After transmigrating into the body of a widow, I became the richest man in the capital.

Chapter 210 Making Mooncakes

The Emperor thought to himself, "Luckily I don't have homosexual tendencies, otherwise I would have been turned gay by you sooner or later."

He shook his head, sighed, and went to wash up.

Pei Yuan quickly followed, preparing to wash his face thoroughly.

Sigh, we've been found out after all!

Su Xiaoxiao's preserved duck was finally ready, and she thought she would make a preserved duck hot pot for the Emperor in the next few days.

There was also a stir-fried preserved duck. When the emperor left, they planned to bring him back to the capital to eat an extra preserved duck.

Once the Ghost Festival is over, the Mid-Autumn Festival will be just around the corner.

This is Su Xiaoxiao's first Mid-Autumn Festival since arriving in ancient times. As she looks at the moon in the sky, which is getting rounder every day, her longing for her family begins to grow stronger. Although she can no longer reunite with her family, she can still make the most of this festival.

The emperor ate the preserved duck hotpot and was amazed, considering it a delicacy from heaven.

"I have never eaten such delicious hot pot before. This time I have truly broadened my horizons."

Su Xiaoxiao thought to herself, "You're an emperor, how come you've never eaten anything before? You look so ignorant, how pathetic!"

Su Xiaoxiao has been buying flour these past few days in preparation for making mooncakes.

The emperor decided not to leave until after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Unable to persuade the Emperor, Eunuch Liu had no choice but to compromise again. However, Su Xiaoxiao was so anxious that the wrinkles on her face were almost bursting open, and her face seemed to turn into a full moon.

Su Xiaoxiao took out the salted duck eggs that the villagers had given her a few days ago. These past few days, when everyone was eating, they saw that there were salted duck eggs on the table, but the yolks were missing.

Everyone asked Su Xiaoxiao, completely bewildered, "The yolk is supposed to be the best part of a salted duck egg, why did you remove it? Were you keeping it for yourself to eat secretly?"

"Yeah, Su Xiaoxiao, so many, don't you find it too sweet?"

Su Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at everyone, "What do you know?"

Su Xiaoxiao went to the market again and bought a few pounds of lean pork, which she then cooked.

When she visited Aunt Wang's house to see her daughter-in-law, Aunt Wang gave her some red beans.

After the red beans are cooked, they can be mashed into red bean paste. Then Su Xiaoxiao checked and found that all the ingredients were ready.

This time, the proportions must be right. Su Xiaoxiao mixed the dough with sugar and lard, then stirred it slightly, put it in a bowl, and let the dough rest.

Su Xiaoxiao cooked the red beans again, and then mashed them into red bean paste.

After letting it cool outside, Su Xiaoxiao realized how important kneading the dough was. She wasn't actually lacking in strength; she was just too lazy to knead the dough because it was too tiring for her wrists.

Su Xiaoxiao decided to entrust the kneading of the dough to Pei Yuan and the Emperor, since it required kneading a large amount of dough.

Su Xiaoxiao poured the dough onto the work surface and used a rolling pin to cut the dough into small portions.

After kneading the dough, Su Xiaoxiao laid a sheet of dough on the work surface, placed a salted egg yolk inside, and then wrapped it up.

Next, Su Xiaoxiao demonstrated how to wrap the red bean paste inside. She brushed oil into the mold to prevent sticking, and then pressed it onto the dough to shape it.

"These mooncakes are so beautiful!"

Everyone couldn't resist coming over to IE to manage this. Su Xiaoxiao taught them how to wrap mooncakes, and Pei Yuan and the others were all eager to try, wanting to wrap all kinds of fillings they liked.

This time, with many hands making light work, Su Xiaoxiao led everyone to make mooncakes one by one, with fillings such as red bean paste, pork, mixed nuts, and perilla. The first batch of mooncakes was thus formed and immediately taken out to bake.

This time, Su Xiaoxiao used a small oven she made herself. She slowly baked the mooncakes over low heat for about thirty minutes, less than an hour, and the first batch was ready.

This time, the baking time for the mooncakes was perfectly timed, and the resulting mooncakes were golden and sweet. The aroma wafted far and wide, making the Emperor and Eunuch Liu's mouths water. It was because they participated in the mooncake-making process that they found the mooncakes even more delicious.

Su Xiaoxiao took out the freshly baked mooncakes, washed her hands, blew on the mooncakes to dry them, and placed them in front of everyone.

"Look, this is a mooncake."

The Emperor utterly loathed salted duck egg yolks. He had eaten several salted duck eggs without yolks in the past few days, and now that the mooncakes were baked, he was determined to make up for it.

Da Bao and Xiao Bao clapped their hands and came over, vying to eat the mooncakes.

Su Xiaoxiao distributed the first batch of mooncakes to everyone and her neighbors.

However, the oven wasn't very big; it could only bake twenty at a time, and everyone still wasn't satisfied.

And so everyone started wrapping and baking mooncakes, working until it got dark before they finally finished.

Su Xiaoxiao's oven was constantly busy, and she had to watch over it. The already wrapped mooncakes were being lined up to be put into the oven, and Su Xiaoxiao couldn't help but feel a great sense of accomplishment looking at them.

Pei Yuan came to Su Xiaoxiao with a palm-leaf fan, fanning her while advising her, "You should go back now. I've seen you sitting here warming yourself for a while. Let me watch the fire for you!"

Su Xiaoxiao smiled and shook her head at him, "You should go out now, it's too hot here, I'm afraid you'll get heatstroke."

"I'm a man, do you think I'm that weak?"

Su Xiaoxiao couldn't help but laugh at Pei Yuan's appearance.

"Alright, I was just worried you wouldn't be able to control the heat. Baking mooncakes is quite troublesome. Don't worry, I'll just finish this batch, then take a shower and go to bed. I can bake the rest tomorrow."

Seeing that Su Xiaoxiao's face was covered in sweat, Pei Yuan walked over and wiped her face with a handkerchief.

"Here, take this handkerchief."

"It's so cold?"

Su Xiaoxiao instinctively flinched. "What's in this handkerchief?"

"I went to the ice cellar and brought in some ice packs to cool you down."

Su Xiaoxiao was surprised that Pei Yuan was so thoughtful. After wiping away her sweat, she waited until the whole batch of mooncakes was baked, then tidied up, picked up two mooncakes, handed one to Pei Yuan, and took one for herself. The two of them went to the courtyard and sat down on the ground.

Looking at the stars in the sky and eating the mooncake in my hand, I feel incredibly happy.

What kind of filling is yours?

Su Xiaoxiao asked Pei Yuan.

"It looks like pork."

"Really? I love pork filling the most."

"Here, take it!"

Pei Yuan seemed a little reluctant, "I don't want it, you've already taken a bite. There's your saliva on it..."

Su Xiaoxiao pretended to be disgusted. Pei Yuan looked at the mooncake in his hand and then at Su Xiaoxiao's lips. Then he gently leaned in and gave Su Xiaoxiao a light kiss on the lips.

"And now? You have my saliva on your lips, don't you mind now?"

"This……"

Pei Yuan smiled, then swapped the pork mooncake in his hand with the red bean paste mooncake in Su Xiaoxiao's hand, and said gently, "Eat up!"

(End of this chapter)