This year's Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake gift box contains eight mooncakes in eight varieties and eight flavors.
Rose flower cakes, chrysanthemum flower cakes, salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste Cantonese mooncakes, ham puff pastry mooncakes, egg yolk and white jade snow skin mooncakes, red bean paste and matcha snow skin mooncakes, mung bean paste and blue and white snow skin mooncakes, lotus seed paste and jade snow skin mooncakes.
The gift box is a festive bright red, with a full moon, golden osmanthus and a cute rabbit carved on it. It is both festive and appropriate for the occasion.
The gift box alone is enough to make people's eyes swell, not to mention the various new and novel flavors of mooncakes inside.
A shop took two boxes as samples and received an order for 500 boxes that day.
When Peng Zhang got the news, he ran to Tian An immediately and ordered a hundred boxes at once.
So far, including the orders placed by Gu Jinyan and others, a total of 880 boxes have been received.
He also had to leave thirty boxes for himself, for Zhao Yiming's teachers at the academy, good classmates, Tian Mingwu's capable subordinates, some familiar colleagues, Tian An's own friends, the third prince, Princess Yaoyao, and the crown prince.
Tian An estimated that they could at best produce 1,200 boxes of mooncakes before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The remaining 300 boxes were distributed equally to each shop, and orders were stopped immediately once the quota was full.
As a result, the quota was full by the next morning. Many people who arrived late ran away and failed to grab a spot in several franchise stores of Tian An and her colleagues.
In order to rush to make the mooncakes ordered by each family before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tian An almost transferred all the maids and servants in the general's mansion to Donglin Street to help.
Qingmei, Qiao Niang and several cooks were responsible for preparing the filling and mixing the flour.
The maids with better skills are responsible for wrapping the fillings, while those with lesser skills are responsible for pressing the molds and packaging.
Those who really couldn't do it would do hard labor, such as pushing the millstone to grind lotus seeds, red beans, mung beans, etc. In short, no one was idle.
Even Madam Xiao and Granny Qin were busy arranging things, so that even in such a large general's mansion, there was not a single person to cook.
Fortunately, although the food cooked by Tian Mingwu and Zhao Yiming was not tasty, it was still acceptable after being cooked.
Compared to the bustling East Street, the deserted and desolate General's Mansion was simply unbearable to look at.
Xiaokang, Xiaoqi and Mr. Han looked at the "hot pot" cooked by Zhao Yiming and Tian Mingwu on the table and were hesitant to start.
Xiaokang looked at Xiaoqi and said, "You are younger than me, so I should give way to you. How about you go first?"
Zhao Yiming and Tian Mingwu immediately looked at Xiaoqi and nodded to him expectantly.
Xiao Qi glanced at the two of them, grabbed her right hand with her left hand, and struggled for a while. Suddenly, she looked at Mr. Han beside her and grinned, "Scholars respect their teachers. Please go first, sir!"
Zhao Yiming and Tian Mingwu turned to look at Mr. Han again and raised their hands to signal, "Sir, please go first."
Mr. Han's mouth twitched. After a moment's hesitation, seeing he couldn't avoid it, he picked up his chopsticks. He stared at the hot pot in front of him for a long time before finally picking up a piece of fried golden tofu.
I put it in my mouth and tentatively bit off half of it, chewing it.
The four people standing by saw his expression becoming increasingly strange. Then, he stopped chewing, looked down at the golden tofu in his hand, and suddenly turned it over.
Only then did they realize that the back of the tofu, which was originally golden, was burnt black.
Zhao Yiming said somewhat embarrassedly, "Sir, I'm sorry, I fried this tofu, and it seems to have been overcooked."
Then he picked up his plate and walked towards Mr. Han, "Give it to me, sir! There should still be some unburned food in it."
Mr. Han frowned and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? It's just a piece of fried tofu. I, Han Xun, have also experienced hardships. I'm not that delicate."
After saying that, he threw the remaining half piece of tofu into his mouth, chewed it quickly twice and swallowed it.
Zhao Yiming returned to his seat silently, then picked up the serving chopsticks and quickly scooped out the burnt tofu from the pot and put it into his own bowl.
Then he invited everyone to eat, "Father-in-law, sir, Xiaokang and Xiaoqi, eat quickly! The rest should be fine. The soup may be a little burnt, so just don't drink it later."
Tian Mingwu glanced at him, then quickly took the plate of tofu in front of him, picked up his chopsticks and divided it in half. "I like to eat the mushy ones."
While Tian Mingwu wasn't paying attention, Mr. Han took Tian Mingwu's plate and scooped half of the tofu into his own bowl. "The paste actually has a different natural flavor."
Seeing this, Xiaokang followed suit, picking up his own plate and scraping some of the tofu from Zhao Yiming's plate, which Tian Mingwu had just put down. "The teacher said, 'Only those who endure the most hardships can become the best.'"
Xiaoqi also took some tofu from Xiaokang's bowl and said, "The book says that we should share happiness and difficulties together."
Tian Mingwu looked at his two sons, his eyes slightly red. "It is good that those who endure the most hardships can become the best. It is good that you share happiness and difficulties together. You are all great."
As he spoke, he picked up a piece of tofu and put it into his mouth. After swallowing it, he said, "It's no big deal if it's a little mushy. This is all grain, soft and delicious!"
"Thinking back to when I was out of food and water on the battlefield, I chewed on horse whips, ate the flesh of horses that had been dead for who knows how many days, and even drank horse urine to survive."
He scooped another bowl of soup and said, "This soup is much better than horse urine.
The Duke of Zhao's family was a military family. Zhao Yiming had learned martial arts since childhood and was particularly interested in what happened on the battlefield. When Tian Mingwu mentioned it, he asked more questions, "How did my father-in-law lose his memory?"
Tian Mingwu shook his head, "I don't know either, I only know that when I woke up, I was already in my army's tent.
The military doctor who treated me told me that I was the only one left alive in our team, and that the person who saved me was an old general named Zhao.
At that time, my brain was injured and I couldn't remember anything. All I had on me was a wooden sign with my name on it.
It was General Zhao who took me in and taught me martial arts, which allowed me to survive the battles and achieve what I have today.
Later I found out that he was the old Duke of Zhao. Unfortunately, before I could repay his life-saving grace, he had already…"
When Zhao Yiming heard Tian Mingwu mention the old Duke Zhao, his eyes darkened, and he subtly guided him to say more.
As they listened to Tian Mingwu talking about his experiences on the battlefield, they unknowingly ate the mushy tofu with their hands.
After eating the tofu, I went to get some vegetables from the pot. Before I knew it, I had finished the whole pot of vegetables, and in the end there was not even any soup left.
Tian Mingwu nodded with satisfaction, "Yes, these are all food, not a single drop can be wasted."
After everyone finished eating, Zhao Yiming took the initiative to clean up the dishes and left. In the kitchen, he kept washing the dishes with his hands, but his eyes couldn't help but turn red.
After so many years, he finally heard something about his grandfather again.
As expected, Grandpa is a hero wherever he is, and his heart is as kind as ever.
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