The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book) - 125

 

| TBBOTOF | 125

Let's put it this way: in his mind, boys and girls of eleven or twelve are still just kids. The possibility of anything happening between them seemed unlikely. 

After some self-reflection, he felt a bit guilty for having such thoughts as an adult. 

How could he have imagined it? After all, the kids in the village, including those around fourteen or fifteen, were still quite young.

When he mentioned this to others, he felt a bit embarrassed. 

As August turned into September, Tang Xiu began to busy himself with plans to make mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. 

After discussing with Wei Dong, they decided to make some oil-based mooncakes in various flavors and styles, selling them at a cheaper price than the town's pastry shops, directly to the villagers. 

Their food was well-regarded by the villagers, so traditional mooncakes would surely sell well.

Wei Dong sat on the kang holding their son and patting his back to help him burp, while watching Tang Xu mutter and scribble on paper. 

At some point, Tang Xu had started writing with a piece of charcoal from a burned branch. Some characters Wei Dong could recognize, while others were missing strokes or were just indecipherable like ghostly scribbles. Despite the oddity, he never questioned it.

After finishing his notes, Tang Xu put down his homemade charcoal pencil, wiped the black smudges off his hands with a cloth, and turned to ask Wei Dong, "Is there anything you want to eat?"

"Huh?" Wei Dong didn't quite get it at first. "Are you talking about the mooncakes?" He remembered the mooncakes Tang Xu made last Mid-Autumn Festival were quite delicious, but there weren't enough to fully satisfy him. "The ones you made last time with salted egg yolk were really good."

"Alright, I'll bake some salted egg yolk pastries too. Those can fetch a good price," Tang Xu said, thinking about the eggs Wei Zhonghong and Luo Pingping had saved up. Making salted egg yolks was simple enough, and he could delegate some tasks to others to save himself some effort.

"Anything else?" Tang Xu asked, looking at Wei Dong.

"I'll eat anything you make, I love it all," Wei Dong, the number one fan of Tang Xu's cooking, firmly supported his spouse's decisions.

Tang Xu beamed with joy, leaned over, and gave his husband a big kiss..

Wei Dong raised an eyebrow, leaned in, and kissed him back.

Their chubby baby, comfortably sandwiched between them, made a contented noise and wriggled his pudgy body.

Tang Xu quickly backed away, sat back in his original position, and placed his handmade notebook on the kang table. "Let's make both sweet and savory flavors. For fillings, we'll do five-nut, salted egg yolk, and bacon. The flavors should be good."

Wei Dong nodded, "Alright. If we need anything, I'll go buy it."

"We don't need anything right now," Tang Xu said, thinking of the storeroom stocked with various flours needed for making chilled cakes. Wei Dong had replenished their supplies at the town's grain store just three days ago.

"Go over to my grandpa and grandma's place and bring back my Auntie and your Aunt. We'll need their help if we want to make a good profit."

With half a month until the Mid-Autumn Festival, curing salted egg yolks would take at least two days. He planned to make a batch first and see how they sold. If they sold well, they could make a nice sum of money.

Quickly pricing the various mooncakes in his mind, Tang Xu turned to the man holding their son and said, "You better hurry."

"Are you going to put him to sleep?" Wei Dong asked, glancing at their chubby baby in his arms.

Tang Xu showed him his dirty hands. "Put him in bed and let him sleep on his own."

"If I put him down, he'll cry. He's tired; he was yawning just now," Wei Dong said as he got up, patting and soothing the baby. The little one cooperated well, falling asleep quickly.

Putting the baby down was simple once he was asleep. Wei Dong laid him on the bed and covered him with a light blanket.

Tang Xu glanced over and waved his hand. "Go, go. Hurry up."

It wasn't long after lunch, and Luo Pingping was cleaning up the kitchen. Her two daughters-in-law were busy tidying up their own homes. Even though they lived separately after the family divided, they still had to manage many tasks themselves.

When Wei Dong arrived with the mule cart, Luo Pingping had just finished washing the dishes and was pouring used water onto the vegetable garden. 

"Why are you here, Dongzi?" She was delighted to see him, inviting him inside and saying, "You're just in time. I was thinking of bringing you some clothes I made for the baby. It's getting colder, and he can wear them now."

Wei Dong thanked her. "Auntie, I'm here to take you back. Tang Xiu has something to discuss with you."

Luo Pingping paused, turning to him. "Does Xu Ge'er need something?"

Wei Dong nodded.

Luo Pingping quickly grabbed the two sets of clothes she had made for the baby and went to the main room to tell her mother-in-law she was going to the big house. Wu Guizhi handed her a hat she had made for the baby and reminded her not to rush, and dinner could be prepared in the evening.

Luo Pingping knew what Tang Xu wanted to discuss, so she nodded in agreement. When Wei Dong arrived home with Luo Pingping and Wei Zhonghong, they saw Tang Xu carrying a large wooden basin from the storage room, with Liu Yao following behind, carrying two bags of flour.

"What are you doing?" Wei Zhonghong quickly walked over to help.

Tang Xu sidestepped her help, saying, "I can carry it myself. Aunt and Eldest Aunt, go wash your hands and put on aprons. I'll teach you how to make mooncakes."

The two women were surprised but quickly nodded in agreement.

In the kitchen, Tang Xu had already moved several ingredients. He placed the large wooden basin on the stove; the basin contained a mixture of various cake flours. Liu Yao put the two bags of flour he was carrying down and asked, "Brother Xu, are you making all of this?"

"Yes. Go fetch all the eggs we've collected, and ask Ah Li if she has any eggs saved up. If she does, bring them over and ask her to come too," Tang Xu instructed.

Liu Yao nodded and ran off, his steps cheerful.

Tang Xu narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling that Liu Yao was overly excited.

"Xu Ge'er, what do you want to make?" asked the two women who had washed their hands and put on aprons, standing next to him.

Tang Xu explained, "I want to make some mooncakes to sell before the Mid-Autumn Festival. We can sell them in the village first. If they sell well, we can consider cooperating with the tavern or even selling them directly in town." He briefly shared his thoughts and what he planned to make.

The two women listened with bright eyes, both agreeing that selling them, even just within the village, could earn a lot of copper coins.

They had already saved up some silver from making cold noodles, and if they joined in selling mooncakes, they could save even more money. 

Tang Li quickly arrived with a bamboo basket full of eggs. Liu Yao followed, also carrying a basket with many eggs. 

Tang Xu began teaching them how to make salted egg yolks. As he worked, he explained, "Sprinkle a layer of salt on top. In two or three days, they will be almost ready. When the salted egg yolks are ready, we can take them out, and the remaining salt can still be used."

"Is that so?" asked Wei Zhonghong.

"We'll make one type of egg yolk pastry and another type of egg yolk mooncake. Then, I'm thinking of making snowy mooncakes. Liu Yao, go get the mountain grapes. We only need the grape skins; the pulp will be used to make jam." Tang Xu rolled up his sleeves and began measuring flour and sugar, preparing to make the dough.

"Aunt, you handle the five-nut filling. Big Aunt, help me mix the cake flour," Tang Xu directed.

The two women nodded and started working. Tang Li was on the side handling the egg yolks, separating the egg whites into a bowl. She couldn't help but ask, "Brother, what about these egg whites?"

"We'll make a cake with them later," Tang Xu replied. With Wei Dong's strength, beating egg whites wouldn't be a problem.

Since they had made mooncakes last year, they already had the molds, so they worked quickly. 

Tang Xu boiled the grape skins to soften them and then started kneading the dough while it was still hot. The sticky dough clung to his hands and was quite hot, but Tang Xu seemed unfazed. 

He kneaded and stretched the dough repeatedly until it became very elastic, capable of stretching into long strands without breaking.

Tang Xu looked at the purple dough, tore off a piece, and tasted it. It had a faint grape flavor, was quite sweet, sticky, and soft, but it also stuck to his teeth.

He scooped some filling from Luo Pingping's premixed five-nut filling, rolled it into balls, then grabbed a piece of dough to wrap around the filling. After pressing it into a mold dusted with soybean flour, he inverted it onto the table. A light purple floral-patterned snow skin mooncake was thus made.

After some thought, he had Liu Yao cook some spinach water, resulting in purple-green colored snow skin mooncakes.

"It looks good right?" Tang Li stood by watching him throughout the process, simple actions yielding something of particularly high quality. "If we sell these at our stall, each could easily go for three wen."

"Sell them individually," Tang Xu shook his head, offering a purple-green one, indicating to taste the flavor: "Let's make a few colors, with characters like '福' (good fortune), '禄' (prosperity), '寿' (longevity), '喜' (happiness), '吉祥如意' (auspiciousness) on them. Sell them as a set of eight for thirty wen."

"Ah? That's expensive!" Tang Li hesitated.

"It's expensive, but it's for the festival. People will take them out as gifts," Tang Xu considered the pricing issue. In his view, the villagers actually had money, even if each family only spent over a hundred taels, they would still be frugal to buy a box of beautiful mooncakes they had seen before to visit relatives during the festival. It's face-saving to take it out, and he asked Wei Dong about the regular price of moon-cakes. In the moon house in the town, an ordinary piece of old-fashioned mooncake costs three wen. His is very cheap.

"Ah Dong!" Tang Xu thought of something and shouted outside.

Just after changing his son's diaper, Wei Dong appeared at the kitchen door, holding his chubby son. He asked, "What's going on?"

Wei Zhonghong and Luo Pingping's eyes lit up when they saw the chubby boy, who had just woken up and was being carried by his father. They reached out to play with him, and the chubby boy graciously reached out to grab their hands.

Wei Dong, worried about dropping his son, handed him over to Wei Zhonghong to hold.

"Could you help me find a craftsman in our village to make some bamboo woven boxes for storing mooncakes?" Tang Xu gestured. "They need to be large and clean."

"I can weave them myself," Wei Dong replied.

"You can weave, but not enough. Let's make a batch with handles so they can be carried. When you negotiate the price, be mindful. Two for a wen; if it's too expensive, we'll take them. We need at least a hundred," Tang Xu calculated. "Start with a hundred. If they work fast, they can finish them overnight."

"Okay, I'll find someone to do it," Wei Dong agreed, glancing at the snow skin mooncakes that had been made. "How many of these should I take?"

"Take them all. I still have dough left to make more," he instructed Liu Yao to boil different colored juices to ensure the snow skin mooncakes were vibrant and colorful!

For money, he was willing to go the extra mile!

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