Birthday (4)
As Xie Xuanchen heard his wife’s praises, he snorted lightly and said, “There is nothing that a person can’t remember as long as they pay attention.”
Mu Mingtang agreed with Xie Xuanchen and gave him a nod while praising his talent.
Mu Mingtang pointed to various trees and flowers with great enthusiasm, and Xie Xuanchen accurately identified them all. Mu Mingtang eventually pointed to a peach blossom after being more and more shocked. Xie Xuanchen took a long time to study it and eventually said with grown, “I can’t recognise it but I am aware that it is not a begonia plant.”
‘Sure enough, Xie Xuanchen is the same Xie Xuanchen.’ Mu Mingtang chuckled as she said, “Oh, it’s peach blossom. We just saw it a few days ago. Hmph… You can only recognise a few kinds of begonias. You don’t know about other plants.”
Xie Xuanchen exclaimed, “That’s none of my business. I just need to know the begonia, what do other flowers have to do with me?”
Although it was a casual sentence, Mu Mingtang’s face strangely reddened upon hearing it.
“If you want to continue seeing flowers, let’s go further. Otherwise, let’s go back. Don’t you still want to make a birthday wine? The kitchen is already ready.” Xie Xuanchen seemed to not have noticed her strangeness and just addressed her from the side.
After giving it some thought, Mu Mingtang felt it would be exhausting to walk in such a vast garden and turned around.
On the way back, Mu Mingtang asked the maid to collect the fallen petals from time to time. She then explained to Xie Xuanchen: “Begonia flowers are mildly poisonous and cannot be directly used in wine but my mother has a unique recipe. After processing the petals in a unique way, they can be used. Fortunately, there are many flowers in spring, so we don’t have to worry about the lack of raw materials.”
Xie Xuanchen only partially grasped what was going on because he had never done anything of the sort before and had always assumed that brewing a wine was a simple matter. However, once he actually got involved in the process, he found out that there was simply too much information to take in.
Mu Mingtang and Xie Xuanchen finally finished sealing the wine they had been preparing all afternoon.
Although the palace had a special wine cellar, Mu Mingtang’s birthday wine had to be buried under a begonia plant. Mu Mingtang picked the most healthy begonia plant, and while burying the wine, she said to Xie Xuanchen who was squatting right beside her, “This plant has been transplanted here, so it won’t die by next year, will it? If this were to happen, it would be considered an unlucky omen.”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Xie Xuanchen frowned at Mu Mingtang as he wiped dirt off her face.
“Hey, you still have dirt on your hands, but you are touching my face just like that.” Mu Mingtang pouted and rubbed her face with the back of her hand.
“What’s there to dislike? I’m your family after all.” Xie Xuanchen gazed at Mu Mingtang and couldn’t resist being amused by her appearance. When Mu Mingtang noticed what was wrong, she was increasingly irritated. Xie Xuanchen grinned and comforted her: “Calm down, Madam; at the very least, bury the wine first. Don’t ruin the wine we have brewed so painstakingly.”