Chapter 1 A Rumour

The moon shone through the night so brightly that it could be the best moonshine of the decade. The villagers were all obsessed with the beauty of tonight. One can observe how peaceful one family in a small hut were all chatting and enjoying the vibe. A middle-aged man was splitting woods that he had collected in the morning from the forest.

"Just now when this old man was collecting these woods, this old man saw the famous manager from the Golden Lotus Pavilion (Jin Lian Ge)."

Seemingly, a middle-aged lady was busy cutting some fruits looked curiously at him.

"Oh? How do you know he is from the Golden Lotus Pavilion? Those higher-ups from that place were always so mysterious... How do you know his face anyway? Are you trying to blow things up again? Ay...Ay... You old thingi! "

"Of course not! Who didn't know about that infamous Manager Jin? His reputation was the greatest talk of the town now! Ay...Ay... Furen... How can you judge me like this?? This old man felt so wrong! Hmmpph! "

"Fine..fine... This old woman had wronged you alright? Why are you stopping? Continue your story."

"Hmm. Actually nothing much. I just saw them nurturing and planting a lot of YingYue flowers beside the big land of the riverbank inside the forest!"

The middle-aged lady continued probing while steeping some Pu'er tea for her family.

"Hmm... that's not peculiar at all. After all, the YingYue flower had just started to grow again lately. Isn't it mysterious? It was said that the flower species was extinct one thousand years ago out of sudden. Now it finally grew again!"

"That's right! I wonder why did it extinct out of sudden and grew back suddenly as well... Hmm... There was even a tale saying 'Yingyue blossoms are when calamities befall'... Ayy... Furen, this is so creepy!"

"You had thought too much old man! I rather believe the legend ' Yingyue only blossoms during the full moon!' "

The middle-aged lazy knocked on the middle-aged man's head and now had finished preparing the light meal for their supper.

"Hmm... I even managed to greet that manager. He is indeed good looking ay... He told me that they were trying to create a new fabric material using this flower! And it had to be the softest material that they had ever produced. However, everything was still in the experiment!"

A young maiden, around sixteen years old interrupted her father while preparing the teacups.

"Hmm... Fuqin, just a fabric, what's so special about it? Anyway, father, we cannot afford such an item of high prestigious clothing. Longing but cannot get! Such a shame! "

The middle age man answered his daughter with anticipation.

"But the way they managed the flower was so meticulous and the manager even told me they will infuse the fragrance of it into the new clothing material! One must feel comfortable wearing it!"

"Such a luxury!" The young maiden beamed.

The family of four gathered and had their supper. While beaming to each other, they were admiring the beauty of the moon and the tranquillity of the night.

"Tonight is indeed beautiful! Look at the full moon!"

"Ay...too bad tomorrow we still had to continue our dumpling business as usual!"

The young maiden looked at her younger sister and wondered how it would feel to have such a good quality material to make a dudou for herself. Her thought wandered off when her mother called her up.

" Ah Zhen, quickly fold up the remaining clothes and it's time for bed. The moon is beautiful but it's already late enough! We have to continue our business stall tomorrow!"

She quickly finished her task and soon everyone was asleep on their hard wooden beds.

.........

Furen=wife

Fuqin=father

dudou=traditional innerwear that covers the upper body