'Dire' Food Shortage

Xiao Cheng immediately spun around, jumping out of his chair to hug his big sister waist. Fangsu was honestly surprised that Xiao Cheng now reached her waist before he was at her hip, "Xiao Cheng, you have grown so much while I was gone," Ruffling Xiao Cheng's hair in a fond way that Xiao Cheng continued hug with all his might so that she wouldn't escape, "Also I want you to meet my stowaway friends; Ang Siu the other brother and Sim Siu the younger sister," Fangsu went to introduce the siblings to Xiao Cheng whose eyes shone once his eyes landed on the hawk that was perked on Ang Siu's shoulder. Ang Siu immediately bent down to Xiao Cheng so that he could pet it.

Fangsu grandpa stared warily at Ang Siu as he saw that there was a potential threat of Fangsu being taken away from him and he immediately went to grab Fangsu and Xiao Cheng, hiding the both of them behind him. Exactly like a scruffy old cat protecting its two naïve kittens, hissing at the newcomers. He was okay with the young girl but he wasn't happy about a young man who was treating his granddaughter like a princess, "I don't want my grandchildren to leave me," He quietly sulked and Fangsu lightly giggled at her grandpa's antics. She immediately went to the kitchen to cook something only to see that were a shortage of many of the main ingredients and no one had replaced them, "What is the matter?" He peeked at Fangsu searching through the kitchen with a shaking head.

Fangsu grabbed a basket that she could carry on her back, "Food shortage," As she opened the door to hunt down ingredients before market ran out of the freshest ones. Xiao Cheng, Ang Siu, Sim Siu and the Uncle quickly followed suite behind Fangsu as she ran towards the direction of the market in a hurry as the day was quickly approaching rush time for housewives to buy ingredients for dinner. Fangsu quickly went to her usual vendor that she brought all her vegetables, "Auntie Lou! Do you have any scallions, garlic and tomatoes?" Auntie Lou smiled as she took out a box filled with scallion, garlic and tomatoes, "Is there any lotus pods?" Auntie Lou took out a few stems. There weren't many lotus pods since they mostly were harvested during the autumn and these were the early growing crops. As Fangsu was about to reach into her pocket to paid; her money pocket wasn't there. Fangsu began to panic as she knew she had forgotten to bring it with her.

As Fangsu was about to return the fresh produce with a bitter heart, "How much for all of these?" Ang Siu came to the rescue holding his own coin purse in his hand and as he was paying for the ingredients and taking the partially filled basket from Fangsu and carrying it. Auntie Lou was quite surprised that Fangsu was travelling in a band of new face especially ones that weren't dressed in the city's current fashion trends. But, she was thought that the foreigner looked quite good together with Fangsu; their interactions with each other were like a couple and what made it more endearing was their height difference where Fangsu could only reached the young man's shoulder.

Both of Fangsu's hands were completely taken by Sim Siu and Xiao Cheng but Xiao Cheng was immediately glared at his competition, "Let go of Fang Jie's hand!" He wanted to have Fangsu to himself since he missed her dearly.

But, Sim Siu didn't back down as she continued to hold Fangsu's hand, "No way! Fangsu is my soon to be sister! You are already holding Fangsu's other hand!" She argued against Xiao Cheng who immediately went to pulled Fangsu away from Sim Siu and vice versa.

But, Fangsu stopped in her tracks forcing the two to stop also, "If you two are going continue fighting with each other and I can't get ingredients for dinner," Staring at both of them fuming with anger as she pulled them infront of her, "Go and feed yourselves," Letting go of both of them leaving them completely stunned in their spots in the middle of the street. Both the uncle and Ang Siu continued to follow Fangsu further into the market calmly walking completely passed the stumped duo. As the two shook themselves out of the stunned stupor from Fangsu's threat; they immediately ran around the group and each grabbed Fangsu's hand, agreeing not to fight with each other since the both of them didn't have much money to feed themselves nor did they want to miss out on Fangsu's cooking.

They continued to shop for ingredients such as flour, starch, condiments. The more specific ingredients that Fangsu bought were eggs, grass carp, cooking wine and vinegar. Fangsu looked into the basket to see if there was anything she was missing and she remember the half empty rice container at the building. Tapping a housewife who was carrying her young child, "Do you know where I can buy rice?" Fangsu inquired knowing full well that housewives knew where to buy anything anywhere within this capital.

The housewives was surprised to see such as big group, "You have a big family don't you," She complimented as she tried to think of a place to buy rice, "If you want to buy rice in a bulk try Revered Rice; they are a new rice supplier with affordable prices at the end of the street over there," She pointed over to a store that had many customers buying their product that utilised their rice. As Fangsu went at the storefront where many people crowded around, jumping to see if there were enough rice bags. Thankfully, there was enough still at the storefront. Seeing that taking both Sim Siu and Xiao Cheng would make it more difficult to keep track of them in the huge store filled with people.

Fangsu turned to her uncle, taking a sum of money from Ang Siu's pouch, "Xiao Cheng can you guide both your uncle and Sim Siu around the capital," Fangsu explained herself as she handed the money to her uncle to manage not knowing if Sim Siu could control herself, "I promised to give you something special for you tonight if you can guide the two of them until night time comes or whenever you want to return back to the building," Fangsu gave Xiao Cheng a peck on his forehead to see the giddy Xiao Cheng who immediately took the hand of his uncle and Sim Siu through the streets.

Staring at the crowded storefront where the rice bags; it could be difficult since it was soon peak hour and people were crowding the area. Ang Siu took Fangsu's hand while he proceeded to weave through the crowd until they reached the front where he went to claim two bags of rice. After their finished their purchase, Ang Siu quickly took the bags of rice on his shoulder. Seeing that Ang Siu was carrying everything, Fangsu felt bad and tried to take the basket from him but he insisted on carrying everything. But, eventually Fangsu won the battle when she took all their items into her spatial ring. They continued to walk through the capital as they pretty much finished buying everything but they decided to take their time to return since it was still early in the afternoon, "You probably want some sort sourvieur to take with you when you get home," Fangsu went inside a sweet store that was recently just opened and didn't have that many customers. As she was looking through the shelves for a good choice of a sweet that would suitable for all taste buds.

Ang Siu stood behind looking at the sweet, taking in the various sugary notes from the sweets that were beautifully packaged. However, the assault of scent of sugar was overwhelming but seeing Fangsu was intently looking for a good present for him to bring back was quite endearing. One sweet that she showed him was not to sweet on the palate and much more mild earthy aftertaste which was from mung bean. It was quite delicious but it wouldn't hold up in the long journey that would be hot throughout but they still got it to share with the others later when they returned back to make dinner. As they were returning back; street lanterns lit up the way signaling the night life was able to begin and this was the time were workers were return back home from a long day of work.

Floods of people came rushing through the main street immediately causing Fangsu and Ang Siu to be pushed to the side. Coincidentally, they were pushed into a fragrance shop that was a branch from Blossoming Fragrance. Da Fu had told her that they had opened a fragrance shop that would mainly focus on perfumes and scented related products. As Fangsu walked into the shop smelling the floral notes of various flowers she recognised; there was also a section of the shop where their were raw materials where people could customise a perfume to their preferences. Fangsu walked around smelling the various formulas which she had created over the years that she had never really exposed to many. Scented pouchs filled with dried plants were commonly worn by nobles, however, they usually never usually lasted long and the scent would be diluted by time.

Fangsu had wanted to a product that could last much longer than a scented silk pouch. Her mother loved the smell of Osmanthus while her sisters preferred Wisteria and Plum Blossoms respectively. so she started with those fragrance. It was honestly trial and error until she got the help from the note of one of the ancestor who was in the process of making something similar to perfume. She had succeed in her experiments but she didn't showcase much of her work to anyone until now when Da Fu has asked for the opening of a smaller store for fragrances mostly marketed at middle to high class women who want to emit the smell of flower from their bodies. Fangsu had referred Da Fu to her workspace; a small book which she had kept hidden on the shelf which was filled with recipes of aromatic dews, perfumes which were finalised or in the process of being experimented on.

Fangsu had always wanted to work with spices which would more gender neutral on the the wearer, however, depending on an individual's own scent would change the scent to something more muskier or more sweeter. Nevertheless, it was pleasing to see her own works that she was proud of being on the market. Ang SIu saw Fangsu was happily looking at the bottle filled with different floral scents; some were more subtle while others were overpowering, "Do you want one?" He picked up one that was sweet smelling but it was much more subtle and muted but it seem to compliment her well.

A worker approached them with a smile, "You are interested in the Magnolia Paradise?" She went to describe the floral profile of the perfume which did describe the scent perfectly, "This shop only make these few selected perfumes made at a small scale, however, a few drops of this is all you need and it will last you a very long time," She went to take the bottle and dabbed a few drops on Fangsu's skin. The scent complimented Fangsu well and gave off a mellow fragrance of magnolias along with a subtle scent of a fresh powder. Ang Siu felt that it was a suitable perfume for her to use and decided to buy a small bottle of it which quite expensive. But, despite the price he was willing to spend the money if it was for Fangsu.

Fangsu was surprised that Ang Siu had bought the perfume for her but she indulged herself to enjoy the act of receiving the gift not wanting to tell him that she was the formula for for the perfume. As they finally decided to return home, the night was still early and people were dining out for dinner. Fangsu held on Ang Siu thinking that it would be dangerous for them to be separated since Ang Siu was still unfamiliar with the city. As they arrived back to prepare the food there some of the people already cooking up a feast and immediately made Fangsu and Ang Siu drink some cooling tea to cool the heat in their body. After drinking the tea, Fangsu thought that everyone was acting quite strangely towards her and she was weirded out.