Chapter 297: Chapter 121 Miss Lu San_1
The night was like ink, West Street deserted and eerily quiet.
Beneath the sign of the Renxin Medical Hall, the lanterns shone exceptionally bright, casting a faint red glow on the skeletal plum tree at the front.
The courtyard was abuzz with voices.
Today was New Year’s Eve, and since the passing of Old Master Du, the family had ceased to have relatives come by. Thinking about how Lu Tong and Miss Yinzhen would be spending the New Year alone and abroad was too dismal, so Du Changqing took it upon himself to move the New Year’s Eve dinner to the Medical Hall. Also considering Miao Liangfang was now alone without family or close friends, Ah Cheng was instructed to invite him as well.
The usually quiet backyard of the Medical Hall was bustling with rare festivity tonight.
Miss Yinzhen emerged from the kitchen with the last dish, steamed bass, heading towards the table around which everyone was gathered: "Make way, be careful, it’s hot—"
The courtyard was small to begin with, and with the tables brought inside and the increase in people, it was rather cramped, but perhaps because of the cramped space, even the cold of the winter night seemed to have been chased away.
Du Changqing stared at the plate of fish Miss Yinzhen was carrying.
Without any garnish or decoration, the two bass lay brazenly on the plate, tails half-cocked, their four large eyes staring straight up at the sky, their appearance clearly one of death unaccepted, enough to make anyone lose their appetite.
"Miss Yinzhen," Du Changqing pointed at the dead fish, "With such cooking, do you really do justice to these two departed fish?"
Miss Yinzhen clattered the plate onto the table and smirked at him: "When you, Master, were butchering them, did you consider whether you were doing right by them?"
Du Changqing was at a loss for words.
The two bass were a New Year’s gift from Official Hu, lively and wriggling when delivered, promising a tasty and fatty treat. However, the actual killing of the fish proved to be a struggle. Wishing to show off in front of the two young ladies, Du Changqing pushed aside Lu Tong and volunteered himself: "Why should you, a young lady, deal with such a bloody task, watch the Master!"
An hour passed, and there was Du Changqing, still chasing after those two fish in the kitchen.
The fish were unharmed, but he was wounded eight thousand times over.
In the end, Lu Tong took over the unfinished task. With knife in hand, she deftly killed and cleaned the fish, finally allowing for tonight’s dish to be served.
Ah Cheng chuckled: "It’s okay, we still have the preserved meat sent by Brother Dai, the marinated duck from Sister-in-law Song, the pork trotters from Taylor Ge..."
Among the five from Renxin Medical Hall, while Lu Tong and Miss Yinzhen could cook, they only managed to make food that was edible and wouldn’t kill anyone.
Du Changqing, who had been fed and clothed without lifting a finger since childhood, could only make a fried egg.
There wasn’t much to say about Miao Liangfang either: if he had money, he ate noodles, if not, he drank porridge. His dilapidated hut had only one pot, hence his culinary skills were utterly average.
Only Ah Cheng knew how to whip up a couple of dishes, but with so many people and Ah Cheng being just a kid, you couldn’t expect him to conjure a full New Year’s Eve dinner by himself.
And just so happened that on New Year’s Eve, almost all the restaurants and taverns in Shengjing were closed. Du Changqing, therefore, thickened his skin and went door to door, knocking on the neighbors’ doors like a beggar, to see if he could exchange silver for a few dishes.
Fortunately, over the past year, the reputation of the Renxin Medical Hall in West Street had gradually improved, and Miss Yinzhen had managed good relationships with the neighbors, most of whom were willing to give him food without taking any silver.
Tailor Ge gave a bowl of pork trotters, Sister Song a plate of marinated duck, Widow Sun donated half a pot of assorted ham and shrimp balls, and Dai Sanlang offered some seasoned pork leg meat—in gratitude for the Medical Hall making him a match for Pan An.
Patched together this way, Ah Cheng and Miss Yinzhen haphazardly stir-fried a few green vegetables, steamed a fish, and poured some Tusuzui Wine that had been bought well in advance in January. Surprisingly, they managed to assemble a dinner table that looked somewhat respectable for New Year’s Eve.
The dishes were steaming hot as Du Changqing stood up, pouring the freshly made Tusuzui Wine into everyone’s bowls. The wine, just decanted, filled the air with its rich fragrance.
Holding a bowl of wine, Du Changqing gazed at the plum tree blossoming with red flowers in the courtyard, feeling quite sentimental.
"Just a few years ago, this tree was almost dead. Doctor Lu is truly a medical goddess with the touch of revival. To make a withered tree bloom again is truly remarkable," he mused.
Everyone looked towards the plum tree he pointed at. It had previously been knobby and thin, but now the branches were adorned with deep red flowers, casting their lively shadow on the wooden windows.
Miao Liangfang remarked, "The finest sword is forged in the hottest fire, and the plum blossom’s fragrance comes from the bitterest cold. Shopkeeper Du, it seems your hard times have come to a sweet end."
There was a brief silence.
When Lu Tong first arrived at the Renxin Medical Hall, the place was rundown and shabby, with its sign hanging lopsided as if it would close its doors for good the next day.
Yet within just a year, going from hard times to having a bit of fame, everyone from the neighborhood with a headache or fever came to Renxin Medical Hall, indeed a case of hard times leading to a sweet end.