Chapter 11 Good Guy or Bad Guy Honey Waffles and Black Bean Cookies…

The next morning, Ye Wan ran into Penny while shopping at the market, and learned that Emma was not the only victim last night. Grandma Katya also fell there, but she was not as lucky as Emma. She fell to the ground immediately and was later found by a kind person and carried back home. It seemed that her left leg was injured.

Ye Wan wanted to go see her, but she felt it would be bad to go empty-handed. She looked at Pancake, who was lying on her shoulder and said, "Let's prepare some gifts and go see her. Grandma Katya will definitely like them."

Muffin nodded.

She walked around the market. It was very lively. Several dwarves with gloomy faces stood in a row, working together to roll oak barrels; a tall orc caravan pulled griffins carrying a huge amount of goods and walked through the crowd.

Ye Wan noticed Dorothy standing in front of a flower stall. The flowers were in full bloom: deep purple gentian, light yellow freesia, and layers of pink peony petals. The stall owner was spraying water on the carnations while dealing with Dorothy's bargaining.

"These are picked from the Rainbow Valley early in the morning. They are very fresh and can be kept for half a month," said the stall owner.

"Don't be so annoying. I know where you got the stuff from." Dorothy crossed her arms. She was wearing a dark blue full skirt and a matching wide-brimmed hat, looking like a proud peacock. "30 copper coins, no more."

"You guys." The stall owner had no choice but to compromise and took out brown paper to wrap the flowers for her: "Do you want cosmos?"

Dorothy squatted down and saw a few pink and white champagne roses inserted diagonally in the iron bucket. The buds were plump and looked very beautiful.

The stall owner commented: "Hey! Champagne roses are priced differently."

"Okay, don't be so formal with old customers." She quickly pulled out a few of the best-blooming champagne roses.

Ye Wan ran over to greet her: "Good day, Dorothy, I guess you've heard about Grandma Katya! I was just about to buy something to go see her. I originally wanted to buy flowers, but it seems you got there first."

Dorothy's thin, pale face flushed a little: "I just bought it casually! After all, she is my neighbor..."

She mumbled for a long time, as if trying to explain that she didn't care about the matter. Fortunately, the stall owner rescued her in time.

Dorothy took a bunch of beautiful, fresh champagne roses with baby's breath and paid for them. "You can try making cookies. Katya loves these sweet things."

After saying this, she seemed uncomfortable and ran away quickly.

"Cookies..." Ye Wan looked up at the sky. It had rained last night, and the sky was washed clean and blue like cornflowers. "Let's try pancakes."

"Squeak!" The guinea pig turned around happily twice in her basket, and then was quickly submerged in a pile of black beans and butter.

"Squeak! Squeak!" Its face changed immediately, and its face became round and puffy with anger.

"There's nothing I can do about it. It's your fault for insisting on staying in the vegetable basket." Ye Wan said.

Muffin turned his back on her and decided not to speak to her for at least an hour.

Ye Wan saw someone selling black beans at the market, so she decided to make some black bean cookies to take over. Black beans are healthier than chocolate and are a very suitable sweet biscuit for the elderly. Since Ye Wan also found a waffle grid model that is compatible with the breakfast machine in the kitchen, she wanted to try making some honey waffles.

Wash half of the black beans and put them into a pot with syrup, grind the other half into powder and mix it into flour. Ye Wan adds milk to the powder, rolls them into small black balls, and then presses them into the shape of cookies with a spoon. The cooked black beans are already sweet, so put these black beans on the cookies and bake them in the oven together.

The waffle batter is poured into the breakfast machine and left to bake.

Soon, with the sound of the oven "ding", Ye Wan put on cotton gloves and picked up the baking tray. The moment the baking tray was pulled out, the kitchen was immediately filled with the sweet aroma and hot steam of butter and milk.

The edges of the waffles were toasted until crispy, while the middle was fluffy like a cloud. Ye Wan poured some honey into the grid, and the waffles immediately took on an attractive amber luster.

There were some minor flaws with the black bean cookies; some of them had severe cracks on the surface due to baking, and the fact that the cookies were originally black made these cracks even more obvious.

Ye Wan took out a small glazed bowl from the cupboard, picked out a few of the most horrible ones and put them in it, then pushed it in front of the muffins: "Here, your breakfast."

muffin:"?"

Ye Wan put the remaining cookies that looked good into the lunch box, then held it in his hand and said to Pancake, who was still reluctant to eat the cookies, "Stop dawdling, let's go!"

The muffin trying to eat the cookie: "???"

It rained last night and the air was full of moisture. The water droplets hanging on the daisies were round and looked like small moons. Ye Wan stepped over a puddle and ran like a gust of wind, shaking the tiny water droplets to the ground.

She pushed open the old spring door of the jam shop. Today, the enamel pots in the jam shop were not working, and there was no pleasant smell of jam in the air. Grandma Katya was lying behind the counter knitting woolen socks, and the old electric fan was spinning with an aged squeak.

Next to Grandma Katya was a large bouquet of beautiful champagne roses.

"So, Dorothy has already been here?" Ye Wan put down the lunch box and dragged a small round stool to sit down.

"Yes." Grandma Katya pushed her reading glasses up to her forehead and looked at Ye Wan with a drowsy yet loving gaze. "That person, sharp-tongued but kind-hearted, likes a well-organized life of solitude. When I first moved to Honey Lane, she was just chasing away the last gentleman who proposed to her."

Ye Wan took out black bean cookies and honey waffles from the basket: "I brought cookies. Dorothy said you like sweet cookies."

Granny Katya looked very surprised.

The black bean cookies have a strong buttery flavor and a dense and delicate texture, with the aroma of black beans mixed in. The honey waffles have a crispy crust and are as light and soft as a cloud inside. Those who taste them will soon be overwhelmed by the sweetness of honey and the rich aroma of egg and milk.

Grandma Katya ate two pieces and wiped her eyes. She seemed to be lost in memories: "We didn't have this when we were young. The worst time was when I even dug tree roots. Only once on my birthday, my husband saved money for a long time and bought me a piece of blueberry bread. It tasted so good that I will never forget it..."

Ye Wan felt that he shouldn't interrupt her, so he just listened quietly.

Finally, Grandma Katya smiled apologetically and said, "Did I talk too much nonsense?"

Ye Wan said that this was not the case at all.

Penny pushed the door open and came in. She was a bit fussy. "I heard you broke your leg. Are you okay?"

Ye Wan felt that it was about time, so she said goodbye to the two of them politely and went back with the muffins. She had baked a lot of black bean cookies and honey waffles, and there were some left, so she ran to the market to sell them. Ye Wan noticed that people in the capital were fond of sweet food, so the honey waffles sold very well. She reduced the sweetness of the black bean cookies, so they were not very popular, and only two elderly people bought some.

Ye Wan had no choice but to take the remaining black bean cookies back home.

When passing by the bakery, Ye Wan saw smoke coming out of the chimney again. She said to Pancake, "That guy is wasting flour again."

Muffin nodded frantically in agreement.

The imagined burnt smell did not appear. The scarred man wore the black apron left by Ryan, revealing his arms full of scars and strong muscles. In Ye Wan's opinion, he looked more like a blacksmith than a baker.

Grandma Katya came out at some point. She sat there in a wooden wheelchair, wearing reading glasses, and taught him with a kind face how much flour to put in, which was the scraper and which was the mixer.

She saw Ye Wan sneaking around outside the door and waved to her enthusiastically to come in. Ye Wan had no choice but to go in.

Scarface buried his head and kneaded the dough vigorously, making it clang loudly on the wooden table. However, he used too much force and the dough became crumbly and completely unusable.

Ye Wan looked speechless, but couldn't bear to see others wasting food, so he bravely said, "Don't knead the bread so hard, or the bread will be as hard as a rock when baked."

The scarred face paused for a moment. Ye Wan didn't dare to speak anymore and hid behind Grandma Katya. Grandma Katya patted her hands and comforted her: "Don't worry, Leo is a kind person, he just looks fierce and evil."

That doesn't sound like a compliment either.

However, Scarface was not angry. Instead, he learned clumsily under the guidance of the two people, and even the scar on his face seemed to soften a little.

A simple plate of evaporated milk butter buns quickly emerged from the baking pan.

Ye Wan first gave one to Pancake, but it turned its head away and refused to eat it, so Ye Wan had to eat one himself.

How to say it, the butter and cream still had a very rich flavor, but the bread was kneaded for too long, so the texture was a bit hard and dry. Ye Wan chewed slowly for a long time and swallowed it with difficulty.

She wanted to find an excuse to go home, and then quickly drank a large glass of water. Katya smiled encouragingly and said, "You've made a lot of progress, but the fermentation time is a bit long. You can still improve it."

Grandma Katya took out five copper coins from her wallet and put them on the table. The other party untied her apron with her rough hands and silently pushed the copper coins back into her palm.

It was already dusk and it was raining again. The early summer raindrops fell with the twilight. Ye Wan sent Grandma Katya back with an umbrella, and ignored her requests to stay, running all the way home with the muffins in his arms.

The wind picked up and blew the clothesline in the yard into several curls. There were not many customers to begin with, and there would be no customers coming on this rainy day.

Ye Wan first changed the water in the sunflower in the glass vase on the windowsill. Pancake ran down from the attic, its chubby cheeks shaking. Perhaps it was too humid, and the stairs were covered with water marks. Its claws slipped, and it rolled down the stairs like an orange ball.

It hurriedly rubbed its round butt with its paw pads, then quickened its pace and ran to Ye Wan's feet: "Squeak!"

Ye Wan asked: "What's wrong?"

It pointed to the attic.

The rain became heavier and the wind grew stronger. The old window frames in the attic were blown by the wind like they were coughing loudly, and rain continued to leak inside. A lot of water accumulated on the attic floor.

Ye Wan had no choice but to find a large piece of tape in the cardboard box and barely patch up the window frame.

An aerial train flew past Ye Wan's window, leaving behind a trail of bright blue stardust.

Ye Wan suddenly remembered the protruding stone slab that had tripped Emma and Grandma Katya. She asked Pancake, "The wind is so strong, will the cage covering it be blown away?"

Muffin tilted his head to look at her.

It was raining heavily, and passersby might not see the protruding rock and fall on it.

Ye Wan changed into yellow rubber rain boots and opened a red umbrella.

"It's raining so hard, I'll just go alone."

"Squeak!" Pancake didn't listen and lay stubbornly on her shoulder.

The two struggled forward in the rain. The sign at the entrance of the alley was also blurred by the rain today: "On the left is Honey Alley... On the right is... Son, do you have to go out in such heavy rain?"

Ye Wan turned right holding an umbrella.

Someone arrived before her. His umbrella was blown around by the wind. He was soaked and water kept running down his hair, but he didn't care. He just squatted there and concentrated on using tools to smooth out the raised areas.

It's Scarface.

Ye Wan noticed that he was carrying a faded toolbox with a beautiful purple iris emblem on it, gleaming in the dark night and rain.