Chapter 153
It didn't snow in Liuyun City, but Xiao Yue couldn't imagine how cold it would be if it really snowed.
…
It didn't snow in Liuyun City, but Xiao Yue couldn't imagine how cold it would be if it really snowed.
As soon as the carriage entered the city, Xiao Yue lifted the curtain slightly and exhaled white mist from his mouth. Even though his other hand was holding a hand warmer, his fingertips felt cold.
It was noon and there were a few rays of sunlight, but it was still so cold that people were shivering.
Xiao Yue asked Fu Xunzhou to go to her house first. When she got off the car, she saw that he looked fine, and she couldn't help but feel curious.
"Are you really not cold?"
Unexpectedly, the next second after he finished speaking, Fu Xunzhou stretched out his hand to her, as if he wanted to hug her.
Xiao Yue's body stiffened.
But Fu Xunzhou just pulled her loose cloak up, letting the soft fur collar touch her skin, and then answered: "It's not cold, but the temperature in Liuyun City this year is indeed lower than last year."
"Really?" Xiao Yue breathed a sigh of relief for some reason, and took him back home while speaking.
There was a butler at home. He came to greet them upon hearing the noise. Not only did he have the carriage taken away, he also handed them new hand warmers and hot tea. Finally, he asked if the two had had lunch, and if not, what they would like to eat.
"Not yet. I'll just make something myself later." Xiao Yue has a good relationship with the housekeeper, who helps take care of things when he is not at home.
Butler Zhao Yu responded with a "OK" and reported what had happened in the past half month. Then he busied himself preparing the charcoal fire.
Xiao Yue took Fu Xunzhou to the kitchen. Actually, she was too lazy to cook, so she just made some self-heating pot and some snacks that were always available at home.
After dinner, Fu Xunzhou was ready to leave. Before leaving, he said to her, "If you have anything, just come to me. You know where I live."
"...Yeah." Xiao Yue blinked, buried her face in the fur collar, and watched the man leave.
She knew that Fu Xunzhou had been away for so long and must have a lot of things to deal with, so she probably wouldn't see him for the next few days.
Of course, Xiao Yue also knew where he lived.
But why go find him?
Xiao Yue recalled Fu Xunzhou's eyes that seemed to understand everything, snorted lightly, and turned back to her room to rest.
…
It was already afternoon when Xiao Yue woke up. He was still a little sleepy and almost didn't realize where he was.
Fortunately, the extremely cold weather in Liuyun City made her wake up quickly. After staying in bed for a while, she got up, washed, packed her things, and rushed to West Street.
It was time to close the store and clean up. Xiao Yue heard Su Xiaoxiao's voice from a distance.
"…We still have some stock. We can go there early tonight. I can never get tired of eating that sour soup pork trotter hotpot!"
"I'm going to have seafood porridge hotpot tonight." This is Sun Wen's voice: "When did you become sour again?"
Before Su Xiaoxiao could answer, the back door was pushed open.
Several people in the yard were stunned. When they turned around and saw who was coming, they were all dumbfounded.
"What's going on?"
Xiao Yue bent down and picked up Xiaoju who was running towards him, and looked at the people in front of him with amusement.
"Madam Xiao..." Lu Ran was the first to come back to his senses and strode forward: "You're back?"
His tone was so excited that the others finally reacted and rushed forward to surround Xiao Yue.
"Sister Xiao!"
“You’re finally back!”
"When did you arrive? We missed you so much!"
"I feel like I haven't seen you in half a year!"
This was an exaggeration, and Xiao Yue was delighted to hear it, but to be honest, she also missed them. She listened to them chattering about Qingyun City and responded to them one by one.
For example, I heard that the price of food in Qingyun City is higher than that in Liuyun City. How high can it be? For example, are there any brands currently affected by Yueting Self-service and making big price cuts? For example, the most important thing is, how is the situation of the branch there?
Xiao Yue said: "Before, the average price of food was around 600-700 yuan. After the incident with Yueting Buffet, the food store there made a major overhaul and reduced prices a lot. As for the situation of the branch stores... of course, everything is fine!"
Otherwise she wouldn't have come back so soon, right?
Lu Ran accurately caught the word "bumping into porcelain" and asked curiously.
Xiao Yue's mouth twitched, and he recalled the speechless incident half a month ago: "How can I explain this matter..."
After a while, after hearing the cause and result, everyone looked confused and seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Xiao Yue laughed: "Anyway, you will all be treated as idiots. Come quickly, I have brought you some local specialties..."
Last time I came back in a hurry and without any preparation, so this time Xiao Yue went to carefully select early in the morning before leaving.
She held the clingy little orange in her arms and went to the carriage at the backyard gate with a few sisters.
Su Xiaoxiao opened the door of the carriage and saw all kinds of neatly arranged things. She exclaimed "Wow".
Of course, this does not include food, but basically consists of small pendants, small ornaments, and fabrics with unique patterns, etc.
The sisters were dazzled by the sight and kept selecting and carrying the items back to the store.
"What are you doing, sisters..." Xiao Lian's voice just happened to ring out from the alley, but when she saw one of them, her voice suddenly rose: "Sister Xiao!!"
Xiao Yue turned her head and saw a figure running towards her, and she was almost caught in the embrace of the figure.
Fortunately, Xiao Lian stopped in time and looked at her with sparkling eyes: "Sister Xiao!"
"Well, why do I feel like you've grown taller?" Xiao Yue smiled and touched her head with his free hand.
Xiao Lian excitedly surrounded her: "Because I've been eating a lot lately, I want to grow taller, taller!"
This appearance made Xiao Yue inexplicably imagine himself as a more lively and active Xiaoju, and he laughed out loud.
Then Xiao Lian also joined the team selecting specialty products and found everything interesting.
Xiao Yue looked at it and suddenly remembered something, so he asked, "When I came here just now, I heard you say that you were going to a hot pot restaurant?"
"yes!"
After Sun Wen's explanation, Xiao Yue finally understood that because the weather was cold recently and the home-style restaurants closed earlier than the hot pot restaurants, they all went to the hot pot restaurant for dinner after cleaning up.
Xiao Yue hissed and said, "In that case, why don't we just bring the local specialties over and share them together?"
Her proposal was unanimously agreed upon. Fortunately, the specialties were not heavy, so everyone moved out, got on the carriage and set off together.
Along the way, Lu Ran said that the batch of cotton clothes that had been ordered in South Street were almost ready.
This was what Xiao Yue told Lu Ran to do through the megaphone about ten days ago when he felt the temperature in Qingyun City was dropping and thought that Liuyun City was probably even colder.
She asked every sister in the store to take time out to go to the tailor shop to measure their bodies and customize a set of cotton clothes they liked as a gift and benefit for themselves after winter.
Didn't expect it to be so soon?
So Xiao Yue and his group stopped by the tailor shop and took the finished cotton coats.
There were too many cotton clothes to fit in one carriage, so a tailor's carriage followed and was able to take all the clothes.
Two horse-drawn carriages arrived at the back door of Yueting Self-service Hotpot Restaurant.
Because of the delay, it was already dark and the store was closing for cleaning.
Xiao Yue did not show up in front, and asked Lu Ran to distribute the cotton clothes and local specialties, while he was responsible for preparing dinner.
Everyone wanted to eat hotpot, so she naturally chose to make hotpot, but she made a new soup base, which was light in color but strong in flavor - pepper beef bone hotpot.
The method is very simple. After blanching the beef bones, add water again and boil them for at least three quarters of an hour.
During the process, the pepper part is processed. The white peppercorns need to be roasted in a dry pan, then half of them are crushed and the other half are kept round. They are put into a small gauze bag and put into beef bones to boil. This way the taste is spicy but not pungent, strong and pleasant.
Xiao Yue didn't need to prepare much for the ingredients. After all, it was in a hot pot restaurant, so how could there be any shortage?
At most, you can cut some fresh beef and use it to make soup later. It will be cooked after a little blanching and will taste fragrant and chewy.
The sisters in the hot pot restaurant knew that Xiao Yue had returned after they finished cleaning. Hua Jinjin, Hua Cancan, Jiang Yi and Xiao Nuo didn't even look at the cotton clothes and local specialties, but immediately ran over to talk to her.
"I've had lunch. You're not cold. Don't worry, everything is fine over there..." Xiao Yue answered their questions one by one without any impatience.
She looked at the two sisters and felt that they were much more mature compared to the last time they met.
Yes, Hua Jinjin and Hua Cancan are now the persons in charge of the hot pot restaurant and they manage it perfectly. How could they be immature?
Xiao Yue couldn't help but sigh as he listened to them talking while taking out new ingredients.
The few people who thought she had finished her work blinked, looked down, and found Xiao Yue beating eggs.
Hua Jinjin was curious: "Are you going to make new hot pot ingredients?"
"No." Xiao Yue kept moving his hands, and his tone was slightly mysterious: "Make some desserts after dinner."
She separated the egg whites and yolks of dozens of eggs, first added corn oil, low-gluten flour and milk to the egg yolks, stirred well and set aside.
Add lemon juice and sugar to the egg white and use a whisk to beat it from liquid to white solid.
Then Xiao Yue used a spatula to scoop a spoonful of egg whites into the egg yolk paste, mixed the two evenly, and then poured it into the large bowl containing egg whites.
Her movements were very gentle throughout the whole process. She didn't stir without any method, but turned it over and spread it down again, allowing the color to gradually turn into light yellow.
The four people nearby were stunned, and saw Xiao Yue take out a baking tray, cover it with a layer of wax paper, and slowly pour the batter into it.
There was a lot of batter and I had to pour it into two plates before I could put it down.
Xiao Yue gently shook the plate to make the batter smooth, and finally put them into the oven and baked them slowly at a low temperature, then clapped his hands.
"Okay, let's eat first!"
…
Xiao Yue felt a tingling sensation in her mouth after eating the peppery beef bone hotpot, but it was also very refreshing, and her whole body seemed to be wrapped in the warmth of the hot soup.
The others had the same feeling, and maybe it was because Xiao Yue was back, but tonight’s dinner tasted even better!
After eating, everyone rubbed their stomachs, savoring the delicious taste in their mouths, and thought silently: I must have this pepper beef bone hotpot again tomorrow.
But from listening to Hua Jinjin and Xiao Nuo, it seems that there will be some dessert after the meal?
Just as they were thinking about it, everyone saw Xiao Yue stand up, go to one of the many ovens, put on scald-proof gloves and open the oven door.
At that moment, an extreme aroma of eggs and milk wafted over, making people's souls seem to be purified.
Xiao Yue took out two large plates of chiffon cake that had been baked long ago. As soon as he placed them on the table, a group of people gathered around.
In the past, they would have been unable to resist chattering and asking questions, but now they were all staring at her.
"I've baked two pans first. Come and have a try." Xiao Yue couldn't help laughing and cut the cake in the baking pan with a knife.
The freshly baked cake not only has the most fragrant taste, but also feels very soft, like cotton, but more resilient than cotton.
Of course, touching it with your hands is one thing, and putting it in your mouth is another feeling.
It seems that all the softness is melting on the tip of the tongue. With a gentle chew, the softness and sweetness of the cake reach deep into the heart. Taking a bite is like feeling the most beautiful thing in the world.
But it is clearly just the simplest eggs and flour, and the combination of the two can make such a delicious thing!
Everyone couldn't hold back any longer. Some quickly finished the small piece in their hands, while others were reluctant to eat it at all, but they all praised it in unison.
Xiao Yue also ate and nodded secretly, but still found it funny to see them like that.
"This is just the simplest chiffon cake. Once I tell you the recipe, anyone can make it successfully."
The sisters cried.
“But it’s so delicious too!”
“This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten!”
"I remember there was a cake vendor during Zhihuai Festival, but Sister Xiao's cakes are the best!"
"Oh my god, just whisking the eggs and putting them in the oven can make something so delicious..."
Finally, Sun Wen felt something was wrong and asked in surprise, "Wait, is this chiffon cake a new product?!"
Everyone held their breath.
"After that?" Xiao Yue raised the corner of her mouth and said slowly, "In my opinion, why not start our Yueting buffet dessert series from tomorrow."
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