Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 189 is it very blue (difficult)?

I took a stroll around the market; what should actually be called a general market is now a farmers' market.

There are shops selling clothes and shoes, repairing clocks and pagers, making gold and silver jewelry, selling all kinds of cooked food and pastries, household goods and hardware tools—a whole bunch of random things, more than vegetable vendors.

The group unexpectedly discovered a birthday cake shop—or rather, a semi-enclosed stall where cakes were made on the spot, and quite a few people were watching. The four of them squeezed in and watched for a while. The chef, dressed in a chef's uniform, was thin and small, clearly from the south, and was making a cake.

Spread yellow butter on a baked round cake, pipe a ring of butter around the edge as a decorative border, then draw a few small grass blades with green jelly-like transparent ivory. Take a pointed stick and pipe a rose on it with red butter, place it on the cake with chopsticks, and add several roses of different sizes. Finally, add leaves with green butter and write "Happy Birthday" with red ivory. The birthday cake is now complete.

The cake was placed in an ugly red box and tied with a plastic rope. The person waiting nearby happily accepted the cake and handed over a hundred yuan. The young man took it, checked its authenticity, and gave back twenty yuan in change. The person took the change, picked up the cake, and left.

Chen Xiao said, "Wow, eighty yuan, looks pretty good, but the handwriting is terrible. What are those red and green things? Are they edible?"

A half-glass partition blocked the front of the stall to prevent people from reaching in. You could hear everything clearly inside. The young man was tidying up his worktable when he looked up and smiled, saying, "Writing this character is different from writing with a pen. You have to squeeze it out, with a lot of force. Mine is pretty good, though. The flowers and leaves are made of cream with added food coloring; it's edible, don't worry."

He put the cream and several paper packets into a homemade box next to him, closed the box door, and Chen Xiao asked, "What's this for?"

The young man wiped the galvanized sheet workbench with a rag and said, "The air here is too cold; the butter will harden. It needs to be kept warm to make it."

Chen Xiao then asked, "It's only eighty yuan for something so small?"

The young man nodded and said, "Eighty, that's not expensive. The cost of this is really high, you know. We don't make any money. It's all eggs and cream. Do you want to buy it?"

Chen Xiao shook his head and said, "Why would I buy it if it's not for my birthday?"

The young man said, "Yes, it's delicious. But you can still eat it on your birthday, as long as you don't write those words on it. Just buy one."

Chen Xiao was somewhat tempted, and turned to look at Chen Hui. Chen Hui paused for a moment, then asked, "What?"

Xiao Wei sighed inwardly, thinking this kid was hopeless, and said, "How about a smaller one? Do you have any?"

The young man glanced under the counter, nodded, and said, "Yes, fifty yuan." He reached under the counter and took out a slightly smaller cake base than the previous one, placed it on the rotating platform, and asked, "Want to buy it?"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Buy it, let's do it."

The young man got busy, talking to Xiao Wei as he prepared the food: "This is very nutritious, it's good for your health. I'll add more cream for you, come again next time."

Xiao Wei asked, "How long have you been doing this? I've never seen you doing it before."

The young man said, "I've only been here a few days; I've never been here before."

Xiao Wei said, "Could you make the flower colors a little lighter? The darker colors are too creepy."

The young man laughed and said, "It's fine. People all like it red. If it's lighter, I'll use less food coloring. It's very expensive."

He added some yellow cream to the red cream in the bowl, heated the bowl in a small oven, and then quickly stirred it with a spoon. Soon, the red cream turned pink. He showed the bowl to Xiaowei and asked, "Is this okay?"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Okay, it looks much better than that bright red one."

The young man nodded, skillfully decorating the cake with flowers, and asked, "Would you like me to write something?"

Chen Xiao said, "Write, write 'Wishing you prosperity'."

The young man looked at Xiao Wei, who nodded. Only then did he take out the writing brush to prepare to write. Chen Xiao nudged Xiao Wei and said, "Go write."

The young man and Xiao Wei looked at Chen Xiao together. Chen Xiao said, "Let's give it a try and see if what he said is true. I don't believe this thing can't be written well."

Xiao Wei smiled and asked the young man, "Can you write it yourself?"

The young man smiled and said, "Okay, you write it then, and see if it's difficult."

Xiao Wei squeezed his way around to the inside and outside of the stall, where a lot of people were watching the novelty.

Taking the fruit stick wrapped in tracing paper from the young man, the young man instructed him on how to hold it: "Use your thumb and forefinger to pinch the top part tightly. Make sure you pinch it tightly, otherwise it will come out from the top. Then use the three fingers behind to squeeze it down. You need to use some force. This stuff is very sticky, not as fast as a pen. Try it here first." He gently tapped the galvanized sheet on the table.

Following the young man's instructions, Xiao Wei held the fruit in his hand and wrote on the galvanized sheet.

As expected, writing is different from usual. You have to use a lot of force to squeeze the fruit out, and you have to control your hand so that it doesn't shake. The writing speed is also very different from usual. This stuff is really sticky. If you squeeze it out too fast, the strokes won't keep up and the writing will break. But if you squeeze it out too slowly, it will become a clump.

Xiao Wei calmly wrote seven or eight characters on the galvanized sheet before estimating the force and speed. He looked up at the young man and said, "If I can write 'discount' well, will it work?"

The young man laughed and shook his head: "No way, look how much fruit juice you've used up after practicing for so long, you'll have to throw it away once it's squeezed out."

Xiao Wei said, "I think you're actually suited to writing large characters. Let me show you." He positioned the bottom of the paper package perpendicular to the cutting board, keeping the distance to a few millimeters, squeezed out a clump of fruit paste, and started writing a large cursive character for "longevity." Many people in the crowd cheered and applauded, saying, "Good, this character is well-written, it has style."

Xiao Wei asked the young man, "How is it? Right?" Then he wrote "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (Wishing you prosperity) in traditional Chinese characters on the cake, put it down, and walked out smiling. The young man blushed as he tied up the packaging, saying, "You must have practiced. I can't write it well. As long as it tastes good, that's all that matters."

People around were praising Xiaowei's handwriting, and Chen Hui felt proud. He patted Xiaowei on the shoulder and said, "Awesome, that's inspiring."

After paying, the group carried the cakes to buy groceries. They bought several ribbonfish, some scallops, shrimp, and clam meat, as well as some cooked food and vegetables, before heading home.

Carrying things around in the dead of winter is no pleasant experience. The three of us kept switching hands along the way, and by the time we got home, all six little paws were bluish-white, unable to clench into fists or straighten out. At this point, you can't put them directly on the radiator to warm them up, and you definitely can't get them wet with hot water. You can only let them heal naturally, otherwise it will be extremely painful and could easily cause internal injuries.

After putting their things down, the four of them sat down. Chen Xiao, who had been carrying nothing with his hands in his pockets, became the waiter, serving water and dishes.

The three of them rubbed their hands together as they talked.

(End of this chapter)