His posture made it seem as if he would stand up and cause trouble at any moment.
“That was close! That was close!” Sui Sui shouted as she ran into the entrance of the noodle shop, jumping and holding her sleeves tightly with both hands, afraid that the osmanthus flowers she picked would fall out. She only carefully opened her sleeves a little when she saw her mother fetching water in the backyard. “Mom, smell this. Does it smell good?”
Yu Jinnian also came back covered in the scent of osmanthus, hearing the mother and daughter laughing and chatting from afar.
Aunt Xu covered her mouth and laughed lightly. When she saw Yu Jinnian coming in, she teased him, “You two little thieves, where did you go to play wild this time?”
“Sui Sui, you come back and immediately complain to Aunt Xu. Who was the one who first insisted on going to see it? Just watch how I deal with you!” Yu Jinnian pretended to grab the little girl, who screamed and jumped away, running behind Aunt Xu and peeking out her head. They started playing a game of eagle catching chickens, making Aunt Xu laugh heartily.
After they had enough fun, Yu Jinnian found a bamboo tray and poured the osmanthus flowers from his sleeves onto it to dry. Sui Sui imitated him, standing beside and pouring the flowers from her sleeves as well.
Seeing the two children, one big and one small, getting along like siblings, Aunt Xu felt very gratified. After a while, she suddenly remembered something and said, “There is indeed an osmanthus tree in Yan Zi Alley, planted by Old Master Cheng’s family. However, both Old Master Cheng and his wife passed away a few years ago, and the courtyard has been empty since.”
Thinking of the strange man he saw at the entrance today, Yu Jinnian asked, “Is the courtyard ownerless?”
Aunt Xu replied, “Who knows? If it were ownerless, the authorities should have sent someone to clean it up years ago. But after all these years, the courtyard remains the same, with no one touching it. It seems it still has an owner?”
First, it was ownerless, then it had an owner, but the man indeed intended to enter the courtyard, making Yu Jinnian puzzled. The courtyard was just an ordinary neighbor’s yard. According to Aunt Xu, the previous owner, Old Master Cheng, used to work for a wealthy family. As he grew older, he retired and returned to his hometown, bought the house to spend his old age, and worked as a bookkeeper for a few years. He was kind and knowledgeable, well-respected by the neighbors. The only pity was that no relatives ever visited his house. When he and his wife passed away, the neighbors handled the funeral.
Given this, the man seemed even more suspicious.
As Yu Jinnian pondered, Sui Sui tugged at his sleeve, blinking and asking, “Brother Jinnian, what are we having for dinner?”
Yu Jinnian snapped out of his thoughts and figured that he had already invited the man for a meal as an apology. If he showed up, they would know the truth; if not, it would just be a meal to treat Aunt Xu and her daughter.
Speaking of food, Yu Jinnian had to carefully consider it. Since it was an apology meal, the dishes couldn’t be too shabby. They had to show some sincerity, but he also couldn’t afford to be too extravagant.
After much thought, he gradually came up with a menu and started preparing the ingredients.
Sui Sui volunteered to help. Seeing her sincere eyes, shining like black grapes, he gave her some large, fresh oyster mushrooms to tear into small pieces.
The little girl obediently moved a small stool to the doorway and started working seriously.
Yu Jinnian also grabbed a basket and began peeling garlic.
During this time, Sui Sui sneaked a few glances at him, finally unable to hold back and asked what they were having for dinner. Yu Jinnian, smiling inwardly, realizing her help was just a pretext to spy, quickly listed the dishes, “Pearl meatballs, lucky tofu, colorful osmanthus chicken wings, garlic golden pumpkin, with a three-flavor oyster mushroom soup, and yuanbao egg rolls as a snack.”
Sui Sui swallowed and felt even hungrier. She muttered for a while, seeming a bit dazed, then suddenly ran to Aunt Xu’s room, shouting, “Mom, mom! I have something important to tell you!”
Meanwhile, Yu Jinnian finished peeling the garlic, each clove white and plump, and returned to the kitchen to start cooking. As for Sui Sui’s report to Aunt Xu about “pearl meatballs” and “Aunt Lu’s tofu,” he couldn’t care less.
His first dish was “garlic golden pumpkin.”
Golden pumpkin refers to a pumpkin that, when cooked in oil, turns a golden color. The name suggests the main ingredients are garlic and pumpkin. Garlic warms the stomach, and pumpkin boosts energy. Remembering the man he met under the osmanthus tree, though he had an ethereal demeanor, he seemed too cold and weary, with a pale complexion and lips. Yu Jinnian guessed he might have spleen deficiency and weak energy, hence the dish.
Golden pumpkin tastes best when baked in a clay pot. First, he brushed a layer of oil on the bottom of the pot, then spread white, plump garlic cloves evenly. He sprinkled some nutmeg, angelica dahurica, bay leaves, and scallion and ginger slices for flavor and their warming effects. Finally, he layered pumpkin slices with the skin into the pot and added salt, soy sauce, and a little water.
This dish took the most time, requiring the stove to be set to high heat to bring it to a boil, then reduced to low heat to simmer slowly.
The kitchen was filled with steam, making Yu Jinnian’s cheeks flush red. He wiped the fine sweat from his temples and then began preparing the next dish. He first used a small mallet to pound the cleaned chicken wings, making the meat more tender and elastic. Then, he used scissors to make an incision at the wing tips, carefully extracting the bones to create boneless wings. He set them aside to marinate briefly in soy sauce and sugar, preparing to make the “Colorful Osmanthus Chicken Wings.”
This dish was inspired by a chicken wing stuffed with rice that Yu Jinnian had tried in a snack street in his previous life. Although the boneless chicken wings stuffed with glutinous rice were novel and delicious, they became greasy and heavy toward the end. So, he modified the recipe when he got home.
He replaced the glutinous rice with a mix of colorful vegetable cubes to make it lighter and more refreshing. He used whatever vegetables he had on hand, choosing carrots, cucumbers, long beans, corn kernels, and white lotus root. He chopped them into small pieces, blanched them, and mixed them with the freshly picked osmanthus flowers before stuffing them into the boneless chicken wings.
Rolling up his sleeves, Yu Jinnian was about to put the wings in the oil when he heard hurried footsteps outside.
Sui Sui burst in, shouting anxiously, “Oh no, he’s here, he’s here!”
“Who’s here?” Yu Jinnian asked, puzzled.
“The fierce-looking man!” Sui Sui pointed to the front hall.
Yu Jinnian instinctively thought it might be another troublesome customer and immediately walked out. Such incidents were not uncommon before when Aunt Xu also sold cheap liquor in the noodle shop. There was a time when a rogue got drunk, caused trouble, and harassed Aunt Xu, even getting into a fight with the waiter, almost involving the county office. Since then, Aunt Xu, still shaken, stopped selling liquor and only sold noodles.
As he approached the front hall, he noticed an unusual silence where it should have been bustling with noise.
Wondering what kind of formidable person had arrived, Yu Jinnian lifted the curtain and saw a man sitting properly at a small square table, his face stern. He behaved as if he were in an upscale teahouse, waiting to be served, rather than in a humble noodle shop. His demeanor was so out of place that it seemed he might stand up and cause a scene at any moment. This made the other diners move away, creating a clear space around him.
Yu Jinnian was stunned for a moment but quickly collected himself. Since the man was a guest, he had to welcome him. He walked out with a smile, “You’re here?”
The man lifted his eyes coldly at the sound, briefly glanced at the unusual redness on Yu Jinnian’s face, then his long, dark eyelashes lowered again. After a moment, he replied with a low “Mm.”
Although the man was cold, his voice was warm. Yu Jinnian stood by his table, momentarily at a loss for words, “Um, it’s a bit early, the dishes have just been put on the stove.”
The man calmly said, “It’s not early; it’s already past the Hour of the Rooster.”
Yu Jinnian was speechless again, thinking inwardly, what’s with this person? Why does he always kill the conversation? Can’t he just make small talk?
Each table in the noodle shop had a set of coarse porcelain teaware. Since most of the customers were rough folks, no one cared if the tea was warm or cold. The man picked up the small teapot on the table and poured himself a cup. He touched the cup with the back of his index finger and, finding it cold, put it down again.
Yu Jinnian noticed his hands, half-hidden in his sleeves, were white and slender, with a small callus on one finger from writing. Despite the evening chill and the slightly humid air, it wasn’t too cold yet. The man had added a dark smoke-colored cloak since their meeting that afternoon, making Yu Jinnian, who felt like a human furnace, feel hot just looking at him.
Bowing, Yu Jinnian took the cold teapot, saying kindly, “Please wait a moment.”
He went back to the kitchen to make fresh tea.
Passing through the backyard, he smelled the osmanthus flowers drying on the bamboo tray. He had an idea, so he took a handful of osmanthus flowers, some preserved plums from a small jar, and put them into the teapot with hot water, covering it to steep.
Taking advantage of the spare moment, he placed the stuffed chicken wings in the pot to cook and reduced the heat under the pumpkin clay pot. Then, he brought the teapot out.
Lifting the curtain, he met the man’s gaze directly, feeling for a moment a strange sense of embarrassment, as if the man had been staring at that spot, waiting for his return.
But Yu Jinnian quickly dismissed the thought, thinking perhaps the man was just looking at the patterns on the curtain.
Yu Jinnian placed the steaming teapot by the man’s hand and smiled, “It’s very cold, isn’t it? This is osmanthus plum tea, sweet and sour, very tasty. Drinking some can warm your stomach and whet your appetite.” He paused, then continued, “I apologize for earlier this afternoon, for picking the osmanthus flowers from your courtyard. It was because the little girl at home, being young, insisted on getting a few flowers. She has been punished for it.”
He smiled lightly, effortlessly throwing the blame on Sui Sui, who was peeking from behind the curtain and nearly exploded with anger. Who was it that filled their sleeves with flowers?
The man stared at the floral tea before him, seemingly lost in thought, his expression serene, unmoved by Yu Jinnian’s words, making Yu Jinnian feel quite awkward. Just as he was about to get up and leave, the man suddenly called out to him, asking in a deep voice, “May I ask for your name?”
Yu Jinnian stopped, blinked, and answered, “Yu Jinnian. The ‘yu’ means ‘abundance,’ and ‘jinnian’ means ‘glorious years.'”
“…Jinnian.” The man slowly rolled the name on his tongue, then suddenly smiled, “A good name.”
Yu Jinnian stared, not quite understanding his meaning.
“I am Ji Hong, from the north, here to visit an old family friend. He was supposed to live in that osmanthus courtyard, but the door is locked, and I don’t know where he has gone… Do you know anything about his whereabouts?” The man traced the rim of the steaming tea cup with his fingers, his eyes slightly raised, his smile almost imperceptible, making his already beautiful face seem even more captivating. It made one feel that ignoring him was a grave offense.
Yu Jinnian stood there for a moment before remembering to respond, inwardly chiding himself for being so entranced by a man at his “twenty-eight” years of age.
“Are you referring to Old Master Cheng’s family?”
Ji Hong nodded, “Yes.”
Yu Jinnian lowered his head, “My condolences, Old Master Cheng and his wife passed away years ago.”
Ji Hong showed no reaction, merely closing his eyes in silence. Only after the floral tea in his cup had completely cooled did he move his sleeve slightly, muttering “sorry to trouble you,” and got up to leave. He swayed as he walked, not even noticing when the edge of his jade-colored sleeve dipped into the tea cup.
Seeing Ji Hong’s odd behavior, Yu Jinnian felt uneasy. Before Ji Hong could take a second step, Yu Jinnian grabbed him.
Ji Hong turned, looking at him in puzzlement, his brows lightly furrowed.
Yu Jinnian stubbornly held on, “Since you’re here, why not stay for dinner? The dishes are already cooking, and they were meant for you. Besides, since you are a relative of Old Master Cheng, you are also the owner of that courtyard. We should apologize properly for picking the flowers.”
Though his reasoning seemed a bit forced, Ji Hong was moved.
Seeing the man finally nod in agreement, Yu Jinnian smiled in relief, instructing him, “Don’t leave, the dishes will be ready soon.” He poured more hot floral tea for Ji Hong before returning to the kitchen.
Ji Hong sat at the table, feeling dizzy and unsure why he decided to stay for dinner, but he couldn’t refuse the boy’s friendly eyes. Holding the tea cup between two fingers, he slowly took a sip. As the boy said, the plum’s sweetness and tartness mingled with the subtle fragrance of osmanthus, warming his throat, a very familiar taste.
Drinking the hot tea made him even more drowsy. The osmanthus plum tea brought back memories, like opening a cold wind’s passage in a dark night, making his whole body feel heavy and cold. He could only lean his head gently against the wall, forcing himself to rest with his eyes closed.