CHAPTER 65: CHAPTER 65: A PAINTING SENT AS AN APOLOGY

When Lin Wanwan returned to the Tang Dynasty, the sky was slightly brightening, and little Qingyu was almost awake, sleeping on her pillow, eyes closed, hands reaching out and groping around.

Lin Wanwan smiled and pushed the little one further in, then lay back on the bed.

At this moment, the little one opened her eyes and softly called, "Mother."

Lin Wanwan replied with a smile, "Yes."

The little one closed her eyes again, hugged her neck, and continued to sleep. But after barely two seconds of sleep, she spoke again, "Mother, I need to pee."

"Alright, go ahead."

The presence of little Qingyu instantly soothed any aggression in Lin Wanwan’s heart, making her genuinely happy.

Many times, it’s not little Qingyu who can’t be without Lin Wanwan, but rather Lin Wanwan who cannot be without little Qingyu’s company. Giving is also a form of gaining.

A new day starts amidst beauty.

Today at the Lin Family Manor, some men are still lazing around in bed (the day gets shorter, and it gets light late, so they can’t go out to sea early. The fields have all been harvested, and it’s the agricultural off-season, so there’s nothing much to do, hence they sleep on purpose), while others are helping their mothers and wives knead dough to make steamed cakes.

The flour and lamb were delivered last night by the people from the tavern overnight (deducted from the steamed cake money), luckily Mao County doesn’t have city walls, so there’s no such thing as a curfew.

In big cities, people can’t move around at night. The Great Tang implements very strict curfews.

Lin Wanwan only provides baking soda, and doesn’t need to do anything else, yet she shares in the dividends among the clan. After all, everyone understands, though her baking soda requires just a tiny amount, it is the key ingredient, crucial for removing the sour taste from the dough and making it fluffy.

Because she couldn’t teach the clansmen to make and sell baking soda, Lin Wanwan lazily stopped extracting it herself.

She directly ordered plenty of leavening agents and yeast powder from the modern world, much stronger than her own rudimentary baking soda. When the clan uses them, they won’t see any difference.

Before the sky fully brightened, hardworking women had already made the day’s quota of five hundred steamed cakes and five hundred meat steamed cakes, stacking them in clean large jars with white linen beneath and a quilt on top for warmth.

Lin Mengjin and Lin Mengbo were driving Lin Wanwan’s carriage to deliver goods to the tavern at Little Creek Town, and also to retrieve the copper coins for the day.

In the clan, they were considered the more formidable ones.

Though Lin Mengjin is short, he’s muscular, with biceps almost bigger than his head, all developed from rowing on the boat. The three major hardships for men: boating, blacksmithing, and grinding tofu. One can imagine how tough and conditioning the rowing work is.

And Lin Mengbo’s muscles are as developed as Lin Mengjin’s, yet taller, naturally making him more formidable.

With the two of them delivering goods and collecting money as a team, there’s no fear of anyone daring to rob them. Moreover, there are two scythes on the cart for self-defense! Farm tools are farm tools when working the fields, but naturally serve as weapons when fighting, a skill well-mastered by the village farmers.

Everyone lived with poverty, struggling through tough days, not afraid to fight anyone with their lives; as they say, the barefoot are unafraid of those wearing shoes.

If not for the harpoons being too large and cumbersome to carry, the two cousins would have wanted to bring two, for a hit accuracy akin to confronting a shark, so why fear mere humans?

Amid such liveliness within the clan, Lin Wanwan’s home was not lacking in warmth either.

She, along with little Yuer, little crab, and big sister were inside the glass greenhouse, picking strawberries and tomatoes. Both were seedlings she brought from the modern world to plant.

Tomatoes and strawberries were planted once the new house was built, and now were ready for harvest.

These two originated from America. Strawberries were first introduced to France, then through Russia during the Republic to China, while tomatoes came to China during the Wanli years of the late Ming dynasty. Regardless, they weren’t available in the Great Tang.

Thus, naturally, no one at Lin Family Manor was familiar with them, but the little ones knew them well. From the beginning of planting, Lin Wanwan was playing as if gardening with little Qingyu, so everyone naturally knew.

Whatever Lin Wanwan taught, they would learn, the children’s capacity to accept was strong.

Picking a small basket of strawberries and a few small tomatoes, and a few big ones, Lin Wanwan led the children back to the kitchen to wash hands, strawberries, and small tomatoes, then share and eat.

These strawberries were the cream strawberry variety, sweet and fragrant, and can be grown year-round. Washed and placed in a transparent glass plate, just looking at them makes mouths water.

The small tomatoes were the dwarf cherry tomato variety, red and yellow in a dish, thin skin and tender flesh, juicy and sour-sweet, with full flavor.

Lin Wanwan and the little ones ate one by one, and in a blink, finished them.

Little Qingyu looked up at Lin Wanwan, "Mother, they taste so good."

Lin Wanwan smiled, "In the evening, we’ll pick some more ripe ones."

"Yes, yes!" Little Qingyu clapped and laughed.

Lin Wanwan smiled and glanced at the two remaining big tomatoes, thinking about making a beef brisket in tomato stew in the evening (after all, as long as she doesn’t mention it, who would know she was eating beef at home?), the Great Tang’s cooking methods, boiling and steaming, truly lack flavor, sometimes one needs to indulge in modern dishes for a treat.

Just as she was pondering, there was a commotion at the side door, Kun Lun led Shu Qi inside.

Lin Wanwan glanced behind Shu Qi, not seeing the person she wanted to see, slightly disappointed.

Ah, it’s not that she has any thoughts about Xiao Chong, just that who wouldn’t want to look a few more times at a handsome man like poetry and painting!

"Madam Lin, this is a letter and a painting my lord sent me with."

Lin Wanwan accepted the letter, curious, "Why send me a painting out of the blue?"

"Madam Lin, you’ll understand once you read it."

Shu Qi had a bellyful of complaints. In his view, the Xiao Family revealing Lin Wanwan’s situation to her maternal family was, on the contrary, beneficial to her. Isn’t it a good thing for Lin Wanwan? The difference between being forgotten as a maternal granddaughter and being acknowledged is significant!

Moreover, this matter wasn’t revealed by his lord, but yet his lord took the blame and specifically sent him to apologize.

Nonetheless, Shu Qi also knows his lord respects this distant cousin very much before him. Hence, as a servant, he must show even more respect. Even with many mental complaints, he would never foolishly speak them out.

Yun Shang stepped forward and retrieved the scroll from Shu Qi’s hand, who then performed a hand-folding gesture in farewell, saying, "The items have been delivered, I take my leave."

After the person left, Lin Wanwan unsealed the letter, read it, and smiled slightly, muttering to herself, "Quite thoughtful. Alright then, you say it’s not you, I’ll believe you."

Re-folding the letter, Lin Wanwan took the scroll to her study, followed by three little tag-alongs behind her.

Lin Wanwan laughed and said, "Go play yourselves, mother needs to work for a while."

Little Qingyu prompted crisply to big sister and little crab, "Let’s go outside to play, my mother has to work."

"Alright!"

The two little ones obediently followed little Qingyu out. Though they were older than little Qingyu, in reality, they followed her lead. There’s no other way, as little Qingyu held the "snack" authority!