Kapitel 22: Night Market

By late afternoon, Wang Jingyuan and Mo Xian arrived at a large town by the name of Pingkang. They decided to stay here for the night, because the next town was too far away to reach by nightfall. After finding an inn and leaving their horse to the stable boy, the pair wandered the streets.

"I think the night market here will be very vibrant," Mo Xian said as he took in the streamers and lanterns strung up everywhere. "There should be lots of vendors."

"I'm excited! I haven't properly walked around a night market," Wang Jingyuan said, her eyes bright. "Childe Mo, let's get dinner and then walk around when it gets dark."

"Alright." Mo Xian found himself smiling. Whenever Wang Jingyuan was happy, he found that he was happy too. They had a simple meal of beef hand-pulled noodles as the sun set and night arrived. Just like Mo Xian predicted, the night life was vibrant.

Colored lanterns glowed merrily up and down the streets. Vendors lined the walls, calling out and selling everything from snacks to hair accessories to art. Men and women strolled around leisurely, while children ran and chased after each other. Wang Jingyuan had never seen anything like this before.

"Wow! Look, Childe Mo, that man is selling tanghulu [1]!" Wang Jingyuan was beside herself with excitement. She pulled on Mo Xian's sleeve and pointed out the vendor eagerly. If there was anything that caught her eye, it was the food in this night market. In the modern world of chips and cookies, tanghulu was a snack that was hard to come by, especially in the cities. Wang Jingyuan all but dragged Mo Xian over.

"How much for a stick of tanghulu?" she asked the white bearded vendor.

"Three copper coins, miss," he answered. Wang Jingyuan rifled in her money pouch and counted out six copper coins.

"Can I have two sticks, please? Thank you!" She dropped the money into the vendor's palm and accepted two large sticks of tanghulu.

"Childe Mo, this one is for you." She handed one to Mo Xian, who blinked in surprise.

"For me?" He hadn't expected Wang Jingyuan to buy him a snack. Wang Jingyuan nodded eagerly.

"You've paid for several meals already, Childe Mo. Just take this tanghulu as a token of gratitude." She pushed it towards him.

"I've told you, I need to be the one repaying you for saving my life." Mo Xian didn't know how many more times he would have to remind her. Still, he took the tanghulu from Wang Jingyuan. He felt warm and fuzzy inside that she thought about him and bought him a snack.

As they walked away from the food stand, Wang Jingyuan bit into the top hawthorn with a crunch. "Mmm! It's so sweet!" She exclaimed, followed by, "Oh, it's so sour now." She made a face, and Mo Xian laughed softly. Usually he was indifferent toward sweets, but today, tanghulu seemed like a great snack. He bit into his stick of tanghulu, and the sweet and sour taste exploded across his tongue. Hm. He didn't remember the snack being this delicious.

Mo Xian followed Wang Jingyuan to several other food stands after that. Even though they just finished dinner, Wang Jingyuan had plenty of space left in her stomach for night market food and snacks—especially ones she couldn't get easily in the modern world. Every time she bought something, she made sure to buy one for Mo Xian.

Mo Xian tasted honey rice cakes, fried sesame balls, fish balls, mini taro buns, white radish pancakes, and more. He wondered why all of these foods, more common than ever, tasted so good to him tonight. The snacks and foods he ate were of the highest quality and grade; they were things that these normal citizen snacks could never compare to. Yet Mo Xian felt like nothing he had ever eaten could compare with all of the snacks that Wang Jingyuan had bought him tonight. Why?

Wang Jingyuan skidded to a stop beside another food stand. This time, it had all sorts of cakes [2]—hibiscus cakes, osmanthus cakes, green bean cakes, red bean cakes, sticky purple rice cakes. All of them were in beautiful shapes and practically inviting people to bite into them.

Wang Jingyuan thought she was in heaven. She loved pastries and cakes, but the good types were so expensive in bakeries that she rarely bought them. Besides, different provinces specialized in different cakes; sometimes she simply couldn't find a place nearby that sold them. But here, she had all of the options right in front of her!

"Childe Mo, look, cakes!" Wang Jingyuan happily peered at the desserts in front of her.

"Which one do you like?" Mo Xian asked.

"I don't know." Wang Jingyuan sank into despair. "I can't choose. I want to try all of them."

She looked up at the vendor and asked, "How much for a package of cakes?"

"They come in packages of four, and each package is ten copper coins," the vendor replied. "Miss, which one catches your eye? I'll wrap it up for you."

Wang Jingyuan was originally very excited, but upon hearing the price, her excitement dimmed. She was so busy buying all the foods and snacks that she forgot she only had a handful of copper coins left. Now, feeling her money pouch, there was probably only about five copper coins in there. But she really, really wanted a cake.

"Can I buy just one cake? How much would that be?" Wang Jingyuan inquired. Before the vendor could respond, Mo Xian spoke up.

"Uncle, please give us one package of every cake."

"One package of each?" The vendor couldn't believe his ears. Mo Xian nodded. "Sure, no problem!" The vendor was very happy that the childe in front of him was buying so many and immediately went about picking out the biggest, prettiest cakes from each type and wrapping them up.

"Now you don't have to worry about choosing a flavor; you can try them all." Mo Xian smiled to Wang Jingyuan.

"Childe Mo, that is way too many cakes!" Wang Jingyuan stared at him in shock. Her empty coin pouch hurt at the thought of the price of so many cakes. "I only wanted one!"

"No, you said you wanted to try all of them." As the vendor handed over a stack of neatly folded paper packages, Mo Xian gave him a gold coin. "Keep the change, uncle."

"Thank you, childe! Thank you, miss!" The vendor was beside himself with happiness. Normally, he couldn't even sell enough cakes in a year to earn a gold coin. "Thank you for your patronage!"

"As long as you like it, I will buy it for you." Mo Xian said to Wang Jingyuan as they walked away. "Besides, you've bought me so many snacks tonight already. It's about time I bought you something."

Wang Jingyuan was still reeling from the fact that Mo Xian basically bought out three-quarters of the vendor's entire stock of cakes like it was nothing. And he bought it for her! Mo Xian unwrapped the top package and took out a small white rectangular cake.

"I think this one is hibiscus cake," he said as he brought it close to Wang Jingyuan's lips. "Try it."

Wang Jingyuan bit into the chewy dessert. Mmm, it was every bit as delicious as she imagined it to be. She finished the small dessert in three bites.

"It's very good. Childe Mo, you should try one too," Wang Jingyuan said. Then her eyes fell on a group of people heading towards them on the other side of the street. They wore identical teal robes and had the same black hairpiece on their heads. All of them carried a short sword. One man in front was talking rather loudly to his peers.

"That man really must not have eyes! How could he not recognize that we are Qingsha pupils?"

Qingsha? Wang Jingyuan halted in her tracks. It was Qingsha Sect, the very sect that was hunting her down!

AUTORENGEDANKEN
SkyEmpress

[1] tanghulu: a delicious and traditional snack made up of hawthorns on a stick and dipped in sweet red syrup that hardens and crystallizes over the hawthorns. It is both sour and sweet, and makes a satisfying crack when you bite into it.

[2] Here, the cakes are not the cakes we are used to (ie birthday cake) but rather a dessert type that is kind of like a moist, dense, chewy cookie. The term in Chinese is 糕 (“gao”).

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