The Lantern Festival came in a blink of an eye. After breakfast, An Ning began to study how to make rice wine dumplings. An Ning first mixed the dough with boiling water, and after kneading the dough, she covered it with a lid and let it rise for a while.

Since there was ready-made red bean paste, An Ning also made sesame filling.

Wash the peanuts and black sesame seeds, drain the water, then fry the black sesame seeds over low heat first. After frying, put them in a large bowl and set aside. Then put the peanuts into the pan and fry them. After frying, remove the peanut skins and put them in a large bowl and set aside.

Then An Ning put the black sesame seeds and peanuts into a stone mill and ground them into powder. She put the ground powder in a large bowl, added appropriate amount of sugar and lard, stirred it evenly, and left it for a while. After it solidified, she rolled the sesame filling into a small ball. After kneading it all, she made the skin.

An Ning kneaded the glutinous rice dough into long strips, divided it into pieces of the same size, kneaded it into a small ball, and then flattened it with her hands. She put the kneaded sesame filling in it, and rolled the wrapped dumplings in glutinous rice flour to prevent sticking.

All the glutinous rice balls were wrapped in this way, and the remaining glutinous rice balls were filled with red bean paste. An Ning first lit the fire, added half a pot of water to the pot, and started to boil the water. Because Gao was pregnant and could not eat glutinous rice dumplings, she waited for the water to boil and cooked some glutinous rice balls for Gao.

After the glutinous rice balls for Gao were cooked, they were brought to Gao's room and asked to eat first. Then An Ning went back to the kitchen to continue making glutinous rice balls with fermented rice wine. Making glutinous rice balls with fermented rice wine was very simple. First, put the glutinous rice balls in the pot and cook them. When the glutinous rice balls floated up, put the rice wine in, add some sugar, and finally some water starch.

When An Ning brought the rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice into the main hall, Gao had already finished the rice dumplings in her bowl. She looked at the rice dumplings An Ning brought in and said, "Ning Ning, the rice dumplings you made are so delicious. What are you holding in your hand?"

An Ning said, "Mom, this is the rice dumpling with fermented glutinous rice that I made. There is wine in it. You can't eat it now. I will make it for you next year."

Gao was not a greedy person, so she smiled and nodded, saying, "Okay."

An Dashan and An Ning each took a bowl and started eating. An Dashan swallowed the glutinous rice balls in his mouth and said, "Ningning, these rice balls with fermented glutinous rice are so delicious. I have never eaten such glutinous rice balls before!"

An Ning hadn't eaten for a long time, so she just nodded and continued to eat.

At this time, An Yong at the border was wandering on the street. His injuries had almost healed and he planned to return to the barracks tomorrow, so he came out today to buy some things and bring them back to share with his comrades.

An Yong was buying cakes at the cake shop when a little maid came to buy some. An Yong didn't care and paid the money and was about to leave when he heard the shopkeeper say, "The hazelnut cakes were just sold out, and the last two bags were bought by this young man."

Seeing this, the maid said, "What should we do? My young lady likes this hazelnut pastry the most."

After hearing this, An Yong thought that those rough guys didn't know what kind of pastries were delicious, so he said to the maid, "Miss, if you don't mind, I will sell these two bags of hazelnut pastries to you."

The maid's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she said, "Thank you, sir." Then she took out a copper coin and handed it to An Yong, saying, "Sir, this is the money for the cakes. Please accept it."

An Yong did not refuse. After handing the hazelnut pastry to the maid, he took the copper coins and put them on the counter, saying, "Boss, give me some other pastries."

The shopkeeper took the copper coin and handed two packages of cakes of the same price to An Yong.

An Yong took the cake and turned to leave. The little maid got on a carriage and told the girl in the carriage what had just happened. The girl was the one who passed by An Yong in the restaurant.

The girl lifted the curtain and looked in the direction the maid pointed. What a coincidence, An Yong was still wearing the same blue narrow-sleeved robe. The girl was moved and wanted to go forward to thank him, but An Yong had already walked away, so she had to give up and told the driver to go back home.

The Lantern Festival is the time for viewing lanterns. After dinner, at the request of Captain Zheng's youngest son, An Yong followed Captain Zheng's youngest son, Zheng Bowen, out to view the lanterns.

Zheng Bowen is ten years old this year. Although he is already studying in the academy, it is also time for him to have fun. He pulls An Yongdong to look around, and everything he sees is strange.

When the two came to a lantern riddle guessing stall, Zheng Bowen became interested and said, "Brother An, let's guess lantern riddles! Let's see who can guess more correctly?"

Ernst & Young was not interested in this, so he shook his head and said, "You can guess for yourself. I am not interested in this."

Zheng Bowen was not discouraged and started guessing riddles. However, since he was too young, he didn't know many of them. In order not to waste money, An Yong helped him guess a few.

Suddenly, An Yong saw a rabbit lamp, and he thought that this rabbit lamp was a good match for An Ning, so he wanted to win it for An Ning. So he reached out to take it, but when An Yong reached out to take it, another pair of hands also reached out to take the rabbit lamp.

An Yong looked up and saw a pretty girl, so he quickly looked away and said, "Since you like it, I'll give you this rabbit lamp."

The woman bowed gracefully and said, "Thank you very much, young master."

At this time, a little maid ran over and said, "Miss, I bought these sesame-filled dumplings. I'll ask the kitchen to cook them for you when we get home."

The little maid just finished speaking, and seeing that her mistress didn't respond, she looked up and said in surprise: "Miss, this is the master who gave the hazelnut pastry to me during the day."

The young lady bowed again and said, "Thank you for giving way to me twice."

An Yong waved his hand hastily and said, "Miss, you are too polite. These are just small matters and not worth mentioning."

At this time, Zheng Bowen encountered another obstacle and said, "Brother An, come and show me the answer to this riddle."

An Yong bowed to the girl, then came to Zheng Bowen and saw the riddle read: "There are mountains on all sides, and the mountains are all connected."

An Yong thought for a moment and said, "Boss, is the answer to this riddle the character '田'?"

The boss nodded repeatedly and said, "Young master, you guessed it right, it is the character '田'." After that, he took down the lantern and handed it to An Yong.

An Yong felt a gaze staring at him from behind, feeling a little uncomfortable. After taking the lantern, he pulled Zheng Bowen, who still wanted to play, away. Zheng Bowen said, "Brother An, I haven't had enough fun yet, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

An Yong said righteously: "That boss is just a small business. If we continue to guess, the boss will lose all his capital. If you want to play, let's go to another one."

Zheng Bowen said "Oh" and pulled An Yong to the next stall to play.