Hualin Lane
Xie Wenwu asked Xiaoqing to get a lot of ingredients. The festival was coming soon, and he researched several flavors of mooncakes.
"Brother Wenwu, don't make this too fragrant."
The scones smelled so good that Qi Zi was worried that the smell would spread out.
Qingzhou was sealed off and people from outside were unable to come in. The food reserves of many families in the city were almost exhausted. Some small stalls and vendors had closed down long ago. The only ones still selling food were large restaurants with a good foundation and background.
The poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
They have food stored at home, but it must not be too conspicuous.
Zhou Xiaohu said, "Let Jiang Yu cook more stinky fruits and turn up the heat."
In the yard, Jiang Yu, with a piece of cloth stuffed in her nose, was squatting in front of a small mud stove, stirring the black stuff in a small pot. After hearing what Zhou Xiaohu said, she hurriedly shook her head desperately. She couldn't stand it any more if the smell got any worse.
Qi Zi closed the stove door again. There was a knock on the gate outside the courtyard. When she opened the door, she saw her neighbor frowning and covering his nose as he asked, "Do you cook shit every day?"
Qi Zi, "..."
"We're not cooking shit, we're cooking stinky fruit." Qi Zi explained.
The neighbor immediately expressed his disgust, "If you eat too much of that stuff, it will kill you. You should eat less."
After everyone left, Qi Zi closed the gate again. Just then, Pei Feng jumped down from the roof, which scared her.
"How is it?" Qi Zi asked.
Pei Feng shook his head and said, "The alleys nearby were all robbed, but our place is fine. I guess some important person lives here."
"No matter whether it is true or not, we still take turns to be on duty at night." Qi Zi said.
Qingzhou City was sealed off early, and people were only allowed to leave but not enter. Except for the time when the city gate was opened once for the major general, it has never been opened again since then.
People in the city all have stored grain, so the problem is not big. People keep transporting grain in, and although the price is a little higher, it is not impossible to buy grain.
The situation became much more serious after the Chinese New Year. Shops on the two streets were closed one after another. Many people could not bear it anymore and fled south with their belongings. A curfew was imposed in the city at night, but many people were still broken into. Robbery and theft were minor matters, and injuries and murders also began to occur.
All thieves will be exiled. No matter how severe the punishment is, there will always be some people who take risks. Either the whole family will starve to death, or one person will be exiled.
The situation was not eased until Prefect Chen set up porridge stalls at the east and west city gates.
Even under such circumstances, Hualin Lane has never been robbed, which makes people feel that it is not normal.
The two of them were feeling uncomfortable due to the smoke in the yard.
Pei Feng covered his nose, stuck his head into the kitchen and asked, "I'm going to the embroidery workshop to pick up the second girl. Are you ready?"
"Right away, right away."
Xie Wenwu brought out a large food box and put mooncakes of six different flavors into it. He then immediately covered the pot.
"You can bring this to Brother Xiaoqing."
Xie Wenwu promised Xiaoqing that as long as he got the ingredients, he would give half of what he made to Xiaoqing.
Pei Feng was about to go out with the lunch box when Qi Zi trotted over and said, "I'll go with you."
"Don't go..." Pei Feng hesitated for a moment and said, "You smell a bit of stinky fruit..."
Qi Zi, "..."
Qi Zi was still standing there in a daze until Pei Feng left. Jiang Yu was laughing so hard behind her that she couldn't stand up.
Hearing her smile like that, Qi Zi became even more ashamed and angry, and chased after Jiang Yu to show her how powerful he was.
"It was Pei Feng who said that, not me." Jiang Yu ran while begging for mercy with a smile.
Qi Zi said, "You bad girl, I told you to make fun of me..."
"Oh, Sister Zi, I was wrong. Please forgive me. To be honest, I stink much more than you..."
The two little girls started playing and chasing each other in the yard.
In the kitchen, Zhou Xiaohu was checking whether the doors and windows were sealed tightly.
Recently, whenever they cook dishes with strong smells, they first seal the doors and windows of the kitchen, and then cook stinky fruits in the yard to cover up the smell.
While Xie Wenwu was cleaning up the pork on the counter, he said, "If it weren't for the disaster, I think we could set up a small stall and test our strength."
Zhou Xiaohu became interested and asked, "What kind of stall do you want to open?"
"How about wontons?" Xie Wenwu asked.
Zhou Xiaohu frowned and said, "Wontons are everywhere, why not make something unique?"
"No need. Only by cooking the most common dishes can one show his true skills." Xie Wenwu said, and then added, "Zhang Rushan said so."
Zhou Xiaohu looked at him suspiciously and said, "Zhang Rushan has nothing to do, why is he saying this?"
"What do you care? He is a student, and what he says is definitely 100% correct." Xie Wenwu said.
Zhou Xiaohu was too lazy to argue about it, and just said, "If you can't sell it now, think about it first, so that you won't be in a rush when you can sell it."
"Yeah, that's what I think too." Xie Wenwu said.
Qingyun Embroidery Workshop.
When Xiaoqing entered the room carrying the mooncake box, Yan Yujiu was sitting in front of an embroidered painting, fanning herself and admiring it.
"Guess whose embroidery this is?" Yan Yujiu asked without turning his head.
Of course Xiaoqing knew it was Xiaoyu.
A few years ago, the second master left a painting in his own embroidery studio and left a message, asking all embroiderers to try to embroider it and ask that the finished product must be better than the painting.
The original painting is an ordinary farm picture. How can we embroider it better than the original?
Several years passed and no finished product was satisfactory.
Since last year, Erye saw the handkerchiefs and purses that he had recently received in his own embroidery studio. The craftsmanship looked very familiar. After asking Xiaoqing about it, he found out that they were embroidery pieces consigned by Miss Xiaoyu.
No one knows what the second master was thinking, but he took all of Miss Xiaoyu's embroidery pieces for himself, and asked the shopkeeper to pass the painting from a few years ago to Xiaoyu, and promised that as long as the finished product was satisfactory, she would get 20 taels of silver.
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