Wen Mingtang, who was about to write, said, “Oh!” Hearing this, she said, “I heard about it! Ah Bing, Tangyuan, and I are going to watch it too.”

Hearing this, Lin Fei nodded and said to Wen Mingtang: “I painted the lanterns in the Dali Temple. The lanterns depict the scene of Chang’e and the Jade Rabbit having a Mid-Autumn Festival banquet!”

It was indeed Lin Fei! He always spoke directly, completely different from Liu Yuan and the others, who hinted indirectly and beat around the bush!

Since he was straightforward, Wen Mingtang was naturally generous! She immediately patted her chest and guaranteed: “I won’t make any mistakes when I cast the wooden sticks!”

However, the content of this lamp was really novel and down-to-earth. She didn’t know how Lin Fei came up with the idea.

Seeing Wen Mingtang nod, Lin Fei said “Hmm” and turned away.

After Lin Fei left, Yu Jijiu, who was peeling sugar-roasted chestnuts, glanced at Lin Fei who was leaving, looked at Wen Mingtang and said, “When he asked you if you knew about the Lantern Festival just now, I was shocked!”

Wen Mingtang paused and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Jijiu looked at her askance and said, “That day at Mount Li, he went up the mountain to look for you, didn’t he?”

After all, he was the one who organized the banquet, how could he not know what happened?

“For an ordinary man, if he would specially go to Mount Li for a woman and ask her if she knew about the Lantern Festival, he would probably be interested in her and want to meet her to watch the lanterns.” Yu Jijiu stroked his beard like an experienced man, “But your Lin Shaoqing… uh, he went to Mount Li for a case, and specially asked if she knew about the Lantern Festival, but he actually wanted to get people to vote for the lantern he drew!”

At this point, Yu Jijiu couldn’t help but shake his head: “I didn’t expect that your Lin Shaoqing, with that otherworldly face, could do such a thing!”

When Tangyuan heard this, she quickly retorted: “Who said that our Lin Shaoqing doesn’t care about worldly things? Our Lin Shaoqing eats a lot, such as kǒushuǐjī, táng chǎo bǎnlì, lìzi shāoròu, rè gān miàn, xiǎo guōmǐxiàn, lǔyā huò…”

Listening to Tangyuan calling out a bunch of dishes like naming the dishes really made one’s saliva flow!

Yu Jijiu threw a chestnut shell over and scolded with a smile: “Stop talking! If you keep talking, I’ll get hungry again!”

Tangyuan made a face at Yu Jijiu, then stopped while she was ahead and lowered her head to look at the contents of the mooncake gift box that Wen Mingtang had prepared.

The mold of the plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum was to be used to make Cantonese-style mooncakes. As for the fillings, Wen Mingtang picked three common fillings: red bean, jujube paste egg yolk, and lotus paste. She also prepared some mochi to add some variety to the fillings.

The molds of various shapes such as peanuts and persimmons were going to be used to make snow-skin mooncakes, and the filling was going to be lava-like custard, which was a new idea for everyone to try.

The last one was Dayong’s most common Su-style mooncake. Wen Mingtang prepared two kinds of fillings for it: pork and pork with egg yolk, but he plans to make this on the day of the mooncake distribution.

Not to mention the Suzhou-style mooncakes, the Cantonese-style mooncakes, and snow skin mooncakes were appearing in Dayong for the first time. They had never been seen before, so Wen Mingtang would naturally spend more time teaching Ah Bing how to make the glutinous rice balls.

So two days in advance, Wen Mingtang started making mooncakes. During this period, the fragrance of the mooncakes from the oven came out of the “oven” from time to time, which really made everyone in Dali Temple greedy!

But this time, Ji Caimai stood guard by the side and refused to send the ones that were exposed or made badly to everyone in advance. It was really hateful!

On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the entire Darong government office would be closed, so the mooncakes were not officially put on the table until the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival after everyone had dinner.

Su-style mooncakes, Cantonese-style mooncakes, and snow-skin mooncakes were placed in bamboo baskets for people to choose from, and each person could get two of each. If you wanted to try each and didn’t want to share, you had to go to Ji Caimai to buy them separately.

However, if you found it troublesome and didn’t mind spending money during the festival, you could just buy the mooncake gift box directly.

Looking at the gift box with specially carved patterns that could rival those sold in restaurants outside, Liu Yuancai, who had received the mooncakes, took a look and instinctively felt a subtle pain in his heart: Looking at the effort put into making this gift box, he knew that this mooncake gift box would not be cheap! When he asked about the price, it was indeed similar to the mooncake gift boxes sold in restaurants like Hongyanlou outside.

Just when he was lamenting the high price of mooncake gift boxes, a familiar face, Yu Jijiu, came with his men to pick up gift boxes. Seeing the servants holding four or five gift boxes, Liu Yuan couldn’t help but twitch his lips. Before he could sigh, he saw Yu Jijiu stroking his beard, looking like he had found a great bargain, and said happily: “I saw Master Wen making mooncakes that day, so I quickly asked the housekeeper at home to return the gift boxes ordered from Hongyanlou! Indeed, compared to the few mooncakes in a gift box from Hongyanlou, Master Wen’s gift boxes have more than double! It’s really a good deal!”

Liu Yuan: “…”

Yu Jijiu’s sigh was really… Hey! Fortunately, there were only a few wealthy customers like Yu Jijiu, and most of them were colleagues who hesitated for a long time before buying a box like him.

During festivals, people were always more generous than on ordinary days!

The mooncake gift boxes sold faster than Ji Caimai and Wen Mingtang had imagined. Before the holiday, most of them were bought by people from the Dali Temple and some old customers.

When most people had left, only half of the mooncake gift box was left. Zhao You and Lin Fei came here just as the public kitchen was closing.

Looking at half of the mooncake gift boxes that had not been bought, Zhao You counted his fingers turned to Lin Fei, and said, “Shaoqing Lin, I’m afraid our family can’t afford so many mooncakes! Aren’t these extra mooncakes wasted?”

Ji Caimai, who was calculating on the abacus, couldn’t help but hold his forehead with his hand when he heard this worry. He sighed and said, “Zhao chāyì, don’t worry. I’m afraid these gift boxes will be sold out before noon tomorrow!”

There would definitely be a wave of new and returning customers on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, so why worry about this? When saying this, Ji Caimai’s tone was firm, and it was obvious that he was extremely confident in the mooncakes made by the public kitchen this time.

This confidence was not without reason.

Generous guests like Yu Jijiu who bought a lot of mooncakes did not have to wait until the Mid-Autumn Festival to eat them. As soon as they bring the mooncake gift box home, their family members will immediately surround them.

“I deliberately ate half a bowl less rice at dinner today, leaving some room in my stomach for the mooncakes that Anan brings back!” This was said by his mother, who, despite her advanced age, was in good spirits and would not be polite to the younger generation when it came to eating.

Yu Jijiu twitched his lips and turned his eyes away from his mother. Lined up on the side were his wife, his two sons, two daughters, and his good-for-nothing younger brother.

This group of people are of different ages, but without exception, they were a lot rounder than before.

At this moment, everyone’s eyes fell on the mooncake gift box in his hand, and they signaled him to open it quickly: so that everyone could eat mooncakes in advance and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival early!

(End of this chapter)

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