Miao Chu

Chapter 8 Ingenuity
Sun's wife was the youngest in her family. Her family was from the capital, surnamed Zhu, and had been butchers for generations.

The butcher's profession may sound rough and not very respectable, but the life is actually quite comfortable, and they are quite knowledgeable.

Even so, upon hearing the number 890 strings of cash, her hand holding the paper trembled slightly, and she hurriedly asked, "How did you owe so much? When did you start owing it?"

At this time, the most important thing is to be of one mind and one family. Besides, the husband was raised by his uncle and aunt, and they have a deep bond. How could he not care?

But who can control such a large sum of money?
Sun Lizheng said, "What do I know! When I came back this morning, I ran into Liao Qing's men, who specially brought me these two IOUs and greeted me, saying that I had helped a lot with the Song family's affairs in Suanzao Lane a few days ago, and they came to express their gratitude."

Zhu found this strange and asked, "What does the Song family's matter have to do with Liao Qingjiao?"

Sun Lizheng sneered, "I only just found out that the bookstore across from the Song family's house was originally bought by him, but it was just registered under someone else's name."

“This time, Song Dalang lost the shop in the bet. Although the buyer himself did not show up, I asked someone to inquire, and it was registered under the name of Liao Qingjiao’s concubine’s brother.”

He added, "That Liao Qingjiao sent someone to say that there's a wealthy man named Wu in the west of the city—his mother is married to a noblewoman—who has taken a liking to that young lady from the Song family. But the girl is shy and can't quite understand it yet, so he asked me to take this opportunity to say a few words of persuasion..."

Madam Zhu's face darkened, and she cursed, "What do you mean you can't understand for a moment? This Liao Qingjiao, the Song family hasn't offended him, so why are they pushing him to the brink of death! That Master Wu is already over fifty, with one concubine on each side, and he's still looking for new girls in Little Sweet Water Lane every day. I heard he beats people when he's drunk, and several of his servants have been dragged out of the mansion. If it weren't for his mother's connections to a noble family, if the capital's government were to seriously investigate, he would have been in deep trouble long ago!"

Then he asked, "His father, what are you going to do?"

As she said this, she pointed to a food box on the table and said, "Speaking of the Song family, their young lady just came over. She's as beautiful as a flower and very polite. She said she couldn't come in because she was in mourning, so she brought you some homemade pastries to thank you."

He added, “This morning, the old woman next door came to gossip with me. She said that before dawn, she saw that young lady Song pushing her cart out to sell food. She was so young and pitiful.”

Sun, the village head, was annoyed and said, "Aren't there enough pitiful people in the world? I'm just a village head, not an official. Liao Qing has so many people under him, all of them carrying manure and urine. If I really offend him, one of them could drench me to death with a bucket of manure. He's the one who controls me. What can I do?"

He patted his stomach and said, "I went out early this morning to clean up the mess left by the second son, and I didn't even have a bite of breakfast—what's left in the pot? Bring it to me first."

Zhu could tell that her husband was just venting his anger, but she could only say, "I'll heat up the meat buns and soy milk I bought this morning for you."

Then he walked to the back.

Sun Lizheng was left alone in the house. As he sat there, feeling bored and restless, he noticed that he was getting hungry after walking back and forth all morning. He looked up and saw the food box that Song Xiaoniangzi had brought him on the table.

He opened it casually, thinking to himself: I don't really like snacks or anything like that, I'll just take this to tide me over.

But as soon as the food box lid was opened, he glanced at it, then stopped, rubbed his eyes, and leaned closer to take a look.

The pastry inside was only about an inch square, with an extremely thin, almost transparent outer layer. It had a yellow base and a red center, with a maroon color surrounded by yellow, forming the character "福" (fortune).

Sun Lizheng was quite literate, and he felt that this "Fu" character was more pleasing to the eye than the ones he usually saw.

He initially thought the words were printed with some color, but when he picked one up and broke it open, he found that it was completely embedded inside. He really didn't know how it was done.

Seeing how exquisite this thing was, Sun Lizheng moved with utmost care. He carefully put it in his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and tasted the extremely soft outer layer with a slightly glutinous texture. The yellow base inside had an indescribable flavor, a faint sweetness, and a hint of milkiness.

The red "福" (Fu, meaning good fortune) character has the richest flavor, but it's not cloying. It tastes somewhat like red bean paste, but it's not quite. The beans are ground very finely, yet they don't stick to your palate. I don't know what's been added to it, but it's even smoother, softer, more fragrant, and sweeter.

In the past, whether it was red bean cake, red bean paste, or red bean porridge bought outside, if too much maltose was added, it would be too sweet and cloying. If not enough sugar was added, it would always have a beany taste. But the red bean filling in front of me was prepared without any beany taste at all.

Or even if it were, Sun Lizheng's tongue simply couldn't detect it.

In his opinion, the pastry was not greasy at all. The outer crust was not sweet, the yellow filling was only slightly sweet, and the red filling inside was the sweetest, but it was just the right amount of sweet.

Even though Sun Lizheng never liked pastries, before he knew it, he was eating one after another—he thought he was seriously studying how the character "福" (fortune) could be embedded inside, but after picking one up and studying it for a while, he ate it and then picked up another...

When Zhu entered the room, she saw that the food box was already more than half empty.

She quickly placed the soy milk and a bowl of steamed buns on the table, saying, "You too, there were so many restaurants and food stalls along the way, didn't you know to eat before coming back when you were hungry?"

He added, “You always said you didn’t like snacks when I asked you to before, but it seems you were just not hungry. Now you’re really hungry, and you’re eating more than me—aren’t you tired of them?”

Hearing his wife say that, Sun Lizheng felt a little embarrassed. He finished the last piece of pastry in his hand and went to get a steamed bun.

Those steamed buns looked like they were bought from a shop in an alley; the taste was just average, but they were generous with the ingredients.

Unfortunately, he also took a red bean paste one this time. After taking a bite, the greasy sweetness made his throat feel nauseous. He had no choice but to drink a few mouthfuls of soy milk. It was sweet again. Although it was made with beans and wasn't bland, the beany smell was quite obvious.

That's strange. I've always drunk it without any problems and never felt anything was wrong!

Sun Lizheng had no choice but to find another oily goose and duck bun and reluctantly ate a few bites.

He had already eaten his fill of snacks earlier, but now he could only hold the steamed bun and say to his wife, "This Miss Song's cooking is quite good. The snacks I've tasted are completely different from those sold in other snack shops. I don't even know what they're called. It's amazing how meticulously she makes them—why don't you try one?"

Zhu casually agreed, picked up a piece, saw the character "福" (fortune/blessing) on ​​it, smiled, and said, "Good luck, is this printed on?"

But when she took a bite, she couldn't help but exclaim "Eh!"

It might be difficult for people to visualize the image of the "lucky cake" when it's described like this.

However, many people in the north have probably eaten "Fu" character dumplings or "Fu" character steamed buns. They are usually dyed with red yeast rice, and different colored dough pieces are put together like building blocks. The cross-section cut out by the color combination is the "Fu" character.

Making "Fu" (福, meaning good fortune) dumplings is a bit more difficult. Usually, two "Fu" characters are combined, so that the dumplings have "Fu" characters on both sides of their bellies.

These are mainly eaten for good luck, and they take a lot of time to make. As for the taste, they are not much different from ordinary ones.

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(End of this chapter)