Chapter 93 Chapter 93 Who is the Mother? Try pine flower candy...
The weather in Chang'an in August is like a child's face, changing at any time. It was sunny just now, but suddenly there was a heavy rain.
Duan Zhiwei and A Pan came out of Grandma Zeng's house. They were soaked before they had walked far. They had to find shelter in an abandoned house of a bookstore. The house had not been cleaned for a long time and had a pungent musty smell.
She and A Pan brushed the rain off each other's bodies, sat down and chatted casually, killing time while waiting for the rain to stop.
“I don’t know when this rain will stop.”
"There was a dusk storm yesterday. I think it will rain for the next few days."
As he was speaking, a dark figure hurriedly came running over from the alley with her head down to take shelter from the rain. It was a young lady in a black gauze skirt. She probably didn't expect that there was someone else in the house, and she hesitated for a moment.
"My lady, don't worry about us. It's easy to get sick if you get wet in such heavy rain. Please come over and take shelter with us." Duan Zhiwei invited warmly.
The woman in black hesitated for a while, thought about it, and walked in.
The ladies in Chang'an love beauty. In this hot summer, they like to wear refreshing colors and rarely wear black, not to mention that this lady is wearing a heavy black gauze veil. From Duan Zhiwei's perspective, he could only vaguely see her pale skin and black lips painted with black cream.
The black cream is expensive and most girls can't afford it. Moreover, from the perspective of Duan Zhiwei, a modern man, painting the lips black doesn't look good at all.
However, on this cool and gloomy rainy day, a girl in black veil stood silently beside Duan Zhiwei, which made her feel a little uncomfortable.
This kind of atmosphere would make her think of some bad things, such as the cursed famous painting "The Girl in the Painting"
As she was thinking, the sound of a baby crying broke the gloomy atmosphere. She asked Apanqi, "Where does the crying baby come from?"
The woman in black quickly put down the bamboo basket covered with cloth in her hand, in which lay a crying baby.
The baby was well protected and not stained by the rain at all. He cried loudly with his little red face.
The lady in black was at a loss, and Duan Zhiwei had never dealt with a baby before, so Ah Pan squatted down, held the baby in his arms, and coaxed and patted it.
She didn't know how she did it, but the baby stopped crying and blinked at her and smiled in her arms.
Duan Zhiwei also liked it. He stretched out his finger and gently touched the baby's face. Then he said to the lady in black, "Your little boy is so cute. How old is he?"
The lady in black opened her mouth awkwardly and was about to say something when the rain outside suddenly stopped.
She breathed a sigh of relief, gently took the baby from A Pan's hands, hurriedly thanked them both, and then left with the baby in her arms.
Seeing that the sky was clearing up, Duan Zhiwei and A Pan hurried to the restaurant. Both of them were soaked, so they went into the room to wipe themselves with hot towels, changed into clean clothes, and drank a bowl of jujube and ginger tea.
It was almost time for dinner, and Duan Zhiwei calculated the time and dug out a jar from under the roots of the osmanthus tree in the backyard. Inside was some mud-pickled duck eggs, commonly known as preserved eggs.
Apparently, there was no such food as preserved eggs in Chang'an at present, and Duan Zhiwei only knew that to make such a delicacy, lime and duck eggs needed to react in some way.
She persisted in the experiment for a year, and used countless wood ash, black tea powder, and duck eggs. In the end, it was the lime wine from the wine shop that gave her inspiration.
This time she smeared a layer of salted lime on the fresh duck eggs.
A jar of preserved eggs has not been opened yet, but Duan Zhiwei is already imagining peeling off the shell to reveal the sweet, tender, inky black and oily preserved eggs.
Preserved eggs are a versatile food. If eaten alone, they can be cut into crescent shapes and served with some ginger and vinegar sauce. Alternatively, they can be made into preserved egg mixed with tofu or cucumber and preserved egg soup, which are very suitable cold dishes for cooling off in the summer.
It will definitely be very popular, she thought happily.
It was almost time for dinner. The weather was cool today, and diners came in one after another. Seeing Duan Zhiwei holding a large jar with great care, they all asked curiously, "Madam Duan, what new food do you have today?"
She smiled mysteriously: "This is a delicacy that cannot be found in the entire Chang'an City. The eggs are delicious, and paired with refreshing and sour vinegar and spicy shredded ginger, it is a first-class delicacy."
The diners always trusted her and were very curious. They said, "In that case, let's order one portion of your egg dish."
A Pan was making a fire in the kitchen while Aunt Duan was soliciting customers at the door. She called Little Wolf and Putao to come over and carefully opened the jar.
A sour, sewer-like stench rose from the jar.
Several people quickly covered their noses.
The two children were young and could not stand the smell, and the diners ran out of the restaurant.
Aunt Duan covered her nose with a handkerchief and hurriedly chased after him for a long distance: "Don't run, come back, there's pork trotter and lotus root soup in the big pot! Fresh and delicious pork trotter and lotus root soup, come back and I'll give you a discount!"
No one paid any attention to her.
Finally, Aunt Duan came back angrily and said, "What the hell is this thing called preserved egg? As long as I'm alive, don't even think about trying to make it in a restaurant again."
Duan Zhiwei was holding a jar of rotten and moldy preserved eggs in a daze, not knowing what the problem was. He had no choice but to seal the jar tightly and then went to the backyard to wash his hands three times.
All the doors and windows of the restaurant were opened for ventilation. Everyone held a palm-leaf fan in their hands to blow out the bad smell inside. Aunt Duan gritted her teeth and took out an incense burner from the room and lit some incense. Only then did the smell in the restaurant get better.
Fortunately, the second group of diners did not know what had happened, and the people in the restaurant acted as if nothing had happened and started entertaining the guests again.
Duan Zhiwei angrily removed the sign that said century egg and tofu and replaced it with scallion tofu.
Finally, when all the guests had left and only the restaurant staff were left, no one had any interest in the rich and delicious pig's trotter soup stewing in the pot.
Because the number of diners dropped sharply, most of the pot of soup was left.
Although the stewed pig's trotters were very tasty with the meat and bones separated, although the soft and glutinous pork elbow melted in the mouth, although the lotus root stewed into a light brown color still looked sweet and crisp.
When you take a bite, you should be able to feel the stickiness of the lotus root, the sweet juice and the salty and fragrant broth. It must be delicious.
But no one touched it. Everyone thought of the smell just now, looked at each other tacitly, and then silently picked up the tasteless steamed bun and started eating.
Someone walked into the restaurant.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the saint who had been "fulfilling his filial piety" in the eastern suburbs cried a few times, admired the white lotus flowers in the eastern suburbs enough, and finally returned home. The Jinwu Guards also finally followed him back.
Everyone came forward enthusiastically to welcome Yuan Shenji, who had not been home for a few days. They helped him take the Mo Dao in his hand and led his chestnut horse into the stable.
Finally, Duan Zhiwei warmly put his hand on his shoulder and pressed him onto the couch, then poured him a large pot of pork trotter and lotus root soup: "Drink it, it's all yours."
Yuan Shenji picked up the spoon and was about to scoop a spoonful, but then he stopped and sniffed: "What's that smell?"
"It doesn't taste good." Everyone agreed with me, and after a while, Duan Zhiwei said, "Drink it quickly, it will be bad if it gets cold."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the whole pot of soup was not wasted.
Yuan Shenji raised his head: "Are you hiding something from me?"
"No, no." Everyone shook their heads.
There was a joyful atmosphere in the restaurant until a person stood at the door.
Pu Tao was the first to notice the customer and walked over to him and said, "Excuse me, sir, we are closed."
Standing at the door was a middle-aged woman in coarse cloth, with a haggard face and a sad look: "I'm not here to eat, I'm here to look for my child. My child was stolen by a woman in black. Have you seen him?"
A Pan and Duan Zhiwei looked at each other in surprise.
They remembered the lady in black whom they met in the shabby house.
The girl was at a loss as to what to do with the crying baby. When Duan Zhiwei asked her "How old is the child?", she did not answer but just smiled awkwardly.
It turned out that the baby was not hers, but was stolen by her.
Duan Zhiwei couldn't help but become angry, and seeing the woman's sad face, she was about to tell the truth, but Yuan Shenji grabbed her hand.
Then he slowly shook his head at her.
She didn't understand what he meant, but because she trusted her calm and intelligent husband, she had to change her words: "We have never seen a woman in black with a child."
A Pan didn't notice the couple's little movements and looked at her in surprise, not understanding why Duan Zhiwei lied.
Duan Zhiwei felt Yuan Shenji's big hands gently pinching his hands, so he said firmly: "We have never met before."
The woman obviously saw Yuan Shenji holding her hand, and also saw Ah Pan staring at Duan Zhiwei in surprise. She suddenly turned cold and said, "Never seen him before?"
Curfew was approaching, the night was dim, and her profile looked like a sharp bird's beak under the light: "If that's the case, then forget it."
She glared at Yuan Shenji angrily, then turned and walked away.
Everyone was full of sympathy for the poor woman who had lost her baby, but when they saw her suddenly change her expression, they were all very surprised: "What happened?"
Duan Zhiwei turned to Yuan Shenji: "How do you know she is lying?"
Yuan Shenji had been guarding the city gate on the desolate city wall since he was fourteen years old. He was very cautious about any movement of foreign enemies. He noticed the woman's footsteps as soon as she approached.
She first glanced around the restaurant calmly, and then put on a sad and tearful expression.
Duan Zhiwei said awkwardly: "Luckily I have you, otherwise I would have been deceived."
Everyone had a look of admiration on their faces and wanted to start applauding him.
Yuan Shenji smiled and looked around at everyone: "Now let's talk about why you don't want to drink this lotus root soup."
Everyone's face changed and they all used various excuses to flee, leaving Duan Zhiwei sitting opposite him in a daze.
He finished his evening meal, stared at Duan Zhiwei with a fire in his eyes, then put his arm around her waist, carried her up and went to the backyard: "It's okay, you have one night to tell the truth, my wife."
The drumbeat had rung out, and Yuan Shenji had finally had his fill of evening food. He came over and kissed her on the face. Duan Zhiwei was too lazy to pay attention to him and raised her foot to kick him.
Yuan Shenji grasped her ankle and said, "In order to avoid waste, I drank a large pot of lotus root soup, saving so much food. You should calm down now."
Duan Zhiwei still ignored him.
His hand stroked her back from time to time and said, "If you encounter a woman in black with a baby again in the next few days, remember to calm her down and report to the police."
Duan Zhiwei was finally willing to turn over and face him. She looked surprised and asked, "Is there really a baby missing?"
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