After Su Tang and her brother moved, they slowly got used to the new place bit by bit, and before long everything returned to its previous rhythm.
Su Tang would help Su Nuo study for a while in the mornings, then she would go watch over Baohe and Pu Wei as they baked the desserts that would be sold that day, before finally heading off to the Song residence to study with Song Yi in the afternoon. Also, probably because the New Year was getting closer and closer, Su Tang’s newly introduced ‘pearls’ received a good response after they were brought out in the Dessert Cafe. Although the pearls caused the milk tea to be a bit more pricey, many people were still willing to try.
With the Spring Festival coming up, the Dessert Cafe’s business was getting even better than before. After all, people always had the idea of treating themselves a little lavishly around the New Year. Thus, as long as they could afford it, people would go out and buy these sorts of luxury goods for the Spring Festival.
In addition, because of tradition, many people were exchanging gifts back and forth around the New Year, and the delicious and high-end products at Su Tang’s Dessert Cafe made for good gifts. Su Tang had even specially customized some New Years gift boxes to meet this demand, and they sold very well.
Thus, for several consecutive days, the profits had reached one or two taels of silver each day. Seeing all this silver coming in every day, Su Tang’s mouth couldn’t stop smiling.
On top of that, using the money for the soap that Luo Xingchen had brought to her she had been able to immediately pay back the hundred silver that Song Yi had lent her. Thus, these days she was finally feeling light and debt-free, and she even had a lot of money in her hands.
However, despite finally having some money in hand, her heart was still steady. However, in the end, she decided that since it was the first Spring Festival that she and Su Nuo would be spending together she ought to make it a bit memorable. So on the morning of December 25, instead of having Su Nuo study, she took him out shopping to buy some things in celebration of the Spring Festival.
“Tanghulu, sister, do you want to eat some tanghulu? I’ll treat you this time.” Recently, the little guy had only been working hard at studying and learning from Su Tang, so he had rarely come out to play. Now that he finally had a chance he was bouncing around everywhere happily. (tl note: You can google Tanghulu for pictures, but it’s basically candied fruits on a skewer, and its been around for a very long time, so it’s an appropriate candy for an ancient setting. Traditionally it’s made using Chinese Hawthorn.)
And, after they came out, he happened to see some red tanghulu being sold at a stall. Of course, Su Tang herself had used hawthorn to make various candies at home for him before, but when he saw something new and different outside Su Nuo was still greedy to try it.
These days Su Tang would give the little guy twenty copper coins every month as pocket money. Usually he carefully saved every coin and rarely bought anything, but today he generously offered to treat Su Tang and let her eat the tanghulu with him.
Seeing him so generous, Su Tang smiled and said, “Alright!”
Su Nuo hurriedly ran off to buy the tanghulu and Su Tang stood aside and waited. She watched as the little guy carefully counted out six copper coins, and then the vendor gave him two skewers of tanghulu.
“Tang girl!” However, before Su Nuo could come back with his prize, Su Tang heard someone call out to her. When she looked around, she was a bit surprised to see an acquaintance.
“Brother Shun, sister-in-law, did you two also come to town for New Years goods?” It turned out that the ones who called out were Su Yongshun and his wife Madam Qin. And not only them, there was also Su Fu’an, his wife Madam Wen, and their daughter, and also Su Fuhua, his wife Madam Tong, and even Su Nuan all following behind.
It was rare for a large family to all come to town together like this, but it did happen sometimes, especially around this time of year. After all, the Spring Festival was coming soon, so many families were busy buying New Years goods for the festival, and the town butchers were all very busy.
As soon as Su Nuan saw Su Tang, her eyes lit up and she called out, “Aunt Tang!”
“Wow, you’ve gotten even taller and more beautiful since I last saw you.” Su Tang praised the other girl with a smile.
However, Su Yongshun and Madam Qin were looking at Su Tang with strange eyes. But just then Su Nuo came back and greeted them as all, “Brother Shun, sister-in-law!”
Then when he saw them, he greeted Su Fu’an and Su Fuhua as well. Once he finished the greetings, the little guy noticed he still had the two skewers of tanghulu in his hands and decided it would be better to give them to the ‘younger generation’. Thus, he passed one to Su Nuan and the other to the daughter Madam Wen was carrying in her arms.
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tl begging corner:
Sooo cute. Little NuoNuo acts as an elder 🙂