80s Transmigration: The Young Widow's Hustle to Riches-Chapter 119 - 116: A Joyful Toil

When Yang Dingbang got home from work, he told Lin Lan what Ye San had confessed, warning her to be careful of Liu Jinbao.

Lin Lan nodded. "Don’t worry. Other than manning my stall, I only go to the foot of the mountain to cut grass for the ox. I won’t go anywhere else."

"Good. Just be careful. If something happens and I’m not around, you can ask Xiangyang for help," Yang Dingbang said.

Lin Lan said gratefully, "Thank you, Ding Bang. You and Xiangyang have already helped me so much."

"You’re too kind, Sister-in-law." Yang Dingbang smiled and rode his bike home.

From then on, Lin Lan paid no more attention to Ye San’s case. She was busy preparing ingredients for mooncakes: buying duck eggs to salt, flour, glutinous rice, white sugar, rock sugar, honey, melon seeds, sweet almonds, and black and white sesame seeds.

After soaking the glutinous rice until it swelled, she ground it into a slurry with a stone mill. She poured the slurry into a cloth bag and hung it from a roof beam to drip dry, then broke the resulting paste into small pieces and laid them on a mat to dry in the sun. The autumn air was crisp and clear, and they were bone-dry after two days of sunning.

With everything ready, it was already the end of July. Zhou Xiaohong told Lin Lan that the supply and marketing co-op had started selling mooncakes.

Lin Lan went to take a look. Brown sugar-filled mooncakes were ten cents each and also required two liang of grain coupons. The others weren’t cheap either, and you had to wait in line to buy them.

With all the ingredients assembled, Lin Lan began to make the sugar syrup. Unable to find lemons, she bought some freshly-marketed calamondins as a substitute.

She took some charcoal embers out of the stove. In an enamel basin, she combined granulated sugar and water, stirring briefly with chopsticks. After bringing it to a boil over medium heat, she added the calamondin juice and let it simmer slowly over low heat for nearly an hour. Once the syrup had turned an amber color, she removed the basin from the heat to cool, then poured the syrup into a ceramic jar and sealed it for storage.

She washed and peeled the ham, rinsed it several times with clean water, and let it soak for two or three hours. Then, she cut it into thick slices and steamed it over high heat for twenty minutes.

After the steamed ham cooled, she diced it into mung bean-sized pieces, mixed in honey, and placed it in a basket to marinate overnight, suspended inside the well.

The next day, she poured the flour needed for the filling into a wok and toasted it over low heat. When the flour turned yellow and gave off a faint, wheaty aroma, she transferred it to a basin to cool.

Lin Lan started on the mooncake wrappers. She poured honey, powdered sugar, and water into a ceramic basin and stirred until uniform. Then, she sifted in some flour and mixed well before adding lard, baking powder, and baking soda. After combining everything, she sifted in more flour as needed, kneading it all into a smooth dough. She covered it with a large wooden basin to rest for half an hour, then divided the rested dough into small, equal portions.

She took out the marinated ham bits and mixed them with candied winter melon. Next, she added lard and powdered sugar, mixing them in. Depending on the wetness of the filling, she gradually added the toasted flour and mixed it in, then divided the filling into equal portions.

Lin Yuezhen watched her movements. ’She’s so skilled, like an old master with decades of experience,’ she thought. ’Not at all like someone doing this for the first time. The Lin family doesn’t have any pastry chefs. When did she learn to make all these cakes and pastries so well?’

Lin Lan looked up and saw her sister staring at her thoughtfully. Only then did she realize she’d given herself away. She laughed dryly. "You know what a glutton I am. When I was studying in town, I pestered the master chef in the cafeteria to teach me a trick or two."

"After I married into this family, the Yangs’ youngest son didn’t care about me, so I went to the scrap station, bought some cookbooks, and taught myself. Maybe I was just born to make a living with my hands. The pastries I make all taste pretty good."

Hearing this, Lin Yuezhen started to laugh, amused that her little sister’s gluttony from childhood had ended up becoming her livelihood.

Lin Lan smiled and divided the rested dough into small balls. She flattened one, placed a ball of the prepared filling in the center of the wrapper, and used the web of her hand to slowly push the dough upwards. Finally, she sealed the opening tightly, rolled it into a ball, and gently pressed it flat. A raw ham-filled mooncake was now ready.

One baking sheet held twenty-four mooncakes. Once it was full, she used a stamp dipped in red food coloring to mark the tops. When all four baking sheets were filled, the oven had also reached the right temperature. Lin Lan put the trays in to bake.

She took off her watch and handed it to Lin Yuezhen. "Sis, follow the times I’ve marked down. As soon as the time is up, take the baking sheets out."

Lin Yuezhen nodded, took the watch, and placed the baking sheets into the oven according to the times Lin Lan had recorded. When the time was up, she took them out. The ham mooncakes on the tray were golden brown, looking absolutely appetizing.

She happily carried the baking sheet into the kitchen and gestured to Lin Lan with a huge smile. "They smell so good, and they look beautiful."

Lin Lan took a look and felt they were quite a success. She smiled. "Let them cool a bit, then we can eat them."

After they cooled for a moment, they each tried a piece. With the first bite, the aroma of the ham burst forth. The crust was flaky and melted in the mouth, while the ham filling was a perfect, delicious balance of salty and sweet.

Lin Yuezhen gave Lin Lan a thumbs-up. She felt that, even in her thirties, this was the first time she had ever eaten such a delicious mooncake. It seemed Lin Lan was born to be a cook.

Lin Lan put on a smug look. "Of course! Don’t you know who I am?"

The two of them finished preparing and baking all the ham mooncakes. They wrapped them in pairs, packed them into a large basket, and then began to make the egg yolk mooncakes.

After separating the salted egg yolks, she soaked them in cooked vegetable oil overnight. Then, she took them out, placed them on a baking sheet, and sprinkled a little white wine over them to remove any gamey smell. She baked them in the oven for a few minutes until the bottoms of the yolks were slightly oily, then removed them to cool and set aside.

She flattened the prepared kidney bean paste, placed an egg yolk in the middle, and rolled it into a ball. The dough wrappers were rolled into long logs, cut into portions, and flattened. After placing the filling inside and sealing them, she brushed a little oil inside a mooncake mold. She pressed the raw mooncake into the mold to shape it, then placed it in the oven to bake for a few minutes before brushing it with an egg yolk wash and continuing to bake.

After finishing a batch of the ham and egg yolk mooncakes, Lin Lan moved on to making five-nut and red bean paste varieties.

Yang Liying came over for a taste. She said she had only ever bought red bean paste and brown sugar mooncakes before and praised Lin Lan’s, saying they tasted even better than the ones from the co-op.

Lin Lan asked Zhao Dehai to weave a bamboo basket for her. She packed it with the fermented tofu and dried mushrooms Lin Yuezhen had brought back, along with several packs of each flavor of mooncake. She mailed it to Old Chen using the address he had sent her.

A few days later, she received a package from Old Chen. Inside was a letter saying he had returned to a post at a university. He also gave Lin Lan an address in the city, telling her to go there and find Chen Dong if she needed anything.

That afternoon, the freshly baked mooncakes were snatched up by Zhou Xiaohong and the Wang Zhixue brothers. The three of them left a few for Lin Lan and went off to set up their own stalls.

Lin Lan took a serving plate and a wooden board, and went with Lin Yuezhen to the Eucalyptus Forest, with her sister carrying an A-frame back carrier.

She placed the wooden board on the back carrier, turning it into a makeshift table. She arranged the packs of mooncakes on top. The brown kraft paper was wrapped with a layer of large red paper, looking very festive.

Lin Lan cut open a few mooncakes of different flavors and placed them on the plate for everyone to sample.

When Li Wu and the others saw Lin Lan selling mooncakes, they all said they would buy from her for the festival.

A woman who often bought pastries and orchid beans from her tried a piece and smiled. "Not bad. This tastes better than the co-op’s five-nut. Pack me two of each. I’ll take them home for my family to try, and then I’ll be back for more."

Lin Lan said enthusiastically, "If you’re buying them as festival gifts, you can place an order in advance. I’ll make a fresh batch for you then."

The woman smiled and nodded. "Great. I’ll come by ahead of time to place my order."

When it was time to pack up, Lin Lan took the mooncakes she had made for Li Xiangyang from her basket and gave them to him. She said with a smile, "I added some extra ingredients to your ham mooncakes. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied."

Li Xiangyang looked at her, his eyes full of laughter. "I’m not responsible if you take a loss on them!"