CH 45

There were only two days left until the eighth day of the seventh lunar month, but Mo Yan hadn’t told Mrs. Liang about the master-disciple ceremony yet.

“Yan’er, what are the six rituals of apprenticeship the old Mr. Zhao talked about? Are they expensive?” Mo Ling asked.

“They aren’t expensive, and it’s just for good fortune. Celery, for diligence. Lotus seed, to represent your master’s teachings. Red beans, for good luck. Dates, for quick advancement. And longans, which means merit. Finally, strips of lean meat represent the disciple’s good intentions, and they are used to wrap up everything else.”

“There should be some in the dried goods shop on North Street. Let’s go buy it! I’ll accompany you for your master-disciple ceremony.”

The master-disciple ceremony should have the parent handing over the child to the master and entrusting them. However, it would be impossible to ask Mrs. Liang to go, so Mo Ling had to go instead.

On the opposite side of the road, Mo Ling set up their stall. Mo Yan hung the framed document on the wooden sticks supporting the tarp, so all their customers could see it.

Just as Mo Yan was about to go to Zhou’s Braised Meat to buy meat, she saw Zhou Liangsheng walking over with something in his hand.

“Sister, this is today’s meat. Today is non’t a market day, so you probably won’t need as much as yesterday. This should be roughly enough.”

“How much?” Mo Ling asked.

“One kilogram of smoked meat, and one and a half kilograms of braised pork. The total cost is four hundred dollars, and you can go and reweigh it if you like.”

“No need.” Mo Ling went to check her wallet, “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring any money.”

Zhou Liangsheng smiled and said, “It’s okay, regular customers can run a tab at our store, and they can settle it whenever it’s convenient. My second uncle sells raw meat across the street from our store, so if you want to buy that, I can deliver it too.”

“Okay then, I’ll pay back the money after we finish their day.”

Manager Liang went to observe how their business was going from the doorstep of Shunlai restaurant. They also started selling wraps in their front stall, but they didn’t have scrambled eggs or Mrs. Liang’s special sauce. [1]

His was a small restaurant with few customers. The front stall was a large portion of their income. No wonder he was so afraid that his business would be taken away.

It was cloudy today, so they didn’t even need to hang up the tarp. As expected, business wasn’t as good as it was yesterday. At noon, they closed shop and went to the dry goods store in the street together.

They bought a few longans, dates, and lotus seeds. Then, they asked shopkeeper Zhou to save a little lean meat for them tomorrow. They already had red beans at home. And finally, they’d buy the celery tomorrow so it didn’t wilt.

Mo Yan quietly hid the things she bought back the house. Those are easy to hide, but the celery they had to buy the next day was long and fragrant, and hard to hide.

To be on the safe side, Mo Yan bought a few more celery the next day, saying that it was going to be fried, and then quietly hid two thin stalks.

In the evening, Mo Yan and Mo Ling went to the threshing field. Mrs. Liang sat in the main room making her shoe soles, and smelt celery wafting from the two sisters’ room. At first she thought it was because she handled celery and the smell was left on her hands, but when she smelled her hands, there was no hint of celery!

Feeling like something was off, she entered their room. Following the smell, she found two celery stalks under the quilt on the kang, tied together with silk threads.

“What are they doing?” Mrs. Liang muttered, and took the celery to the kitchen, planning to make it into salad tomorrow morning.

After returning from the threshing field, Mo Yan lay on the kang and found that the celery was gone.

She ran to the kitchen and saw that the celery was indeed there. It must have been mum who found it and brought it here. Unable to take it back to the house, Mo Yan hid it on the cart.

In the morning, Mrs. Liang got up to cook, thinking of using those two celery stalks in salad, but she couldn’t find it. After passing the cart, the distinct smell of celery wafted out, and when Mrs. Liang looked inside, she found it.

This time, she realised that her daughters were hiding something from her. She didn’t cut the celery and put it on the dining table whole. When Mo Ling entered the kitchen, she immediately saw it, “Mum, where did you get the celery from?”

Mr. Liang slapped the table and said, “I want to ask you, why are you two hiding celery? It’d be understandable if it was a treasured delicacy, but it’s just celery!”

“We want to go to the Zhao family manor, to thank Mr. Zhao.”

“What kind of gift is two pieces of celery!”

“It’s more than two celery, there are other things.”

“Such as?”

Mo Ling couldn’t conceal it anymore and decided to tell the truth “Mr. Zhao’s father is the old storyteller, and Yan’er wants to become his disciple. This is for the master-disciple ceremony.”

“Your parents should bring you to that. Why didn’t you tell me? With just the two of you, people might think you don’t have any parents!”

“Mother, you’re not objecting?Don’t you dislike Yan’er’s storytelling?”

“I don’t like her storytelling, yes, but it doesn’t make me lose money. If she worship Mr. Zhao’s father as her master, then we’ll be related to the Zhao family. In the future, we won’t have to worry about where to sell our medicinal herbs.” [2]

“Then are you willing to accompany her?”

“Why not, they have to treat us well when we go! We won’t be at a loss. But it seems insufficient to only bring these, and people will say that we’re ignorant. We should prepare something else. Why does the old man like?”

“When we went, he was feeding birds and drinking tea in his courtyard.”

“It’s appropriate to send tea, but we don’t have much money, so we can’t buy good tea.”

Mo Yan had come back some time during the conversation, and stood at the kitchen door, “Mum, don’t worry about it, I’ve already prepared a gift for the master-disciple ceremony.”

Mrs. Liang looked up at her, “What have you prepared, then?”

“Their living conditions are better than ours. The old man has no worries about daily necessities, and he lives very comfortably. His biggest wish is that his skills can be passed on, so I think his favourite thing is storytelling. I decided to prepare a story for him.”

Hearing that there is no need to spend money, Mrs. Liang’s face brightened, “Okay, let’s change our clothes and go!”

The mother and daughter changed into clean clothes and combed their hair carefully. Mrs. Liang did Mo Yan’s hair into double buns, which was usually only used at the New Year.

She put the six ritual ingredients on a tray and carried them into the village, so that everyone in the Zhao family manor would know that the old Mr. Zhao had accepted an apprentice, and her family knew the rules and etiquette.

Fortunately, it wasn’t far away, and Mo Ling helped Mo Yan hold the tray. She gave it back to Mo Yan after they entered the Zhao family manor.

Some people saw them while on the road, and they all wondered what it was doing. Few people in the village understood what they were doing.

The children in the village were even more curious, and they all came to ask what it was for. Mrs. Liang replied on behalf of Mo Yan, “It’s the old Mr. Zhao’s apprentice, here to greet her master.”

When the children knew what was going on, the whole village would also know. Not long after they entered the village, the Zhao family got the news.

Mr. Zhao happily ordered his children and grandchildren to get ready.

Post-edit notes: To be honest, I completely forgot about the master-disciple ceremony.

[1] Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery…

[2] I was surprised, but I probably should’ve been considering Mrs. Liang’s mercenary nature.