Chapter 80 Chapter 80 Dragon Boat Festival, Zongzi and Acorus Magic Mirror Magic Mirror…
The breeze tonight is not dry, bringing with it some warmth of the coming early summer. Yuan Shenji holds the sheep horn lantern in one hand and leads her to the stream with the other.
Duan Zhiwei held his hand, carefully lifted the hem of her skirt and walked around the rocks and small dirt slopes and asked, "What's so mysterious about the surprise?"
Tonight the Vega in the sky is exceptionally bright, the moonlight shines down, and the stream ripples with sparkling water.
She joked, "You're not going to take me to the river to look at the stars and the moon, are you?"
As they were talking, something bright floated over from upstream in the stream.
Duan Zhiwei couldn't see clearly because he was standing far away, so he just took two steps back and said, "It can't be a monster."
The lights and shadows slowly drifted down from upstream, and she looked closely.
It turned out to be a river lantern.
At first there were only a few scattered lanterns, but then more and more, in groups, slowly drifting down the river, the shadows of the lights swaying, and large patches of light and shadows reflected on the water.
Duan Zhiwei was delighted to see such a wonderful scene for the first time. The water waves pushed several lanterns to the shore. She squatted down and looked at them carefully for a while. She felt that the lotus lanterns were small and exquisite, and very cute.
She found it interesting and turned to talk to Yuan Shenji, but she didn't know when he picked up a lotus lantern, lit it with a tinder, and handed it to her: "I know you always want to go out for a walk at night. There is a curfew in Chang'an City, but it's better outside the city. It happens to be the community day, and the villagers will release river lanterns in the stream."
He looked at her solemnly: "Make a wish."
Duan Zhiwei took the lotus lantern, put it into the water, then closed his eyes and silently made a wish.
Yuan Shenji came closer, his warm breath sprinkled on her cheek, and asked softly: "What wish did you make?"
She beckoned, and Yuan Shenji moved closer.
I heard her whisper:
"secret."
Then he stood up and ran away quickly.
After the community day, the Dragon Boat Festival will soon be approaching.
It is said that "flowers of all seasons compete for beauty, and the nine-son rice dumplings compete for newness." During the Dragon Boat Festival, food such as calamus wine, realgar wine, and rice dumpling flour balls must be prepared, and the five-colored longevity thread must also be hung.
Aunt Duan went to a nunnery to get a Five-Poison Talisman, and then went to the East Market to buy seasonal pomegranate flowers and glutinous rice, complaining over and over again about the recent high price of rice.
She moved the polished rice to the fire room, turned around and asked Duan Zhiwei: "Are you going to Qujiang to sell rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival this year?"
"No," Duan Zhiwei thought for a moment and shook his head, "I'm afraid there won't be many people along the Qujiang River this year."
Because the artificial lake built to the east of Chang'an that Yuan Shenji mentioned was finally put to use. The people of Chang'an, who loved to join in the fun, gave up Qujiang, where willows and flowers bloomed, and Leyouyuan, where people drank and feasted, and all ran eastward.
The surface of the artificial lake is as wide as a mirror. Ships from all over the world wade across the water from Guangzhou and temporarily dock at this transfer pond, just to present rare treasures from all over the world to the center of the world - Chang'an.
Duan Zhiwei was so busy in the restaurant for the Dragon Boat Festival that he had no time to hang out there, but many of his relatives and friends had been there.
For example, Du Yourong, who was standing in front of her and causing trouble, stretched out a plump arm. He showed her a kingfisher-colored jade bracelet shipped from Myitkyina and said excitedly, "Look at the color. Even the largest jade shop in the West Market can't find this kind of unique emerald color."
For example, Aunt Duan simply bought a small Buddha statue to worship.
Taizong once issued an imperial decree that craftsmen were not allowed to make Buddha statues in advance and sell them, because doing so was disrespectful to Buddhism.
Therefore, there are no Buddha statues for sale on the market, but if you go to a temple to ask for one, not only is the ceremony too complicated, but the price is also high.
The Buddha statue that Aunt Duan bought came from Shilifushi, but the stall mainly sold plum blossom slices and sandalwood. As a result, the several stone Buddha statues on the stall were snatched away by the girls of Chang'an.
At this moment, everyone in the restaurant was busy hanging cattail leaves on the door and burning realgar and incense in the room. Zhu Niang came to the restaurant to play with cattails, but was smoked out.
Zhu Niang disliked the ugly spider drawn on the Five Poison Talisman, which damaged the perfect image of the spider spirit clan, so she dragged Pu Tao to the East Market to shop.
In midsummer in May, rice dumplings, a cold food made from rice, are not only used to commemorate Qu Yuan's suicide by drowning in the Miluo River, but are also very good for clearing away heat and reducing internal heat when eaten as a dessert.
In addition to mugwort leaves, people of this dynasty also liked to use gourd leaves and cattail leaves to wrap glutinous rice. In addition to eating with sugar, they also added walnuts, ginger, cinnamon, and pine chestnuts. They were cooked with chestnut and jujube ash juice, and the color of the rice dumplings was as bright as gold.
According to Su Xun, he also received musk rice dumplings from the palace.
Duan Zhiwei decided to try some meat-filled ones in addition to the traditional ones with dates and pine chestnuts.
After all, diners accept ginger and cinnamon dumplings, so there is no reason why they would not accept meat ones.
Duan Zhiwei dragged out a large jar from the warehouse, which was still filled with pickled vegetables from the twelfth lunar month. He took them out, washed them, chopped them up and mixed them with diced meat. The characteristic of this pickled vegetable and meat rice dumpling is that it requires a lot of seasonings and a lot of dogwood sauce to give it a spicy and fragrant flavor.
Thinking of the leftover black rice from Lixia's Qingjing rice in the restaurant, Duan Zhiwei made black rice, egg yolk and meat dumplings, stuffing the dumplings full of oily salted duck egg yolks and fat and lean pork belly.
Duan Zhiwei was worried that the meat dumplings would not suit the tastes of Chang'an diners, so to be on the safe side, she prepared traditional date dumplings and glutinous rice balls.
Unexpectedly, no one was interested in buying the date dumplings, but a long line of diners formed to buy the meat dumplings.
There is no other reason, it’s just that the rice dumplings are so fragrant.
After the rice dumplings were cooked in the pot for a while, oil began to float on the water surface. The rich aroma of meat filled the entire restaurant, and diners came in following the smell.
Endure the heat and untie the rice dumpling rope, then peel off the dark green rice dumpling leaves. The rice dumpling inside is soaked in the gravy and turns into an attractive, shiny amber color. The pickled vegetables spread on the rice dumpling are spicy and slightly sour, and are extremely appetizing.
The diced pork belly inside absorbs a lot of rich and fragrant fat into the glutinous rice during the cooking process. Although the fat part is a bit greasy when eaten alone, the greasy feeling disappears immediately when it is neutralized by the sour, spicy and crispy pickled vegetables.
Another version is the black rice and egg yolk rice dumpling. When you open the filling, you will find a round and plump orange salted egg yolk hidden between the shiny black rice. It looks appetizing and when you take a bite, the triple flavor of the sandy, salty and fragrant egg yolk, the fresh fragrance of the gravy and the soft, sticky and plump black glutinous rice is a great enjoyment.
As expected, the rice dumplings were very popular.
However, eating too much might make you feel greasy, so Duan Zhiwei prepared some jasmine honey drink to sell with the other drinks. The effect was very good, and the drinks in the wooden barrels were sold out.
Since the beginning of May, Chang'an has been feeling as hot as a furnace. People's appetites are generally poor and restaurant business is not as good as in the warm spring days. It is rare to see such a long queue during the Dragon Boat Festival, and everyone in the restaurant is very happy.
On the second day, the task of making rice dumplings was given to A Pan. Duan Zhiwei finally got some free time. He rode the donkey cart, took Pu Tao and Little Wolf, and headed east of Chang'an.
She was also very curious about the crowded Zhuanyuntan, after all, one could find goods from all over the world there!
The three of them rode in a donkey cart and swayed to the east of Chang'an City. "Crowded with tourists" was not enough to describe how busy this place was. After all, on the avenue leading to the east city, in addition to their donkey cart, there were also many pedestrians and vehicles.
There were young men riding madly on spotted horses, beautiful girls peeking out from behind the curtains of scented carriages, and foreigners of all skin colors and hair colors.
Before they got close to the lake, they could see from afar dozens of tall cargo ships with high sails already anchored in the lake under the clear clouds in the sky.
Duan Zhiwei finally found a time to park his donkey cart, but was almost deafened by the noisy voices. The two children each held onto one side of her skirt, fearing that they would be separated by the crowd.
The beautiful Tocharian Hu Ji carried a silver wine jug and sold fine grape wine to every passerby.
Duan Zhiwei couldn't resist Hu Ji's enthusiastic welcome, so he took the small cup and took a sip. He was conquered by the rich sweet aroma of grapes and bought a bottle immediately.
Hu Ji smiled and said, "The one you are tasting has a sweet cherry aroma. There is also a fifty-year-old aged wine in the brocade tent. If you taste it carefully, you can taste the aroma of animal hair and leather."
Duan Zhiwei: "...Ignore the leather smell, thank you."
Small boats came from the big ship. Porters wearing straw hats and straw sandals were waiting at the dock to unload boxes of precious cargo from the ship.
The vendors spread long felts on the large patch of green spring grass and sold their goods. Some smart Hu people even set up brocade tents and roasted mutton outside the tents, so that passers-by could go into the tents to drink and eat mutton.
Duan Zhiwei and his group bought a bag of pistachios roasted by the Sogdians. These pistachios were roasted with coarse salt, which stimulated the nutty aroma. The kernels were crispy and had a rich sweet taste when chewed.
Because Yuan Shenji always came back when the stove was out, she ran to the spice stall to buy fennel, cumin, star anise and pepper, ready to challenge herself to make homemade instant noodles, so that when he came home, she could just soak it in hot water and have dinner.
The three of them strolled around for a while, and then one of them bought a few red willow grilled lamb skewers and prepared to go home.
When he reached the end, Duan Zhiwei was attracted by a stall selling bronze mirrors. The stall was filled with bronze mirrors of various colors, such as sunflower mirrors and diamond-shaped mirrors. The mirror surfaces were painted with sea beasts, grape patterns, birds and beasts, and precious flower patterns.
She didn't care much about these things. On her wedding day, Du Yourong gave her a conch mirror with flowers and birds carved from conch shells on it. It was very delicate and could not be compared to ordinary mirrors.
However, there was a plain round bronze mirror on the stall, which was clearer than all the other mirrors. Although the color was still yellowish, Duan Zhiwei could finally see his complete and clear facial features in the mirror, without any distortion at all.
She didn't pursue beauty that seriously, but it would be better to have a clear mirror. After all, Duan Zhiwei was a modern person, and it would be awkward for her to put on makeup in front of a blurry and distorted bronze mirror every day.
She asked the vendor squatting there, "How much is this mirror worth?"
The vendor was a Hu man with three-dimensional eyebrows and eyes, speaking a half-familiar Chang'an dialect. He held out a palm and said, "Not expensive, five...five..."
Duan Zhiwei: "Five strings of cash???"
She quickly stood up and took the two children with her to leave, but Hu Shang stopped her: "Fifty...fifty grains."
Such a clear mirror costs only about the same as a piece of pork.
Duan Zhiwei felt that he had gotten a great bargain and happily paid the money. However, he was afraid that Hu Shang would go back on his word, so he clutched the mirror and hurried home.
Pu Tao ran after her and said worriedly, "Madam...isn't it too cheap? Do you still remember the rose demon in the flower shop?"
Duan Zhiwei slammed on the brakes.
She thought about it and felt uneasy. She was about to go back and ask the merchant, but she didn't expect that the merchant had packed up and ran away before her. The place was occupied by a man selling birds and animals. Next to him was an ostrich bending over to look for insects to eat.
Only the three of them were left, scattered in the wind.
Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Duan Zhiwei was afraid that the curfew was approaching, so he had to carry the bronze mirror and a large bag of spices and ride the donkey cart back to the restaurant.
Aunt Duan was genuinely happy. She loved beauty, especially makeup, and this clear mirror was exactly what she wanted.
Aunt Duan praised the mirror and comforted Duan Zhiwei: "There are not so many evil spirits in this world. Don't think too much. This mirror has no patterns at all. I think it must be because of this that it is not liked by other girls."
As a result, he turned around and placed the mirror in front of the picture of Zhong Kui, and pasted the Tianshi talisman that was pasted on the door lintel to the back of the bronze mirror.
Duan Zhiwei: “…”
Seeing that the curfew had arrived, after 5:30 a.m., drums were beaten at Shuntian Gate and all the gates were closed.
Yuan Shenji is on duty at Zhuque Street today and cannot come back. There were only the elderly, the weak, women and children in the restaurant. Duan Zhiwei felt uneasy lying on the bed and tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
Pu Tao quietly slipped in: "Madam, I am a little worried." She paused and said: "Why don't we go to the main hall to take a look."
The last time Pu Tao got up at night, he was frightened by the faint crying sound coming from the hall. Although the flower demon of Dashi was a kind monster, the crying sound coming from the dark night was also very scary.
Since she couldn't sleep anyway, Duan Zhiwei lit an oil lamp and followed Pu Tao to the front hall. In the dim light, Zhong Kui seemed to be glaring at them.
There was nothing unusual about the bronze mirror placed aside. Only the blurry figures of the two people and the bean-sized light in Duan Zhiwei's hand were reflected in the mirror.
The two of them stared at it for a long time and felt that there shouldn't be anything unusual, so they breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to go back to their room.
A leisurely voice came from the back: "I am the magic mirror, I know everything in the world, if you two ladies have any questions, feel free to ask me."
The two men froze, then turned around, took a tentative look at the picture of Zhong Kui, then looked at the green calamus and bright red pomegranate flowers placed nearby, and finally turned their gaze to the bronze mirror in front of them.
The bronze mirror said slowly, "Don't look at it anymore. It's me."
Duan Zhiwei blinked: "Magic mirror?"
The bronze mirror couldn't nod, so it just said "hmm" casually.
"Then tell me, who is the most beautiful girl in Chang'an City?" Duan Zhiwei asked.
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