After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

"I noticed those two newly opened food stalls are packed with people. Although our stall sells braised food well and our pastries are alright, we still lack variety compared to them. I'll buy some to try and see if I can learn to make them. The jujube paste pastry has a flaky crust and a soft filling, and the osmanthus cake is fluffy and sweet. Even if we can't make them exactly the same, it would be good if they were seven-tenths similar. The roast chicken smells like herbs, as if they added some special ingredients to the braising liquid. I'll have Dashan and Xiaohe taste it when I get back and see if they can guess what it is."

Su Xiaoqing took it, opened the oil paper package, broke off a piece of jujube paste pastry, put it in her mouth, chewed it, nodded and then shook her head, saying it was sweet but not greasy, and the flaky crust was well-layered. She added that their pastries were a bit too hard, and the dough recipe needed to be changed. "Okay, let's try it. We'll leave half of the pastry and roast chicken for Mom, Dad, and the kids when we leave. Mom loves sweets, she'll definitely like the jujube paste pastry. Dad can have the roast chicken with his drinks, and the kids will be happy to eat a chicken leg."

Su Xiaoyin nodded, took out half of each of the two boxes of pastries, cut the roast chicken in half, wrapped them again in clean oil paper, and placed them on the side of the basket. She would deliver them to Chen's mother and the others when she left.

The sun was setting, and the light in the shop was gradually dimming. Su Xiaoyin stood behind the counter, poured out the copper coins she had collected that day, counted them, stacked them one by one, rolled them up in paper, and stuffed them into the money box. Su Xiaoqing was tidying up the shelves, restocking the sold-out pottery dolls, and dusting them off with a feather duster.

On the street outside the window, pedestrians hurried along as dusk settled. The lights in the general store came on, their orange glow casting a warm glow on the counter, bathing the colorful silk flowers, sachets, and clay animal figurines in a gentle light.

----

At dinner time, the family sat around the table in the main room. On the table was half a roast chicken that Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing had brought back from the county town, already cut into pieces and arranged on a plate, its glistening skin and meat gleaming enticingly under the light. Beside it were a dish of pickled vegetables, a bowl of cabbage and tofu soup, a plate of scrambled eggs, and freshly steamed multigrain buns.

Chen Dashan picked up a piece of roast chicken, first smelling it under his nose, then slowly chewing it for a long time, his brows slightly furrowed. He spat out the bone, then picked up a piece of chicken leg meat, savoring it carefully. Finally, he shook his head, his tone a mixture of admiration and resentment: "Their chicken really does taste good. I couldn't taste what seasoning they used; the flavor penetrated the chicken meat, even the crevices of the bones, not just the skin. How long does it take to marinate it like that?" He chewed another piece, savoring it carefully, but still couldn't discern the secret.

Chen Xiaohe also picked up a piece, gnawing on it carefully, removing every last bit of meat from the bone. He put the bone down, took a sip of soup to rinse his mouth, and thought for a moment before saying, "It feels like the chicken ate seasonings and herbs while it was still alive. The flavor doesn't come from the outside; it grows from within the meat. Brother, do you think they add something to the feed? I've heard that some chicken farmers add spices to the feed a few days before the chickens are ready for market, and then the meat has that flavor."

Su Xiaoyin was distributing steamed buns to the children when she heard this. She stopped what she was doing and her eyes lit up: "What if we could add some seasonings and herbs to the duck feed, feed them for four or five days, and then roast one to see what happens? Dashan, do you think it's possible?" Chen Dashan picked up another piece of roast chicken, chewed it, and nodded, saying that they could try it. Anyway, the male ducks in the backyard were just sitting there being raised, and they would be slaughtered for the New Year anyway. They might as well use two as an experiment first. If it worked, great; if not, it wouldn't be a loss.

Hearing this, Su Xiaoqing perked up, put down her steamed bun, and started counting on her fingers: "Then, sister, let's divide the ducks into several groups—feed some seasoning, feed some herbs, and leave one group unfed for comparison. We'll keep a record of how much we fed them each day and what we fed them, and then we'll taste which group tastes best after roasting them. If it's successful, this will be a unique delicacy for our family, one of a kind. You won't find many places in the whole county that can make it, and it'll definitely sell well."

Su Xiaoyin found the information increasingly convincing, and pushed the plate of roast chicken towards her two sons, urging them to eat more so they could appreciate its nuances. She then brought up the topic of pastries, her tone tinged with urgency: "The jujube paste pastries that other people make have such beautifully layered crusts; they crumble so easily with a single bite. Our pastries are a bit too hard; we need to change the dough recipe. I'll try adding some lard a few more times these next few days to see if it becomes fluffy. Tomorrow I'll modify the recipe and try it out; with a few more attempts, I'll find the right proportions."

Night had fallen, the fire in the stove had died down, but the warmth lingered in the cracks between the bricks. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, its gentle light spilling into the courtyard. In the wooden trough, the chive roots grew quietly under the moonlight, their tender green shoots sprouting even taller. This night at the Chen family's house was as quiet as ever, but everyone was preoccupied with the tasks of tomorrow.

The next day, before dawn, Su Xiaoyin got up. She didn't rush to make breakfast; first, she went to the backyard and separated several male ducks and two roosters, dividing them into three groups. The first group was fed a mixture of five-spice powder and star anise powder; the second group was fed a mixture of licorice root, dried tangerine peel, and Sichuan peppercorns; the third group was fed nothing, to be used as a control group. She used a small notebook to record each duck's number, the type and amount of food given, and then added clean water to the trough. The ducks gathered around, their flat beaks swirling in the water, quacking loudly.

"Sis, you're so meticulous! You're even writing it all down in a notebook." Su Xiaoqing peeked out from the kitchen, spatula in hand, amused as she watched Su Xiaoyin squatting by the duck pen, furiously scribbling. Su Xiaoyin didn't even look up, her pen still moving: "What if I forget later if I don't write it down? Which duck was fed what, how many days? I have to be absolutely clear about it, otherwise the results of the experiment won't be accurate." After finishing the last stroke, she tucked the notebook into her coat, dusted off her hands, and stood up.

"Let's go eat first. We still have to go to the county town today. Let's set up the goods in the shop first, and then I'll go to the cloth shop to buy some scraps of cloth. We've used up all the ones the shopkeeper gave us last time, and there are some left that aren't very good in color or fabric. I plan to keep them as gifts for the New Year—I'll give a few scraps of cloth to families who buy a lot from the general store, as a token of my appreciation."