Great Tang Idyll

The officials were almost brought to tears when they saw the bailiffs and heard their words. It was too much of a struggle, but they finally got through it. Looking at the food in front of them, they felt that these foods should only be found in the heavens and not In the mortal world. They took a bite and felt that it was too delicious.

It wasn't certain if those officials' eyes were irritated by the heat of the spicy chives or if they were emotionally touched, but they were crying while they looked at the bailiffs who were waiting for instructions. They acted like they had just seen their own parents and were so ecstatic.

The bailiffs felt that everyone's expressions seemed a bit off and that their emotions were not quite stable, so they asked again, "My lords, what arrangements do we have for tomorrow? Is it boating on the water, or taking a stroll while enjoying the scenery?"

"I want-- I want to ask, can I go back? Uh!" After eating two small chives pockets, he choked while talking. He quickly poured soup down his throat and stretched his neck out for a while before he let out a long breath. He looked at the bailiff, waiting eagerly for a reply.

"What? Go back? This..."

"That's not necessary. What I meant to ask was that does my lords not want to spend a good time here? The crescent moon hangs in the clear night sky, the water in the streams run clear, and the breezes are gentle. My lords can go boating now and think about more interesting things to do."

The bailiff never thought that his own words would elicit such a huge reaction that every official placed down their chopsticks and listened intently.

"Thank you for your kind intentions, young brother. Let's discuss that when the rest of the people are here. We need to rush back to keep a close eye on the natural disaster in the county. The people's affairs are important."

The official who had spoken earlier started talking again. He was really scared so how could he possibly think of interesting things? In this place, the first thing that came to his mind was how he had to carry buckets after buckets of water. Even without water inside, the empty wooden buckets by itself were heavy.

He quickly found an excuse, saying that he had to go back to check the situation at the county. In fact, he wanted to run away as far as he could from this place and he didn't want to come here even in his next life.

While the bailiff was hesitating, the official who had said that he was going to pay money continued the conversation by saying, "This meal is thirty taels of silver; when we get back to the county, I will give five taels of silvers to each of the bailiffs in the administrative office."

With him setting this lead, the other officials came to understand that they were unhappy with the amount of money, so the other officials copied what he said and some even wanted to make a promissory note then and there.

Magistrate Cheng was alarmed by their actions. He came over here with the two Deputy Chiefs and heard that these officials were willing to pay that much money for the meals. He smiled and said, "My lords, I know, my lords are willing to spend that much money not just for those few meals, but to also donate to the San'shui County during this drought. On behalf of the people in San'shui County, I thank my lords."

With the two Deputy Chiefs on his side, none of the officials dared to back out of their words. If Magistrate Cheng sent in a report, then the situation would not be as simple as them violating the rules to go out and have fun. Each one of them was estimating how much money will have to be spent.

Before making calculations, they didn't think that it would be much, but once they thought about it carefully, they regretted it deeply. In particular, the one who spoke up first was being stared at by the rest of the people. Giving thirty taels of silver for the meal was acceptable; after all, the food has entered their stomachs already. But what about five taels of silver for each bailiff? How many bailiffs were there in the San'shui County?

When these people were eating, Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan were also eating. It was as if they were telepathic-- they also made chive pockets and cat ear soup. The only difference was that other people's chive pockets only had chives and eggs, while theirs had shrimp meat in it.

Three-inch long prawns were normally served by some restaurants as whole shrimps, but Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan had the shrimps chopped up and then wrapped in a pocket. The chives had to be soaked in water for a while; this way, it wouldn't taste too spicy. Young chives also did not get stuck between the teeth when chewed.

"It's delicious, it's too delicious. The taste is great when pairing chive pockets with cat ear soup. When I was chewing, the spicy and fragrant taste of the chives filled my entire mouth. Then, after taking a sip of the soup, to my surprise, the cat ears were fluffy, and it had an earthy taste in the mouth, and it made my tongue feel tingly and numb. I've never tried this before."

Wang Juan took a bite of the small chives pockets that were specially made for her and Zhang Xiaobao, and then she drank some soup. She squinted her eyes, and said happily.

"Yeah, I used to eat this all the time when I was younger. There were rivers and mountains behind the orphanage, and Grandpa took me there to dig for cat ears and pick chives. Sometimes, we would be able to find some mountain hawthorn. Usually we would make it into chive pockets, but we would use less white flour, and instead, we used more corn flour. We also drank cat ear soup too. Every time I ate it, I felt like it was the happiest moment of my life.

At that time, we were poor; not many people donated money. Whenever people came, they only brought some fruits. My younger siblings, and I also had to buy clothes. I thought that only poor people ate that kind of food, but later, when I grew up, I found out that it was more expensive than normal food. Don't you think it's hilarious?

The last time I was there, I heard that a half a kilogram of chives cost 14 yuan, and meat costs only 9 yuan. Back then, if someone wanted to trade, we would be more than willing to exchange half a kilogram of chives for half a kilogram of meat. Have you seen a picture me when I was a kid? I was so skinny, a monkey would even grin if it saw me.

Wang Juan didn't know whether she should be envious or sad, and she took a sip of the soup. "Then why don't you catch fish and shrimps in the river? The little boys here do that."

"Who said that I didn't catch any? If I caught any, I sold it for money. The things in the river weren't worth much. The shrimps were only one inch long, and the fish were two or three inches long. Orphanage director grandpa couldn't sell it for much. Later, a starch flour factory contaminated the area, and then nothing could be caught in the river. Everyone went to the mountains to dig for grandma ding, which is dandelion. It was considered as a kind of medicinal herb and could be sold for money.

There were also different kinds of wormwood that could be harvested. There was a plant commonly called fang'feng1, which sells better. It's especially useful for treating allergies and it works faster than any other medicines. You just need to boil it in water, and then apply the liquid to the hives on your skin and it will disappear in less than a minute.

At that time, it was the older children who did most of the work. I was still young so I only followed behind them to help find things. When I was five years old, a nine-year-old brother was bitten by a snake while he was digging in the mountains. We all call that snake ‘grass skin'. It's venom is not that strong; it's not the type that can destroy blood cells within a few minutes or even a few seconds.

Orphanage director grandpa carried him on his back to get a blood serum injection. The serum was not expensive at the time. The hospital was already well developed. Even if it were eight or ten bites, let alone one bite, as long as it an injection is given, the person will be fine. Furthermore, since we're from the orphanage, the medical treatment won't cost that much, and sometimes, the treatment was free.

However, when we were there, a government official from the provincial medical department came down to this hospital. Grandpa was stopped outside of the hospital and no matter what he said, they wouldn't let him in. The official was going to inspect the hospital for three days. Grandpa had no choice but to go to another city, but the people there would not care about the orphans from a different location.

We ended up using a medical herbal patch on his leg. Two days later, his leg was swollen to the thickness of a person's waist. When we went back to the hospital after the official left, it was too late. After a week, he died. "

Zhang Xiao'bao acted like he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him. The expression on his face was still as joyful as when he was eating. While he was talking, he picked out some shrimp and placed it in on the plate in front of Wang Juan.

Wang Juan didn't do anything and froze there for a while. She looked at Zhang Xiao'bao. "Didyou not take revenge? I think you care about this aspect the most."

"Comrade Wang Juan, you are wrong about this. Why do I want to get revenge? When people make mistakes, there will be laws to take care of them. You can't know the law and break the law. I don't have the strong desire for seeking revenge. I'm a good person. However, the heavens did do something. That official, and 26 other people that were involved were accidentally bitten by snakes.

It could be very possible. Does that person not know that if a person was bitten by this kind of snake, they only have a few minutes for a medical response to be made? Those people died so miserably; their blood completely coagulated. The heavens truly have an eye for justice. The good is rewarded, and evil is punished. It's best to try to do more good deeds. "

Zhang Xiao'bao looked sad and distressed. He picked out a piece of slightly older cat ear from Wang Juan's soup bowl.

"The 7-12 tragic case. A hospital director and deputy director, and several high-ranking officials at the provincial and ministerial level were bitten to death by a Taipan snake. Before they died, they knew how venomous the snake was and made a phone call to call for help. When they died, the expression on their faces revealed a hopeless look. No evidence or clues have been found. So it turned out that you were the one that did it? Just because a child died in the orphanage." Wang Juan looked at Zhang Xiao'bao and felt a little frightened.

"It's not me, you don't have any evidence to prove it. They just had a really bad idea. It's true."

Translator's Notes

1. Fang'feng 防风

This refers to the plant Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk.