Thirteenth Lady's Comback: Her Everyday Life as a Bystander-Chapter 240 - 15: Flamboyant Name (First Update)

She naturally knew what the kitchen maid at the post house was up to. However, if the culinary skills could be learned just by watching, it was indeed her ability.

So Lin Sheng’s wife merely glanced casually at that kitchen maid, and then quickly prepared four dishes and a soup with her daughter and a couple of kitchen maids.

Adding a bowl of bird’s nest porridge and a plate of shredded cabbage mixed with sesame oil, sesame seeds, peanuts, and a few drops of chili oil, along with a plate of small steamed rolls, to be sent to the masters.

Then she stir-fried a few hot dishes, paired with steamed wind-dried chicken and bacon, and snowy white mantou, to be sent to the gentlemen in another yard.

As for the servants’ food, there was no need for her to handle that.

Susu was finally done being the "melancholic beauty," and had the feeling of "getting weak from skipping a meal."

Thinking about how she held Hong Sheng in the carriage this morning, crying with snot and tears everywhere, she felt she couldn’t face people.

Of course, that feeling vanished immediately upon seeing the hot dishes. You might say she was overly dramatic, but not eating was a bad habit that must be firmly opposed.

In another yard, a dozen rough men were not drinking in large bowls but were eating meat heartily.

One of the escorts, who had delivered festival gifts from Hong Sheng to Susu last year, was gnawing on a roast goose as he spoke, "Though women are troublesome, they also have plenty of advantages. I might not know Hong Dasa’s personality well, but she’s definitely generous in her actions."

Yang Xiaoshan was chewing on braised pig’s trotters, earnestly nodding, "Our boss’s wife has to be generous!"

Leng Xiao picked up a piece of crispy roast duck, thinking to himself: Generous, yes, loves eating, yes, but wasteful is also true. Luckily, Boss Hong is clever and makes money; otherwise, how could he support such a wasteful woman!

However, thinking about Susu’s appearance and dowry, Hong Dasa definitely got the better end of the deal.

Now, after a satisfying meal, Zhang San sighed, "You’ve got to have a woman, compared to our rough journeys, look at us now, it’s pure bliss!"

The group of rough men nodded.

After Susu and Hong Sheng ate, they washed up and rested. After all, Susu rode in a carriage all day, and Hong Sheng rode a horse for half the day. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Moreover, outside the Capital, the roads ahead would become increasingly difficult, and the post houses wouldn’t be as high-quality as those within the Capital.

One might ask, for someone so wealthy, why not stay at an inn? To explain this, firstly, Hong Sheng’s luggage was extensive and valuable, making an inn, with its mixed crowd, unsafe.

Post houses are government-run; without official documents and an argument card, people are not allowed to stay, making the crowd simpler, with all stay records needing an official stamp.

Secondly, even if Hong Sheng and Susu are wealthy, hosting and accommodating so many people daily would cost at least ten taels of silver a day. Ten taels might not sound much, but ten taels a day amounts to three hundred taels a month, and for two months on the road, that’s six hundred taels, sufficient to buy a hundred acres of middle-grade land.

In post houses, accommodation is provided for free; only food and animal fodder need to be paid for, merely a symbolic cost, with the major costs often covered by generous gifts from officials’ families.

For example, with Hong Sheng and the others, apart from accommodation, all food is self-prepared, yet Hong Sheng still gave the post house manager five taels of silver and a meal with wine and meat.

Five taels might sound little, but the Jia family’s girls in "Dream of the Red Chamber" only received two taels of monthly salary; Hong Sheng was already quite generous.

As dawn broke, the post house became lively. When Susu crawled out from the duvet, Hong Sheng had been up for a while, personally inspecting vehicles and horses with the Yangwei Escort Agency members.

Lin Sheng’s wife got up even earlier, bringing the maid and kitchen maids to prepare rock sugar bird’s nest for Susu, steamed shumai and large meat buns, fried many scallion pancakes, and seeing some fresh wild vegetables in the kitchen, bought them, blanching them briefly to make a tasty side dish.

After eating, Susu washed her hands and rinsed her mouth before stepping out!

Though she was a newlywed, Susu was truly tired of wearing those bright red clothes like a red lantern.

Today, she wore a pink high-collared padded jacket, with clusters of light purple lilacs embroidered at the collar, a cream background brocade jacket with peonies and blue three-stranded butterflies flying, and a light green silk skirt.

Her black long hair was tied up with two jade ruyi long hairpins, with jade waterdrop earrings on her earlobes, and her wrist adorned with a simple jadeite eight-character bracelet.

This outfit was about seven or eight-tenths new, an old outfit from before, only a few pieces remained after organizing it, looking much more modest compared to her glamorous appearances of earlier days.

However, Susu was originally a "beauty who suits both heavy and light makeup," so even with a veil covering her face, obscuring her features, her figure and bearing still revealed her extraordinary nature, adding a sense of mystery.

Even though they were married and being "candid with each other" every night, Hong Sheng never got enough of looking at Susu.

This wasn’t just because of Susu’s appearance but because her flickering eyes always found him in the crowd, and Hong Sheng adored those starry eyes reflecting his image.

Susu and the others set off after the sun rose and the dew was dried, with the post house manager watching them off from the door.

They had arrived at the post house at dusk the previous day, Susu wasn’t in the mood for a proper tour of a genuine ancient post house. Now, about to leave, she realized she didn’t know the post house’s name, so she asked Hong Sheng, "Husband, what’s the name of this post house?"

"Changle Welcomes You!"

"What?"

Hong Sheng thought Susu didn’t hear clearly and repeated: "This post house is the last one in the Capital’s northwest direction, named ’Changle Welcomes You.’"

"Changle Welcomes You?" Was that this post house’s name? Thinking of names like Changle, Weiyang, and Yuanming Garden, "Changle Welcomes You" was undoubtedly chosen by some impressive time-traveling predecessor.

Susu chuckled awkwardly, saying, "I suppose this name has some story behind it, right?"

Hong Sheng noticed his wife was in a good mood, unusually interested, looking all "curious," even if there wasn’t a story, he’d have to invent one, not to mention, the name truly had a story.

"It’s said back when the Saint Martial Emperor unified the tribes to establish Great Chu, receiving tributes from all... (5,000 words omitted)"

Really, Hong Sheng had the talent of a storyteller. As he spoke, Susu understood the origin of the name, it was none other than "Beijing Welcomes You." It’s said the Saint Martial Emperor even beat a drum and sang.

"My home is always open, welcoming you with open arms, after embracing you’ll have a tacit understanding, you’ll fall in love with here. No matter how far or near, guests need not be shy, we’ve promised to be together, we welcome you."

It turns out, in modern times, the time-traveling predecessor and Susu’s time travel weren’t too many years apart. After time traveling, however, they were over a century and a half apart.

Time travel is truly wonderful, whether dead or alive, soul travel or body travel, baby travel, only unimaginable travels exist, impossibility never does.