday is only one day long. He had just come out of his wife's room when he called Yanshu to prepare the carriage and rushed to the academy. He didn't even have breakfast."
"Oh, they just left..." Shen Miao nodded halfway, then suddenly froze: "What did you say?"
"I said Ninth Brother left early this morning."
"No, no, repeat what you just said from the beginning."
Tang Er didn't understand why the same words had to be repeated three times, but he still stammered and repeated, word by word, "I said that Ninth Brother came out of Madam's room early this morning and..."
"Okay, stop, no need to say anymore." Shen Miao grabbed a pillar and walked unsteadily toward the sink, her heart screaming.
Ninth Brother... came out of her room...
What did she do to her yesterday? Shen Miao was still quite self-aware. Ninth Brother, who was so polite that he would ask for her permission even for "frivolous" kisses, would never enter a woman's boudoir without permission. He must have been forced by her!
Good heavens! He's really drunk and become a complete scoundrel!
She was so frightened that she didn't even bother with breakfast, and fled before dawn with her inkstone and books in tow... Shen Miao scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it on her face. The well water, which had been sitting overnight, was icy cold. The shock made her mind clear for a moment, and she suddenly remembered some fragmented scenes—she had wrapped her arms around Jiu Lang's neck and fallen into his arms, and was carried back to the room in the moonlight, and at the end, she had even cupped his face and said some nonsense...
Oh no! Oh no! She remembered everything!
Shen Miao took a deep breath; she had indeed done something extraordinary.
As Shen Miao was wiping her face with a handkerchief, she paused, thinking, "Wait a minute... But then she really fell asleep. Ninth Brother wouldn't just let her hold his arm and stay up all night like that, would he?"
She went back to her room, changed her clothes, and deeply reflected on her actions. How could she have fallen for such a lesson learned from past experience? She really shouldn't have underestimated ancient wine. Now, she'd really made a fool of herself.
He vowed never to drink too much again.
The family is now full of drunkards. When Shen Miao entered the kitchen, Fu Xing was already cooking chicken soup and millet porridge. He had skimmed the oil off the chicken carcass broth and poured it into the washed millet. He put it on the stove and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Then he added some salt, shredded some chicken, and simmered it on low for another 15 minutes before it was ready to eat.
This kind of porridge is perfect for people with hangovers; it's nourishing, soothing, and warming.
Shen Miao sat on the veranda, holding her porridge, and slurped it down. Ji Ge'er then rushed out of the room as if his pants were on fire, quickly applying toothpaste and frantically brushing his teeth, exclaiming in a panic, "Oh no, oh no! There's morning class at the academy today, I overslept!"
After eating a couple of mouthfuls of porridge, Shen Miao watched Ji Ge'er running around in front of her, sometimes going to the yard to get the clothes that were drying, sometimes running back into the house to put them on, and then rushing out of the house again to go to the kitchen to prepare this month's dry rations.
A moment later, Tang Er hurriedly ran out, helped him hitch up the donkey cart, and muttered, "Don't worry, don't worry, we'll definitely make it to class in time." But he was even more anxious than Ji Ge'er. He jumped onto the cart shaft, cracked the whip, and sent him to the academy.
The two men and the donkey rushed out of the alley in a great hurry.
Shen Miao sighed again, resting her chin on her hand as she recalled the events of last night.
So, what she was hugging at night wasn't the long cat-shaped pillow she loved in her past life, but Ninth Brother's arm. Thinking about how she'd been rubbing against his arm like a cat pillow, and how Xie Qi's mistaken belief that she'd had a rash from drinking alcohol and had rubbed it on her face all night with his fingertips…
Ah, Shenmiao silently clutched her temples, wanting to find a hole to crawl into.
Just as Shen Miao was on the verge of a mental breakdown, a large head peeked in through the courtyard gate. Yao Luoge greeted her with a smile, "Good morning, Madam Shen. Having breakfast?"
Shen Miao let go of her hand, put down the porridge bowl, and returned to her normal demeanor. She got up to greet him: "Why are you here so early? Have you had breakfast yet? Would you like a bowl of porridge to warm your stomach?"
"We've eaten, we've eaten. Actually, it's getting late! Madam Chen, don't bother. The Lady of Lejiang Marquis is urging us on. Shall we head to the yamen to finalize the contract now?"
Shen Miao guessed his purpose and followed Yao Luoge to the yamen. A short while later, a large red seal was stamped on the document, and Shen Miao came out holding the still-warm official contract with the ink not yet dry. The sunlight shone directly on her and Yao Luoge.
Yao Luoge happily pocketed another copy of the white contract that was to be kept at the brokerage, handed the key to Shen Miao, bowed repeatedly to congratulate Shen Miao, and then hurriedly left under the pretext of having something to do.
With nothing else to do at the moment, Shen Miao clutched the keys in her hand and decided to go and take a look at what Kangji's riverside shop used to be, so she could figure out how to renovate it in the future.
After crossing the bridge, looking at the lush reeds along the riverbank, which resembled a green gauze curtain in late spring and early summer, she suddenly remembered the day last year when she and Ninth Brother stood on the bridge together to watch the fireworks during the Lotus Festival.
At that time, she hadn't even figured out her own feelings yet, but now she's almost married to Ninth Brother.
Time really flies.
Thinking of those heartwarming memories, her shame for her absurd behavior the night before gradually subsided.
There's nothing I can do; it's all her fault, good or bad.
She suddenly became happy again.
The inexplicable excitement hadn't faded by the time I arrived at Kang Kee.
She looked up again and saw that the shop's signboard had been taken down, so it could no longer be called Kangji.
Unlocking the heavy lock and pushing the door open, the interior was fairly tidy. All the tables, chairs, and benches had been moved out, leaving the shop empty and covered with a thin layer of dust.
She climbed the creaking old wooden stairs to the second floor, where six elegant rooms were separated by bamboo fences on both sides, and there was a large open space in the middle where tables could be placed. It was quite spacious.
Stepping onto the terrace, the view becomes even more expansive. A cool breeze from the river blows in your face, and you can see the crowded shops and fluttering signs on both banks, as well as the painted boats and fishing boats that occasionally pass by on the river.
The terrace is about four people wide, with wooden railings. In the future, we can set up a row of small tables for two along the railings, hang a string of streetlights, and enjoy the river breeze, drink some wine, watch the lights of thousands of homes twinkling, and listen to some music at night... It sounds like a very atmospheric place.
But what kind of business should this two-story riverside shop do?
Shen Miao stood there, lost in thought for a long time, thinking of everything from hotel buffet complexes in big cities to Cantonese teahouses... In the end, after comparing them, she probably felt that the Cantonese morning tea style was more suitable.
Bianjing has a well-developed food industry, and many "Northern food", "Southern food" and "Sichuan food" have been heard of in the streets, but Cantonese-style morning tea has not yet appeared. Chenmiao is just the right place to fill the market gap.
The shop is a large two-story building. The first floor can be set up as a "loose tea area," with screens separating the seating, which is also in line with the custom of teahouses in Bianjing. The second floor has an "elegant room" with landscape paintings of Lingnan hanging on it, providing a private place for banquets.
Selling morning tea, lunch, and dinner, and also offering takeout... it sounds wonderful. But nowadays, Song Dynasty cuisine mainly consists of noodles and mutton, so the "seafood," "sweet," and "steamed" elements of Cantonese morning tea need localization—for example, try using a mixture of fish and river shrimp paste instead of pure shrimp filling? Replace crab roe soup dumplings with mutton soup dumplings? As for char siu, you could make a honey-glazed roasted mutton version.
Shen Miao didn't really have a clear idea yet, but she felt that she should refer to successful "localization" cases (such as KFC and McDonald's) and do some careful research before taking any action.
She wanted to create a unique teahouse that blended local customs with a distinctive character.
Then, we can shamelessly ride on the coattails of Fanlou's popularity and promote our own morning tea as "another scenic spot besides Fanlou," attracting literati and scholars to come and visit. That would be a good idea.
Of course, if you want to host banquets, besides finding skilled calligraphers to inscribe poems on the walls to attract those pretentious literati, you'll naturally need to create some special services, such as book reading, singing, and storytelling... Well, that would require hiring a few more arts-related employees.
As Shen Miao pondered, she suddenly remembered A Tao's mother, who was far away in Daming Prefecture.
Instead of hiring unknown actors in Bianjing, it would be better to spend some money to help Atao redeem her mother. This way, the shop would have stable employees who wouldn't easily quit, and it would also meet Chenmiao's needs.
Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?
The more Shen Miao thought about it, the more she felt it was worthwhile. She carefully walked around the shop again, and once she had a clear idea of what was going on, she immediately went to the market to find Dwarf Toothbrush and inquire about the current situation of Atao's mother.
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