"A strong man with a foreign girl? A foreigner with a Han woman? Tsk tsk tsk, at such a young age, couldn't you find any better trade than becoming human traffickers? Such wickedness! And you even specialize in mixing Han and foreign men and women—like breeding pigs and sheep? Pah! What bad luck. Had I known your family, Fourteenth Young Master, was in this business, we wouldn't have saved you two, letting you drown in the river would've been better..."
As soon as Li Yuangui inquired about Han or foreign men accompanied by young girls, the boatwoman erupted in anger. Without allowing any room for explanation, she scolded them incessantly while rowing, steering the boat straight to the nearest Hebei dock. As the bow touched the wooden pier, the rough-handed woman waved them off, and the two youths hastily scrambled ashore.
This place was actually right by the Bian Bridge. Looking eastward, the stone-pillared, wooden-beamed bridge spanning the river was within close reach, bustling with carriages, horses, and pedestrians. Numerous buildings had been erected near both ends of the bridge. The northern shore fell under the jurisdiction of Xianyang County, officially named "Xianyang Crossing," though it also bore the nickname "Little Western Market," a nod to the thriving commerce and the large foreign population in the port town.
Li Yuangui, accompanied by A-Chen, ascended a long flight of steps from the shore and turned onto the east-west thoroughfare, immediately dazzled by the kaleidoscope of sights. He wasn't sure if the authorities had officially sanctioned the establishment of a market here, but many houses along the street had opened shops, displaying bolts of cloth, pottery, and other goods on wooden platforms outside, hawking their wares. Some were even constructing two-story buildings, and a few completed ones already had colorful wine banners fluttering under their eaves in the wind.
The street was teeming with vendors carrying shoulder poles and mule carts laden with goods. At the intersection, a camel train was passing by—several tall beasts laden with cargo, tied together with thick ropes, their necks adorned with bells. The camel drivers were mostly foreign merchants with high noses, deep-set eyes, wearing rolled hats and lapel robes. The jingling of bells filled the air, yet few passersby paid them any mind, clearly accustomed to the sight.
Without needing Li Yuangui's instruction, A-Chen automatically darted from shop to shop, asking, "Have you seen a tall, strong man with a veiled foreign girl or a foreign merchant with a Han woman?" After two or three inquiries yielded no leads, they pressed on until a toasty aroma wafted over, and Li Yuangui's stomach promptly growled in response.
"Ah... hehehe, Fourteenth Young Master," A-Chen turned to him, rubbing his own belly, "My... ah, my lord should also have a bite to eat. From dawn till now, you haven't had a drop of water or a grain of rice! The thought alone pains this servant—if Chen Changshi finds out, wouldn't I be in for a beating? There's a sesame cake shop just ahead... hehehe..."
"Enough with the nonsense!" Li Yuangui snapped irritably. "Just say you're hungry and want to eat, why beat around the bush?"
They did indeed need rest and sustenance—sharpening the axe wouldn't delay the chopping. It wasn't yet dinnertime, and the small sesame cake shop up ahead was just stoking its stove. The old man selling cakes was kneading dough, while a few leftover cakes from noon were warming by the stove, their sesame oil fragrance drifting all the way into the street.
With no other ready-made food nearby, A-Chen made a few inquiries, and the master-servant pair entered the shop to sit down. An old woman first brought them two bowls of hot fermented grain water to drink.The sesame cake shop had a narrow storefront. Inside, apart from a tall stove and a wooden kneading board for dough, there was only space for one dining table and a few dirty, worn-out rush cushions. At this moment, there was no room for fastidiousness or decorum. Li Yuangui chose a relatively clean cushion and sat cross-legged, gesturing for A-Chen to sit as well. He picked up a coarse ceramic bowl and sipped the hot fermented rice water, feeling a warm current flow down his throat and spread through his organs.
The drink was bland but pleasantly warm. Li Yuangui quickly finished the bowl, and the old woman refilled it. A-Chen drank even more eagerly than his master, wiping his mouth and sweet-talking the elderly woman with repeated calls of "Granny," making the white-haired, apron-clad woman in her fifties or sixties break into a smile that creased her entire face. The two chatted away congenially.
Meanwhile, Li Yuangui watched the old man making sesame cakes. The man pulled lumps of fermented dough from a wooden bucket on the floor, dipped his fingers into a white, greasy paste in an earthen basin on the board, and repeatedly kneaded the dough—flattening, folding, pressing, and rolling it into a ball before flattening it again. After repeating this three to five times, he used a rolling pin to shape the dough into round sesame cakes. He brushed them with a layer of clear oil, sprinkled sesame seeds on top, and set them aside on the board for baking.
Beside the board, near the entrance, stood an unusually shaped stove—not very wide but built quite tall, its opening reaching almost to the old man’s waist. The stove was cylindrical, with only one central fire pit where glowing charcoal embers flickered, casting red light onto the earthen wall nearby.
The fire pit was covered with a large tile. The old man occasionally lifted it to check the flames. When he deemed the heat right, he splashed some cool water on his arm, grabbed the prepared dough rounds, and swiftly slapped them onto the inner walls of the stove.
Amid the soft pat pat sounds, Li Yuangui stood up and craned his neck curiously to see. The old man was pressing the dough rounds upright against the stove’s interior. The soft dough stuck to the hot, sloped walls, baking directly from the central charcoal without needing pots or metal utensils. However, the inside was scorching hot, and though the old man moved swiftly, his bare arm quickly turned red. Soon, twenty or thirty sesame-coated dough rounds were neatly plastered across the stove walls. He covered the fire pit again and bent down to prepare the next batch.
Sesame cakes were a staple in Li Yuangui’s diet, but this was the first time he had witnessed their baking process, and he found it quite fascinating. As he waited for them to cook, a doubt crept into his mind: The bottom rows of cakes were dangerously close to the flames. Slapping them into place required precision, but how would the old man retrieve them once baked? Would he have to plunge his hand into the smoke and fire? Had he cultivated an indestructible body?
His worries proved unnecessary. When the aroma of baked cakes wafted out, signaling they were done, the old man pulled out... a long-handled iron tongs from the corner of the stove.
Lifting the tile cover, he deftly plucked the baked cakes one by one from the stove and placed them on the board. Li Yuangui noticed he retrieved the lower, fire-close rows first, letting the upper ones bake a little longer.
By now, the fragrance had spread far down the street. Besides Li Yuangui and his servant inside, a crowd of customers had gathered outside to buy the cakes. The old woman went to the entrance to help wrap them and collect money, but not before filling a small basket with freshly baked sesame cakes for the shop’s guests.The freshly baked cakes were scalding hot, but both Li Yuangui and A-Chen were starving. Enduring the pain, they tore open a sesame cake together with their fingertips, releasing a burst of fragrant oil. Without a second thought, they took big bites.
It was delicious—crispy, flaky on the outside, tender on the inside, and… unbearably hot.
The two youths hissed in pain between voracious bites. Li Yuangui wolfed down several pieces in an instant, thinking, "How could anything in this world taste so good?" Beside him, the young servant mumbled praises between chews—"So good," "Master, your skill is unmatched," "Even better than the imperial chefs in the palace…"
"Ahem!" Li Yuangui coughed sharply, warning the overexcited servant not to go too far. Just then, a conversation outside the door caught his attention:
"...Why so many today? There aren’t enough left from this batch—you’ll have to wait for the next. Is Second Brother He in a hurry?"
"Very much so! The guests are sitting in the shop waiting to eat! How about I take these first and come back for the rest?"
"Fine, but you’ll have to make another trip, A-Qi." The old woman began packing the remaining sesame cakes on the counter into the customer’s woven basket. "Tsk, tsk, usually eight or ten are enough—why so many all of a sudden today?"
"Auntie, you wouldn’t believe it. Three new guests just arrived at the shop—one of them is huge, fat as an ox! He slammed the table the moment he sat down, demanding food. Judging by his size, he could easily eat for three! How could Second Brother He not prepare extra cakes…?"
#####TBC
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