Chapter 32 Chapter 32 The Moonlight Collector Brews a Failed...
Duan Zhiwei's first attempt to brew osmanthus wine ended in failure.
She felt that she had read many tutorials on how to make wine, so she ran to the wine shop with full confidence and got a jar of fragrant white wine. She first put in dried osmanthus flowers, then a layer of sugar to hold down the osmanthus flowers, and finally poured the wine, sealed the jar, and placed it in a ventilated place.
I opened the lid with great anticipation for the sweet and fragrant osmanthus wine, but a sour and rotten smell rushed out.
A Pan who was working in the backyard, Zhen Hui who was studying, the Jinhua cat basking in the sun, and the lazy Aunt Duan were all driven away by the smell.
Duan Zhiwei had no choice but to sit by the well and rinse the wine jar by himself.
Pu Tao rushed in through the curtain. Duan Zhiwei thought she was going to help wash the wine jars and was about to praise her, but Pu Tao pouted and asked, "Madam, what's on the moon?"
Duan Zhiwei: “Ah?”
Pu Tao was not very happy: "There are clearly Chang'e, Jade Rabbit and Osmanthus trees on the moon, but Yueya said there are none."
Yueya is the little rabbit monster that Pu Tao picked up from the foot of Mount Zhongnan. Although she claims to be a moon cultivator, no one believes her.
To cater to the Mid-Autumn Festival, the recent singing and dancing performances in the east and west cities are all about the stories of Chang'e flying to the moon and Wu Gang chopping osmanthus trees. Pu Tao firmly believes in the story of the fairy Chang'e and has already prepared incense boxes and bamboo bottles, waiting for the Mid-Autumn Festival to arrive to worship the Moon Goddess devoutly.
The crescent moon had a pair of rabbit ears standing up. The old monk sat on the shoulder of the putao tree in a trance, looking mysterious and profound: "You know, the moon is made of seven treasures, like a round ball, and the shadow on it is not the osmanthus tree, but the shadow formed by the sun shining on it."
Although Duan Zhiwei knew that there was no fairy Chang'e on the moon, he saw Pu Tao busying around, buying all kinds of fruits and flowers waiting for the Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon, and he couldn't bear to burst her fantasy, so he said: "Haven't you heard of Li Bai's 'The white rabbit pounded medicine from autumn to spring, and Chang'e lived alone. Who is her neighbor?' The great poet said so, so there must be a fairy Chang'e on the moon."
People in this dynasty have an inexplicable admiration for poets, not to mention that this poem was written by the immortal poet Li Bai. Although Li Bai himself may not believe this and was just using allusions to write the poem, it is enough to comfort Pu Tao.
Pu Tao felt a little relieved.
Duan Zhiwei brought Yueya to the front hall and said, "I know there is no fairy Chang'e on the moon, but Pu Tao is still young. Don't break the child's fantasy. I will make you a plate of moon cakes as a thank you gift."
Yueya was still sitting cross-legged, with her face turned away, and said rather arrogantly: "You mortals don't understand the moon at all..."
Seeing her like this, Duan Zhiwei had no choice but to say, "I know the moon. There are several craters on the moon. The black spots on the moon are vast plains, and there are also long, endless mountains..."
Yueya finally opened her eyes this time, staring at Duan Zhiwei very seriously for a while, then stood up, knelt down and bowed in front of the stove in a proper manner, saying: "Yueya is blind and didn't even know that my wife is also a moon cultivator."
Duan Zhiwei: "No, I'm not."
Since then, Yueya's attitude has changed drastically. This thumb-sized moon cultivator actually knows a lot. She clearly pointed out that the mistake made by Duan Zhiwei in brewing wine was that the flower stalks were not removed cleanly.
Under Yueya's guidance, Duan Zhiwei rinsed the wine jar inside and out with water three times, then added a layer of osmanthus and a layer of rock sugar together, and finally poured in the wine to seal the lid.
Yueya patted her chest and guaranteed that there would be absolutely no problem with the brewing of this wine.
Seeing that other restaurants had started taking reservations for mooncakes, and many old customers who had ordered mooncakes from Qiqiao came to Duan's restaurant specifically to inquire about mooncakes, Duan Zhiwei quickly started baking mooncakes.
The mooncake gift boxes contain three kinds of Cantonese-style mooncakes: lotus seed paste and egg yolk, red bean paste and jujube paste, and five-nut mooncakes. In addition, some freshly baked meat mooncakes and fragrant osmanthus cakes are sold separately.
As soon as the curfew was lifted and the sky was just beginning to turn pale in the distance, the Duan family restaurant began to get busy. Aunt Duan was in charge of kneading the dough, Ah Pan was boiling red bean paste and chopping meat, Rambutang was washing osmanthus flowers, and Duan Zhiwei was slowly crushing walnuts, sesame seeds and melon seeds with a stone mill.
Although she herself doesn't like five-nut mooncakes, it must be said that five-nut mooncakes sell well in Chang'an. Just like the famous Chang'an dish Geshi, which is mutton sausage wrapped in bean pods, she didn't want to eat it just by hearing it, but the people of Chang'an like it very much.
So when the day got bright, passers-by walking on the road were surprised to find bursts of sweet fragrance wafting out of Duan's restaurant.
The various nuts in the five-nut mooncakes have a rich nutty aroma because they are rich in oil, while the mooncakes with red bean paste and jujube paste have a strong jujube aroma.
There are also fresh meat mooncakes. Duan Zhiwei specially mixes a spoonful of lard into the puff pastry when folding the pastry, and the baked mooncakes have a strong aroma of fat.
A Pan cut a few small pieces of each type of mooncake and placed them in front of the counter, and poked a few bamboo sticks for diners to taste.
What Duan Zhiwei didn't expect was that the fresh meat mooncakes actually sold exceptionally well. Although she emphasized to the diners several times that the mooncakes could only be eaten freshly baked and would not taste good when they were cold, the diners still waited in the autumn breeze without regrets.
There was even a long queue outside the door just to wait for the fresh meat mooncakes to come out of the oven.
Aunt Duan had no choice but to rush to the butcher shop and order a few more pounds of pork legs.
Diners can order a plate of fresh meat mooncakes and sit down in the restaurant to start eating without having to take the food away.
Su Qun had just finished his shift and came to line up when he smelled the food. Duan Zhiwei quietly put him in line, handed him a plate and asked him to sit in the back hall to eat.
Take a bite, this fresh meat mooncake is filled with layers of crispy fillings, with a rich aroma of fat. It is very crispy and crumbs fall off easily when you bite it. The meat filling is added with scallion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell and enhance the flavor. The combination of rich gravy and crispy crust tastes wonderful.
Duan Zhiwei herself didn't expect that the fresh meat mooncakes would be so successful, so she urgently stopped the production of osmanthus cake and focused on the fresh meat mooncakes.
However, mooncakes with lotus paste and salted egg yolk are also very popular. According to diners, the lotus paste is delicate and smooth, with the fragrance of lotus seeds, while the salted egg yolk is yellow and sandy. The combination of the two is a very good blend of salty fragrance and sweetness, and diners like it very much.
In the end, the lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk and fresh meat mooncakes were sold out, but there were some of the others left.
Yueya really liked the mooncakes with red dates, red bean paste and five-nut fillings. She sat there and ate them slowly, and politely asked Duan Zhiwei that since there were still more than 80,000 people hiding in the shadow of the moon to repair the moon, she wanted to bring some back to the moon as a specialty.
Since Duan Zhiwei came to Chang'an, she has encountered the headless flying-headed barbarians, the frog monk who tricked people into the pond... She is used to everything. She has no objection to being taken to the moon or even into a black hole.
So Duan Zhiwei found a big bag and wrapped up the remaining mooncakes in it. In front of everyone, he shrunk the bag to the size of a soybean, then put it behind him and said goodbye to everyone politely.
Pu Tao was a little reluctant and asked, "Are you leaving?"
Yueya said, "I accidentally entered a small path in Zhongnan Mountain and got lost. I was brought here while sleeping as a rabbit. The mooncakes here are delicious. I will come again around the Mid-Autumn Festival next year. Now I want to go back to the moon."
Duan Zhiwei interrupted, "How are you going to get back?"
Yueya opened up and said that there was another person who practiced moon cultivation who had come to Chang'an and was currently living in Taolin Temple outside the city. She was going to find him and go back together.
Taolin Temple was quite a distance away from Xuanyangfang, so Duan Zhiwei planned to drive her a donkey cart to give her a ride, but Pu Tao insisted on going with her.
Aunt Duan took the opportunity to take a bag of copper coins and asked her to go to Taolin Temple to offer some incense. If it was late, she could stay there for one night before coming back.
The Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching. As a large temple, Taolin Temple was crowded with cars and carriages in front of it. When Duan Zhiwei arrived at the temple on his donkey cart, the sky was already filled with colorful clouds. He was determined not to go back today, so he had to stay in the side rooms for one night under the guidance of the young monk.
While taking a walk under the moon, he met Yuan Shenji who was on duty under the peach tree.
Taolin Temple has been very popular recently, with princes and nobles coming one after another, and the Jinwu Guards take turns to be on duty here.
When she saw Yuan Shenji, she smiled happily and quickly took out a basket of mooncakes and invited him to eat with her.
"I don't know why this fresh meat mooncake is so popular. I thought people in Chang'an would like sweet things."
She took out another one with red dates and red bean paste: "No one likes this one."
Yuan Shenji took it and took a bite, his mouth full of the rich sweet aroma of red dates, so he ate it all and said, "This is also delicious. If Madam Duan doesn't mind, you can sell all the mooncakes with red bean paste filling to Yuan."
Although this would indeed help clear the inventory, it sounded too rude. She was about to refuse when she heard an argument coming from the front.
A scholar in a white robe with a lapel and narrow sleeves, and a conical hat on his head, was holding a bamboo basket and a colander made of a gourd. He was using the colander to scoop water into the basket by the pond. This was very strange because the bamboo basket was hollow, and the water was flowing through the gaps onto the ground.
Therefore, the young men and ladies around him all laughed and laughed at his foolishness.
He held the bamboo basket and said seriously, "I am collecting the moonlight that leaks on the water surface to repair the moon. Moreover, if the night is too dark, the collected moonlight can illuminate the darkness."
Everyone just thought he was joking, laughed and said he was stupid, and then dispersed.
As soon as Duan Zhiwei heard it, she knew that he must be another moon cultivator. She was about to go back to her room to find Yueya, but Yuan Shenji stopped her and said that there was a moving pleasure boat in the river outside the city tonight, which could be used by pilgrims from Taolin Temple. They might as well go together to enjoy the moon.
Duan Zhiwei readily agreed.
As the saying goes, the moon is fullest on the 15th and 16th. The moon is very beautiful before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival. There is a curfew in Chang'an, but there is an opportunity to enjoy the moon by boating on the river outside the city, which is not to be missed.
Duan Zhiwei brought Pu Tao and Yue Ya onto the pleasure boat. There was an incense burner on the vermilion incense table, a pair of incense sticks in the incense bottle, and several osmanthus branches on offer.
There is also a food table in the middle of the pleasure boat with moon cakes, watermelons and persimmons for pilgrims to take at will.
Everything is perfect.
Except for tonight when there was no moon at all, the night sky was like a huge inky black curtain covering the river, with only the lanterns burning at the four corners of the pleasure boat flashing faint lights.
Except for Duan Zhiwei who was trying to take advantage of Yuan Shenji's status, most of the people in the painting boat were nobles, which made the atmosphere a little disappointing. Suddenly, a young man looked at the man who collected moonlight and said, "You have collected moonlight, can you use it?"
Duan Zhiwei could clearly hear that he was being sarcastic, but the man in the bamboo hat actually said happily: "Brother, what you said makes a lot of sense."
Then he reached into the bamboo basket with a slotted spoon and scooped up a spoonful of air, then splashed it onto the surface of the river. A bright ray of moonlight cut through the darkness. He scooped a few more spoonfuls, and another ray of moonlight was cast on the surface of the river. After about ten times, the surface of the river was illuminated by the moonlight. It was so bright that even the tails of the fish in the river could be seen clearly when they floated to the surface of the water and hit the water.
Now everyone in the pleasure boat was surprised. Someone asked first, "Are immortals visiting the mortal world?" He was about to kneel down, but the man in the bamboo hat helped him up and said modestly, "How dare I? I am just one of the 82,000 people who cultivate the moon. Now that I have traveled in the mortal world, I will go back to the moon. Hahahaha."
Yueya, who was hiding in the food box, also sneaked out and bowed to Duan Zhiwei and Pu Tao again, saying, "I am going back to the moon too. I have to repair the moon before the Mid-Autumn Festival."
She reached out her hand and took out a small bundle, which contained two packages of jade rice. "Although this jade rice cannot make you immortal, it can cure all diseases. Share it between you two."
Then she walked to the man in the bamboo hat, and they both disappeared together.
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