16 Mint Sandwich Cake

Pingjiang Prefecture is abundant with water, and the soft Wu dialect combined with the misty rain beneath black awnings has cultivated a multitude of literati and talented scholars who love to recite poetry or practice calligraphy in their leisure. This has made the Zhang family’s stationery shop, renowned for its four treasures of the study and operating for over twenty years, flourish in business.

Brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones are precious commodities. The Zhang family earns well each month and places a few snacks in the shop merely to delight the customers and engage in friendly conversations.

Much like today’s experience of purchasing fine goods, the cakes in the shop are just as exquisitely crafted and flavorful as those found elsewhere.

Drinking tea and enjoying pastries are daily rituals for the people of Pingjiang Prefecture, and nearly every transaction is conducted against such a backdrop.

Wei Jinyun accepted a business deal from Zhang Renbai—

A one-month contract, thirty pieces daily, with a deposit of two strings of coins, and settlement of the balance on the thirtieth day after delivery.

From the start, Wei Jinyun planned a long-term partnership with Zhang Renbai, using his shop to promote the taste and reputation of her pastries. Offering them free at first was only proper.

After customers sampled and enjoyed them, their business deal was sealed in a single transaction. Elated, she didn’t fall asleep until midnight.

Though she stayed up late, she woke early. Aside from yesterday’s rain, the recent days had been bright and sunny. Early that morning, she went to inspect the kitchen stove repairs; the soil plaster was nearly dry. From now on, they could cook and steam pastries using the large stove, with cheap firewood and better flavors.

The round clay stove she had requested was newly built but needed another two or three days to cure.

Before making pastries, the entire courtyard was filled with the fresh fragrance of locust blossoms, lifting her spirits. With July approaching, it was now or never to harvest the flowers before they aged.

Swiftly climbing the tree, she plucked several clusters of tender locust flowers, tossing them into the bamboo basket set below.

Zhang Renbai was in his courtyard, brushing his face with a toothbrush when, turning around, he caught sight of a nimble figure on the old locust tree in the neighboring yard.

Perhaps after last night’s business with Lady Wei, he felt their connection had deepened, and, excited, he had stayed up too late—now, early in the morning, he thought he must be seeing things.

He rubbed his eyes.

The toothbrush fell from his hand.

It was indeed Lady Wei…

The monkey-like Lady Wei!

“Sister, are you exercising?” Wei Fuqu, who usually woke before Wei Jinyun, stood under the old locust tree drinking water, her eyes resting on Wei Jinyun’s agile movements.

Plucking the last cluster of flowers, Wei Jinyun swiftly jumped before Wei Fuqu and bowed, “Sister, how is my climbing skill?”

As children, she and her friends often competed in climbing trees and catching fish, honing a fine skill—no tree within a hundred miles could escape their grasp.

Wei Fuqu stood on tiptoe to brush the petals from Wei Jinyun’s hair and chuckled softly, “Impressive, but be careful—the rain left moss on the trees, making them slippery.”

“All right, all right,” Wei Jinyun nodded earnestly and pressed a kiss to Wei Fuqu’s left cheek.

Wei Fuqu then hurried upstairs.

After teasing her younger sister, Wei Jinyun went to the city gate to settle the remaining wages with Zhou Ji’s brick and tile shop, then picked jasmine and bought mint.

Wang Qiulan steamed a pot of locust flower rice made from Wei Jinyun’s harvest, and the four generations of the family enjoyed two bowls alongside pickled young ginger and stir-fried eggplant.

After a half-hour nap, Wei Jinyun drank half a pot of mint tea to shake off drowsiness and resumed making pastries.

Though her pastries were small and delicate, the ingredients were substantial. After deducting costs for rice flour, sugar, oil, charcoal, and labor, the profit margin hovered around three wen per piece.

Just starting out, she planned to gradually recoup her initial investment; once she had some savings and regular customers, she would have the confidence to open a shop.

Besides jasmine flower cakes, she prepared two small steamers with chopped walnuts.

Fresh green mint leaves were slowly ground into juice in a stone mortar, mixed with brown sugar, glutinous and non-glutinous rice flour, and walnut pieces, then steamed in small trays for fifteen minutes.

Another small steamer contained a batch steamed without mint or walnuts.

White steam billowed from the bamboo steamers atop the clay stove, blending the mint’s crispness with the aroma of rice. Soon, Wei Jinyun lifted the lid and placed the softened rice cakes on a clean cutting board, repeatedly pressing, folding, and kneading them.

Unlike the jasmine cakes’ grainy texture, these rice cakes needed to be kneaded into a soft, glutinous dough, much like pounding New Year’s rice cakes—a laborious task.

Her health was not the best at present, so she worked in intervals, her two younger sisters helping. Together, they took nearly half an hour to flatten the dough.

She mused that once the shop was running, she would have to hire two strong workers.

To make the layered cakes, she spread a base layer, then the mint-walnut filling as the core, then covered it with another white layer, pressing it into one whole block.

She didn’t make many; these pastries needed to be covered with cloth to retain warmth without overheating, ensuring softness when eaten.

Wei Jinyun packed the jasmine cakes for Zhang Renbai and cut the mint-filled cakes into half-thumb-sized pieces, placing them on a floral plate with bamboo skewers, sending a piece to him.

“Sister, will you take us along today? Please?” Wei Fuling clung to Wei Jinyun’s cart, her eyes full of longing. “Playing with my little windmill at home makes me miss you, and eating the roasted duck Mengge brought makes me miss you too…”

Wei Fuqu’s gaze drifted elsewhere. “We won’t run off.”

“Hmm…” Wei Jinyun seemed to ponder deeply for a moment.

“Once home, you must practice two pieces of calligraphy.”

“Recite a page of book.”

She affectionately rubbed their heads, then pushed her cart. “Let’s go!”

The hottest time of day, the hour of Wei, was upon them. By the time the sisters reached the Prefecture School gate, cicadas were shrilling irritably beneath the camphor tree’s shade.

“This is…?” Lady Qian widened her eyes at the two exquisitely delicate children beside Wei Jinyun. “Twins, indeed!”

“My two younger sisters,” Wei Jinyun said, parking her cart. “Staying home was dull, so they came along.”

Not only Lady Qian but everyone who saw the twins couldn’t help but take a second glance. Sellers of stationery and fragrant drinks alike gathered around.

“How beautiful they are.”

“Truly identical, not a single difference.”

“Come, come, grandmother has some honey-glazed sugar.”

The two girls were well-behaved, standing quietly beside Wei Jinyun. After sweetly greeting everyone, they helped her set up signs and arrange teacups.

Thanks to yesterday’s stall, even before school ended, people were already coming to buy pastries at Wei Jinyun’s cart.

In the afternoon heat, most customers were reluctant to sit beneath the camphor tree; they bought a few pieces and returned home without drinking tea.

The twins, unwilling to be idle, helped collect money and tidy used plates.

“Ten coins again today,” Wei Jinyun said, glancing up to see the same person from yesterday.

Dressed in a pale yellow silk skirt, she dismounted from her horse with slender, upturned phoenix eyes, smiling at Wei Jinyun. “What are these cakes made of? My second brother ate them all without noticing, then had two bowls of mother’s rice. He was up all night pacing the courtyard to practice martial arts and aid digestion… Even so, he asked me to buy more.”

“Eating too many pastries at once causes indigestion,” Wei Jinyun replied, selecting ten pieces with chopsticks and wrapping them. “These cakes keep for two days if stored in a cool place, so you can eat them in two sittings.”

“He wouldn’t listen.”

Lu Lingxiang sipped her clear tea. “I bought some for him today. They won’t last till tomorrow.”

Her second brother would eat after catching thieves, while pondering cases, and after training soldiers…

“Sister’s second brother is just like me,” Wei Fuling murmured as she counted money nearby.

“Exactly,” Lu Lingxiang laughed heartily, “he’s utterly inconsistent—that’s what makes him so troublesome.”

Wei Jinyun had also loved her grandmother’s pastries in childhood, though indigestion was real. After taking several doses of the bitter medicine prescribed by her grandfather, she settled down.

Listening as the woman continuously mentioned her second brother, Wei Jinyun thought their families must be close. She held out the mint-filled cakes before her. “Lady, would you like to try this new pastry? It’s on the house.”

The small mint-layered cakes, cut into pieces, were arranged on a delicate bamboo plate: a layer of white, then green, translucent as jade.

Lu Lingxiang took a skewer and tasted one piece.

“So soft.”

She popped two more pieces into her mouth, mumbling indistinctly, “It’s… somewhat like rice cake. Chewy but more fragrant.”

The glutinous texture first clung to her tongue—soft and enveloped in sweetness. The mint and walnut filling emerged slowly. Though warm, it carried a faint coolness that slid down her throat, quelling the day’s heat.

By the end, a lingering walnut sweetness remained between her lips.

“How much is this? I’ll buy some more for my second brother.”

After a moment, Lu Lingxiang had eaten three pieces, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“This is just a sample; not for sale today.”

Wei Jinyun wrapped a few more trial pieces for her. “I need to see today’s feedback before deciding whether to add it to the menu.”

Lu Lingxiang sized her up once more. “You are quite the businesswoman. After my brother tries these, I’m afraid we’ll be frequent customers… By the way, what’s your name?”

While waiting for the cakes, she left a note on the message board.

“Our surname is Wei,” Wei Fuling said, tying the mint cakes tightly. “We all are surnamed Wei.”

“Lady Wei?” Lu Lingxiang smiled, mounting her horse and waving to the sisters. “We’ll see—tomorrow, my brother will surely urge me to come again.”

Wei Fuqu leisurely brushed rice paste on the note with a “tap” and stuck it to the board.

She glanced at the paper—a message from Lord Lu stating that the cakes were delicious enough to make one leap and bound in the middle of the night.

After pondering, she hung the message board beside the cart for display.

Soon, the school’s dismissal hour arrived. Students pushed past Lady Qian’s pancake stall and flocked to Wei Jinyun’s cart for pastries.

“What are you all writing instead of paying attention in class? Passing notes? What’s this—‘What to eat after school today?’ ‘Naturally, the jasmine cakes—I’ve already thought of a poem to write.’ ‘What poem?’ ‘Jade powder kneaded with clouds…’ Why stop writing now?”

An elderly gentleman with a half-white beard parted the crowd.

He was slender, wearing a soft black hat and a lake-blue robe, somewhat worn but neatly pressed.

Hearing his voice, the students instinctively cleared a path for him. Silence fell suddenly, even the sizzling from Lady Qian’s frying pan was audible.

“Are these pastries really that good? Could they be more tempting than my lecture on ‘Dwelling in place while all stars revolve around it’?”

The old master took a piece of the mint-layered cake offered by Wei Jinyun and tasted it. After a long pause, he furrowed his brows.

“Master! Master, what’s wrong?” Wu Bai looked on silently, mouth agape, rushing forward.

The old man exclaimed, “My, my teeth are stuck…”