The milky and sweet smell was so strong that it didn't go away at all. Xu Yunlan even pretended to be stupid and changed the subject, "Zhizhi, why did you come here suddenly? And what's the fragrance? Did you eat something on the way here, so the smell didn't go away."

"It's too boring to stay at home." Yang Zhizhi went over and sat on the bamboo chair. The chair creaked under the pressure. She sighed and said, "So I came out to play with you. Yunlan, you don't know. I was not feeling well a few days ago. My mother asked a doctor to see me. The doctor said that I was too fat. This won't work. I still need to lose weight. My mother has been urging me to lose weight recently. I eat boiled vegetables every day. There is no meat or fish flavor at all. I am so hungry."

Yang Yunlan felt distressed and guilty after hearing this. She was eating the delicious custard buns and yet she lied to Zhizhi and said she didn't eat anything.

After Zhizhi finished speaking, she took another breath. The milky aroma was still there. Zhizhi looked at Xu Yunlan solemnly, "Yunlan, you lied to me. You must have eaten something delicious. I can smell it. I didn't eat anything on the way here."

She wanted to eat it, but the maid was watching her. If she dared to eat it, the maid would go back and complain to her mother.

She's been eating vegetarian food these days and her eyes are almost popping out of her eyes. She's really, really hungry.

Xu Yunlan saw that she couldn't hide it anymore, so she said hastily, "Okay, okay, I won't hide it from you."

She opened the small cabinet next to her, and there was only a fist-sized, creamy white bun left on the white porcelain plate.

"Is this a small bun?" Yang Zhizhi asked curiously, "Who makes buns so small? How come there are no wrinkles at all?"

Xu Yunlan smiled and said, "This is not a bun, but it is indeed a bun. It is called a custard bun. There is one more. You can have it."

It's just one, it should be fine.

Yang Zhizhi's chubby and tender white hands pinched the custard bun. When she took a bite, the custard-yellow liquid flowed out. She hurriedly caught it with her mouth. The filling inside was sweet, smooth and delicate. Yang Zhizhi squinted happily, "Yunlan, where did you buy this? It's sweet and has a strong milky aroma."

They usually don't drink cow's milk or goat's milk because they have a strong fishy smell.

But this custard bun has a milky aroma but not any fishy smell.

Xu Yunlan touched the tip of her nose and said, "My father bought it. I don't know where he bought it from."

Of course she knew that it was bought from Miss Xu. But Miss Xu didn't make much, just enough for her family, and the rest was sold to her family. She had eaten custard buns, bean porridge cooked at home, and a dish of pickled radish for breakfast these days.

This pickled radish shreds was also bought from Miss Xu’s home. It is actually made with radish. I don’t know why Miss Xu called it pickled radish shreds. It tastes crispy and appetizing.

Yang Zhizhi felt a little regretful and ate the custard bun carefully. Even though it was only the size of a fist, she was satisfied with it.

After eating, Yang Zhizhi kept wondering where she bought the custard buns. Was it from Qingfeng Bakery? Or Donglai Restaurant?

She thinks this bun looks more like a pastry.

Xu Yunlan felt guilty and dared not say anything, but she was worried about Zhizhi.

Can she really lose weight by eating vegetarian food? Will she lose control and eat a lot, and become even fatter? She really hopes that Zhizhi can lose weight and have a healthy body.

It would be great if there was food that was both delicious and could help you lose weight.

Yang Zhizhi stayed at Xu's house until noon before going back. When she returned to the county government office, Yang Zhizhi told her mother, Wei, that she had eaten a custard bun at Yunlan's house, which was very delicious.

Wei looked at her daughter helplessly and said, "The doctor said you can't get any fatter."

She also felt sorry for the lady, but for the sake of her health, she had to be cruel.

Yang Zhizhi said to Wei in a coquettish tone, "No way, I just want to honor my father and mother. The stuffing inside the custard buns will flow out. They are not made of white sugar or brown sugar. The stuffing inside is custard yellow and has a milky aroma."

She praised the custard bun again.

Wei couldn't help but feel a little greedy after hearing this.

Later I thought I might as well buy it back for everyone to try, as I have two sons at home.

The eldest son is already married, and the second son is only sixteen this year.

As a result, Wei asked her maid to go to Qingfeng Bakery or Donglai Restaurant, but she couldn't find the snack called custard buns.

Later, County Magistrate Yang asked Wei, and Wei told him that Zhizhi had eaten a kind of delicious buns at Yunlan's place and could not forget it. So she asked people to ask at Qingfeng Bakery and Donglaiju, but they didn't sell it.

When County Magistrate Yang heard that his daughter had eaten it at Xu Kongmu's house, he roughly guessed where she bought it from.

It must have been bought from the chef who cooked at Xu’s house during the Chinese New Year.

I just don't know who the chef is and how old he is.

Since he didn't even know the other person's kitchen was living there, the matter naturally came to an end.

…

Gui had been recuperating at home for only eight or nine days, and she no longer coughed, the sores under her armpits had healed, and she had visibly grown some flesh. When Gui felt better, Wen took the time to take her to buy new clothes in the past two days. She also took them to the government office to get the letter of release as a concubine stamped with the official seal. In fact, as long as she got the letter of release as a concubine, she would no longer have any relationship with the Wen family, but going to the government office to get the seal made Wen feel more at ease.

From then on, Gui helped to look after Feng Ge'er and Yuan Jie'er every day, and she enjoyed unprecedented leisure and peace.

The Wen family didn't send anyone to check.

It had been eight or nine days, and no one from the Pei family had come to cause trouble. Wen Ling felt that something was not right.

She told her mother, Yue, about it. Yue frowned and said, "You don't care whether they come to make trouble or not. Aunt Gui is gone. Even if she doesn't have tuberculosis, what's the point of her staying in the mansion? Besides, Aunt Gui herself agreed to take the letter of release and the money and leave. I'm afraid they won't chase her away just for the money."

She really looked down on her own mother-in-law and didn't know why she bothered with her aunt. She never took her own aunt seriously.

Wen Ling pursed her lips and said, "I was just thinking that if Fourth Sister-in-law is a good cook, we can let her be the chef when we open a restaurant in the future."

Mrs. Yue snorted and laughed. "Girl, how can you think that your cooking skills are better than the chef who has been in charge of the kitchen for 20 to 30 years at Donglaiju? You'd better find a way to poach the chef from Donglaiju."

Wen Lingling thought about it and it made sense. Even if Fourth Sister-in-law was a good cook, she could never be as good as the chef who had been working at Donglaiju for twenty or thirty years.

Yue sighed, "You really should think about what to do for a living. And your grandparents, can't they just buy a few servants to do the work and cook for you? Why do you have to let the third house do it?"

Aunt Bai was old and had poor eyesight, and sometimes there were small stones in the food she cooked. She even didn't wash the vegetables thoroughly, so there were spots of mud in her mouth when she ate them.

Bai Yi Niang's daughter-in-law was even more in tune with Bai Yi Niang's cooking. She scolded her for making food that was not clean and had stones in it. She apologized silently, but the food was still unpalatable the next time.

Recently, their eldest wife has been going out to buy breakfast and dinner.

Wen Lingling also frowned. She thought it would be better to buy a few servants. The third room couldn't even wash the clothes cleanly.

…

As for Aunt Bai, she did not send anyone to inquire about Aunt Gui for fear of exposing something.

However, the two grandsons were always running outside and had been to Osmanthus Alley several times. They had even seen Aunt Gui sitting in the yard basking in the sun. She no longer coughed and looked much better than when she was at the Wen family.

The two children already knew that Aunt Gui was forced to leave the Wen family by her grandfather because she had tuberculosis.

After hearing this, Aunt Bai patted her two grandchildren on the shoulders and said, "Brother Cheng, don't tell your grandparents. Just pretend you don't know. Maybe your Aunt Gui's tuberculosis is not serious. She will get better after a few days of rest."

The two children were both grown boys, and they didn't like the first or second wife, and they disliked their partial grandparents even more, so naturally they wouldn't tell them anything.

Meng was usually a taciturn person and was determined not to ask about anything.

Wen Shuncheng and Wen Shungong have also been out making money recently. They don't know how to do anything else. No one wants to hire them to move goods at the dock because they think they are too young to be useful.

Both of them were already eleven or twelve or thirteen years old, and even beggars would not take pictures of them, so the two of them ran outside the county town and went to fish in small ditches, ponds, and rivers. They caught a lot of eels and came back to the town to sell them. In fact, Wen Shuncheng wanted to sell the eels to his fourth sister-in-law because she was a fishmonger, but he did not dare to disturb her at her home, so he sold the eels to other restaurants.

Sometimes the harvest was good and the two of them could make dozens of coins a day.

Most of the money they earned was used to buy meat buns and secretly taken back to the third room to improve their family's diet, and the rest was saved for themselves.

Aunt Bai learned from her two grandsons that Aunt Xiaogui was doing well, so she felt relieved.

…

After a few more days, whether it was the Wen family, the Pei family, or all the families in the southwest, they all began to feel uneasy.

Because news came from the north that there was a snowstorm in the north, which collapsed houses and killed many people. Many people were also frozen to death. It is still snowing heavily in the north now. I am afraid that even crops cannot be planted in time. If they cannot be planted, there will be no crops to harvest in the autumn, and there will be famine by then. If there is a famine, it will be the most worrying thing, and many people will starve to death.

He also said that many people in the north had already begun to flee famine.

When Xu Qinyu heard the news, she felt uncomfortable. She was in a bad mood while cooking fish balls and did not talk to her fourth brother.

When it was almost done, I said to myself, "It would be nice if I had crops like sweet potatoes and potatoes."

In ancient times, natural disasters were common, and whenever there were natural disasters, there would be no harvest. Without a harvest, many people would naturally starve to death.

Sweet potatoes and potatoes can produce thousands of kilograms per mu, which is ten times higher than the yield of ordinary crops. They are not picky about the soil and are easy to grow. They can be harvested once a year in the north and twice in the south. They can be used as vegetables or as staple food. Even if there is a natural disaster, at least people will not starve to death.

As long as people are not dead, we can always take it slow.

Xu Qinyu knew that she was just talking, she had no way of finding these crops.

The only thing she can do is cook.

In fact, there is already some trade exchange with other countries here. For example, some other dishes seem to have been introduced from other countries, and spices such as pepper were also shipped back from other countries.

But probably there was no crossing to the sea, so there were no crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Pei Weixuan heard Yu Niang mumbling and asked, "What are the sweet potatoes that Yu Niang is talking about?"

Xu Qinyu looked up at her fourth brother and made up a story with a nervous heart. "I just saw it in a rare travelogue. It said that there seemed to be some crops overseas that could produce thousands of kilograms per mu. I don't know if it's true. Fourth brother, if there really are such crops, then even if there is a disaster, people won't starve to death."

Pei Weixuan didn't say anything, but just looked at Yu Niang deeply.

He knew that there was no such travelogue, so in the place where Yu Niang grew up, no one would starve to death even if there was a disaster?

Do you have to travel across the ocean to find such crops?

"Do you remember what the crops in the travel notes looked like?"

Xu Qinyu nodded, "I remember."

She didn't take it seriously and didn't think much about it. She just casually described the appearance of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and some other crops to her fourth brother.

Pei Weixuan kept all of this in mind.

Two days later, Pei Weixuan went to the mountains and released Bai Yu.

Xu Qinyu was a little reluctant, but she felt that Baiyu was better suited to stay in the mountains. In this kind of hustle and bustle, when Baiyu grew up, he would scare people, and she was afraid that the officials from the government would come and kill the giant python.

That night, everything was quiet and Pei Weixuan was sleeping soundly. Three very light and short bird calls were heard outside the window.

Hearing these three short bird calls, Pei Weixuan opened his eyes.