My classmate Zhu Houzhao

Chapter 2 Extra Memories

About three years ago, Fang Heng's mother passed away, leaving Fang Heng heartbroken. Since then, Fang Heng has been experiencing intermittent flashes of memories in his mind. These memories do not belong to Fang Heng, and he is unsure whether they are memories from his past or future lives.

These memories seem to belong to two people, one of whom is a middle-aged man. He is a generous and easygoing man with a large group of brothers around him. Once he has money, he never mistreats his brothers and will invite them to eat out together.

Memories of these two people always appeared intermittently, some exceptionally clear, others like looking at flowers through fog, unclear, and Fang Heng would always have new memories after waking up each day.

Fang Heng couldn't remember any of the man's name, or even the names of his brothers. He only knew that one of his brothers sold dog meat.

Fang Heng had many memories of dog meat. The man would go to the dog meat stall, pick up the dog meat and eat it. Sometimes he would also grab a handful of peppercorns from the peppercorn stall next to him and eat them with the dog meat.

Fang Heng's personality is now largely influenced by this person's memories.

The other person's memories were even more fragmented. This person seemed to know a little about everything, especially cooking, in which he was proficient. The desserts that Fang Heng made were based on this person's memories. According to this person's memories, the dessert should be called: egg tarts.

This person's memory was exceptionally fragmented, and Fang Heng didn't know his name, but he did know his identity; he seemed to be a special agent sent abroad by a country called China.

Fang Heng's memories of this person were truly eye-opening. Skyscrapers, metal boxes running on the road, what were they called? These were things that Fang Heng would never have dared to imagine before, but now they had become part of his memories.

The stories Fang Heng told earlier were just pieces he pieced together from fragmented memories; in reality, he didn't have a complete version of any of them.

Even so, it was enough to keep Gou Dan and his fellow teenagers thoroughly entertained.

As soon as Fang Heng returned to Liangxiang County, he saw a little girl of about ten years old looking at him expectantly. Seeing this girl, Fang Heng felt helpless.

"Er Ya, didn't your father say he wouldn't let you fool around with me? You'll get married someday, and it won't sound good if word gets out."

The girl in front of me was wearing clothes that had been washed and were somewhat faded. Fortunately, the clothes didn't have any holes, which was already much better than many other families' children.

"What does my father know? My second brother is the most capable man in the world. Other men are nothing."

Er Ya was excited when she saw Fang Heng.

"How many men have you even met? There are plenty of men in this world more capable than me."

Fang Heng said with a hint of helplessness.

"I don't care, I'll just be your wife when I grow up."

Er Ya pouted.

"Stop!"

Fang Heng felt a headache when he heard this. Er Ya had said this countless times. Er Ya was still just a little girl. In the Ming Dynasty, women usually got married at the age of twelve or thirteen, and many were fifteen or sixteen. A ten-year-old girl was just a bean sprout with chapped skin from the spring breeze. Underneath the chapped skin, she was red and could hardly be called a beauty.

It wasn't a matter of whether Fang Heng liked her or not; rather, Fang Heng knew very well that while he was fine, he would likely have no say in Er Ya's future marriage. What he was saying now was just childish banter.

"Go and call your parents and your younger brother. I'll cook some mutton soup later, so come and have some."

Fang Heng was really at his wit's end with Er Ya's persistence. At Er Ya's age, reasoning with her was pointless, so he simply changed the subject.

Upon hearing that there would be mutton soup, Er Ya forgot all about romance and love. Just thinking about how delicious the mutton soup would be made her drool.

She wiped her mouth, glanced at Fang Heng, and then walked reluctantly toward her home.

Seeing that Er Ya had left, Fang Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief and strolled off toward the west of the city.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, Fang Heng arrived at a small courtyard, which was Gou Dan's home.

Gou Dan's father was a famous chef in the whole Liangxiang. He was famous not because his food was particularly delicious, but because he was invited to cook for weddings and funerals. Of course, he wasn't the only one invited; there were usually two or three chefs in charge of cooking, each with their own responsibilities.

In the past, whenever Fang Heng had money and wanted to stew mutton soup or cook other large pot dishes, he would usually come back here, because Gou Dan's family had a large pot ready-made, which was used for banquets.

"You've come at the right time. Yesterday I was preparing a feast for someone, and the host prepared too much food. They gave me a chicken and a fish. I was thinking of having Gou Dan call you when he came back, but I don't know where that kid went. He's still not back for dinner."

When Gou Dan's father saw Fang Heng, he immediately greeted him warmly.

"Don't bother, Uncle. Keep your chicken and fish for now. Uncle Jiang gave me a lot of money when he came to visit. I asked Gou Dan and the others to buy lamb legs. We'll make lamb soup later and invite everyone over for a lively gathering."

As Fang Heng spoke, he didn't stand on ceremony and sat down on the stone bench in Gou Dan's yard. He took off his cloth shoes and knocked the pebbles and sand out of them.

"Lord Jiang is back?"

Dog Egg's father was somewhat surprised to hear this.

"Keep the money Lord Jiang gave you. Don't squander it every time. Save it up to get married later. Isn't that better than anything else?"

Dog Egg's father looked at Fang Heng and said earnestly.

"You know my family's mess. If I keep this money, they probably won't be able to sleep soundly. They'll be thinking about how to get their hands on it. It's better to spend it and be done with it. At least everyone can have some mutton soup."

Fang Heng said nonchalantly.

Upon hearing this, Gou Dan's father fell silent, unsure how to comfort the boy before him.

He was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses.

"When you make mutton soup later, add my fish to it too. Although I'm not as good at cooking as you, fish and mutton are both delicious, so mutton soup with fish should be even more flavorful."

As he spoke, he went back into the house to get the fish.

While the two were talking, Gou Dan and the others carried in a wooden bucket, came to Fang Heng, and put the bucket down.

"Second brother, here's the milk you wanted."

As Gou Dan spoke, he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Upon hearing this, Fang Heng opened the lid of the wooden bucket, looked at the white milk inside, and then went to Gou Dan's kitchen. He took a bamboo lid and a cloth, first covering the wooden bucket with the lid, then covering the lid with the cloth, and finally found a hemp rope to tighten the cloth.

"It's done. Keep it at your place for now and let it ferment for two days."

After finishing all that, Fang Heng clapped his hands and said.

At this moment, the third brother and the others also returned. Some of them carried lamb legs, some carried cabbages, and others carried vermicelli. This vermicelli was very different from the sweet potato vermicelli that Fang Heng remembered. It was made from mung beans. Vermicelli made from mung beans was the best.

Soon, Er Ya's family arrived. Er Ya's father held a piece of cloth in his hand and carefully unfolded it.

"I bought this from a salt smuggler a few days ago, so you'd better use it sparingly."

Upon hearing this, Fang Heng didn't stand on ceremony and took the whole bag of salt, which made Er Ya's father feel a little pained.

After Er Ya's family arrived, many more people came to Gou Dan's house one after another. Everyone knew that Fang Heng usually cooked big pot dishes here.

"Guess what good stuff I got my hands on, kid?"

A somewhat shifty-eyed man approached Fang Heng, his face full of smugness.

"Could it be spices?"

Fang Heng looked at the man, somewhat surprised.

These days, spices are not as expensive as they were decades ago, but they are still not something that ordinary people can afford.

However, this man in front of him always seemed to have some strange connections, and judging from his behavior, Fang Heng had this guess.

"How did you know? Did you get some information?"

The man looked around furtively, then stared at Fang Heng with a surprised expression.

"What's so strange about that? You've always had a good relationship with those guys at the spice shop. Did they steal these spices? If they did, it'll be a real problem if the spice shop comes looking for them later."

Fang Heng glanced at the man, saying it was troublesome, but his tone was extremely nonchalant, as if he didn't take the matter seriously.

"Don't worry, no one will investigate. Those spice shop assistants earn so little each month. If they didn't steal some spices to supplement their family income, who would work in a spice shop? The spice shop owners probably know perfectly well what's going on and will just turn a blind eye."

As he spoke, the man took out a packet of spices from his pocket and handed it to Fang Heng.

"This little bit cost me more than a dozen coins."

The man looked at Fang Heng with a hint of self-satisfaction.

Fang Heng opened the spice packet and took a look. The variety was quite complete: angelica, Sichuan pepper, black pepper powder, star anise, bay leaves, each categorized and wrapped in a small piece of kraft paper, and finally all wrapped in a large piece of kraft paper.

Among these spices, angelica and star anise are relatively cheaper, especially angelica, which is a spice native to the Central Plains region. Next is star anise, which is mostly produced in the Lingnan region. Sichuan pepper and bay leaves are the most expensive.

Since the reign of Emperor Taizong of Ming (Zhu Di), Zheng He made seven voyages to the Western Ocean, bringing back ship after ship of spices. Zhu Di distributed the spices as salaries to court officials. At first, the officials were very happy, since spices such as Sichuan pepper were extremely expensive at that time, which was much more cost-effective than giving them salaries directly.

However, as ship after ship of spices were brought back to the Ming Dynasty, the value of spices such as Sichuan peppercorns was greatly reduced. Zhu Di distributed the same amount of Sichuan peppercorns, so the officials in the court were dissatisfied and submitted memorials to the emperor, asking Zheng He to stop his voyages to the Western Ocean.

It is now the fifteenth year of the Hongzhi reign, a full century since the first year of the Yongle reign. The price of Sichuan peppercorns has long since declined, but it is still not something that ordinary people can afford to eat on a daily basis.

Fang Heng picked out two pieces of angelica from the packet of spices, and then handed the whole packet back to the man.

"You don't need so many spices to stew mutton. Too many spices will ruin the flavor. This is enough."

Upon hearing this, the man chuckled and, without any hesitation, put away the spice packet.