I believe I can understand Papa’s motivation on me calling Zhao Yan an uncle. He might suspect Zhao Yan’s intension with our family. By me calling Zhao Yan an uncle, it is a way to protect me from any intentional advancement from him.
“Oh, Mr. Zhao.” I hear Zhao Yan’s voice. “I would not dare to ask Shiaonu call me an uncle. I am a friend of Jinu. If you don’t mind, I will call you uncle, since we share the same family name. “
“That’s a relief. If you really become my uncle, I won’t dare to ask you do anything for me.” I quickly make the comment after Zhao Yan. It’s quite shameless, I know, and I get the grim glance from Papa. I lower my head and hope I haven’t messed it up.
Then I hear Niang’s soft voice. “Mr. Zhao Yan, please forgive Shiaonu’s bluntness. She has been well spoiled by us. If you don’t mind, please think of us as your family, think of Jinu, Ponu and Shiaonu be your cousins, and we be your uncle and aunt. We have just moved in Chang’an and we are grateful knowing you. Not only you have helped Shiaonu when she was lost, but also have helped Jinu in getting acquainted with so many helpful businessmen. I know your family is not here, so please feel free treating us as your family. We might not have much, but at least we can offer you a warm meal when you are hungry, a shelter when it’s raining, and a shoulder when you need one to lean on.”
I want to applaud for Niang, who has never shared such an emotional speech towards anybody other than family members. Zhao Yan has successfully struck a chord with her. She sees Zhao Yan as another Ponu without a family.
However, a sudden sense of uneasiness crawls over my spine. I begin to doubt myself. Have I done a right thing bring Zhao Yan so close to my family?
“Aunt and uncle,” Zhao Yan stands up and bows down deeply towards Niang and Papa. I am almost certain I heard a crack in his voice. “Thank you for your willingness of including me into your family. I, Zhao Yan, promise here, that from now on, you are part of my family, just like I am yours. I will forever remember your kindness and make sure I do everything I can to protect this family.”
Jinu stands up too and pats on Zhao’s back emotionally. “All right, all right, welcome to our family. We are glad to have you.” Then he turns to Papa. “Papa, should we celebrate this event?”
“We definitely should. Jinu, go make a reservation at Spring Wind restaurant. We will go there to celebrate tonight.” Papa says decisively. He has accepted Zhao Yan for the sake of Niang. He knows her soft spot, and he is willing to accommodate.
But to me, that sense of uneasiness does not go away. Instead, it becomes stronger. I raise my head and see Zhao Yan talking with my brother. Just like Jinu, he is in short linen clothes, quite a dress down from his usual silk long garment. I start wondering who he really is: the blood-soaked injured Xiongnu, the flamboyant rich merchant, the specially-treated patron in the brothel, the married guy with twelve wives, or the one in front of me, a down-to-earth guy with a simple and honest smile on his face.
I have always suspected he is not what he seems. His injury, his friends, and the heavy-guarded compound, none of them is a good sign. If I am not in such a desperate situation, I doubt I would ever see him again, let alone bring him so close to my family. I know he will never hurt them, but somehow, I always feel an unusual sense of alert whenever he is around.nversation about deliveries, quantities, prices, which totally bores me.
“Is this how your family works?” Zhao Yan laughs at my lack-of-interest. “Shiaonu makes something good and others take care of the rest?”
“She used to let Ponu do all the work after she came up with ideas.” Jinu says. “Now Ponu is not home and we are busy, she has been totally frustrated.”
“That’s not fair. I only let Ponu do things I can’t do and I pay him back by cooking the food he likes.” I protest right away.
“That’s interesting.” Zhao Yan says. “I am free, Shiaonu, so you can ask me to do things just like you ask Ponu.”
I realize this is the opportunity that I can hang out with Zhao Yan freely.
“Really, you will help me?” I then turn to Papa. “Papa, can he help me, please?”
Poor Papa, other than say yes, I cannot imagine anything else he can say in front of Zhao Yan. “Yes, of course, if uncle Zhao has time to help you with your crazy ideas. But remember don’t bother him too much.” Papa says.
“Thank you, Papa. And thank you too, uncle Zhao.” I quickly answer my Papa. I dare not look at Zhao Yan. I don’t know how old he is. But my guess is about late twenties.
I believe I can understand Papa’s motivation on me calling Zhao Yan an uncle. He might suspect Zhao Yan’s intension with our family. By me calling Zhao Yan an uncle, it is a way to protect me from any intentional advancement from him.
“Oh, Mr. Zhao.” I hear Zhao Yan’s voice. “I would not dare to ask Shiaonu call me an uncle. I am a friend of Jinu. If you don’t mind, I will call you uncle, since we share the same family name. “
“That’s a relief. If you really become my uncle, I won’t dare to ask you do anything for me.” I quickly make the comment after Zhao Yan. It’s quite shameless, I know, and I get the grim glance from Papa. I lower my head and hope I haven’t messed it up.
Then I hear Niang’s soft voice. “Mr. Zhao Yan, please forgive Shiaonu’s bluntness. She has been well spoiled by us. If you don’t mind, please think of us as your family, think of Jinu, Ponu and Shiaonu be your cousins, and we be your uncle and aunt. We have just moved in Chang’an and we are grateful knowing you. Not only you have helped Shiaonu when she was lost, but also have helped Jinu in getting acquainted with so many helpful businessmen. I know your family is not here, so please feel free treating us as your family. We might not have much, but at least we can offer you a warm meal when you are hungry, a shelter when it’s raining, and a shoulder when you need to lean on.”
I want to applaud for Niang, who has never shared such an emotional speech towards anybody other than family members. Zhao Yan has successfully struck a chord with her. She sees Zhao Yan as another Ponu without a family.
However, a sudden sense of uneasiness crawls over my spine. I begin to doubt myself. Have I done a right thing bring Zhao Yan so close to my family?
“Aunt and uncle,” Zhao Yan stands up and bows down deeply towards Niang and Papa. I am almost certain I heard a crack in his voice. “Thank you for your willingness of including me into your family. I, Zhao Yan, promise here, that from now on, you are part of my family, just like I am yours. I will forever remember your kindness and make sure I do everything I can to protect this family.”
Jinu stands up too and pats on Zhao’s back emotionally. “All right, all right, welcome to our family. We are glad to have you.” Then he turns to Papa. “Papa, should we celebrate this event?”
“We definitely should. Jinu, go make a reservation at Spring Wind restaurant. We will go there to celebrate tonight.” Papa says decisively. He has accepted Zhao Yan for the sake of Niang. He knows her soft spot, and he is willing to accommodate.
But to me, that sense of uneasiness does not go away. Instead, it becomes stronger. I raise my head and see Zhao Yan talking with my brother. Just like Jinu, he is in short linen clothes, quite a dress down from his usual silk long garment. I start wondering who he really is: the blood-soaked injured Xiongnu, the flamboyant rich merchant, the specially-treated patron in the brothel, the married guy with twelve wives, or the one in front of me, a down-to-earth guy with a simple and honest smile on his face.
I have always suspected he is not what he seems. His injury, his friends, and the heavy-guarded compound, none of them is a good sign. If I am not in such a desperate situation, I doubt I would ever see him again, let alone bring him so close to my family. I know he will never hurt them, but somehow, I always feel an unusual sense of alert whenever he is around.
10 Winter Banquet
When October comes, we celebrate the New Year. Imagine my shock when I heard that the first day of the year is October 1st. I thought I had time traveled again. The
re is still November and December afterwards, for they are just the second and third month of a new year.
I have learned from my brother Jinu that the calendar they are using came from Black Emperor, one of the five Emperors in history named after colors: Yellow Emperor, Red Emperor, Green Emperor, White Emperor and Black Emperor. The last one, Black Emperor, united China thousands of years ago. They are more or less like mystical figures as Hercules is in western culture. Legend has it that they rule both the earth and the heaven. Their stories have been recorded in Shan Hai Jing, the most comprehensive collection of stories covering myths, history, and geography. My favorite bedtime story, when I was little, was how the fight between Fire God and Water God broke one of the four pillars that hold up the sky. It has caused the Great Flood that almost killed the human race.
I have also studied the calendar very carefully, trying to piece out together any real connections between myth and real world. It is amazing to find the accuracy of time recording. There are average twenty nine days in a month, three hundred sixty five days in a year, with seven leap months for every nineteen years. Pretty close to Gregorian calendar commonly use thousands years later.
The good news is Zhao Yan has set up a new shop in East Market Place. It was the first store ever focusing exclusively to women. Not only it sells soaps, lotions, perfumes and other natural skin care products, it also sells uniquely designed jewelry. Each design only applies to one set of jewelry. Every piece, sold at a ridiculously high price, is recorded and will be tracked by store bookkeepers to guarantee the authenticity for the buyers. It is also guaranteed to buy back every piece of jewelry with full price, which is of course with no damage. But so far, not even one piece has been returned to the store. In fact, it has been so successful, it becomes the trend setter for women in Chang’an, or I should say women in Han.
Yes, this is the store financed by Zhao Yan, managed by Aunt Red, a once rumored mistress for late Chief Minister. But everything inside the store has been designed by me.
The Jewelry business was an accidental one. Zhao Yan gave me a small box of pearls as a gift for New Year. It was given in front of my parents, so I took it and then made myself a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a necklace. I have taken some jewelry making classes for a couple of summers. Zhao Yan liked them and suggested us adding jewelry in our store. So I worked with jewelers he has hired. As a shrewd businessman, he knows how to sell. I am only supposed to come up with a design once a month. It’s a real easy task for me. I just close my eyes and go through my own jewelry and come up with ideas. Not every design can be done exactly as I designed. But they are new, they are different and they have all the hype associated with it.
Zhao Yan’s own tanning shop started using wood ash water as solution to soak the hides. It made his workers happy since it made their job much easier and they can process more tanning for their customers.
Xiao Xiao Dian Xin has been doing well too. The steamed custard became the number one selling item. Instead of using bowl to contain the custard, we used a pastry made in the shape of cups. It has become the most popular item among the elders and children. For New Year, I made some caramel candies. At first Papa was planning to give it for free when people purchasing our food. But more and more customers asking of it, Papa decided to sell it too. We kept the free candies with purchase as well.
Our ducks have kept up with egg supply, which enabled us to sell our salted eggs in almost every restaurant in Chang’an. Jinu hired a couple of our former neighbors to attend our ducks and to make salted eggs in our village. He only needs to go back there once a while to check it up.
I have continued sending homemade food to General Wei, Ponu and Huo. Ponu has finished his boot camp training and is now an official Imperial guard. He comes home once a few days and always complains about the terrible food he has at the Palace. Those complaints made Niang constantly reminding me to cook for him. Papa and Jinu then make the delivery. Well, I always make three sets. Two will be delivered to Ponu and his new boss Huo Qubing and the other will be to General Wei.
My preparation for running away goes accordingly as well, except I still don’t know how to ride a horse. I had naively believe that after Ponu finishes the boot camp, he might be able to help me. But he told me he could not teach me with the horse assigned to him. I can afford to buy a horse now, but neither do I have a stable, nor do I know how to take care of it.
So I train myself more vigorously. Depending on myself is always more assuring. But I cannot find a place to run. Chang’an is filled with guards everywhere, let alone running in the city. I started the rope jumping and I really do not like it. Running outdoor has always been my favorite thing to do. I can never understand people running on the treadmill in the air conditioned gym. To me, the fresh air, the cool breeze, even the smells of plants invigorate me. I always thought the fun of running is to let yourself merge with nature in a simple and direct way.
If there is anything that bothers me, then it has to be the alcohol making. I buy the cheapest wine made of grain, then distill and filter it multiple times to get the more concentrated alcohol, which is actually a hard liquor. It is the same process as making vodka. I use the concentrated alcohol to make perfume. But Zhao Yan and his friends have fallen in love with this clear and highly concentrated hard liquor. Even Jinu and Papa like to drink it. With two small copper distillers I have made, I am constantly asked to make more liquor.
More people has been hired in the store, which has relieved Niang from working there all the time. She has passed to Jinu all the recipes, by now they become so different. After modification and improvement, I don’t know the exact recipes any more. Niang spends a lot of time preparing for my dowry, which always depressed me whenever I see her excited face.
I am pretty much bored at home. So I have started lots of projects, putting all my high school chemistry, physics, and science knowledge to work. But I quickly realize even the most basic materials are not available. If I cannot make them from scratch, then just forget about it.
Paper making is an easy project with all the materials I need. There are already paper like material in this world. But they are either too expensive or too soft to be anything else other than toilet papers. I do not have bleach. But the light brownish paper is good enough for now. With a charcoal, I start picking up my sketching and drawing skills. Papa is quite pleased with me staying within the four walls of rear court all the time. He believes that matches with the behaviors of girls from good families.
When December comes, General Wei has sent his house manager, a friend of Papa by now, to tell us to prepare a winter banquet in his house. He does not have any specific requirement, just wants us to take care of it.
Winter in Chang’an has always been accompanied with frequent snow and gusty wind. So the challenge is how to keep the food warm while the banquet last for hours. I come up with the idea of serving hot pot for the banquet after I saw the homeless outside the city wall cooking food in a clay jar over the fire.
Of course I cannot serve that way for the Banquet. So I designed a small hot pot stove, with stove in the center and cooking pot around it. It reduces the open flames during the banquet but keeps the pot simmering. I make a clay version of the stove to Jinu, who then takes it to a blacksmith shop and orders one hundred units of it in copper.
We have also made about four hundred pounds of charcoals from wood. It should provide enough fuel lasting for the whole banquet.
Hot Pot was actually invented by boat pullers on Yangtze River, located in southwest of China. They made their livings by pulling the boat through shallow rapids or upstream water. Most of the time, they had to wait by the river until a boat came by and needed their help. In order to keep the food hot, someone invented the hot pot and it quickly became popular in most part of China.
The fun of having hot pot is to cook right at the table. With the simmering broth, prepared from chicken, mushroom and fish, you put in whatever food you choose to the pot and
wait until it’s done. It is a perfect choice for long and cold winter nights. We have prepared a lot of food: thinly sliced lamb and fish, tofu, dumpling, green bean noodle, mushrooms, as well as any vegetables we can find in winter.
The dessert for the banquet is a large white creamy cake decorated with a branch of blooming red flowers. It looks like a piece of Chinese painting with red flowers in the white snow.
When Papa comes to the kitchen, I have just prepared some hot tea for myself.
“Hurry, Emperor Wu and Empress Wei want to see you.” Papa says to me.
Initially I did not plan to come to the banquet, then I thought this might be my last chance ever to meet Emperor and Empress. With my impending runaway plan, it no longer scares me to be drafted to work in Palace by Empress Wei. After all, I would like to meet Emperor Wu, the most ambitious Emperor in Chinese History, and his wife, the beautiful and obedient Empress.
I take off my apron, stretch out my wrinkled clothes a little, and check my hair. By now, I have already learned how to bow and curtsy gracefully.
General Wei’s estate is very large, with numerous courts placed around a large garden. The Banquet are held in the largest building in the front. I travel under the covered porch, and see the lights passing through the bamboo and silk curtains.
At a signal of a guard, I bow down at the entrance door, waiting for somebody inside to notice me and ask me in. The hall has been lit up well with oil lamps and torches. The heat escaped out when curtain draws. It is quite a contrast to the coldness of outside world. Since afternoon, it has been snowing, first gentle, then it gets heavier and heavier. By now the snowflakes swirls violently with the wind. Some of them sneak into my neck, which makes me shivering.
I keep waiting there and I start to have the feeling of separation, as if I can see myself, from midair in the garden. Everything becomes surreal to me. Dark, snowy winter night and the warm and crowded banquet; a roomful larger than life historical legends and a frail little girl by the door.
My Soul is in the Sky Page 10
