Chapter 54 Making Mooncakes
Around 10 p.m., Su Tangtang stood in the yard, gazing absently at the small mountain of corn. The corn ears varied in size; some were large and plump, while others were small and sparse, and one stalk had only a few kernels.
Aunt Wang just said that this year's corn is far worse than last year's. Last year's corn kernels were plump and the yield was high. This year, however, the drought lasted too long, and then there were several rain showers, which affected the harvest.
"Go get your clothes quickly, let's wash up and get some rest," Huo Yizhou said softly as he came out of the house and saw her still staring blankly at the corn.
Su Tangtang nodded, but couldn't help but sigh, "These were grown by our own hands. Although the harvest wasn't ideal, looking at them still gives me a great sense of accomplishment."
Huo Yizhou smiled and reached out to ruffle her hair. "Of course."
Su Tangtang smiled, turned around and went into the house to get a change of clothes. The two then went to the bathroom arranged by the production team to wash up.
When they returned after getting ready, it was nearly 11 p.m. The moonlight was hazy, and the two hurriedly went to bed to rest.
The next day, the sun shone brightly, filling the courtyard. Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou spread out the corn in front of their house to dry.
While they were busy, Gu Qingke and Shen Yingying were doing the same thing, spreading golden corn on the open ground in front of their door. The two families tacitly left a passageway for easy passage.
After working for nearly an hour, the corn was finally all spread out. The newly harvested corn had to be dried first, then threshed by machine, and then dried for a few more days before it could be taken to town to sell for a good price.
In the afternoon, Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou went out again to turn the corn over so that every kernel could fully bask in the sun. Around five or six o'clock in the evening, the two went for a walk in the field and saw that some farmers were spreading fertilizer and operating plows in the fields.
"Shouldn't we start preparing to plow the fields too?" Su Tangtang asked.
Huo Yizhou nodded, "Yes, before planting wheat, we need to spread fertilizer and then plow the land."
"I thought I'd have to wait until after the Mid-Autumn Festival."
"With only a few days left until the Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone probably wants to rush to plant the wheat before the festival so they can have a leisurely holiday."
Looking at the freshly turned soil under the setting sun, Su Tangtang said, "It seems so."
The next day, Su Tangtang, Huo Yizhou, and their families bought fertilizer and borrowed a ploughing machine to start cultivating their eight mu of land.
Two days later, all three families had finished plowing their land.
That afternoon, Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou set off to town to buy wheat seeds.
Meanwhile, Meng Meng and Shen Yingying's families were worried about their empty wallets. They had just paid off the money they had earned from selling skewers and hadn't even recovered when they were already struggling to afford fertilizer and wheat seeds.
It's really giving them a huge headache.
In the evening, when Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou returned from town, the director gathered everyone at the production crew's residence. The crew thoughtfully prepared dinner, and everyone sat together to eat and chat before watching the latest episode.
Not long after watching, Zhou Yan leaned close to Su Tangtang with her phone and said excitedly, "Tangtang, you're really famous now! There are clips of you working all over the internet, and people have even made you into memes. You're so cute."
Su Tangtang leaned closer to the screen, watching the funny videos and memes made by netizens, and couldn't help but laugh out loud herself.
"After the show ends, you'll definitely get a lot of endorsement offers," Zhou Yan continued flipping through the pages. "Look, you've already surpassed two million Weibo followers. I remember when we first started filming, you only had 100,000 followers, and they were all haters. You've gained 1.9 million in just a few months. That's amazing speed, and they're all people who like you. Congratulations!"
Su Tangtang smiled sweetly, her eyes crinkling. "Thank you, Sister Yan."
Zhou Yan looked at her with eyes full of the gentleness of a girl next door, "You're welcome."
Su Tangtang felt a warm glow in her heart. What made her happiest was that netizens stopped criticizing her and instead began to genuinely support her.
After dinner, the program was nearing its end.
Shen Yingying suddenly spoke up, "There's something I'd like to discuss with everyone."
Everyone looked at her upon hearing the sound.
“Our two families are really short of money. We haven’t secured wheat seeds or fertilizer yet, and we haven’t plowed the land,” she paused, “and we want to exchange the corn we have for some money from you.”
This was the only solution the four of them had come up with after repeated discussions, since everyone knew that no one was willing to lend them money anymore.
Qu Xian asked first, "Are you planning to sell them after threshing, or with the corn cobs?"
Gu Qingke smiled wryly and asked, "Sell it with the corn cob intact?"
He then added, "If you hadn't seen the corn first, you probably wouldn't have given me the money right away, would you?"
Everyone nodded in unison. With no cameras in sight, everyone was surprisingly candid.
Su Tangtang chimed in, "When we bought wheat seeds today, we also inquired about the market price. Threshed corn is currently priced at 1.1 yuan per jin (0.5 kg). If it's sold with the cob intact, it definitely won't be that price."
Ke Tangshu nodded. "That's natural."
Qiu Nan went straight to the point, "What price are you planning to sell it for?"
Gu Qingke announced his bottom line, "Eight mao a jin, how about it?"
Huo Yizhou shook his head, "The core is very heavy, especially since it hasn't been fully sun-dried yet."
Zhou Yan also softly echoed.
Meng Meng gritted her teeth inwardly, feeling that they were far too shrewd, but she was in a passive position and could only accept her fate.
Gu Qingke took a deep breath, as if she had made a great decision, "Seven cents, really, we can't go any lower."
Su Tangtang and the others exchanged glances, pondered for a moment, and finally nodded in agreement.
The next morning, Gu Qingke brought the scale to Su Tangtang's house, while Meng Meng and Ke Tangshu went to Zhou Yan's and Lin Lang's houses respectively.
Gu Qingke asked Su Tangtang, "How much did you spend on wheat seeds and fertilizer yesterday?"
“1620 for wheat seeds and 650 for fertilizer,” Su Tangtang answered crisply.
“We are indeed facing difficulties right now,” Gu Qingke sighed. “Let’s sell you two thousand five hundred yuan worth of corn first.”
"OK."
After saying that, they began to weigh the corn. Shen Yingying and Gu Qingke efficiently packed the corn into bags and weighed them one by one. They worked hard all day and finally weighed out 3,500 jin of corn.
When it came time to settle the bill, Su Tangtang handed them 2,500 yuan, and even gave them an extra 50 yuan, mainly because she didn't have any change and they didn't have any money to make change.
After they left, Su Tangtang looked at the extra corn their family had and wondered, "I wonder if we lost money or not."
Huo Yizhou smiled and said, "It should be worth it."
Another day passed, and everyone planted the wheat.
Another busy day has passed, and I didn't even have time for lunch. But with the wheat planted in the field, I feel at ease.
-
There is only one day left until the Mid-Autumn Festival.
I had originally planned to spend two days learning how to make mooncakes, but after finishing my farm work, I only had one day left to learn.
However, it's not too late.
On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the director took everyone to a handmade mooncake shop in town.
The shop was quite quiet, with only the owners, a husband and wife, present. When the production crew arrived, they greeted them with exceptional enthusiasm.
The proprietress recognized Su Tangtang at a glance, and her eyes lit up immediately. "My daughter really likes you! Actually, so do I. You're so beautiful. She was so happy when she found out you were coming to our shop to learn how to make mooncakes. She even told me to take a picture with you. It's a pity she's studying for her master's degree in another city and only gets one day off for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so she can't come back."
Su Tangtang was a little surprised, and a warm feeling welled up in her heart. She didn't expect to meet someone who liked her here. This feeling of being recognized was wonderful, and she smiled unconsciously.
“No problem, let’s shoot now,” she readily agreed.
As she spoke, Su Tangtang took the initiative to stand next to the proprietress, and the proprietress happily raised her phone to take several photos of them together.
The proprietress couldn't stop smiling as she looked at the photos of the two figures side by side.
Standing to the side, Meng Meng couldn't help but roll her eyes. She couldn't understand how anyone could like someone like Su Tangtang. They must have terrible taste.
The more he thought about it, the deeper his disgust for Su Tangtang became.
After this little incident, the owner and his wife began to seriously teach everyone how to make mooncakes.
The food vendor and his wife had already prepared everything, with several kinds of mooncake fillings laid out on the counter, a dazzling array.
Su Tangtang looked at it carefully, then turned to Huo Yizhou and suggested, "Let's make the classic five-nut version."
Huo Yizhou nodded in agreement, "Okay."
Zhou Yan, who was standing nearby, immediately chimed in, "Then let's make lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk; I prefer that flavor."
Lin Lang thought for a moment and said, "Let's make mung bean mooncakes. I've never tasted this before."
Meng Meng looked around at everyone, then at the fillings in front of her, and asked hesitantly, "Can't we choose the same ones?"
The director interjected to explain, "There's no rule against repeating."
Meng Meng let out a "whoosh" and readily decided, "Then I'll make five-nut char siu."
In the end, Shen Yingying also chose the five-nut filling.
After selecting the fillings, everyone began making the pastry.
The proprietress demonstrated and explained, "The main ingredients for making the pastry are all-purpose flour, invert sugar syrup, peanut oil, and alkaline water. First, pour the invert sugar syrup, peanut oil, and alkaline water into a bowl and stir thoroughly with a hand whisk until the color becomes slightly cloudy and the texture is even."
As she spoke, she sifted the flour into the mixed wet ingredients, and Su Tangtang and the others followed along step by step.
The proprietress picked up a scraper and continued to instruct, "Use the scraper to mix evenly, then gently knead it into a smooth dough by hand. Be careful not to knead it for too long, or you'll develop gluten."
After kneading the dough, the proprietress reminded us, "This needs to be placed in a warm place to rise for 1 to 2 hours."
She looked around and saw that everyone was learning very quickly and had kneaded the dough well.
While waiting for the dough to rise, they helped the proprietress sell mooncakes.
As the group walked out of the house, Huo Yizhou pulled Su Tangtang aside.
Su Tangtang looked up at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Huo Yizhou took out a tissue and wiped the flour off her face, which he didn't know had gotten there at some point. "You look like a little kitten."
Su Tangtang smiled, tilted her head back, and squinted as he wiped her face.
When Gu Qingke turned her head, she saw this scene, and her already unhappy mood instantly plummeted.
He turned his head away, refusing to look at the eyesore.
After Huo Yizhou finished wiping her, the two quickly walked to the door to sell mooncakes with everyone else.
Customers who were originally going to buy mooncakes from other stores couldn't help but stop when they saw several handsome men and beautiful women standing in this store.
"How much are the mooncakes?" someone asked.
Su Tangtang stepped forward and answered, "Five yuan each."
"What flavors are available?" the other person asked again.
Su Tangtang introduced everything one by one, but the person still left after listening.
She pursed her lips gently.
Huo Yizhou gently comforted him from the side, "It's okay, this is normal. Some people just ask and don't buy, or they might want to compare several stores."
Su Tangtang nodded and replied, "I understand, I understand."
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