From the end to the other world

Qin Luochuan doesn't like to eat mooncakes with five kernels, but there are no other kinds of mooncakes except five kernels in Yuxi Town.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, there happened to be salted duck eggs at home, so he tried to make some mooncakes with lotus seed paste and egg yolk, but he was quite successful.

At the beginning, he was afraid of failure, so he prepared more raw materials. Unexpectedly, the first pot was successful. There were so many mooncakes baked that he and Qin Yan couldn't finish them, so they gave some away.

It's hard to imagine that people will miss it, but it's true, the lotus paste mooncake tastes smooth and fragrant, and it's normal for the elderly to like it.

Anyway, this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, he also has to do it, doing more or less, so he asked He Feixing, "How much do you want?"

He Feixing blurted out, "Five hundred."

Qin Luochuan: "..."

Qin Luochuan: "This can't be kept for a long time."

There is neither a refrigerator nor vacuum packaging, and the weather is hot during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the mooncakes will go bad after a short time after they are made.

Knowing that Qin Luochuan had misunderstood, He Feixing explained with a smile: "I plan to use the excess as a gift and sell it in a shop."

Qin Luochuan roughly calculated the materials needed for five hundred mooncakes and the time it would take to make them, and said, "I can try, but I may not be able to finish so many."

He Feixing: "It's okay, I want as much as you make."

Qin Luochuan thought for a while and said, "By the way, at least [-] catties of lotus seeds are needed for [-] moon cakes. I'm afraid I won't be able to buy all of them at once. If it's convenient for you, help me collect all the lotus seeds."

Although lotus seeds are produced near Yuxi Town, they are not many, and they cost [-] catties at a time. The shops in the town may not be able to afford it. He Feixing's side is different, not to mention that he has many shops himself. It's also much easier to buy from elsewhere.

"Okay, this bag is on me." He Feixing responded readily, and then asked: "Is there anything else that needs to be prepared together?"

"No need." Qin Luochuan said: "Flour and rock sugar are easy to buy, I plan to make salted eggs myself."

He Feixing said with a strange expression when he heard the words: "Tell me all the materials to be used, Brother Qin, are you not afraid that I will steal your teacher?"

Qin Luochuan was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "Don't talk about telling you the ingredients, even if I give you these ratios, you may not be able to do it."

It's not that Qin Luochuan underestimated the cooks in He Feixing's family, but that invert syrup is needed to make lotus paste mooncakes. He learned last year that no one in this world can make them. If they can't buy invert syrup, they only settle for the next best thing. After buying rock sugar, I went to the mountains to pick wild limes and boiled them myself.

Hearing what he said, He Feixing knew that there was some secret recipe that others didn't know, so naturally he wouldn't ask any more, and just said, "When will I want the lotus seeds?"

"There's no rush," Qin Luochuan said, "Just buy all the mooncakes before making them."

He Feixing: "Then I'll have someone send it to you at that time."

Qin Luochuan came to town today mainly to accompany Shang Qingyue to send letters and do shopping.After negotiating with He Feixing, he didn't stay any longer.

In Yuxi Town, in addition to the post station set up by the government, there is also the Civil Letters Bureau, which transmits letters among the people.

The post station can only be used by officials, but the Civil Information Bureau is different. As long as you can afford the money, let alone letters, even other heavy items can be piggybacked.

It is somewhat similar to express delivery in modern society, but there are differences.

Express delivery is specialized in mailing things. The Civil Information Bureau is different. Because the social development is relatively backward, there are not many people who need to mail letters or carry items, so the Civil Information Bureau relies on stores for a living.

For example, the Civil Information Bureau here in Yuxi Town, as far as Qin Luochuan knows, is a cloth shop opened by a wealthy household in the capital. There are contacts between them, and there is a natural advantage in mailing letters.

When they arrived at Buzhuang Gate, Shang Qingyue looked at the word "Zhou Ji" on the plaque and the cloud-like pattern on the lower right, hesitated for a moment, and then walked in behind Qin Luochuan.

After learning that they were here to send letters, the clerk in the store took them to a small room on the second floor and invited the shopkeeper.

The cost of mailing a letter varies according to the distance, but it is not cheap, and it is normal for the shopkeeper to receive it alone.

There are pens, inks, papers and inkstones at home, and the letter merchant Qingyue wrote them last night, rolled them up and put them in the bamboo tube given by the shopkeeper, sealed them with wax face to face, and the shopkeeper took the paper and pen next to it and said: "This letter, sir Where is it going and who is it going to be given to?"

Shang Qingyue looked a little sad, and said in a low voice: "Shang Minghe is under General Sun's battalion in Southwest Rongcheng."

He wrote while talking about the shopkeeper, until he heard the word Shang Minghe, the shopkeeper stopped writing, looked up at Shang Qingyue, and asked uncertainly: "Are you Shang Qingyue, the third son of Shang?" ?”

The surprise in Shang Qingyue's eyes flashed away, and he asked, "Do you know me?"

"I don't know you," the shopkeeper said with a smile. "It was only two days ago that the young master of the shop sent me a message saying that you are near here. Let me inquire about it. I didn't expect to meet you by such a coincidence today."

After finishing speaking, he picked up the bamboo tube next to him and said: "Don't worry about the letter, we will send it to Rongcheng as quickly as possible, and hand it over to the second son of Shang. If there is news from Rongcheng, we will send it to you as soon as possible." inform you."

Shang Qingyue said with a complicated expression: "Thank you."

The shopkeeper just smiled and didn't respond.

After a pause, he asked again: "Young master asked me to inquire, how are you doing now?"

Shang Qingyue glanced at Qin Luochuan beside her, and said with a smile, "I'm doing well now, please tell him so that he...don't worry."

The shopkeeper also nodded and said, "That's good."

Shang Qingyue didn't want to continue this topic, so she asked, "How much is sending a letter?"

"I can't take your money," the shopkeeper quickly waved his hands, "If I take your money, I can't explain it to my boss."

Shang Qingyue: "If you accept him, he won't know."

"How can you not know, it's not that you don't understand the character of the young master," the shopkeeper said with a look of embarrassment, "Don't make things difficult for me."

After a moment of silence, Shang Qingyue finally nodded, "I see."

Afterwards, the shopkeeper personally sent the two of them downstairs, and when they passed by the lobby, he said, "There are a lot of new fabrics in the store, do you want to have a look, Third Young Master?"

"No need." Shang Qingyue shook her head, and walked out of the cloth village without stopping.

After Qin Luochuan turned a street, he called to Shang Qingyue and said, "Go slowly, we are not in a hurry."

Only then did Shang Qingyue stop, "I..."

Qin Luochuan: "If you don't want to say something, then don't say it, and I won't ask."

"No," Shang Qingyue said slowly, "The young master of the Zhou family is my brother's...friend, I used to have prejudice against him, but after something happened at home, he helped me a lot."

Qin Luochuan asked: "So you feel guilty?"

After thinking for a while, Shang Qingyue nodded with some confusion: "A little bit."

"Since you are my brother's friend, he must help you because my brother was good to him in the past, so don't feel guilty. If you have a chance to see him again in the future, just thank him face to face." Qin Luochuan said after finishing speaking, "Let's go, Let's go to the cloth shop to buy fabrics."

Shang Qingyue followed behind and opened her mouth, but said nothing more.

After buying the fabric, the two went to buy flour and rock sugar for making moon cakes, as well as a large amount of fine salt for salting duck eggs.

Although there is not much farm work at home, there are also many chores. I don't know when I will go to the town next time. Now that I am here, I will buy more.With this in mind, when the two went back, they couldn't even fit in two back baskets, so they had to rent a bullock cart to take them back.

On the way, Qin Luochuan thought that the limes used to boil invert syrup grow in the deep mountains, so he said to Shang Qingyue, "I'll take you to the mountains in a few days."

In addition to limes, some wild products that grow in the mountains are almost ripe, so we can pick some and eat them.