Chapter 61: Grandmother Lu’s Heavenly Wares
The older man, who introduced himself as Zhang Muchen, was apparently one of Grandmother Lu’s house staff. Sen knew that Master Feng had left Grandmother Lu some money, but he hadn’t thought that it would be enough to hire more staff. Still, he was happy that she had people around to look after her needs. Of course, there was the matter of her shop. Sen couldn’t quite wrap his head around the idea. Grandmother Lu’s mind had still been very sharp when he left, but she had struck him as very frail. Her hands had seemed to hurt her all the time. He did recognize that some of his struggle with the idea was a simple lack of information. He’d never been inside a shop before.
Oh, Aunt Caihong had been careful to describe how shops worked to him, the protocols involved, but that was all from the perspective of the customer. Sen didn’t understand what was involved with owning a shop, but it seemed likely to him that it called for at least some physical labor and likely some paperwork. He didn’t like to think of Grandmother Lu hunched over paperwork, wincing with every brush stroke. He’d hoped that she would spend her days at ease, taking that ease as some small reward for her kindnesses to him. If anyone had earned that rest, in Sen’s opinion, she had.
Looking back, he understood better just what a risk she had taken by letting him into her home and sharing her food with him. For all she had known, Sen might have turned on her like some kind of wild animal. Sen wouldn’t have done that. Even then, he’d had gratitude in his heart, if not true understanding. Yet, she couldn’t have known that about him. She might have guessed, even hoped that he wouldn’t, but she couldn’t have known. She had gambled her life that he was better than he had any right to be. At least Sen could take some tiny bit of satisfaction that she’d won that gamble.
“Young master, was your training successful?” Asked the old servant.
Sen blinked a few times and forced his thoughts back into the present. Zhang Muchen had been rambling on about Grandmother Lu’s many virtues, and Sen had mostly stopped listening. He’d been getting by with positive noises every so often for about five minutes. Sen glanced at the older man who looked very apprehensive for some reason. Sen briefly thought about how to answer the question.
“Yes, Uncle Zhang. I did experience some small success in my training.”
Relief oozed out of the man as he offered Sen a bright smile. “That is wonderful news, young master. Wonderful.”
Sen gave the man a smile. “Let us hope that Grandmother is as pleased with my progress.”
The servant gaped at Sen for a moment before he laughed. “Oh, the young master is having a joke at my expense. Mistress Lu always sings the praises of her grandson. I do not believe she would tolerate a bad word to be spoken of you.”
Sen felt a warm little surge in his chest. “She is very kind to do so.”
Zhang Muchen beamed at Sen and then gestured toward a building. “Young master, we have arrived. This is Grandmother Lu’s Heavenly Wares.”
Sen just stared at the structure for a minute. It was twice the size of any other building in the market. More to the point, it looked new. As far as Sen was concerned, it was new. The building certainly hadn’t existed when he’d last graced the square. He thought back and tried to remember what had been there before. He could remember what the buildings had looked like, but not much else. They must not have been restaurants, which were the only kinds of businesses that Sen had cared about before. Yet, for all that Grandmother Lu’s shop was big and new, it wasn’t overblown. There was only a simple sign over the door that gave the name. No there were no gaudy decorations or too bright colors, just that sign.
Sen followed Zhang Muchen into the shop and looked around with intense curiosity. A wide variety of goods were on display, from bundles of what looked like fine silks on one table, to delicate figurines artfully arranged on shelves, to dishes with what Sen thought were plum blossoms around the outer edges. Sen was no merchant to judge the value of goods, but he had at least some passing understanding of what quality goods looked like, courtesy of his time in Uncle Kho and Aunt Caihong’s home. The goods in the shop were good, probably even excellent, quality, which meant they were expensive. How could Grandmother Lu own this shop? How could she possibly even afford to acquire the things he saw for sale? Sen didn’t think that Master Feng had been that generous to Grandmother Lu.
There were a few customers in the place, all of them wearing fine robes and attended by young men and women in matching outfits. Sen noticed a few similarly uniformed young women hovering nearby and watching him with rather intense looks. He turned to ask Zhang Muchen a question, only to see the man having what looked like a very intense, if hushed, conversation with a woman. Sen caught little snatches of the conversation, such as “very important” and “tea.” The man said one last thing and the woman visibly jerked before her eyes swiveled to him. She gave Zhang a hasty bow and rushed over to Sen. Sen watched as Zhang walked around a counter and disappeared through a curtained doorway. He was curious about what the man was up to, but the woman was right in front of him by then, bowing and introducing her so fast that Sen couldn’t make sense of her name. She gently pulled Sen away from the shop front and into what must have been a room meant for private meetings with important guests.
Sen was offered a comfortable chair and assured that anything he needed would be provided as quickly as possible. He tried to give the woman a reassuring smile and said he didn’t need anything. She gave him another deep bow and a wide-eyed look before she vanished. Sen heaved a sigh of relief. At least he’d get a few moments of privacy in the back room. That privacy lasted all of two minutes before a tall, slender young woman with delicate features came in carrying a tray and tea set. She insisted on preparing a cup for him and stared at him while he tried the tea. It was good.
“The tea is excellent. Thank you.”
The young woman smiled, seemed to think better of it, then bowed, and then, by Sen’s estimation, she ran away. He really didn’t know what to make of that but decided to simply enjoy his tea while he waited. The peace was shattered as a different young woman came in with a plate piled high with almond cookies. He took a cookie, ate it while the woman just watched him with wide eyes, and then praised the quality. She blushed at him and, then, she too fled the room. Sen was starting to wonder if this was some kind of elaborate prank that Master Feng had arranged for over the last few years. The suspicion was heightened when he heard feminine giggling outside of the little room he was in. He was eyeing the door suspiciously when another young woman, this one with a round face and a few freckles on her cheeks, came in to offer him a mooncake. He blinked down at the treat. Hadn’t Auntie Caihong said that those were usually something people ate in the autumn? Sen shrugged to himself. Maybe someone decided they wanted some over the summer. He was reaching out for the treat when he heard a familiar voice.
“Oh, for the heavens’ sake, get back to work you girls.”
The sound of Grandmother Lu’s voice had a startling effect on the girl. She jumped, lost her hold on the small plate, and sent both plate and treat flying. At the same time, the door burst open and the girl stumbled away from it. For Sen, who had spent months learning to dodge things moving a lot faster than anything in that room, it looked like an amusing exercise. He stood, gently scooping the falling plate out of the air with his left hand and snatching the treat out of the air with his right hand. He used his left arm to arrest the girl’s fall and pull her against him where she could catch her balance. The girl was still crying out before her brain registered that she wasn’t still falling. Sen waited a beat to make sure she had her footing, while she stared up at him with an incredulous expression on her face. He took a step back and held the plate out to her.
“There you go. No harm done. I even saved the mooncake,” said Sen, holding up the treat and taking a bite. “Mmmm, is that red bean paste? It’s really good.”
The flustered girl took the plate from Sen’s hand and said, “My mother made it.”
Sen was a little amused by the fact that she hadn’t answered his question, but he played along. “She did an excellent job of it. Give her my compliments.”
The girl seemed to realize that something nonsensical had fallen out of her mouth and turned bright red. There was a half-amused, half-exasperated noise from the door. The girl spun, lost control of the plate again, and Sen was forced to save it from destruction a second time. He put the plate back in her hands as she turned even redder.
“Go on, Bai. There are customers.”
“Yes, Mistress Lu.”
The girl pulled the plate against her chest with both hands and rushed past the figure in the door.
“Now, grandson, I don’t remember you being quite that charming before. What did that old goat have you getting into up on that mountain?”
Sen stared in slack-jawed amazement at the woman in the doorway. She looked the way that Sen might have imagined that Grandmother Lu’s daughter would look. She wasn’t young, but she wasn’t ancient either. She looked like a healthy woman in her middle years. If Sen hadn’t seen Uncle Kho’s transformation, he wouldn’t have believed his eyes. “Grandmother Lu?”
She gave him a warm smile and opened her arms. “In the not-so-withered flesh. Now, come over here and let me get a look at you. My goodness, what did they feed you? You’re huge now.”
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