Six Records of a Floating Life (Chapter two: Relaxation of Leisure 09)

    There are two places in Soochow called the South Garden and the North Garden. We would go there when the rape flowers were in bloom, but there was no wine shop nearby where we could have a drink. If we bought eatables along in a basket, there was little fun drinking cold wine in the company of the flowers.

    Some proposed that we could look for some place to get a drink in the neighbourhood, and others suggested that we should look at the flowers first and then come back for a drink, but this was never quite the ideal thing, which should be to drink warm wine in the presence of flowers.

    While no one could make any satisfactory suggestion, Yun smiled and said, "Tomorrow you people provide the money and I'll carry a stove to the place myself." "Very well." They all said.

    When my friends had left, I asked Yun how she was going to do it. "I'm not going to carry it myself," she said, "I have seen wonton sellers in the streets who carry along a stove and a pan and everything we need. We could just ask one of these fellows to go along with us. I'll prepare dishes first, and when we arrive, all we need is just to heat them up, and we will have everything ready including tea and wine."

    "Well, but what about the kettle for boiling tea?"

    "We could carry along an earthen pot," she said, "remove the wonton seller's pan and suspend the pot over the fire by a spike. This will then serve us as a kettle for boiling tea, won't it?"

    I clapped my hands in applause. There was a wonton seller by the name of Pao, whom we asked to go along with us the following afternoon, offering to pay him a hundred cash, to which Pao readily consented.

    The following day my friends, who were going to see the flowers, arrived. I told them about the arrangements, and they were all amazed at Yun's ingenious idea. We started off after lunch, bringing along with us some straw mats and cushions. When we had arrived at the South Garden, we chose a place under the shade of willow trees, and sat together in a circle on the ground.

    First we boiled some tea, and after drinking it, we warmed up the wine and heated up the dishes. The sun was beautiful and the breeze was gentle, while the yellow rape flowers in the field looked like a stretch of gold, with gaily dressed young men and women passing by the rice fields and bees and butterflies flitting to and fro一a sight which could make one drunk without any liquor.

    Very soon the wine and dishes were ready and we sat together on the ground drinking and eating. The wonton seller was quite a likeable person and we asked him to join us. People who saw Us thus enjoying ourserves thought it quite a novel idea. Then the cups, bowls and dishes lay about in great disorder on the ground, while we were already slightly drunk, some sitting and some lying down, and some singing or yelling. When the sun was going down, I wanted to eat congee, and the wonton seller bought some rice and cooked it for us. We then came back with a full belly.