Great Tang Idyll

Book 2: Chapter 5

Thanks to Yaro for commissioning this chapter!

After a short while, two people came in one after the other through the door. Walking in the front was a woman, and the one following behind her was that man. As soon as the two came in, the waiter greeted them.

"We're looking for a room on the second floor, and we want to be able to see the outside scenery from where we sit." The woman gave the waiter a dozen coins that were tied together with a string that she had prepared in advance.

The waiter smiled happily as he spoke to the two people: "There are no more rooms upstairs; they are all occupied. How about you dine on the first floor?"

He acted like he was a bit unwilling to speak to them and was planning to give back the money in his hand. It was as if he was telling them that it was fine if the two of them didn't want to eat and that if they did want to eat, then they had to eat on the first floor.

The woman's rounded eyebrows frowned, then flattened out again. She spoke with a smile, "Alright, list all the good dishes you have here, then I'll decide what to order."

"There is a menu in the restaurant, so you can look at that. Once you're done ordering, I'll go to the kitchen and tell the chef to make it." As if he was a magician, the waiter conjured up a half-inch thick menu. He was grateful that the restaurant had menus, otherwise he would be exhausted by the time he finished listing all of the dishes' names.

The man and the woman did not expect that the Between The Water And Clouds Restaurant operated like this. The woman spoke again, "But neither of us can read, what do you think we should do?"

"What you have said is correct. Some guests are indeed illiterate. That's fine though. There are drawings on the menu. You will know what the dish is when you look at the drawing. If you think that dish looks good, then you can ask me about it and I'll describe it to you." The waiter grew to admire the Young Master more and more since he was able to address every tiny detail.

The woman and the man found a place to sit down. They opened the menu and looked at it, and they felt that something was wrong. The price of each dish was all above five taels of silver. They flipped through all the pages and to their surprise, the most expensive dish cost 300 taels of silver and the cheapest dish was five taels of silver. These prices were not affordable for ordinary people.

The man gaped at the most expensive dish. The woman closed the menu and said to the waiter, "How is that everything in this restaurant that expensive?"

As soon as she said this, she regretted it. Just now she said she didn't know how to read, but she complained that the price is high even though the price was written in words on the menu.

The waiter immediately made a panicked look. He lowered his head and bent over as he said, "Forgive me, I made a mistake by bringing out the wrong menu. This menu is for the distinguished guests to order from. Right now I'll go get you the cheaper one. The cheapest dish is a bowl of soup with flatbread on the side; it only costs a coin. Those dishes taste better. It's perfect for people like you to eat."

This time, the waiter spoke with a louder voice. No only did that man and woman heard him clearly, but all of the surrounding guests heard too. Everyone else turned their head to look at them, and some people even showed looks of contempt in their eyes. A person even whispered to his companions,

"They want to go up to the second floor just like that? They seem to be well dressed so I thought they're rich. Who would have thought that they're fakers? Tomorrow I'll also take out the clothes I wear during the Chinese New Year and pretend to be rich too."

When the man and the woman heard this, their expressions suddenly changed. The woman snatched the menu from the waiter, flipped through it, and said to the waiter, "Do you not understand the human language? I meant to ask you: are the dishes really worth that expensive price? If it is not delicious, don't blame me if I smash this Between the Water and Clouds Restaurant."

"You are putting me on the spot. How would I know if it tastes delicious or not? Everyone has different preferences so it's hard to cater to the taste of everyone. If you eat it and think that it's delicious, then it's delicious. If you eat it and insist that it tastes bad, then it tastes bad. It's just like how some people love eating onion, ginger, or garlic and they think that the more is added, the better. For those that hate it, then it's the opposite."

The waiter did not fall into the trap that she set up. Whether it tastes delicious or not depends on the words coming out of a person's mouth. Even if it is undeniably delicious, a person can speak nonsense without even batting their eyes. What can be done about a person like that?

"Hmm. Serve these four dishes, as well as this soup, and two jars of wine." The woman ignored the waiter's response and randomly pointed to items on the menu. She was here to collect information about the Manor, but she didn't get many answers. When the little kids got off school, she tried to ask one of them, but the kid looked at them with suspicion.

They wanted to ask the teacher, but after the teacher spoke in bouts of magniloquence, the two of them were sent out. They did not understand a single word that the teacher said so this made them feel even more frustrated. Since they couldn't get any answers there, they decided to go to a place with a lot of people. Thus, they chose to go to this restaurant. They knew that the Between The Water And Cloud Restaurant was owned by the Manor.

While waiting for the food, the two of them began to listen carefully to other people's conversation in hopes of picking up some information from their words. However, they didn't hear anything useful even by the time the food was served. They heard that there was a bazaar here and that this area was still doing well despite the ongoing drought.

Both of them had already known these two pieces of information. When they came, they saw the things in the field. They weren't just good---they were extraordinary. However, this information was not enough for the Prime Minister.

The two looked at each other and decided to ask someone. Whenever they set their gazes on a table, they found that the people at the table avoided making eye contact with them---it was obvious that they didn't want to talk.

The two of them knew that other people felt that they would be hard to talk to since they were able to purchase expensive dishes. The people were also concerned that they might get into trouble if they accidentally said something wrong

The two people looked around, and they were surprised to discover that there were two three or four-year-old children sitting there drinking tea. Although surprised, they also came up with an idea.

Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan didn't know that those two had overestimated their ages. They pretended that there was nothing wrong and they both calmly drank their tea. The temperature of the tea was obviously not enough, but they didn't tell anyone to pour it out and add more water.

The woman looked over to where Zhang Xiao'bao was and felt that since they were in the middle of drinking tea, it seemed like a bad idea to bring food over there right now. Those two kids were able to come here to drink tea so the two kids must come from a family that had a bit of money. Then she looked at the clothes worn by the two children and she finally understood that it was not as simple as having a bit of money'; just their clothing alone was worth taels of silver.

When she came to that conclusion, she gave the man a look to instruct him to stay here and continue eating. She went over to the kids to talk and ask questions. She figured that since they're from rich families, they should know more than most people.

She did not expect that the moment she stood up and walked a few steps in their direction, six or seven people in the restaurant suddenly stood up and looked at her with suspicious eyes. At the same time, two waiters came over. One waiter stood near the two children, and the other one stood in front her to block her off. The waiter smiled and said, "May I help you with anything?"

At this time, she and the man realizedthat something was wrong. She just wanted to get closer, and she was just a woman too. The people and the waiters in this restaurant were overreacting, weren't they? Right now, the atmosphere felt really strange, and they also felt the same strange atmosphere when they were at the Manor just now.

Seeing the expression in the waiter's eyes and that he had no intention of backing off, the woman smiled and said, "It's nothing. I just find those children to be adorable so I want to talk with them."

"Oh, this... the children are too young to understand much. They're not very brave. If you accidently scare them, then... If you want to go over there, then go."

While the waiter talked, he suddenly changed the direction of the conversation. He backed away but the other waiter didn't move. He remained standing next to the table, and he placed a chair down for the woman to sit on.

The other people who stood up saw the waiter doing this so they all sat back down. However, the waiter was still a little worried. When he was talking just now, he glanced at the Young Master and when he saw the Young Master had nodded slightly, he had to back away.

The woman didn't know about this since her and that man's field of vision was blocked by that waiter. Knowing that she was allowed to go over, she tried to make the smile on her face more affectionate. She sat down on the chair, and watched the two children that were looking at her with curiosity.

The woman smiled at Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan, and the two of them gave her innocent smiles in return. They were chubby, with long eyelashes, and big eyes. Anyone who saw them would not be able to resist giving them a little peck on the cheek.

"Tell your older sister, how old are you?" The woman lowered her seniority rank1 and asked softly.

Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan blinked a few times and then brought their little hands to the front. They counted their fingers carefully, and then after a while, they stretched out three fingers and replied quietly, "Three years old."

Seeing the two children's cute movements, the woman stretched out her hand and wanted to hold them in her arms, but the waiter that was standing there suddenly said, "Would you like a pot of tea?"

This interruption was too obvious. The woman had no choice but to hold back the impulse in her heart. She asked Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan, "Little child, who do you have in your family?"

"Good people." Wang Juan replied.

"Her." Zhang Xiao'bao pointed to Wang Juan.

"Good people, yes, good people indeed. You two belong to the same family? You're really obedient. Can you tell me where you live?" The woman wasn't able to get any decent answers with her previous question, so she asked another question.

"We live at home." Wang Juan replied.

"On the bed." Zhang Xiao'bao chimed in.

"Well, okay, where is your home?" The woman asked.

"In the yard." Wang Juan said.

"Where?" Zhang Xiao'bao asked in confusion.

"Then what are your surnames?" The woman tried her best to keep her breathing steady.

"What's my last name?" Wang Juan asked Zhang Xiao'bao.

"It's different from mine." Zhang Xiao'bao replied.

The woman felt that she was going crazy. After asking so many questions, she didn't even hear anything useful.

Just as she was about to continue asking, a child's voice came from the door of the restaurant, "This Between The Water And Clouds Restaurant looks pretty good. Buy it for me. The farmland on the Zhang Manor looks good too. Buy it for me too. Let's go, let's go upstairs to eat first."

The voice was not quiet. Everyone on the first floor looked over there, and saw an eleven or twelve year-old boy dressed in a light blue brocade robe walking with a group of guards into the restaurant.

Others didn't know where the child came from, and his tone of speech was haughty. The woman stared at the jade pendant that was hanging from the child's waist and she made an incomprehensible look.

1. Lowering her seniority rank

In the text, the woman refers to herself as "older sister", but given her age difference with Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan, she is probably old enough to be called "auntie" by them. By lowering her seniority rank, she's trying to appear to be more approachable.

2. Jade pendant

Although the jade pendant that hangs off one's waist may just be decorational, sometimes it can be used as a symbol of status or a symbol of a clan.