Chapter 15: Blueberry Bread in the Magic Train Travel Memories…
Today's tavern menu is Japanese tempura. The asparagus retains its green stems. Ye Wan prepares the chilled batter and coats the asparagus with a thin layer of batter.
As the cold oil in the cast iron pan began to heat up, rippling, Ye Wan used chopsticks to lower the battered asparagus into the pan. With a sizzling sound, the aroma of the oil, along with the rapid expansion of the batter, filled the kitchen.
The batter quickly turns into a thin, honeycomb-like crispy crust under the high temperature.
Pancake stood on Ye Wan's shoulder, looking forward to watching the crispy tempura in the pan. As long as a layer of fresh sauce made from kelp and soy sauce was poured on it, the taste would be so delicious...
Muffin swallowed.
But Ye Wan was distracted. She stared blankly at the ceiling while holding the long chopsticks.
"Squeak!" The pancake bounced onto her head. Ye Wan was reminded and when she came to her senses, she smelled a strong burnt smell and quickly turned off the fire.
The tempura turned into a lump of charcoal. Ye Wan quickly opened the window, then took the pancake out the door and squatted by the door to breathe in the fresh air.
Dorothy frowned at her from the store door, holding a broom. "As a lady, it's not okay to run out of the store in such a mess."
Ye Wan wiped the dust off his face: "This is a special case for me, after all..."
There has been no news from Grandma Katya for three days, and no one knows where Leo has gone.
Everyone in Honey Lane was worried.
Dorothy raised her chin and said, "This is ridiculous. It's right to worry about your friends, but if it affects your own life, it's really unwise."
"But I can see that you are worried too." Ye Wan said.
Dorothy began pacing back and forth. "Me? Sorry, I don't let little things like this affect my life."
Ye Wan wanted to interrupt her: "Wait!"
Dorothy waved her hand: "I'm not finished yet..." She lifted her skirt and turned gracefully again, stepping into a ball of soft substance.
Ye Wan secretly pinched his nose to block out the stench: "I warned you, but you didn't listen."
It might have been one of the Night's Watch's gryphons, landing in Honey Lane in the dark of night and taking a giant dump.
Dorothy's face flushed with anger, and she angrily said, "Are they treating this place like a cat litter box? I must write a letter to complain to the Night Watch Association."
She left the satin shoe in the pile and limped back to her room barefoot, probably to wash her feet.
Ye Wan and Songbing looked at each other, and then burst into laughter.
At night, Leonard finally showed up at the tavern, holding an envelope in his hand. "Found her. She's in a small village in Rainbow Canyon."
"Then we have to make sure she's willing to come back." Ye Wan looked a little distressed, but suddenly an idea struck her: "I've come up with a good idea."
Late at night, the Royal Capital Railway Station was filled with dark purple mist, and the cold moonlight shone on the platform made of purple quartz.
Accompanied by gushing steam, the magic train in the distance came quickly. The train looked very much like the old trains in 19th century London, with many glowing and complicated golden patterns engraved on it, and a large piece of blue magic crystal inlaid on the front of the train, which was the power source of the train.
Ye Wan looked at other travelers with great interest. On the entire platform, there were only her, Leonard and a traveler wrapped tightly in a leather cloak. The weather in the capital was already hot in early summer. Ye Wan had changed into a white dress. Who would wear a leather cloak on this day?
Leonard looked at her and said in a deep voice, "Don't look at it, it's a magical creature."
Ye Wan quickly turned his head back.
The old steam magic train stopped steadily at the platform and the two got on.
A red panda wearing overalls and a red bow tied around its neck came over pushing a food cart. It patted the cart's bell with its paw pad and then stopped the cart in front of them. "Want some late-night snacks?"
Ye Wan went to see the dining car, which contained melon seeds, peanuts, and mineral water...
"No thanks." Leo crossed his arms and refused in advance.
The little panda nodded and pushed the food cart away with all his strength. Ye Wan knelt on the soft seat and leaned on the back of the chair to look at the little panda's chubby back.
Its big furry tail emerged from the slit of its tuxedo suit, twisting and turning, which was so cute that it almost melted Ye Wan's heart: "This is too cute."
Only the head of Pancake was sticking out of the suitcase, squeaking angrily. Ye Wan quickly comforted it: "But not as cute as you."
"But why is the train attendant a red panda?" Ye Wan turned to ask Leonard, who was sitting next to him. He was wearing a hat and dozing with his head down.
"In the year 317 of the lunar calendar, the Supreme Court passed the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act for Magical Creatures, the Protection from Forced Labor of Magical Creatures Act, and the Protection of the Rights of Magical Creatures Act. Therefore, it is common for magical creatures to go out to work. Now, please stop chattering, little girl. The train will be away for several hours, and you are not allowed to ask me any more questions."
Ye Wan turned his back, opened his arms, and imitated his cold look of "Don't ask me any more questions", then secretly made a face.
The train was running fast on the tracks. Ye Wan was so excited that she couldn't sleep at all: "Look, Pancake!" She lowered her voice.
The train was passing through a tunnel. The tunnel was not dark because there were many glowing jellyfish floating in the sky, and many groundhogs wearing safety helmets and carrying shovels were repairing the tracks.
"Cool," she said.
Ye Wan looked out the window for a while, yawned, leaned his head against the window, and soon fell asleep.
When the first rays of morning light hit her face, Ye Wan woke up. Last night, the train roof was still black with flowing stars, but this morning it turned into azure blue with floating white clouds.
Outside the window, green mountains rose and fell one after another, with a rainbow of seven colors between the mountains. Milky white morning mist surrounded the train. From Ye Wan's perspective, it looked like a flowing forest captured by a continuous film camera.
Leonard stood up and said, "We've reached Rainbow Valley. Let's go."
The red panda in a suit came over again, pushing the food cart, and said cheerfully, "Do you need breakfast?"
Ye Wan took out her wallet and bought two loaves of bread. When she handed the money to the red panda's paw, she took the opportunity to gently touch its paw pad with shining eyes. It felt very good.
The rural station in Rainbow Canyon was very simple. The platform had only a broken plastic shed. Next to it stood a giant sunflower with a sign hanging from its stem that read: "Sunrise Station."
Leonard took out a compass from his bag, checked the direction, and pointed to the right: "Go this way."
The two walked along the railroad tracks. The sun rose. Ye Wan was scorching hot. He picked up a large leaf and fanned himself vigorously: "Are you hot, Muffin?"
Muffin squeaked lazily twice.
Ye Wan folded the leaf in his hand twice to make a hat and put it on Pancake Head, then quickly caught up with Leo in front: "Are we there yet?"
"Almost there." He said briefly and continued walking forward. Ye Wan saw two people wearing straw hats at the other end of the tracks, so he ran over.
"Hello, do you know where Sunflower Village is? Have you ever seen a kind grandmother with orange hair?"
Two men in wide-brimmed straw hats turned around.
They were not people, but two big round blueberries wearing straw hats. When they saw Ye Wan calling them, they became panicked and hurriedly jumped away with a bamboo basket full of blueberries on their backs.
Leo turned around and shouted at her to hurry up: "That's the fruit elf, it's timid and can't speak, hurry up, I know the way."
The two walked along the railway track for a while and finally reached the end. There was a huge blueberry garden full of flowers. The sweet aroma of blueberries wafted into Ye Wan's nose, and Grandma Katya was watering the blueberries in a straw hat.
Her long orange hair was as bright as the sun.
Katya invited them to the pavilion and served them black tea, blueberry jam and sliced bread.
Leonard sipped his tea. He wasn't good at talking, so Ye Wan had to initiate the conversation. She didn't express her request directly, but pulled a small food box from her suitcase. Inside was a fluffy blueberry bread, coated in a light layer of coconut flakes, as fluffy as snowflakes. Four layers of soft cake were filled with blueberry jam that shimmered like agate.
"This is what Leo spent two days developing. Try it!" Ye Wan said.
I heard that the Emerald Valley Village where Grandma Katya used to live was rich in blueberries and emeralds. She liked a kind of blueberry bread very much. The cake base was very soft, and the outer layer had the milky aroma of the cake and the coconut aroma of the coconut shreds. When you bite into it, the rich and sweet blueberry jam will come out, and it tastes moist and soft.
This kind of blueberry bread is a bit difficult to make. The upper and lower layers are slightly hard old-fashioned bread, while the middle two layers need to be made into a soft, cake-like texture.
Leonard and Ye Wan tried for two days, and they didn't know how much firewood they had wasted, but they finally made this kind of bread. Ye Wan cooked the blueberry jam and added rhubarb to it to add a refreshing taste.
Grandma Katya took the blueberry bread, and when she took the first bite, her cloudy eyes suddenly lit up. The cake was soft, and the blueberry jam in the middle was sweet and sour.
She wiped her eyes with her old fingers: "It's so good, this is the taste." The blueberry cake brought her back to the past, when she was working at home and her husband would secretly run to the mountains in the morning mist to pick herbs, and exchange the money in the store to buy her favorite blueberry bread.
Grandma Katya held the blueberry bread tightly against her chest. The summer breeze blew in from all directions, gently caressing the top of her hair.
Ye Wan stood up to comfort her: "We all like you very much and hope you come back."
But she shook her head: "No, no, no, I had that terrible plague, everyone will be scared."
Ye Wan took out another item from the suitcase. It was a gift from everyone to Grandma Katya:
The children at the charity home folded a lot of stars out of origami, put them into empty jam jars, and asked Ye Wan to tell them: "Grandma, we miss you!"
Penny sewed a long dress embroidered with blueberries and hoped that she would come back; Dorothy only gave her a small copper pot and complained that life was boring without her nagging in her ears.
"Your family is waiting for you at Honey Lane. Please don't leave us," Ye Wan said.
When Grandma Katya saw the gifts, she stroked them lovingly with her fingers and finally nodded gently.
Leonard's bakery suddenly became very popular because he finally accepted an interview with a daily newspaper and asked the newspaper to take more photos of his jam bread. Those strawberry, mulberry and blueberry breads that sparkled like gems looked so tempting that they soon attracted many people to Honey Lane to buy bread.
Grandma Katya's house was filled with all kinds of berries. One person couldn't cook them all in time, so she called the children from the charity home to help. The children carried large buckets of jam and shuttled back and forth between the jam shop and the bakery.
Of course, there were also many people who didn’t really want to eat bread, but just wanted to catch a glimpse of the former knight. They brought cameras to "chase stars" and forced Leonard to wear a mask.
Ye Wan took the opportunity to sell drinks at the door of the tavern: berry iced tea and green grape lemon tea. The crimson tea soup settled in the glass like the sunset. The sweet and sour berries matched the jasmine tea base very well. The finely crushed smoothie settled at the bottom of the cup, which was very suitable for cooling off in the summer.
At the same time, as long as you buy a drink, you will get a fan for free, so Ye Wan made a lot of money all day long.
In the evening, everyone gathered in the tavern, and the children from the charity home made a paper crown with blueberries painted on it for Katya, and she sat there like a queen.
"Blueberry jam bread!"
"To Katya!"
The tavern was filled with empty bottles and joyful laughter. Grandma Katya wiped her eyes and said, "I'm not leaving. I really am not leaving this time. I've scattered blueberry seeds all over the backyard. Next year, the yard will be full of sweet blueberries."
Ye Wan sent the drunken guests out one by one, rubbed his sore arms, and went upstairs with Pancake.
Before opening the door, a little purple light was seen in the gap of the door. Ye Wan asked Pancake: "Didn't I turn off the light? That's not right. The light is not purple?"
Pancake tilted his head: "Squeak?"
Ye Wan opened the door cautiously. There was no one inside. The light came from a small glass bottle on the bookcase.
The glass bottle was left by Ye Yu. It looked like a clean vinegar bottle. Ye Wan didn't know why she kept it, but he didn't touch her things.
At this moment, the empty bottom of the bottle began to emit purple light like fine sand. These lights quickly gathered together to form a small star with purple light.
Ye Wan rubbed his eyes and walked forward to take a closer look. The bottom of the glass bottle reflected the gold-plated words. Like some kind of magic spell, the words were shining and read: Congratulations on curing the two guests. Please keep up the good work, tavern owner.
These lights appeared for a while, then turned into star sand and returned to the purple star. The star was spinning and emitting a gentle hum.
Ye Wan remembered what Ye Yu said in the letter: "Cure a hundred guests with delicious food."
She held the bottle up carefully. "I'll try my best, Mom."
Opposite the Old Oak Tavern was the wall of Honey Lane, and after Dorothy's constant complaints, the road department finally installed new drainage pipes.
At this moment, there was a gray pearl dove standing on the pipe. The gray dove stood quietly on the bulge of the water pipe, flapped its wings twice, and quickly flew away.
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