Chang’an Small Restaurant

Chapter 31.1 Ham and Handsome

After the Double Ninth Festival, Guo Dalang and Missus Li had almost sold off most of their surplus inventory, so they began to pack their luggage and prepared to depart.

Shen Shaoguang gave them a large box of flower cakes. "If there are no food shops on the way, you can accommodate for it with this."

Missus Li looked at the box of beautiful flower cakes and said with a smile, "I can't bear to eat this on the road. We’ll be sure to bring it home and let the rest of the family see and have a taste of what the city has to provide. After all, there are no such things in the countryside." After staying in Chang'an for so many years, although she thought about leaving all day long, now that she was really leaving, Missus Li couldn’t help reminiscing its positives.

"It isn’t much of a distance. Whenever you want to come back for a stroll, just come back again." Shen Shaoguang always bore the ideology of the modern Global Village Era.

Missus Li only thought she was comforting her, so she held Shen Shaoguang’s hands and reluctantly said, "Most importantly, I will no longer have a great neighbor like you, Miss."

Shen Shaoguang smiled, "But there’s your daughter and daughter-in-law by your side, attending to your needs. Isn’t it great to have the whole family to live together again?"

Missus Li laughed and nodded, "That’s for sure!"

 ……

After seeing off the former tenants, Shen Shaoguang invited masons and carpenters to start decorating the new storefront. Of course before this was done, Shen Shaoguang negotiated with her landlord of the old store about opening the wall, and extended the lease by two more years.

Now the eatery had a steady source of income, it was not difficult to upfront for both the extended rent and new renovations.

There was no need to skimp on materials and save money in decoration; with her current storefront as the foundation, it was best to keep a consistent style after connecting the two. So there was also no need to think about new styles or tricks, this kind of renovation couldn't be any simpler.

The whitewashed walls were installed with wooden shelves, embellished with flower pots and small trinkets from the West Market such as clay dolls, toy horses, woven straw birds, bull horn trumpet, et cetera. Then add a couple more paintings and the decoration was complete.

With similar colored wooden food tables, with the new space big enough, her new tavern no longer needed to have ‘wall-facing’ counters. However she kept the counters on the former half of the eatery– maybe clients who dined alone preferred this style?

The ground was now covered with lichen carpets—it had been bamboo mats, but with continuous use, Shen Shaoguang discovered that they were not very durable. Strips of bamboo were rubbed out of place, it would be troublesome if it were to poke the feet of customers. Moreover, bamboo mats were not easy to clean, so Shen Shaoguang spread a soft carpet in the main area. Now with the renovations, she decided to have the whole floor be covered in lichen.

The lichen carpets seemed to be made from a mixture of camel, cow, and sheep wool. The varying shades of brown and specks of white coursed throughout the thick cable knits; somewhat similar to the woolen cloth of later generations, but just firmer.

Although it was an exotic item, it was actually not very expensive. It was incomparable with the famous Xuancheng‘s Crimson Threaded Carpet[1]’, and even the local velvet carpets made in Chang'an were of better quality, but to have lichen carpets on the floor of a tavern were already par excellence. Besides, the overall color and style paired well with the overall decorations.

The kitchen was naturally also expanded. The masons were requested to build thin walls, while the carpenters built a wooden door and a pass through window for delivering food to the lobby. The doors of the windows were opened and could not be moved; they were solely created for aesthetic purposes.

What brought the most joy to Shen Shaoguang was the presence of a small well in the backyard of the newly rented store; this meant they no longer had to travel far to fetch water. Furthermore, in the summer, she would also be able to have ‘ice cold’ snacks.

As for the decoration of the backyard house, it couldn’t have been any simpler. The original lessee, Missus Li, was a fastidious person. She had the floor paved with tiles, and kept good care of the bed frames and cabinets provided by the landlord. Shen Shaoguang only needed to repaint the walls, repair the broken floor tiles, and add a suitable sized mosquito net for each new bed. After that, the house could now welcome its new tenants.

Shen Shaoguang and A’Yuan used the big bedroom in the main building. There was a smaller room closer to the door to the backyard, which was perfect for Yu San.

When it was time to move, the abbot took Jing Qing, Jing Ci, and other nuns and saw her out of the nunnery. Shen Shaoguang respectfully bowed to the abbot  again. When she first came out of the imperial palace, she had no place to lodge. Senior Buddhist Nun Yuanjue didn't judge her due to her destitute situation, not only did she take her in, but also treated her generously; Shen Shaoguang engraved the abbot’s benevolence in her heart.

Senior Buddhist Nun Yuanjue smiled kindly at her.

Shen Shaoguang smiled back, "When Senior Buddhist Nun’s <The Classic of Noodle> is finished, please be sure to allow me to read it."

Senior Buddhist Nun Yuanjue and Jing Qing both laughed, but Jing Ci’s mood remained sullen. Originally, she was thinking about when to persuade the abbot to drive this necessitous girl away, but now that she was leaving on her own accord, Jing Ci couldn’t muster up any feeling of satisfaction. It was similar to when a man looked down on his girlfriend and wanted to break up, but felt humiliated when his girlfriend proposed to break up first.

…

Once they moved in, the three busied themselves as they sweeped, tidied up, rearranged, and made two more trips to the West Market to buy some forgotten necessities. After bustling for several more days, when the weather had even gotten a bit colder, did the calm finally settled in.

After closing the tavern and locking the doors, Shen Shaoguang headed back to wash up, reading two pages of a book before putting her shoes back on. She headed to the inner part of the courtyard to look at the preserved meat, pork leg, and several kinds of game hanging under the building and asked Yu San, who had just finished washing up, "Why hasn’t this meat reddened and hardened yet?"

Yu San went into the house, brought out a bamboo stick, and poked one of the cuts, "Miss, it’s best not to come out to gaze upon these so often. The more you look, the less it’ll change."

Wait… why put the blame on me?

Shen Shaoguang suddenly recalled the legendary phenomenon known as the ‘Quantum Zeno effect’. This so-called Turing paradox stated that, "frequent measurements during this nonexponential period could inhibit decay of the system." This was because ‘in quantum mechanics, continual observations will prevent motion. Higher frequency of observations will slow down the transitions of the system.’

So, the reason the meat isn’t aging well is really because I come too often to observe it?

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Footnote:

[1] Crimson Threaded Carpet - these are made of silk that were dyed red. Heavy carpets made of real silk… that’s a lot of silkworm cocoons…