Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 197 Chapter 190
When Liu Huilan came, Mai Xiang was helping out in the shop. She had just sent Mrs. Zhao back to her natal home with Mai Qing, Mai Lu and Mai Di, because Zhao Qiao and her marriage day were coming. The aunts and grandmothers of the family would go to help two days in advance, and Zhao's naturally refused to be an exception, and specially brought the maid and mother-in-law to help.

However, these days are getting hotter every day, more dignitaries and dignitaries come to the countryside to escape the summer heat, and more people come to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha to offer incense, so Maixiang's shop is naturally busy.

At this time, Mrs. Zhao also took away a maid and a woman. Mai Xiang had no choice but to do it by herself.

"Mai Xiang, it's getting hot day by day, do you have any delicate side dishes here, your aunt and I don't have a great appetite." Liu Huilan was a little surprised to see Mai Xiang busy in the kitchen.

"A more refined side dish?" Mai Xiang knew that Li Xiangyun had a pregnancy reaction, but how could this Liu Huilan not be able to eat?
"Master, are you still not letting go?" Mai Xiang asked with concern.

"What nonsense, am I such a narrow-minded person? I have this too." Liu Huilan patted her stomach contentedly after speaking.

"What?" Mai Xiang was really surprised.

Liu Huilan is 37 years old this year. At this age, Mai Xiang really didn't expect her to have it again. And Li Xiangyun, who is also [-] or [-] this year, they all have one after another, but Li's hasn't moved yet. Mai Xiang was very worried.

Mrs. Liu gave Mrs. Li a three-year deadline. If Mrs. Li could not have any more children within three years, she would definitely be divorced.

"With that expression on your face, why aren't you happy for me at all?" Seeing that Mai Xiang was depressed, Liu Huilan was a little puzzled.

"Happy, can you still be unhappy? What my wife wants to eat, as long as my wife can tell me, I can definitely do it." Mai Xiang boasted.

"De Xing, I really want to eat something. I want to eat Jiangning's sweet-scented osmanthus salted duck. Can you make it?" Liu Huilan said casually.

"Salted duck with sweet-scented osmanthus?" Mai Xiang was taken aback when she heard that, isn't this her old business?

"Mai Xiang, my wife is teasing you. If you don't know it, you won't. Why are you still crying?" Liu Huilan panicked when she saw Mai Xiang lowered her head and big tears fell down, and hurriedly hugged her Mai Xiang.

"It's okay, Master, I'll make it for you. Although I haven't cooked this dish, I have the recipe for it in my hand. Let me try it twice."

Although Mai Xiang didn't make salted duck by herself, her mother told her all the secrets, and she followed her mother more than once, so she still knew the whole process.

"Why do you have the recipe for this dish?" Now it was Liu Huilan's turn to be surprised.

"What's the matter, Huaici bought a lot of old books, some of which were cookbooks, and they were all sent to me." Mai Xiang was not lying, Huaici did send her two handwritten cookbooks.

As soon as Liu Huilan left, Mai Xiang thought about it carefully for a long time, and then sent a woman to kill the duck, sent Bafu to the town to buy some dried osmanthus, and began to prepare it herself. Whether the salted duck is delicious or not depends on the Lao Tang, so, Mai Xiang didn't have much hope for the first time he cooked duck.

When everything was ready, Mai Xiang sautéed salt, Chinese prickly ash, star anise and other seasonings in a frying pan, marinated the duck finely, put it in the tank, and after two hours, poured it into clear brine to soak one At that time, the duck began to be boiled. The head of the duck was down and the legs were up. The belly of the duck must be filled with soup.

While cooking, Mai Xiang recalled what her mother said. She remembered very clearly that the key to cooking salted duck is the heat. The water must not be boiled, just bubbling. Pour out the soup and refill it.

Mai Xiang has been busy all day, and when it was almost dark, the first salted duck came out of the pan.

At this time, the aroma had already dissipated, and the diners outside had already inquired about it.

Northerners generally don’t like to eat duck, except for Peking duck, but Mai Xiang really doesn’t like the greasy Peking duck. Her favorite food is of course the salted duck made by her mother. She didn’t expect that in this other world, she would make it herself. The first salted duck was born.I don't know if my mother will feel relieved or distressed when she finds out. Thinking of this, Mai Xiang's tears came again.

In order to test the market, Mai Xiang cut up half a duck, divided it into small dishes, and gave it to diners in the store for free tasting, and sent the remaining quarter to Cao's house, and kept a quarter for herself. one.

"Sister, this duck is really delicious. You can eat the meat, it's not greasy, and it's also fragrant. It's much more delicious than the roast duck that big sister brought us to eat last time." Mai Huang said while eating.

"Mai Xiang, when are you going to the capital, can you take me there too? I'm so old, I haven't been to the capital yet." Jiufeng asked hurriedly.

"Okay, old aunt can go if she wants to, and she can go for a walk with her mother. It's also convenient to go to the capital now. My family has a ready-made carriage and a ready-made house." Mai Xiang agreed very happily.

The main reason is that she thinks that Jiufeng's request is really not high. The children in the country are pitiful. They obviously live at the foot of the emperor, but they don't have a chance to go to the city once.

"Ah? I'll let it go. With my body, I won't make trouble with you." Although Liu Shi wanted to go, she had a bad back and had to rest after walking for a long time.
"Old lady, you can go if you want. There is your granddaughter. Da Ya, this duck is really good, and it tastes good to me. It's better than the duck soup you cooked." Ye Tiezhu said from the side.

"Really, if you want to say it's delicious, I'll make two more tomorrow. I plan to promote this new dish in the shop, just as we have so many ducks and geese."

"No, your second uncle's family has dozens of them. It would be great if they could be sold." Mrs. Liu was happy when she heard this.

When Mai Xiang heard this, he thought of Mai Seeds. In the past two years, he has really learned from Mai Xiang and raised ducks and geese. Instead of planting wheat for the second season of coarse grains, I planted sesame seeds, peanuts and sunflowers. The income is better than that of corn and millet, but it is also very hard.

After the meal, Mai Xiangguai went to Cao's house, and knowing that Cao Xueqin and the others recognized the duck, Mai Xiang made up her mind and prepared to launch this dish.

Because this is a new dish, it involves issues such as the heat of the recipe and the old soup. Mai Xiang has been busy in the shop these days. Fortunately, because it is summer, the guests are willing to eat something light. This salted duck is not bad. .

However, Mai Xiang doesn’t make too much. She makes three of them a day and sells them separately. It is also written on the water sign outside that this salted duck can be packed and taken home. This is a cold dish.

One day, when Mai Xiang was teaching Mai Huang and Li Shi how to make salted duck in the kitchen, Huai Ci suddenly came in.

"My sister cooks something delicious, I can smell it from afar." Huai Ci said while looking at Mai Xiang.

"Why are you free today?" Mai Xiang's eyes lit up when she saw Huai Ci.

"Sister forgot, we have a long vacation, by the way, sister, there is a gentleman outside who wants to see you."

"Sir? Who? Could it be Ji Xiaolan?" Mai Xiang thought of him, because he went to the bookstore and bought Cao Xueqin's paintings. Of course, he also left Feng Xiang's address.

"Young lady is really smart, I'm here." Ji Xiaolan was at the door of the stove, and didn't come in, but he was attracted by the smell, and he heard that Mai Xiang was cooking southern ducks in the stove, so he came to take a look out of curiosity.

"The gentleman is far away from the kitchen. It seems that Mr. Ji is still a little away from the gentleman." Mai Xiang came out and smiled.

"Young lady's words are wrong, food and sex are also bad, meaning that food is human nature." After Ji Xiaolan said this, she realized that it was a bit indecent to say this to an underage girl. So he purposely misinterpreted the original meaning of the words, hoping that Mai Xiang would be able to fool him if he didn't understand.

"Sir, please take a seat at the front, Huaici, go and talk with him, today I will personally cook some southern dishes for him." Mai Xiang smiled lightly, without revealing him, turned and said to Huaici.

Huaici's face was also a little unhappy at first, but after seeing Ji Xiaolan deliberately misinterpreted the original meaning of these words in order to make up for his mistake, he knew that he didn't mean it, so his face softened.

"Okay, I just want to ask Mr. Ji for advice. I specially went to visit Mr. Ji's house. Mr. Ji heard that I was going to see you, so he followed me. He wants to see your husband."

"That's right, why did I forget? Mister likes roasted duck rice wine the most. I'll send someone to invite you right now. Mister Ji won't be willing to dine with a countryman, right?" Mai Xiang asked intentionally.

"Girl is overthinking. I am here because of my husband's talent. It is Ji's honor to have a drink and chat with him." Ji Xiaolan said seriously.

Mai Xiang looked at him and said with a smile: "I heard that Mister is smart since he was young and has a high self-esteem. It seems that the rumors are not true."

"You are young and frivolous because you don't know the heights of the sky and the earth. If I don't know how to restrain myself at this age, I will be a complete idiot. I don't know if the girl thinks so?" Ji Xiaolan said while putting away her folding fan

"Mr. Ji must have known how high the sky is and how thick the ground is, so he restrained himself." Mai Xiang teased.

"The girl is a joke."

While talking, Mai Xiang had already sent someone to invite Cao Xueqin, and here she led Ji Xiaolan into a private room. Mai Xiang personally made tea to entertain the guests, and then returned to the kitchen.

When Cao Xueqin heard that it was Mai Xiang who invited him to taste rice wine and sauced duck, and there was a scholar from the capital who wanted to see him, he was not hypocritical, so he put down the manuscript in his hand and came, because he was always willing to make friends with some down-and-out people.

However, when he saw the scholar in front of him, he was a little confused, how could this look like the underrated scholar in Mai Xiang's mouth?It was very different from what he had imagined, because Ji Xiaolan did not have the sour air of a poor scholar from top to bottom. Although her clothes were not fancy, they were never shabby. The arrogance comes from his self-confidence.Because as soon as he opened his mouth, Cao Xueqin guessed that this person's talent might be higher than his own.

Ji Xiaolan was not surprised to see Cao Xueqin. Cao Xueqin was just as he thought, a child of a down-and-out family living in seclusion in the countryside. However, Cao Xueqin's face didn't have any resentment or resentment for being unappreciated, but only open-minded and peaceful.This made Ji Xiaolan admire even more.

(End of this chapter)