Read Novel Full Chapter 24
Chapter 24 A Lucky Draw
Pei Fei came to the Lin Residence to snitch another meal.
Pei Fei and Lin Yan were from the same hometown, their family backgrounds were also rather consonant. They both have good surnames and were from waning clans. The difference was that the entirety of the Lin Clan was close to ruin while Pei Fei's family was just a small dead branch of the Pei Clan. When they were in Hedong, the two studied together, accompanied each other, and also began their entry-level examinations[1] the same year. Seeing that they were young yet promising, with good taste and graceful bearing, Cui Xun, the governor of Puzhou Province, once nicknamed them to be ‘two joined jade annuli[2]’.
However their fortunes in officialdom differed greatly. Right before he could continue his examinations, Pei Fei’s family was struck with tragedy. Pei Fei halted his studies and had to filial mourn[3] for his ancestors, and then his father’s. This single misfortune milled away several years of his time, but misery loves company, and when he finally passed the Ministry of Rites Examination, the placement exam issued by the Ministry of Personnel[4] hindered him yet again. He had to wait another three years before he could retake the exam.
It wasn’t until this spring that he finally passed the Placement Exam[4] and was awarded the post of a ninth-rank Editing Clerk. By this time, Lin Yan was already wearing a scarlet-colored robe, sitting in the position as the capital city’s Deputy Magistrate.
It’s extremely frustrating to compare oneself to another, and while one compares goods, the inferior item would always be thrown away! Fortunately, Pei Fei was a true big-hearted person, otherwise he may not have been able to continue associating himself with this old friend.
As good companions and respectable juniors, Pei Fei and Lin Yan spent the Mid-Autumn Festival with Elder Madam Jiang.
Elder Madam Jiang had a bad memory but she remembered Pei Fei clearly. She called him ‘Twelfth child’, while Lin Yan was the ‘eldest child’, as if they were real brothers.
The ‘family’ enjoyed the moon and held a small ‘party’ in the small pavilion in the back garden.
Elder Madam Jiang broke off a piece of snowy mooncake with jujube paste and savored it slowly. "It tastes a little similar to the Double Seventh Cake we had not too long ago..."
Lin Yan smiled, his grandmother's memory was at times quite sharp.
Elder Madam enjoyed soft, mushy, sweet, and greasy stuffing the most, thus she was extremely satisfied with the jujube paste. Wanting to share this joy, she persuaded Pei Fei and Lin Yan, "Twelfth child, eldest child, you should try it too."
Pei Fei smiled and took a baked mooncake. He was about to split the pastry when he noticed the verse printed on top: ‘a sprig from an osmanthus grove, a chip of jade from Kunshan[5]’.
There were also words printed on the back of the cake: ‘A toast to bright prospects.’
Plucking a branch of osmanthus from the moon[6]… What a suitable encouragement. Osmanthus trees were also appropriate for the occasion, after all it was the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Lin Yan also took a piece, and was startled by the words on the cake. However, he quickly recovered and took a bite as if nothing had happened.
Pei Fei was curious as to what else was written, so he took another piece. The front said ‘The moon viewed at home is brighter[7]’, and the back wrote ‘A toast for distant friends and relatives’.
Wow, this is quite interesting.
The maid who was pouring wine nearby said with a smile, "These are called 'Inscribed Mooncakes'. It’s similar to the kau chim[8] offered in temples, but this is more of a game that can be played during banquets."
"Whose idea was this?" Pei Fei inquired with a smile.
"This… this maid doesn’t know much other than it was bought from the outside." The maid smiled and replied.
Pei Fei drew a ‘good fortune’, and couldn't help feeling a little happy, so he asked Lin Yan, "An Ran, what was on your piece?"
Lin Yan replied indifferently, "It's nothing, just a few auspicious words."
However, Pei Fei had already reached out and took the other half of his cake. There were only the words ‘in her brightness’ and ‘How lovely is’ left on the front[9], and the remaining words on the back read: ‘a toast’ and ‘beautiful wife’.
Pei Fei laughed loudly, and then handed the split piece of cake to Elder Madam Jiang, "Congratulations Elder Madam, it seems An Ran's happiness is coming soon. We should follow the instructions on this cake and have a toast to celebrate!"
Elder Madam Jiang was very familiar with the classics, so she could tell at a glance that the full verse was ‘The moon comes forth in her brightness; How lovely is that beautiful lady![9]’. With the maid's explanation just now and Pei Fei's teasing words, she accurately discerned that the first half of the sentence in the back of the mooncake was ‘A toast for being blessed with a beautiful wife’. She laughed and happily said to Lin Yan, "We have to drink this toast!"
Pei Fei glanced at Elder Madam Jiang with a look of askance. "An Ran wanted to brush it over just now..."
Elder Madam Jiang said with feigned strictness, "You must drink."
Although the servants and maids weren’t versed in poetry, they understood the underlying conversation, so they all started to laugh.
Lin Yan pursed his lips and raised his cup with a helpless smile.
After taking a sip of the wine, Elder Madam Jiang also curiously picked up a piece of baked mooncake. The words on the front read: ‘As the moon brightly shines over the sea; The entire world shares this moment together[10].’ While the back was ‘A toast to a prosperous and peaceful era.’
Elder Madam Jiang laughed, "Great! How exquisite! How befitting!"
Both Lin Yan and Pei Fei held up their cups of wine and toasted Elder Madam Jiang.
Elder Madam Jiang was up in age, so after a few sips of wine, she felt a little tired. Seeing that the time was a little late, she was ready to head back and rest, however, she forbade the ‘younger generation’ from seeing her off. "You can keep playing, I have A’Su and the others to help me."
Lin Yan and Pei Fei only walked her to the gate of the garden, and then turned back. Pei Fei was much more unrestrained without the presence of Elder Madam Jiang. He brought the whole plate of Inscribed Mooncakes in front of him, looked through them one by one, and finally discerned the reason for his luck– there weren’t any ‘misfortune’ draws, it was all ‘A successful and smooth career’, ‘Prosperity and safety’, ‘Great talent and magnanimity’, etc etc...
However, in this sense, this game would be rather boring. To avoid garnering hate, the patissier resorted to tricks, such as this one: ‘To invite the moon, I raise my cup; we’re three, as my shadow shows up[11]’, but the words in the back read: ‘You’re drunk, stop drinking’.
Pei Fei spat out his tea.
Lin Yan smiled while furrowing his brows at him.
Pei Fei laughed and showed him the cake with trembling hands.
Lin Yan also couldn't help laughing. He then pursed his lips and thought– Truly up to no good!
Shen Shaoguang remained unaware that someone had just slandered her for her sense of humor. She was currently happily selling mooncakes and floral cakes.
The lanterns were up during the fifteenth of the seventh lunar month as well as during the middle of the eighth lunar month. The amount of people out at night were also just as abundant. Shen Shaoguang gave A’Yuan a handful of copper coins and allowed her to go out and play, while she ran her shop by herself.
Shen Indelible had established itself in the Lane for selling exquisite and delicious pastries. This was an especially widely-known fact to the children of the Lane; while out shopping, whenever they passed by her shop, they would pester the adults to come in and make a purchase for them.
Even those who thought the mooncakes were too expensive before would very likely buy a few pieces now— it was the holidays after all. Besides, it was naturally expensive to buy a whole set, but buying them individually for two or three wen, was still affordable.
Shen Shaoguang was originally afraid that there would be leftovers. Whatever was left unsold today would be marked down and sold off cheap. Just the thought of marking down her goods was agonizing, but Shen Shaoguang had no choice. Firstly, these cakes didn't have a long shelf life and secondly, after the holidays, these things would lose all their value.
What she hadn’t expected was how fast and how popular her mooncakes were, and in a blink of an eye, there were barely any left.
Shen Shaoguang put a few pieces of baked mooncakes in the crepe packaging, and handed them to a couple. "Enjoy."
She threw the copper coins into the money basket and looked up. In front of her was a man, standing under the tree at the door— it was none other than Court Scribe Liu.
Although Liu Feng often came to eat these days, he spoke much less than usual. Sometimes he would secretly glance at her, but whenever Shen Shaoguang looked over, he would quickly look away; he seemed to say something but never opened up.
Shen Shaoguang really wanted to jokingly ask him as she would in her previous life, "Yo bro! Do you have a crush on me?" However, due to her apprehensions of the current time period, she dared not to act so rashly.
Now that she saw him again, completely blending into the scenery, Shen Shaoguang could only helplessly smile at him.
Though Shen Shaoguang thought he looked like a mob, Liu Feng was completely dazzled by Shen Shaoguang. He thought she looked as pretty as a painting—
Behind the bamboo lattice window and under the light, stood an elegant and feminine beauty; her beautiful yet hopeful eyes, her clever yet charming smile… Is this what a moon fairy looks like?
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Footnotes:
[1] entry-level examinations - In ancient China, one has to pass through several exams to achieve higher social status, but most importantly, a position as a government official. The highest level of honor would be passing the palace level, with successful candidates being known as 'jinshi'. In order to become a jinshi, you must pass all of these in the following order:
1. Entry-level examinations, or "child examinations"; held every year locally and accessible to educated individuals from their early teenage years.
2. Provincial examination, or "countryside/hometown examination", and "prefectural examination"; held every three years in provincial capitals.
3. Metropolitan examination, or "department examination", and "ministry of rites examination"; held every three years in the national capital.
4. Palace examination, or "hall examination", "imperial/government examination" and "courtyard examination"); held every three years in the imperial palace and often supervised by the emperor himself.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination
[2] ‘two joined jade annuli (连璧) are two jades that join into one pendant. Think those friendship pendant bracelets where two pieces fit together, but made in jade. This term also has an underlying meaning 'to combine two good things.'
[3] filial mourn (丁忧) - refers to a bureaucratic norm, practiced since the Han dynasty, whereby officials of the imperial government of China were obliged to resign their posts and return to their home upon the death of a parent or grandparent. During the mourning period, banqueting, marriage, official activities and participation in the Imperial Examinations are all proscribed. The length of the mourning period is nominally three years.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_mourning
[4] Ministry of Personnel’s Placement Exam (釋褐試) - Under the Tang, six categories of regular civil-service examinations were organized by the Department of State Affairs and held by the Ministry of Rites: cultivated talents, classicists, presented scholars, legal experts, writing experts, and arithmetic experts. However, during the Tang dynasty, the nominees for office (貢士) were not automatically granted the status of appointee when having passed the Metropolitan examination. Only when subjected to a quality evaluation (Placement Exam) by the Ministry of Personnel, were they eligible for an office. It consisted of an assessment of the figure of the candidate, his speech, his calligraphy, and intelligence. A common principle was that competence was more important than moral conduct. Only after the Placement Exam, can the passing candidate try for the Palace Examination.
Source: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/examination.html
[5] ‘A sprig from an osmanthus grove, a chip of jade from Kunshan’ - This figurative term has its origin in Xi Shen (郤詵) of the Jin dynasty (265–420), who self-deprecatingly referred to himself as such before the emperor as such. It means to pass the imperial examination.
[6] ‘Plucking a branch of osmanthus from the moon’ - This is the full version of the first part of the previous verse.
[7] ‘The moon viewed at home is brighter’- A poem by Du Fu, from the Tang Dynasty, expressing nostalgia for his hometown. Read more here- http://www.enread.com/poems/zhongying/98370.html#:~:text=THINKING%20OF%20MY%20BROTHERS%20ON%20A%20MOONLIT%20NIGHT&text=A%20swan%20honks%201%20on%20autumn%20frontier.
[8] kau chim - also known as lottery poetry (求签), is a fortune telling practice that originated in China in which a person poses questions and interprets answers from flat sticks inscribed with text or numerals. The practice is often performed in a Taoist or Buddhist temple in front of an altar. Read more here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kau_chim
[9] ‘The moon comes forth in her brightness; How lovely is that beautiful lady’ - From a poem called ‘Moonrise’ (月出), you can read the full poem here - https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_kbY1lL7NlO4C/page/n411/mode/2up
[10] ‘As the moon brightly shines over the sea; the entire world shares this moment together’ - This is a verse from the famous poem 'Gazing at the Moon, Longing from Afar' (望月怀远) by Zhang Jiuling from the Tang Dynasty. You can read a translation of the whole poem here- https://www.italki.com/en/post/exercise-83780
[11] ‘To invite the moon, I raise my cup; we’re three, as my shadow shows up’, - This verse comes from 'Drinking Alone Accompanied by the Moon' (月下独酌) by Li Bai. Here's a good translation of the full poem - https://empus.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/月下獨酌-drinking-alone-by-moonlight/