Chapter 32 (Catching Bugs) As long as the operation is exciting enough...

The next day, Jiang Yanyi slept until noon before getting up.

She hadn't had such a good sleep since she came here.

She was dressed neatly and just stepped out of the room, she saw Qiu Kui squatting on the other side of the courtyard wall, not knowing what he was doing.

The rising sun was a little dazzling. Jiang Yanyi squinted and stretched: "Qiu Kui, when did you get up?"

Qiu Kui turned around when he heard the voice, and his face could not hide the excitement: "Hua Hua, pomegranates fell from the sky!"

Jiang Yanyi was stunned when he heard it, and walked over to take a look, only to find that three pomegranates had fallen into the yard at some point, one of which was smashed, and the other two were big and red, and perhaps because they fell on the soil of the flowerbed, even the peels were not scratched.

The broken fruit stem was brown, probably because it was ripe and fell off by itself, but the other two fruit stems were fresh green and didn't look like they would fall off by themselves.

Jiang Yanyi looked up at the half of the pomegranate tree exposed on the other side of the courtyard wall and wondered, "Could it be that the wind blew last night and blew these two pomegranates off?"

Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense.

Qiu Kui looked at Jiang Yanyi eagerly, "Hua Hua, can I eat it?"

Although she was greedy, she also knew that this thing was not in their yard, and she was afraid that she would be scolded by the owner if she ate it.

Jiang Yanyi stared at the two pomegranates and felt a little worried. In theory, they should be sent back, but in practice, it would seem very artificial.

If it was just an ordinary neighbor, it would be fine. If something in your yard fell into my place, I would return it to you, and neighbors could get closer.

But the wealthy family next door, let alone the master of the house, even the servants would not care that two pomegranates were blown away by the wind from the tree. If she went there to return the pomegranates, I am afraid the gatekeeper would think she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

Jiang Yanyi was quite hesitant for a while and said, "You eat it. I will make some cakes and send them to the neighbors nearby. When the time comes, I will tell the gatekeeper of the Protectorate about the pomegranates."

This can be regarded as a courtesy.

Before opening a store, give gifts to all the neighbors around to make good friends. Neighbors will see each other every day, so it is better to be harmonious.

After all, there is an old saying that "distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors." If something happens to two weak women like her and Qiu Kui, they will have to rely on their neighbors to help them.

Okra happily picked up the two pomegranates after Jiang Yanyi said they were edible.

Jiang Yanyi strolled to the corner of the yard, took a look at the peppers he had planted in the flower bed, scooped a small ladle of water from the water tank in the yard, and carefully poured it into the soil at the roots.

She went to the market with Okra yesterday and found out that peppers here are called peppers. I heard that they were brought back from outside the customs by caravans. They are rare items and you may not be able to buy them with money.

Isn't this just turning the pepper into a famous flower?

Jiang Yanyi didn't know how valuable this pot of chili was before, but now that he knows, he feels ashamed to receive it.

Although Feng Shuo obviously didn't take this pot of chili seriously in the military tent that day, no matter how indifferent he was, the value of chili in the market was there.

It's like someone treats money as dirt and gives you a piece of gold. You can't say that since the other party doesn't care about this little money, it's natural to give it to you, right?

Jiang Yanyi thinks that when Feng Shuo comes to eat again in the future, he can't charge him for the meal!

The hot pot restaurant has implemented a lifetime free system for this big guy.

After returning from the market yesterday, she had a vague idea: considering the current rarity of peppers, she should take good care of this pot of peppers and cultivate them in the future. Before the pepper market is saturated, selling peppers as potted plants may make more money than using peppers to make hot pot. When she

opened her hot pot restaurant, she started by selling clear soup hot pots. Although people of this era also eat spicy food, the spiciness of dogwood is like the difference between bronze and king compared to peppers.

It will take some time for the ancients who have never experienced the overbearing taste of peppers to adapt to eating spicy food.

If she started with red soup hot pots, the peppers in the market were not enough and the price was expensive. What if she ended up losing money? Secondly, she was afraid that people would not accept it, and if she opened the store but there were few customers, that would be a disaster!

After thinking about it, Jiang Yanyi felt that she had to take her time to develop the red soup hot pot.

When her hot pot restaurant became famous, she would slowly introduce the red soup hot pot. Old customers would definitely be willing to try it out of trust.

The future is bright! The

more she thought about it, the more she felt that the gift from the general was not a potted plant, but a treasure pot!

If her pepper cultivation plan was successful, she would have to send another valuable gift to his house, firstly to thank him for the gift of peppers, and secondly, it would be better to lean on a big tree for shade.

If the business gets bigger and bigger, there will definitely be times of unrest, and the way and so on must be laid out as soon as possible.

Jiang Yanyi stared at the chili pepper with a loving look like an old mother.

"Huahua, eat pomegranates!" Qiu Kui peeled off a handful of pomegranates and handed them to Jiang Yanyi.

Jiang Yanyi came back to her senses, put away her motherly look, and threw the pomegranate flesh into her mouth. As she chewed it, a mouthful of sweet and sour juice burst out. She shouted with full of fighting spirit: "Today is also a day to work hard to open a store!!"

Although Qiu Kui didn't know why Jiang Yanyi was suddenly so excited, she was also very happy and followed her to shout: "Open a store, open a store!"

The two laughed together in the yard.

Jiang Yanyi was going to give osmanthus cakes to the neighbors. Although she thought pumpkin cakes were also delicious, osmanthus cakes were better for giving as gifts.

She didn't know much about pastry, and the reason she learned to make osmanthus cake was because she read novels in the past, and osmanthus cake appeared too frequently in all novels. She

was curious for a moment, so she looked for a tutorial on the Internet and tried to make it, and it turned out to be pretty good.

Jiang Yanyi went into the kitchen and poured the indica rice flour and glutinous rice flour into a bowl and mixed them evenly.

Osmanthus cake is mainly made with indica rice flour, so that it doesn't have a sticky texture. Adding some glutinous rice flour is just to increase the stickiness so that the cake doesn't fall apart at the touch.

The method of making osmanthus cake is delicate, and the water used is also particular. It is best to use milk, and soy milk can be used instead if there is no milk. If you use water directly, the taste will be a little lacking.

Jiang Yanyi had just arrived and didn't know where to buy fresh milk. She also found it troublesome to grind the beans with graphite to make milk in order to make a cake, so she asked Qiu Kui to go outside and see if there was any breakfast stall selling soy milk and buy some.

Not long after Qiu Kui went out, he brought back two large bowls of soy milk. Jiang Yanyi only used some of it. She planned to use the remaining soy milk to fry two fried dough sticks to eat with breakfast.

When making osmanthus cake, the "moisture" of the rice flour is very important. Too much water makes it sticky, and too little water makes the osmanthus cake loose and not formed when steamed. The moisture must be such that the rice flour can be clumped together when you pinch it with your hands, and can be scattered when you break it.

After doing this step, Jiang Yanyi sifted the rice flour with a dough basket, so that the texture would be soft. After sifting, cover the dough with a wet towel for a while.

She asked Qiu Kui to light a fire and stir-fry the filling in a hot pot. Jiang Yanyi planned to make some both stuffed and solid osmanthus cakes. The stuffed ones are made with peanut powder and red bean paste.

Why use red bean paste? Because sugar is too expensive, Jiang Yanyi felt the pain.

She put the peanut powder into the pot and fried it on low heat. After scooping it up, she immediately mixed it with dried osmanthus and red bean paste and mixed it evenly. The osmanthus was wrapped in the fried peanut powder, and the fragrance burst out instantly. Jiang Yanyi added a little lard to add fragrance and color. It is said that this kind of traditional snack will not taste good without lard.

Okra lay on the stove and sniffed the fragrance: "I now think that osmanthus cake is the most delicious cake in the world, and pumpkin cake can only be ranked second."

Jiang Yanyi smiled and said: "I'll make you jujube mud cake some other day."

Okra was so greedy that he almost cried: "Huahua, let's just open a cake shop!"

Jiang Yanyi was amused by her.

She spread a layer of kneaded rice flour in the mold, sprinkled dried osmanthus flowers on it, and then spread a layer of flour, then spread the filling on top, and then another layer of rice flour and dried osmanthus flowers on top, flattened it with a spatula, and steamed it in a steamer.

It's finally done!

Jiang Yanyi kneaded the dough and fried two fried dough sticks, and she and Qiuku each ate one with soy milk to solve their breakfast. When

the osmanthus cake came out of the pot, Jiang Yanyi took out the mold, cut it into pieces, put it on a plate, and sent a plate to each of the nearby families.

The neighbors had heard that Zhao Dabao's Rouge Shop had been taken over, but the new tenant was a recluse and they had never seen him before.

Today, she saw a young lady who was good-looking and capable. She sent them cakes when they first met. Apart from other things, she was really considerate in dealing with people. She immediately had a good impression of Jiang Yanyi.

When Jiang Yanyi returned, her food box was filled with return gifts from neighbors.

This was a good start. She was happy and her steps were much lighter.

The last big plate was taken to the Protectorate.

Jiang Yanyi knocked on the red lacquered door of the Protectorate with a lion head and a ring, handed over the plate of osmanthus cake and explained her purpose. After the doorman received it, he said he would report it to the master of the house.

It was also a coincidence that Jiang Yanyi had just returned when Feng Shuo rode to the door of his house.

He saw Jiang Yanyi leaving the gate of his house at the street corner. He remembered that he not only did not pick up the pomegranates that fell into her yard this morning, but also deliberately picked two for her. He felt like a cat's paw was scratching him inexplicably, and he was eager to know what she was doing here.

After entering the house, the first thing he asked the doorman: "Did the cook from the shop next door come just now?"

The doorman was stunned by the question, and after coming back to his senses, he quickly told the story of Jiang Yanyi sending osmanthus cakes: "The girl said that the pomegranate tree on the west side of our courtyard was blown down by the wind last night, so she made a plate of cakes and sent it over."

Feng Shuo's dark eyes lit up slightly, and he asked: "Where are the cakes?"

As soon as the doorman entered the house, Feng Shuo drove to the gate of the house, so the cakes had not been sent away yet.

When he opened the door for Feng Shuo, he put the cakes in the ear room next to him. When he heard Feng Shuo asking about it, he hurried to bring it out.

He was a little surprised. He thought he would just report this to the housekeeper and let the housekeeper know about this favor, but Feng Shuo seemed to be very concerned about it.

The doorman thought that the young lady who delivered the cakes had a good appearance, and he had a vague guess in his heart. He thought that if he encountered the young lady in the future, he would have to be smart.

Feng Shuo strode towards the west wing with a large plate of osmanthus cakes. The fatigue of a sleepless night dissipated a little at this moment. The

west wing was separated from Jiang Yanyi's yard by only a wall. He felt that he could recover about 90% here.

He sat in the pavilion and ate cakes. The osmanthus cake on the plate was cut into beautiful diamond-shaped cubes, dotted with dried osmanthus flowers. It was soft in the mouth, and the filling in the middle was sweet and greasy.

It tasted like the osmanthus cake he had eaten before he lost his sense of taste.

Perhaps it was because sweets can make people relax. At this moment, the harshness in his eyebrows faded, and his expression was even a little lost. His delicate eyelashes were half-drooped, and the broken hair in front of his forehead was gently floating in the wind. The corners of his mouth were raised in a slightly bitter arc.

The wound on his palm that day was scratched by him had not scabbed yet, and today's military training and fighting had torn the wound again. There was blood on the osmanthus cake, and he swallowed it all, as if swallowing the past together.

It tasted fishy and sweet in his mouth, and he just realized that the blood he had swallowed countless times over the years was full of the taste of rust.

Everything he has now was snatched by him like a vicious dog.

Only the sense of taste, something he thought he would never have again, suddenly appeared.

He wanted to keep his sense of taste. Only

when he could distinguish the sour, sweet, bitter and spicy tastes of the things he put into his mouth did he feel that he was still alive.

But in addition to the sense of taste, he could vaguely feel something else from the cook, but it was too vague.

He had an intuition that if he got closer to her, he might be able to figure out what it was.

"Huahua, the osmanthus cake is so delicious!"

The voice from the next yard interrupted Feng Shuo's thoughts.

Because of his martial arts training, his hearing was much sharper than others. Even if he didn't listen carefully, the sounds coming from the other side were still very clear to his ears.

"The filling is so sweet!"

"Huahua, try it!"

The chattering was all from one person, and it was not the voice he wanted to hear.

As if God had finally granted his wishes, a beautiful female voice with a smile soon rang out from the other side of the courtyard wall: "I'm eating pomegranates. This one is sweeter than others."

Feng Shuo's eyes could not help but move to the pomegranate tree in the corner of the courtyard.

She likes to eat pomegranates.

This plate of osmanthus cake was exchanged for two pomegranates.

What would she do tomorrow if more pomegranates fell?

That night, a dark shadow avoided the patrolling guards and entered the unused west wing. He plucked half of the pomegranates from the tree and climbed over the wall to sneak them into the next yard.

Xing Yao stood on the wall to help his master keep watch, and couldn't help but remind him: "Master... the tree is almost bald."

Under the moonlight, Feng Shuo's delicate lips were tightly pursed. He looked in the direction of Jiang Yanyi's room and whispered: "I can't be the only one who is confused."