Su Xiaoqi had visited Majia Lane before, but never with any real attention.
After all, she was touring the streets and alleys of Mianzhou City to look at shops; when did she ever have time to specifically explore a snack street?
Moreover, being directionally challenged, she’d need to walk down a single street dozens of times before she could vaguely remember the way.
Upon arriving here, she couldn’t tell north from south.
Fortunately, Shen Yun was familiar with the area. He led her through twists and turns, bringing her to Majia Lane.
As soon as they entered the lane, the air was filled with a medley of different scents. Smoked, grilled, fried…
Su Xiaoqi took a deep breath. She had initially thought that someone like Shen Yun, who was dedicated to his studies, wouldn't enjoy visiting such a place.
Even if he came here, he wouldn’t know what to eat.
To her surprise, he was incredibly knowledgeable, even knowing which stalls sold the best snacks.
Walking along, Su Xiaoqi, with her inherent foodie nature, was thrilled to see all the local specialty snacks.
The slight melancholy she had felt from Su Yurou’s earlier troubles dissipated by more than half.
She rubbed her hands together, eager to try everything.
Their first stop was at a stall selling Guduo. Su Xiaoqi leaned in for a closer look.
The Guduo, which Shen Yun had just mentioned as being freshly made, rested on the plate like unopened flower buds, arranged beautifully.
The auntie at the stall put them into the hot oil, frying them until golden brown, and then skewered them with bamboo sticks. Su Xiaoqi inhaled deeply. They smelled wonderful.
She stood by for a while, watching the auntie spread a square piece of dough flat in her palm, place meat filling inside, fold it over, and pinch it shut to form a triangle.
Then, she brought the two acute angles of the triangle together, overlapped them, and pinched them tight.
Su Xiaoqi swallowed hard.
Her eagerness was so apparent that Shen Yun naturally knew she wanted to eat.
He immediately handed over twelve wen and ordered a portion.
Just one portion?
Su Xiaoqi immediately expressed her dissatisfaction.
Shen Yun smiled, "You aren’t planning to eat just this one thing and nothing else, are you? Let’s get a little of each and try more. Otherwise, with such a small stomach, you’ll be full from the early items, and there might be even better things later on."
Su Xiaoqi’s eyes sparkled, finding Shen Yun’s words to be perfectly logical.
She turned and gave him a thumbs-up, praising, “You’re so smart, and so thoughtful.” At that moment, Su Xiaoqi hadn’t quite grasped the full implication of Shen Yun’s words.
However, she soon found out.
When the Guduo were fried, Shen Yun took one from the auntie’s hand, brought it to his lips, blew on it gently, and fed it to Su Xiaoqi.
Su Xiaoqi blinked her eyes. Should she eat it or eat it?
It smelled so delicious. She wanted to maintain some composure, but couldn’t help but open her mouth.
“Mmm, delicious, delicious,” Su Xiaoqi praised as she ate. The outer layer was crispy, and the inside was soft and chewy.
She ate five in a row. Seeing that there were still five left, she hesitated and waved her hand, saying,
“I won’t eat any more. You were right, there’s a long street ahead, and who knows how many delicious things are waiting for me.”
Shen Yun looked at her with a knowing expression and, without any objection, ate the remaining five Guduo she had left.
He ate them…
Su Xiaoqi stared at him in shock. He ate what she had left?
That was very un-Shen Yun-like.
Sensing her gaze, Shen Yun replied without looking up, “No waste.”
Right. She couldn’t just order a portion of everything and then throw it away if she couldn’t finish it.
Only now did she finally understand Shen Yun’s intention when he said ordering just one portion would allow her to eat more.
After eating the Guduo, the two of them moved on to fragrant sugar cakes.
As usual, Su Xiaoqi stood at the stall and surveyed it first, studying the preparation.
The making of these fragrant sugar cakes wasn’t complicated. First, calamus, ginger, apricot, plum, peach, and perilla were shredded and preserved in sugar syrup.
Shen Yun explained that these were usually eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, but because they were delicious, they could be bought at other times as well.
Next, they tried water rice, braised meat, dried jerky. There was also meat jerky, chicken, tripe and lung, eel, crispy chicken skin, minced chicken and kidney, fried lamb rolls, white sausage, preserved fish, jellied fish head, pickled ginger and bean paste, smeared filth, red shreds, sliced sheep head, spicy foot pieces, and spicy ginger radish.
The prices here were truly affordable, with most items costing only a little over ten wen.
From ten to fifteen wen.
At first, Shen Yun always asked Su Xiaoqi to taste first.
After she had her fill and didn’t want any more after a few bites, he would then finish the rest.
But as they continued eating, it evolved into sharing bites, one from her and one from him. They would share a small bowl of snacks like this, intimately, neither finding the other distasteful.
The surroundings were so lively, with young men escorting women with their hair in updos, strolling through the marketplace.
They held hands, played, or ate snacks together…
The atmosphere was so conducive that Su Xiaoqi, walking with Shen Yun from one end of the street to the other and engaging in intimate gestures, didn’t feel any sense of incongruity.
Everyone around them was doing the same, so their actions were nothing extraordinary.
It wasn’t until they were eating a bowl of tofu pudding that, because the rim of the bowl was too small, both leaned in. Their noses, being quite prominent, accidentally bumped.
“Ouch… That hurt,” Su Xiaoqi said, touching her nose and looking at Shen Yun with a hint of accusation.
Shen Yun quickly reached out to touch her nose and whispered soothingly, “My apologies, my dear wife. It is my fault.”
Su Xiaoqi looked at his tall, bamboo-like figure, then at his careful and gentle demeanor, and her eyes instantly blurred.
She felt that the scene before her seemed somewhat unreal, as if she were dreaming.
By this time, the sky had begun to darken, and lamps were lit along the street.
This was one of the differences between the Great Liang Dynasty and the previous dynasties.
Here, there was no curfew during various festivals.
Today, on the Double Ninth Festival, the street market in Majia Lane was allowed to stay open until the third watch.
The dim lamplight fell on Shen Yun’s head, casting a veil over his handsome and refined face.
Su Xiaoqi suddenly felt that she didn’t understand him at all, as if she had never understood him before.
She couldn’t help but tilt her head and murmur softly, “Shen Yun, are you really Shen Yun?”
She had suspected that Shen Yun had been swapped, and wondered if she too had experienced something as miraculous as herself.
While Su Xiaoqi was lost in thought, Shen Yun was contemplating what was on her mind.
He was very curious about what kind of "miraculous experience" Xiaoqi referred to.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t ask. If he did, she would realize that he could see through her thoughts.
“Shen Yun?” Seeing that Shen Yun hadn’t responded for a long time, Su Xiaoqi called out again.
“Call me ‘husband’,” Shen Yun requested earnestly.
Su Xiaoqi didn’t hesitate and complied readily, “Husband.”
Shen Yun curved his lips, reached out to playfully flick her nose, and with his other hand, picked up a skewer of freshly grilled lamb: “Good wife!”
“Mmm, it smells so good,” Su Xiaoqi reached out to grab it quickly.
The grilled skewers were delicious. In her past life, in modern times, she had also enjoyed them, but she was afraid of eating too much barbecue for health reasons and didn't dare to eat much.
Today, she wanted to indulge herself.
The two of them ate to their heart’s content. It was only when it was completely dark that they left the still bustling Majia Lane.
Getting into the mule cart, Su Xiaoqi thought they would finally be heading home. To her surprise, Shen Yun said, “I’ll take you somewhere.”