Chapter 272 272. Snowskin Mooncake
Steward Du is a man in his forties, with sincere words and gentle eyes, and he seems to have no airs at all.
But after a few glances at Cheng Xi, he knew that he was a master of rhetoric. If he was amiable, everyone would praise him, but once he dealt with someone, it was difficult for anyone to resist him.
Shen Xingluo's black eyes lowered slightly, "I have Butler Lao Du."
"That's right. Master Shen often mentioned Mr. Shen in his letters. I have been looking forward to your arrival a few days ago. ”
Passing through a wooden corridor, Butler Du led people into the living room. The two of them saw an elegant man sitting in the front seat, and a beautiful lady next to him with an equally outstanding temperament.
Other than that, there is a person serving behind each of them, nothing else.
"Shen Xingluo, a student from Lin'an Prefecture, and his wife met Mr. Du and Mrs. Du."
"Xingluo? I haven't seen you for several years and you have grown so big. They are all members of my family, these are false courtesy. Just forget it."
Du Yunshan stood up and helped the person up himself. He stared at Shen Xingluo and sighed repeatedly, then looked to his side.
"Is this your new wife? Sure enough, her temperament is extraordinary!"
"." Where did the word "Sure enough" come from?
She didn't believe that Lord Du didn't know that Shen Xingluo was marrying the daughter of Lin'an Prefecture's bodyguard.
Cheng Xi was speechless in his heart, but he smiled on the outside, "Your Excellency, you are so complimentary."
With four words, he accepted the compliment.
If Du Yunshan's words just now were a compliment because of the confidence radiating from her body, then now he was truly surprised.
He never expected that a woman would react like this. After a moment, he chuckled, looking elegant and handsome.
"Xing Luo is so lucky."
As Jieyuan of Lin'an Prefecture, he married the daughter of a bodyguard, but this wife was still generous and behaved without any embarrassment. What a blessing?
Du Yunshan and Shen's father were close friends in the academy. He had watched Shen Xingluo grow up. When he learned that the Shen and Cheng families were engaged, he felt regretful for a long time. He never thought that the daughter of the Cheng family would have such a temperament. .
Sure enough, it was Brother Shen. It turned out that he had already taken a fancy to his daughter-in-law!
On one side, Mrs. Du chuckled, "My brothers and sisters have praised Mrs. Shen many times in their letters, and today I can see that what they said is true."
She took a few steps forward, "Listen My sister-in-law said she would call you sister Xi'er. I am a few years older than my sister-in-law. You should also call me sister. Sister."
"What? That's not possible."
Du Yunshan really didn't know this was happening, "I have been close friends with your father for many years, so you still called me uncle. How can Xingluo’s wife call you sister?”
These siblings are really messing around.
"Why not? Let me ask you, is Xing Luo his father's student?"
"Of course he is."
"Since he is his father's student, then He is your junior brother. Call me sister when you are an acquaintance of the same generation. What can I do?"
Mrs. Du leaned slightly closer to Cheng Xi, "Don't pay attention to him. He has become an old scholar after staying in the Ministry of Etiquette for several years. He talks about etiquette and rules all day long, causing two troubles. All the children will be separated from him.”
Du Yunshan was depressed, but he had nothing to do with his wife, so he could only sigh.
Cheng Xi said openly, "Then let me call Sister Lin."
When they were in Lin'an Mansion, Mrs. Du Er deliberately reminded her and introduced the official in Beijing in detail. The Du family is a member of the Du family. Du Lin was originally from the capital. His father was from the Fourth Grade Imperial Academy, and he only married into the Du family when his son-in-law was under the imperial examination.
Facts have proved that Lin Jijiu's vision was right. Ten years after Du Yunshan entered the court, he was promoted to Minister of Rites, which was a higher official position than his father-in-law.
Du Lin agreed with a smile, and she liked Cheng Xi even more.
Du Yunshan was capable of being the Minister of Rites and had good literary talent. He quickly took Shen Xingluo to the study, leaving his wife behind to entertain the female guests.
"My husband is doing his old habit again. He likes to discuss poems and articles when he catches people. Let's leave him alone."
Du Lin shook his head helplessly, "I've heard it for a long time. It smells sweet, what’s in this box?”
The two jars of wine in Shen Xingluo’s hands were originally sealed and did not reveal any smell. Thanks to its common packaging, Du The couple knew at a glance that it was wine.
The wooden box in Cheng Xi's hand is much more mysterious. The boxy red wooden box is carved with a delicate picture, which looks like a fairy flying to the moon. Even if the lid is tightly closed, you can still smell it. That sweetness becomes more and more attractive the closer you get.
Cheng Xi handed it to the maid beside Mrs. Du, "These are some mooncakes I made today. The day after tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Reunion Festival. To be auspicious, please don't blame me for the small gift."
"You made it yourself. ?”
Mrs. Du was surprised, "Then I have to try it. The fragrance is really tempting."
The Du family's maid is also a very discerning person. She wanted to open the wooden box, but the bow woven with red silk above it was too big. It was so beautiful that I stood there for a moment at a loss.
How to solve this thing?
What if I get the wrong solution and injure such a beautiful butterfly?
"Mrs. Shen, this"
Cheng Xi reached out and pulled the hanging side of the bow with a slight force, and the silk untied automatically.
The maid's eyes lit up and she cast an admiring look at her, then opened the lid of the square wooden box, revealing the mooncakes arranged neatly inside.
The wooden box has two layers, each layer contains eight mooncakes.
The four corners of the diagonal are the commonly seen orange-yellow baked mooncakes. The styles are mainly colorful. The four-month mooncakes come in two flavors. The wooden box below is engraved with the words "Jujube Paste and Bean Paste" and "Sesame Egg Yolk".
In the inner circle are four snowskin mooncakes, and the styles are completely different. There are chubby and cute little rabbits eating carrots, or patterns of running under the moon. They look soft and cute and very attractive. like.
There is a small delicate wooden knife placed in the four square slots in the southeast, northwest and northwest of the wooden box, and in the middle is a small round tray.
The master and servant of the Du family looked at each other so well that they didn’t know how to describe it for a long time.
"This"
Is this a mooncake?
The four in the corner look familiar, but your filling is not five kernels, let alone the inner circle. I have never seen it before.
And what are those delicate and small wooden knives and trays used for?
Confused.
Du Lin felt that he was well-informed since he was born in the capital, but he never expected that one day he would be dazzled by moon cakes.
Upon seeing this, Cheng Xi picked up a tray and a wooden knife, "The tray can be used to put mooncakes. If you don't have much to eat, use a wooden knife to divide the mooncakes into small pieces."
"That's it, that's a lot." It’s a bit elegant.”
When the ancients ate mooncakes, they would hold them with their other hand to prevent the crumbs from falling. If there were a tray and a wooden knife to assist, this trouble would indeed be eliminated.
Dulin felt hungry as the sweet fragrance lingered on the tip of his nose.
It’s strange, you’ve just had breakfast and now you’re hungry?
When Cheng Xi saw her staring at the mooncakes, she was not about to put down the tray in her hand, "Madam, choose one to try. Is it to your taste?"
"This is the one, with date paste and bean paste filling."
The mooncakes are placed in a small tray. After the first cut, you can see the fillings inside. The yellow outer skin is wrapped with a layer of red date paste that has been crushed into a puree. In the middle is a round green bean paste. .
Since the mooncakes have not been out of the oven for a long time, the fragrance in the air is even stronger.
Du Lin picked up a quarter of the mooncake and put it into his mouth. The aroma of jujube paste mixed with the sweetness of bean paste turned out to be surprisingly delicious.
"The texture is soft, the sweetness is just right, and it has a bit of heat. It's extremely delicious." Du Lin was more interested in the snow-skin mooncakes in the inner circle.
Since the four middle ones were smaller than the baked ones, they could be eaten directly without cutting them with a wooden knife. Therefore, she picked up one of the white and almost transparent mooncakes and was struck by it before she even took it into her mouth. Its Q-bomb was astonishing.
Can mooncakes be so soft and elastic?
She put it in her mouth and bit it. After the ice skin was drawn, the milky yellow liquid inside flowed out, and the taste was richer than before.
"This is salty? It tastes like egg yolk."
"It is indeed made from salted egg yolk and added with milk."
Although the mooncakes on the second layer of the wooden box have the same layout But the tastes are different, both sweet and salty, there are several kinds of Liuxin alone, and the snow-skin mooncakes are not limited to white, there are also yellow, purple and green.
“I didn’t expect that there are so many variations of mooncakes. Sister Xi’er is really ingenious.”
Du Lin tried to eat four months of mooncakes one after another, and felt regretful and happy while rubbing her growing belly. Annoyed, she really didn’t expect that one day she would be addicted to eating mooncakes.
"In previous years, I either asked the kitchen to make the mooncakes myself or bought them from restaurants outside. They were just for the occasion when admiring the moon. This year, with a gift from my sister, it will definitely be more lively."
Interpersonal interactions come and go, gifts Naturally, we also pay attention to this.
Du Lin has already begun to think about when to go to the Shen family with gifts.
Cheng Xi saw her mentioning the Mid-Autumn Festival and changed the subject, "This is the first time my husband and I celebrate the festival in the capital. I wonder what's happening on the streets that day?"
"What about you? You asked the right person, there are flower lanterns and lantern riddles during the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Eating can shorten the distance between people. Cheng Xi and Du Lin intended to make friends, and the topic changed from strangers to mutual sympathy.
When the Shen family and his wife left Du Mansion, she stood beside Du Yunshan and sighed to herself.
"I don't know how talented Shen Jieyuan is, but sister Xi'er is the best wife. Having a wife like this is considered a blessing in life."
"Oh? Madam, you have such a high opinion of Shen Cheng?”
“Sister Xi’er is naturally good, no wonder my younger siblings like her so much.”
Du Yunshan shook his head and laughed, but he didn't know that Shen Xingluo's views on current political affairs were not inferior to his at all, and he was unrivaled among the younger generations.
***
The Shen family’s homemade mooncake gift box was delivered next door the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
On that day, Qin Zheng took Shen Xingluo out early and did not return to the small courtyard in the alley until the sunset. However, he came over within a quarter of an hour after entering the door.
“Sister-in-law, that mooncake gift box is so delicious!”
At that time, Cheng Xi was watering the yard with a watering can. In a few days, the vegetable seeds sprouted and sprouted out of the ground one by one. Soon they could be harvested for cooking.
Water is sprinkled into the soil along the watering can. After it is soaked, it leaks out from under the wooden groove and flows into the ground along the grooves on both sides. There is no need to worry about water accumulation.
Qin Zheng looked at it for a long time and marveled, "If the water in the fields can flow out smoothly, the people will no longer have to worry about floods."
"What's so difficult about that? It's just too much. dig It's about a few ditches."
Cheng Xi turned around and put the empty watering can aside, "I didn't expect you to be very dedicated to the country and the people. If you become an official in the court, you will definitely benefit the people. ”
"The Qin family is already flamboyant enough."
Qin Zheng smiled bitterly. The Qin family is the richest man in the Yan Dynasty. There is an aunt who is a noble concubine in the palace. The fifth prince under his knees can fight, and there is also a princess who is about to get hairpins. It can be said that the scenery is infinite.
But behind the scenery, there is the covetousness of the royal family and other aristocratic families.
Cheng Xi paused when he heard this and stared at him thoughtfully for a long time.
“That’s right!”
Qin Zheng finally remembered, "Sister-in-law, can you give me a few more boxes of mooncakes?"
"Have you finished eating?"
No, she just sent them over.
"I ate a few, and they are really delicious. I just want to ask for a few boxes to honor my grandparents."
Qin Zheng handed over the small wooden box in his arms, "These are my I collect it on weekdays and ask my sister-in-law to play with it.”
"Is this a mooncake thank you gift?"
"Yes, I don't know if my sister-in-law likes it or not. If there is anything you want, I will buy it for you."
"No need. "
Cheng Xi held a piece of imperial green jade in the wooden box and sighed, "You are willing to give it up."
"My grandparents treated me well, and I should respect them."
"You can take your stuff back. It's just a few boxes of mooncakes that are worthless. How many do you want?"
"Six boxes."
"I'll send it to you early tomorrow morning."
< br>“Thank you Sister-in-law! "
How can Qin Zheng really take back the collection he gave away? However, Cheng Xi is not a person who wants to take advantage of others. He will give away one person's life or not and refuse to take it back. Shen Xingluo comes after hearing the news. I was completely speechless.
"Collect it, take it back and send some good fabrics tomorrow."
"." Why didn't he think of it?
"." You don't like what I'm wearing, don't you?
Because the yellow clay oven is so easy to use, making mooncakes doesn’t take much effort.
Early the next morning, Cheng Xi sent Su Zhan to deliver six boxes of moon cakes from the Qin family next door, and then pulled Shen Xingqi out the door.
"Everyone knows that the capital is prosperous, and today we will see it."
When I went to Beijing a few days ago, I only had a quick glance. How could it be as satisfying as experiencing it in person?
Not only Shen Xingqi is interested in this place, but also Cheng Xi is a little more interested. This is pure ancient times, and it is a scenery that she could not see in her time.
The three women turned out of the alley and walked through two intersections before arriving at the main street of the capital.
Most of the shops on both sides of the main street are three-story, and even two-story buildings are extremely rare, which is enough to show its prosperity. There are teahouses, restaurants, inns and pawnshops one after another, with an endless stream of small traders and pedestrians. There are also rouge jewelry shops, embroidery shops, pastry shops and cloth shops frequented by women.
Cheng Xi took the two of them to visit the house, just in time to understand the preferences of women in the capital.
It was already an hour after visiting the rouge shop, pastry shop and embroidery shop one by one, and Wang Shu also had a few more packages in his hand.
Fortunately, after the snowstorm, Shen Xingluo would bring back some money for her after going out for a few days, so there was no need to worry about running out of money one day.
As for where the money came from?
Cheng Xi really doesn’t know.
Just achieve financial freedom.
“Hey, there are juggling here?”
A few people walked through the pedestrians to a space, and saw a few people circled together and came out to play throwing bowls at high altitude.
(End of this chapter)