Poor at home, wealthy on the road.
Xu Qing brought offerings worth millions to the Capital to take the imperial exam. Recently topping the heavens' list, he escaped a five-hundred-year calamity.
Now returning to Linjiang, he naturally couldn't go back empty-handed.
As the saying goes, "When leaving home, don't go empty-handed; when returning home, don't go with an empty basket."
After catching a few Spirit Fish and preparing some peculiar scales that seemed perfect for soup, Xu Qing still felt something was missing.
He came to the streets of Linjiang, and watching the street vendors hawking their wares, Xu Qing suddenly had an idea.
Luojing is the place where the nation's fortune gathers. Even if the current fortune of the Dayong Dynasty isn't as strong as before, it's still a place where oddities and eccentrics converge.
Although Xu Qing went to Luojing to 'take the exam', he never actually entered the Capital. He was unfamiliar with that place and didn't care to go.
Walking on the streets of Linjiang, Xu Qing bought large bags of 'Capital specialties', and when he encountered a stall selling breakfast foods, he saw the steam rising from the full steamer and the stall owner constantly stirring the fish porridge to prevent it from burning.
Xu Qing was suddenly invigorated!
Such a lively atmosphere, something zombies in remote villages wouldn't be able to smell.
He went to the food stall, ordered grilled dough rings with bean juice, sweet and salty tofu custard, fried dough sticks, and buns!
For those unaware, it might seem like some starving ghost has come to the streets!
"Sir, your grilled dough rings with bean juice!"
What are grilled dough rings? As mentioned in the Compendium of Materia Medica, add a little salt, twist and form it into ring shapes, and deep fry them; that's grilled dough rings.
Though both grilled dough rings and fried dough sticks are fried, there is a clear difference: fried dough sticks are large and soft, while grilled dough rings are like bracelets, small and crispy. They can be stored for ten days to half a month without changing their quality, remaining crispy as ever.
They are a beloved delicacy among the people of Jin Sect for hundreds of years.
Bean juice is also a flavor passed down from generations of the Capital and Tianjin, loved by some people while those who dislike it compare it to swill.
Bean juice nourishes the stomach, detoxifies, and clears internal heat. It's a popular palace drink in the Luojing Imperial City, but now Xu Qing was dipping grilled dough rings into bean juice, and even the throne wouldn't tempt him away.
Eating as he walked down the street, Xu Qing tasted various foods, and when he found something he liked, he would pack a portion to take back to the Funeral Shop for everyone to try.
At one point, Xu Qing came to a noodle stall, bought a few bowls of crab noodles, but before he had his fill, a sheathed Treasure Sword suddenly slammed onto the table next to him.
Looking sideways, Xu Qing saw a handsome and graceful white-robed nobleman sitting at the dining table.
As soon as he sat down, his gaze instinctively swept around, and when he saw the stack of noodle bowls more than a foot high in front of Xu Qing, his gaze visibly paused for a moment.
This noodle stall was good, but he'd never seen anyone eat so much at once. How long has it been since this person last ate?
He ordered a bowl of crab noodles and ate slowly.
Xu Qing was half full and was just about to sip some noodle soup to call it a day when a disheveled woman with bruises and marks on her face came to the noodle stall.
The woman's gaze lingered on Xu Qing and the white-robed nobleman for a moment. Upon seeing the mountain of bowls in front of Xu Qing, she chose to approach the seemingly wealthier white-robed nobleman.
"Young Master, could you spare a bite of food?"
The woman timidly asked, like a stray cat or dog afraid of people, coming closer only out of extreme hunger.
The interrupter, Shang Shaoyang, frowned, displeased. "This noodle stall doesn't just serve me, so why beg only from me? Do I look like a good person?"
The beggar woman glanced at Xu Qing, who was happily sipping soup, and whispered, "Sir and the other patrons look kind enough, but everyone else doesn't seem to be wealthy owners, more like poor folks who haven't had a decent meal."
"..."
Xu Qing paused in his soup sipping, wondering if she was referring to him as the poor person.
Shang Shaoyang glanced at the stack of bowls in front of Xu Qing and nodded, "You're certainly observant."
"But I'm not some good Samaritan; you're asking the wrong person by coming to me!"
The beggar woman looked at the handsome face of the white-robed nobleman and mustered her courage, "I could keep Young Master company for the night."
"..."
This time, it was Xu Qing's turn to look over with interest.
Shang Shaoyang took a deep breath and suddenly turned his head, "Owner! Get her a bowl of noodles!"
When the noodles were ready, the beggar woman didn't sit at the table. She leaned against the threshold, devouring the bowl of noodles, and after finishing, she even licked the bowl's rim with a sense of lingering hunger.
About to eat his noodles, Shang Shaoyang lifted his chopsticks, then put them down again. Not until the woman finished did he finally speak, "Owner, make her another bowl."
"Thank you, Young Master, you truly are a kind soul!"
Shang Shaoyang's eyelids twitched. There was perfectly good crab noodles before him, but he no longer had any appetite.
"Where is your family from, and why are you here alone?"
The woman stared blankly at her empty bowl for a while before opening her mouth to speak.
"I'm from Yaozhou. There was a locust plague in my hometown, no crops to harvest, the officials demanded taxes, and my family couldn't pay. We had to give our land in exchange. Later, bandits harassed me... I couldn't get married, not even for a grain's worth of dowry, so my parents sold me to a wealthy lord, but the lord soon sold me off..."
As she reached this point, the beggar woman stopped, as the noodle shop owner had finished making another bowl.
She ate the second bowl even faster than the first, perhaps because of what she had said.
Seeing her choke, Shang Shaoyang frowned, "Eat slowly. Owner, please serve a bowl of noodle soup."
After finishing the noodles, the beggar woman's eyes were filled with tears, her voice excited yet humble and ingratiating:
"I haven't eaten in three days, and it was Young Master who let me eat. You truly are a genuinely good person."