Chapter 280 Egg Yolk Pastry Heretics, Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!

"Who says mooncakes from textile factories have to be delicious? I've never heard of that. Anyway, I grew up in a textile factory, and the mooncakes my mom brought back weren't good at all..."

Qin Xiangxiang complained to Li Jianzhi about this matter. She just couldn't stand it. In the factory under her management, before she even discovered the problem herself, someone else had discovered it before her—the mooncakes didn't taste good!

She was complacent about her achievements in managing the canteen, but when Secretary Li pointed out that the mooncakes were not tasty, it felt like an arrow had been shot into her knee.

"I really am—" Zhou Aodong, who was rarely seen knitting in the corridor, heard Qin Xiangxiang's complaint. The mooncakes she'd brought back since she was little weren't good? "She's so spoiled! I'm already being kind enough to bring mooncakes back for her!"

Qin Wutong said, "The mooncakes from our factory taste just so-so."

"Don't say a word, your factory's mooncakes are even worse!"

Zhou Aodong: "The mooncakes from our city's silk printing factory are delicious. I ate them one year. I originally had two, and I was going to save one for Xiangxiang, but I was too hungry that day, so I ate them all."

"Aaaaaah!! Mom! Did you deliberately bring home a bad-tasting mooncake for me to eat?!"

Zhou Aodong: "I didn't do such a thing."

Qin Xiangxiang: "???!!!!"

Qin Xiangxiang discovered that the older she got, the more her worldview was challenged. She realized that her mother, whom she once thought was serious, rigid, and hardworking, would also slack off by drinking tea and eating cake.

She thought her mother, Zhou Aodong, had a lisp and wouldn't be able to appreciate good food, and that she was never picky about food—but it turned out her mother had eaten all the delicious mooncakes first!

"Li Jianzhi, I... I've been deceived by the organization!"

Li Jianzhi: "...I extend my sympathetic condolences."

When Li Jianzhi was a child, both his parents worked in public institutions, and the trade union would distribute mooncakes before the Mid-Autumn Festival every year. However, he ate a lot of mooncakes when he was a child, and they were all hard to describe.

He hates fruit-flavored mooncakes, especially strawberry and pineapple flavors.

The meat mooncakes were alright, but the fruit mooncakes were absolutely awful; they tasted like fruit-flavored plastic pies.

Secondly, there's the unpalatable Cantonese-style five-nut char siu. The five-nut char siu from the 80s and 90s didn't have many five nuts, but it had candied winter melon and fatty meat. Wrapping these things... it's hard to describe.

Later, when conditions improved, the Five Nuts and Char Siu Mooncake finally came in various forms with "Five Nuts" inside, but instead of candied winter melon and fatty meat, it became char siu.

In the past, the children in the compound loved the Mid-Autumn Festival. The union would distribute all kinds of mooncakes, and many children would gather together to eat them. They would then ask their parents for some pocket money to buy soda or coconut juice, which they would eat while enjoying the full moon.

The older I get, the less I like mooncakes. By 2025, the flavors of mooncakes had become more diverse and even abstract. There were chocolate mooncakes, matcha mooncakes, and snow skin mooncakes, which were still considered normal. There were also snail rice noodle mooncakes, black pepper beef mooncakes, and so on. The fillings were even more varied.

Some people would rather eat an egg yolk pastry than a mooncake.

Egg yolk pastry is actually a type of flaky mooncake, but like fresh meat mooncake, it has become an "everyday pastry" that can be bought on any day without having to wait for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

"The conditions at Feiyan Factory No. 1 are suitable for making egg yolk pastries."

The reason is simple: "sea duck egg yolks" are cheap.

Living near the sea, as long as sea ducks can be raised freely, you can get cheap sea duck eggs, which are roughly equivalent to cheap sea duck egg yolks. In some coastal cities, homemade egg yolk pastries are very cheap, made with sea duck egg yolks, costing only one or two yuan each, and they are very delicious.

"Your factory has so many salted duck eggs, which are perfect for making egg yolk pastries."

In fact, those who like to put duck egg yolks into mooncakes are mostly from coastal areas, where salted duck eggs are plentiful.

Qin Xiangxiang: "You mean salted egg yolk mooncakes?"

There are now salted egg yolk lotus seed paste mooncakes, and there was a pastry called egg yolk pastry during the Great Chao Dynasty, which is completely different from the egg yolk pastry of later times.

Since the beginning of the century, two main types of mooncakes have been popular in Shanghai: Suzhou-style mooncakes, which are mainly made with fresh meat, and Cantonese-style mooncakes, which use salted duck egg yolks but do not have a flaky crust.

"I guess so. To be precise, it should be called a 'crispy crust duck egg yolk mochi red bean paste mooncake'."

Qin Xiangxiang: "?!"

Ugh, what a terrible name.

"Since you have so many salted duck eggs in your factory, let's try making some egg yolk pastries." Li Jianzhi was eager to try, feeling that he was sure he wouldn't mess it up, and it would be a good opportunity to make handmade pastries with his three little daughters.

Qin Xiangxiang: "A crispy crust, salted duck egg yolk, mochi, and red bean paste mooncake?"

Li Jianzhi: "...My wife has a really good memory."

From then on, all mooncake vendors named their products this way.

Mochi is somewhat similar to donkey roll. The mochi used in egg yolk pastry is made with a thinner glutinous rice flour than the glutinous rice flour used in donkey roll. It is made with glutinous rice flour and milk to create a simple milky mochi.

Salted duck egg yolks that had been prepared in advance were wrapped with red bean paste mochi and a flaky crust, and then put into the oven.

—Li Jianzhi didn’t believe he would mess things up.

"Although a very small number of comrades burst during the baking process, several good comrades maintained their composure, which is the true nature of upholding the revolution."

Qin Xiangxiang: "..."

Little He Miao: "Dad, are the mooncakes ready?"

"Let it bake for a little longer."

"It smells delicious." Qin Xiangxiang squeezed forward and smelled a creamy, pastry-like aroma. This damn man was actually enjoying it.

Li Jianzhi pulled out a layer of egg yolk pastry: "Let Mom eat it first at home."

"Blow on it before eating."

The whole family of little gluttons were gathered around eating egg yolk pastries. Qin Xiangxiang took a small bite and found that she liked the mochi inside, the sweetness of the red bean paste, and the sandy, oily texture of the salted egg yolk.

"Is it delicious?"

Qin Xiangxiang squinted as she finished the last bite. "You're alright, but under Commander Li's leadership, there aren't many good comrades who have persevered with the reforms. Most of them have broken down."

Li Jianzhi: "...This requires continued encouragement and supervision from Political Commissar Qin."

The couple smiled at each other, the air filled with the sweet aroma of milk and eggs, as if they had returned to 1970, when they first went to the island. Little Li was only four years old, and the family had built a bread oven next to the vegetable garden. Li Jianzhi baked egg tarts, and they were just as milky and fragrant...

Now there are several more little gluttons in the family.

Instead of a bread oven, I have my own simple little oven.

"The air smells so sweet!"

The couple were exchanging glances and talking over their "crispy-crust salted egg yolk mochi red bean paste mooncakes," which made Mrs. Xu downstairs unhappy!

What's this smell?

"A rich, milky flavor, both fragrant and sweet?"

Xu's mother was furious. The Qin family had built three or four stories, and even had their own separate kitchen. Now, she couldn't even get a free meal because the Qin family was locked in their own room.

"Qin Xiangxiang is really lucky!"

Qin Xiangxiang shamelessly learned how to make this flaky salted egg yolk mochi and red bean paste mooncake, and plans to research fresh meat mooncakes next year, striving to make the factory unique in the field of "mooncakes".

"I'm tired of eating salted egg yolks, and making them into these egg yolk pastries is really good. I might as well supply them from the factory."

Qin Xiangxiang found it really bizarre: "I inquired around and found that the mooncakes made by textile factories all over the country are truly unique. There are several famous cotton mill mooncakes, as well as cloth mill mooncakes, sand mill mooncakes, silk mill mooncakes..."

"Is everyone using their unique skills to make mooncakes?"

"Our Feiyan Textile Factory can't lose either! Next year, we'll show our true skills and make an amazing mooncake gift box."

...

It was too late to start researching how to make mooncakes now; we could only prepare for the following year. It was freezing cold, and it was already the Spring Festival of 1979. This was the first year of reform and opening up, and earth-shaking changes began in that year.

The 29th of the twelfth lunar month is almost the busiest time, with every household making preparations and the air filled with the rich aroma of food. Li Jianzhi was frying ribbonfish in the kitchen when Little Fatty exclaimed excitedly from the side, "Let me do it! Dad, I've thought of a better way!"

"Let's add milk!"

Li Jianzhi: "Heretics, retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"

Qin Xiangxiang carried a bag of gold coin chocolates and handed out gold coins to her three little daughters, saying, "One for you, one for Mommy, one for you, one for Mommy, one for Suisui, one for Mommy."

"Mom, you have so many!"

Qin Xiangxiang replied matter-of-factly, "Because a mother is a mother, of course there should be many."

Zhou Aodong came up and called them down to make tangyuan (sweet rice balls). Comrade Li Xiaopang made a super lard tangyuan and said to his grandmother, "Grandma, the tangyuan I made made even the shipping magnate of Hong Kong shed tears."

Zhou Aodong's hand trembled: "..."

"My dad and I will also write a book called 'Li-style Recipes' to pass down to our family."

"Bang--"

With a crisp sound, the plate in Xu's mother's hand fell to the ground.

Li-style cuisine recipes?

Xu's mother recalled the fear she felt when the kitchen was dominated by Li Jianzhi back then.

On New Year's Eve, Qin Xiangxiang took all her children to the factory to wish the workers who stayed behind a Happy New Year and to distribute New Year's gifts.

Each worker received pork from the factory, as well as egg yolk pastries, dried sausages, pickles, dried fish... and orange soda from the factory.

Large red "福" (good fortune) characters were pasted on the machines in the workshop, and Secretary Li was leading a group to distribute red envelopes—foreign exchange certificates—to the workers who were sticking to their posts. These certificates were a settlement benefit for this order from Eastern Europe, allowing them to purchase imported products at the welfare store.

On this day, Gu Zhihuai returned to Feiyan Textile Factory and broadcast to the entire factory in his increasingly infectious voice: "Fellow workers, I wish you all a Happy New Year!"

"I'll be with you all tonight. If you want to hear anything, just check the radio station's program schedule!"

"What? Everyone still wants to hear 'Director Qin's Outwitting Liu Manfu'?"

...

Qin Xiangxiang stood there, stunned: "...Who arranged this?"

Li Jianzhi covered his mouth and chuckled: "Your factory's Spring Festival program was truly wonderful!"

Qin Xiangxiang: "If you say another word, I bet I'll kick you."

"Let's go home and have our New Year's Eve dinner."

As evening fell, the sounds of fireworks and firecrackers lit up thousands of homes, seemingly sweeping away the past gloom, while celebratory music continued to echo through the alleyways.