Eight Treasures Trousseau

75

Chapter Seventy-Five: The Winds Rise Again

Yan Jin Qiu woke up groggy from a heavy sleep. It might have been because he had slept for so long, or because he was ill, that he felt his vision was slightly blurry. He only focused when he heard movement beside him.

"Is it a little better?"

A warm hand appeared on his forehead. He blinked and saw Hua Xi Wan bend down to touch her lips to his forehead.

"Your temperature has gone down." Hua Xi Wan straightened up. "You slept for many hours. Get up and eat something."

The servant girl standing behind perceptively handed over a porcelain bowl painted with blue over white. Hua Xi Wan used her injured hand to hold the bowl as she used her right hand to raise the spoon for a taste. It was slightly hot, so she blew on the spoon before moving it in front of Yan Jin Qiu. "Come, taste this. This is a vegetable porridge that I had the kitchens make just for you. After you recover, I will have them make good things for you to eat. Right now, I can only first maltreat your stomach."

Mu Tong helped Yan Jin Qiu sit up against the bed. Seeing Wang Fei use a tone as though she was talking to a child to treat Wang Ye, he looked carefully at Wang Ye. Not seeing any anger on his face, Mu Tong bowed and moved to the side.

Yan Jin Qiu looked at the porridge inside the spoon. She said it was vegetable porridge, and it really was a simple vegetable porridge. Finely chopped vegetables gave off a faint fragrance scattered among the glowing grains of rice. He felt a great hunger and swallowed the spoonful.

Seeing Yan Jin Qiu eating, Hua Xi Wan used chopsticks to pick up a piece of finely cut pickled carrots from a dish on the side. She moved it to Yan Jin Qiu's mouth with a smile. "Come, try this."

"What is this?" Yan Jin Qiu looked with puzzlement at what was on the chopsticks.

"This is pickled carrots. It is not very hard to make. Every year when there are the most vegetables, the common people will put them into salt water to soak. During seasons when there are not many vegetables, they will eat this with rice." Hua Xi Wan thought and then added, "When one eats too much oily food, this is very suitable for stimulating the appetite."

He had heard that many of the common people ate this. Yan Jin Qiu was suspicious of the taste of this food, but he still put it into his mouth. It was slightly sour and slightly salty. He could not say if it was good or not. However, because it was salty, it was really a match for the rice.

What Hua Xi Wan did not tell Yan Jin Qiu was that the pickled vegetables that he ate had gone through many steps. They had been soaked in saltwater along with other kinds of ingredients. The kind that the common people ate did not have so much care put into it.

"It is all right to occasionally taste this. Will there be any effects if one eats this frequently?" Yan Jin Qiu finished drinking the porridge with the pickled vegetables. After rinsing his mouth, he asked, "The medical books say that pickled food commonly harms the body."

"Of course it is not good to frequently eat this." Hua Xi Wan used a hot towel to wipe his hands with one of hers. "Most of the common people will think of all kinds of ways to make their lives better. Otherwise, why would so many novel foods appear from among them?"

"The truly intelligent and able usually are among the common people." Yan Jin Qiu sighed. "But even so, it would be better if they had more fresh vegetables and fruit to eat." The prestigious and noble families would never lack food, but the common people's livelihoods depended on the weather. It was good if the weather was good, but if it was a bad year, the days were hard.