This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 128 You're not late, are you, class monitor?

After the autumnal equinox, the sunrise time becomes much later.

At five o'clock in the morning, when the sky was still shrouded in darkness, Chen Shi'an had already gotten up early as usual.

A light mist hung over the city, and the leaves of the plants on the balcony were still covered in night dew. The temperature was slightly cool, and the black cat jumped onto the balcony and yawned.

The cat turned to look into the house. The living room lights were on, and Chen Shi'an was walking out of the room carrying a bamboo winnowing basket.

The winnowing basket was filled with dried cypress leaves, pine needles, pine cones, wildflowers, weeds, orange peels, and other items, all of which were 'trash' that Chen Shi'an had collected when he went hiking in Shuiche Mountain.

After taking them out and placing them on the balcony, Chen Shi'an went back inside to retrieve a piece of cotton cloth soaked in honey water, as well as a polished bamboo incense mold. This was an old item passed down from his master, and the bamboo grain probably still contained incense ash from ten years ago.

It was still dark outside, so Chen Shi'an didn't go out for parkour this morning. Taking advantage of the free time on Sunday, he used the 'spices' he had found in the mountains to make some incense.

Making incense requires tranquility; the process of kneading incense is also a process of cultivating the mind. In the quiet of the early morning, it is the perfect time to make incense.

Remembering that many customers and fans were interested in making incense yesterday, Chen Shi'an found an angle, propped up his phone, and recorded a video of making incense.

Seeing that Chen Shi'an didn't go out, the cat stopped running out. It walked to a piece of dry cardboard on the balcony and lay down, tucking its little paws into its chest, watching Chen Shi'an make incense.

In Chen Shi'an's eyes, who possesses an exceptional sense of smell, everything can be fragrant. He sits on a small stool, carefully smelling the various spices on the winnowing basket and analyzing their characteristics.

After sorting them, some were steamed, some were stir-fried, and some were simply burned to ashes.

The Tang and Song dynasties were an era of rampant consumption of spices, and the art of incense making also reached its peak during that time. In addition to the use of various precious spices in perfumery, many people also chose natural and simple ways of using incense due to the trend of appreciating and using incense.

For example, in the "Fragrance Manual of Chen's Family", there is a record of making incense with orange leaves and bamboo strips. The orange leaves are crushed and put into a porcelain jar with old bamboo strips. The incense is then steamed to make incense. The incense made by this method is elegant and simple. It is suitable for burning when walking along a mountain path at dawn in spring.

For example, in "Essential Household Items," there is a product called "Hundred Flowers Fragrance," which is made from bamboo strips and various fragrant wildflowers from all four seasons. [It is made by splitting rotten bamboo strips from the fence into pieces. When flowers bloom in the four seasons, the flower heads are picked and layered with the bamboo strips... From the beginning of spring to the end of the year, as long as there are fragrant flowers on top, it can be steamed and burned. It is extremely charming and lovely.]
Chen Shi'an had read many classic works and ancient books, including these. The various kinds of "fragrance" recorded in them, though not exactly recipes, greatly expanded his imagination. When he was very young, he started to experiment with making his own incense.

The best incense is kept for appreciation, while the worst incense is used for daily use in the Taoist temple.

The most troublesome part of making incense is the preparation of the incense powder in the early stage. Different materials need to be processed into incense powder using different methods. This step also takes up most of Chen Shi'an's time in making incense.

Grinding the fragrant mud was hard work. Elm bark powder was used as the binding agent, and then fragrant powder was mixed in according to the ratio. Water was poured into a porcelain basin, and the mud was slowly pounded with a wooden pestle. The powder dissolved into the water, creating light brown ripples. Chen Shi'an bent over and pressed the handle of the pestle, his back taut in a gentle arc. A dull thumping sound rang out, but the sound was strangely confined to the balcony and would not spread elsewhere or disturb other people's sleep.

By the time the mud could be kneaded into a ball, becoming dense and compact, and not crumbling upon landing, the dark blue sky had gradually brightened.

Chen Shi'an dipped his fingertips in the fragrant mud, gently pressed a small mark on the back of his hand, sniffed it lightly, and then wiped it off with satisfaction.

The phone propped up beside him was still recording a video. Chen Shi'an was so focused on making incense that he didn't have time to explain it. In fact, even if he did explain it, no one else could learn it. Putting aside the craftsmanship, the sensitivity of his sense of smell and his imagination alone are beyond what ordinary people can learn.

With the incense paste prepared, the next step was to knead it. Chen Shi'an wiped the incense mold with the honey-soaked cloth, and the incense paste was slowly pushed into the mold. He felt the incense ball in his palm slowly stretch, become thinner, and longer, as if it were a part of his mind extending outwards. He didn't use his eyes to see, but rather his hands to feel the texture, strength, and changes of the incense stick. His mind also became immersed in this focus, and the supernatural power of conveying meaning through objects was quietly exerted...

The excess mud sticks curled up along the edge of the bamboo knife, which he casually pinched off, kneaded into small balls, and put back into the basin, not wasting a single bit.

After pressing the last piece of incense clay into the mold, he squinted at the rising sun, gently tapped the side of the incense mold with his fingertip, and put the mold away.

A total of 120 incense sticks, slightly thicker than toothpicks, about 15 centimeters long, and of uniform texture, lay neatly on the linen.

The air was filled with a faint, unique, yet very elegant fragrance.

The black cat, who had been watching Chen Shi'an make incense, had fallen asleep sometime earlier. It was still lying on the cardboard box on the balcony, the warm morning sun shining on it. Occasionally, a breeze would blow, and its little ears would flutter. The faint, elegant fragrance in the air made Fei Mo feel as if he had returned to a Taoist temple in the mountains.

Chen Shi'an also got up, stretched, and went to check the recording of the video on his phone.

It was 8:20. It had taken him three hours to make these 120 incense sticks. While that wasn't as fast as industrial machines, it was an unimaginable speed for a handmade incense maker...

My phone, which was fully charged, is now showing a low battery. With limited memory to begin with, the system popped up a message saying that memory was insufficient after I finished recording a video.

While charging his phone, Chen Shi'an somewhat clumsily used the system's video editing function to cut out all the redundant and repetitive parts of each step in the incense-making process, leaving only about twenty minutes of video before casually sharing it on Douyin.

This is partly a sharing of daily life, and partly a way to promote traditional culture.

Having grown up surrounded by traditional culture since childhood, Chen Shi'an felt quite sorry to see it gradually declining, as if he were a lost soul from the old era...

The account seems to have gained quite a few more followers.

There were still a lot of random private messages, but Chen Shi'an was too lazy to read them. He had been quite interested in reading them before, but later found that most of them were just boring flirting.

After uploading the video, I exited Douyin, deleted the original video to free up memory, put my phone down, and continued charging.

At 8:40, Li Wanyin, who had just woken up, opened the door to her room.

Seeing Chen Shi'an doing something on the balcony, her sister curiously walked over.

"Sister Wanyin is awake?"

"Mmm, I slept so well! Shi'an, what are you doing?... It smells so good."

Li Wanyin twitched her nose and smelled a faint fragrance in the air.

It was slightly chilly in the morning. Li Wanyin, who had been sleeping in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, was wearing a thin jacket when she woke up. The jacket was a little too big, and her fair and straight legs stretched out from under it, making it look like she wasn't wearing pants.

"Making incense."

Are you just starting out?

"We have already done."

Chen Shi'an moved the incense sticks from the linen cloth one by one onto the bamboo winnowing basket. The incense was not dry yet and could not be burned. He put it in the house to air dry naturally, and then put it in a jar to store for more than half a month, so that the various spices inside would blend together, and the smoke would be less and the fragrance would be stronger.

"So fast! You finished making it this morning? Are those the things you looked for when you were hiking in the mountains?"

"correct."

Li Wanyin was stunned. She stood next to Chen Shi'an, bent down, and looked and sniffed curiously.

The incense sticks looked limp, so she didn't dare to touch them. She just fanned them with her palm and smelled the aroma.

"The flavor isn't pure yet; let it sit for a while longer."

How many are there?

120 pieces.

"...!! You earned 2400 yuan in just one morning!"

"what?"

Chen Shi'an was amused by her. If it were calculated that thirty sticks would make a tube and a tube would sell for six hundred yuan, then it wouldn't be wrong.

There was a small clump of fragrant mud, about the size of a little finger, that Chen Shi'an picked up and handed to Li Wanyin.

"Sister Wanyin, take it and play with it."

"Haha...like mud?"

Li Wanyin took the small ball of fragrant clay from his hand, rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger, and found it quite interesting.

When my mom was kneading dough and didn't want my two daughters to get in the way, she would pinch off a small piece like this and tell them to go play somewhere else... Hey! I'm the older sister! Why are you telling me to play with mud?!

"By the way, Shi'an, didn't you make plans to play badminton with Mengqiu?"

"Yeah, it's almost nine o'clock. I'll go now. Wanyin, do you want to come?" "I don't know how to play. You guys play. You should go home for lunch, right?"

"We should come back to eat."

"Okay, if Mengqiu wants to come too, just ask her. I'll cook for you."

"Okay, if she comes, I'll cook for you."

"Shi'an, you'll cook?"

"Ah."

"Okay! I'll go grocery shopping after I finish breakfast. Shi'an, what dishes would you like to make?"

Li Wanyin knew that Chen Shi'an was a good cook, but he usually had classes and couldn't cook for her. So, when Chen Shi'an came to cook for her on the weekend, her sister happily agreed.

For the past two weeks, Li Wanyin has stopped eating fast food outside. The company has a microwave, and like many of her colleagues, she cooks extra food at night and puts it in the refrigerator to take to the company the next day to heat up. Eating her own prepared food is always better than eating pre-made food from outside.

"Just buy whatever Wanyin wants to eat, and I'll cook it for you."

"What about Mengqiu? Is there anything she wants to eat?"

"I haven't asked her yet. It's okay. Just buy whatever you want to eat, Sister Wanyin. If I cook, the class monitor shouldn't be picky."

"Okay, then I'll just buy it myself."

"Do you still have the food money I transferred to Sister Wanyin last time?"

"Yes, there's still sixty-eight yuan left."

Since they were sharing an apartment, it was quite troublesome to calculate the cost of shared daily necessities or meals each time, so Chen Shi'an would transfer two hundred yuan to Li Wanyin each time as a food expense.

Li Wanyin had an empty card, and she transferred two hundred yuan into it herself. The money in the card was like a small treasury for the siblings. When they bought daily necessities or cooked together, Li Wanyin would use this card to pay.

Chen Shi'an felt at ease having his thrifty and domestic older sister manage the money.

He never questioned how Li Wanyin spent the money, and he was never worried that she would embezzle the food allowance. On the contrary, he was worried that sometimes when the money ran out, Li Wanyin would not tell him and would pay for it herself...

When Chen Shi'an heard that there was still sixty-eight yuan in his secret stash, he blinked.

"That's not right, how come there's still so much left?"

"Um... not much was used! It wasn't much at all!"

Li Wanyin stammered.

"Did Sister Wanyin forget to include some of the money we spent together in the accounts?"

"No no."

"I'll transfer you another two hundred, sixty-eight yuan in total. I won't have enough to buy groceries later."

"……Fine."

"Then I'll be going now, Sister Wanyin. There's still some fried rice in the pot in the kitchen, it should still be warm. You can eat it if you haven't had breakfast."

"Hmm, Shi'an, have you eaten yet?"

"have eaten."

Li Wanyin went to the kitchen and opened the pot lid. A bowl of fragrant fried rice was already placed on the steamer rack. There was no water in the pot. The pot was heated dry and then covered with a lid to keep it warm and prevent the fried rice in the bowl from becoming soggy due to the steam.

Fried rice is much more fragrant after being dry-fried than freshly fried rice.

Li Wanyin brought out the fried rice to eat. She scooped it up with a spoon and put it in her mouth. Each grain of rice was coated with a glistening sauce, and the aroma of golden egg crumbs, tender red ham cubes, and scallions lingered in the air.

The warm sensation traveled from the tip of my tongue to my stomach, and then warmed my whole body.

I woke up to find someone had prepared breakfast for me, and it was such fragrant fried rice, kept warm so thoughtfully.

She suddenly realized that happiness could be so concrete...

“Shi An”.

"Ok?"

"It smells so good!"

"As long as it suits Sister Wanyin's taste."

Chen Shi'an changed his shoes, unplugged his phone charger, and said, "Sister Wanyin, I'm going out now."

"Uh-huh!"

……

Chen Shi'an took the key and closed the door.

I just received a message from Lin Mengqiu on WeChat.

He didn't accept the money Xiaozhi and the class monitor transferred last night, and he still ignores the pending transfer messages in the chat history.

Ling: [You haven't left yet?]
Chen Shi'an: [Just went out]
Ling: [It's 8:55, you're late]
Chen Shi'an: [I'm coming downstairs, I'll be right there]
Ling: [Where do you think I sent you this message?]
Chen Shi'an: [At the entrance of the residential area?]
Ling: [Smiling]
At the entrance of the residential compound, a girl wearing sportswear and carrying a badminton racket bag on her shoulder was looking down at her phone.

She had arranged to play badminton together at nine o'clock and told him to meet her at the entrance of the community. She waited there for over ten minutes, but the stinky Taoist priest was nowhere to be seen. Finally, she couldn't resist sending him a message to check on him, and it turned out he was still home!
The two of them live on opposite sides of the school. It would take half an hour to walk there, and even if they ran, it would take at least fifteen minutes.
Lin Mengqiu wanted to see how he would arrive at the scene precisely five minutes later.

Four minutes passed, and there wasn't a soul in sight.
Three minutes passed, and there wasn't a soul in sight.
Two minutes, one minute... still no sign of anyone!

The time on the phone screen was about to jump to exactly nine o'clock.

Chen Shi'an's figure appeared at the end of the street.

He ran as fast as a Maybach speeding across an overpass on a rainy night.

But right now it's not raining, nor is it night; it's a bright and sunny morning.

From the moment Lin Mengqiu saw him until he stood in front of her, only a blink of an eye passed, so fast that Lin Mengqiu didn't even have time to react.

It wasn't until Chen Shi'an suddenly stopped beside her, and it seemed like a long time had passed, that the wind behind him caught up, wildly ruffling the girl's hair...

"You're not late, are you, class monitor?"

"..."

Lin Mengqiu stared blankly down at her phone.

At that very second, the time jumped to exactly nine o'clock.

"No, no."

(End of this chapter)