The Little Life of a Big Landlord

Chapter 49 Mold

"I'm so sorry to have troubled you. We can't accept this money for nothing." At this moment, Aunt Liu came out, still clutching a few old bills in her hand.

"Sister Liu, from what you're saying, we only bought gifts for Bao'er because we like her. If you really give us money, our two families will stop seeing each other from now on." Wei Qingqing made her words sound quite serious.

"If that's how you put it, then I have nothing more to say." Aunt Liu put the money away again. Thinking about it, it made sense; she had contracted the mountain land, and the other party had even paid the contract fee for her.

"That's more like it," Wei Qingqing smiled with satisfaction, then asked, "Have you eaten?"

"We're eating right now! But Mom's cooking isn't good at all," Xiao Bao'er replied quickly, clutching her learning machine tightly.

"Little glutton, come on, let's go to Auntie's house. Auntie's house is full of delicious food." Wei Qingqing grabbed Xiao Bao'er's little hand and pulled Liu Sao's hand with her other hand, and they walked into the yard together.

"Let Bao'er go, I'll go home to eat..." It was already dark, and Aunt Liu was reluctant to go to Yang Ming's house.

"We're neighbors, why be so polite? You're so busy all day, how could you have time to cook something delicious?" Wei Qingqing said without waiting for a reply, pulling her away.

A group of puppies followed closely behind, surrounding them.

"Yes, after working, we need to replenish our nutrition. Today, Bao'er has done a great job. I can finally have a good meal of stir-fried grasshoppers." Yang Ming was drooling as he carried a large string of grasshoppers that Bao'er had caught.

"What's loaded on your truck? Aren't you going to unload it?" Aunt Liu asked, seeing that the truck was loaded with a lot of things.

"These are all old furniture pieces from my parents' place. They're quite heavy. We can get them ready when Lao Yang comes tomorrow," Wei Qingqing said.

"Aunt Qingqing, I really like your little spotted dog. Can I have one?" Xiao Bao'er asked, looking at the little spotted dog with some envy.

"Why do you always want this and that, child?" Xiao Bao'er was just a child and didn't understand the value of these puppies, but Aunt Liu knew that these spotted dogs were worth a lot of money.

Actually, Xiao Bao'er only asked for this dog because there were the most Dalmatians. Besides, it's very common to ask for a puppy in the countryside.

"Oh? Xiao Bao'er likes puppies too?" Wei Qingqing remembered that Xiao Bao'er didn't really like cats and dogs.

"Uncle Zhang Yang said that there are big gray wolves on the mountain. What if Mom goes up the mountain alone and gets carried away by a big gray wolf? Then, Bao'er will be all alone at home. I'll feel at ease knowing that the puppy is with Mom," Bao'er said.

Although these words were naive, they made the group of people feel a little sad.

"I can't give you these puppies from my aunt's house, but my aunt's dog has given birth to another litter of puppies. I'll get you two in a couple of days." The mother dog in Yang Ming's farm space has already given birth to nine more puppies, and they're almost open their eyes in just half a day.

Xiao Bao was initially disappointed when she heard that her aunt wouldn't give her any, but when she heard that her aunt would actually give her two, she immediately became happy: "Thank you, Auntie."

"I know your spotted dogs are very valuable, not just a learning machine..." Children may not understand, but adults can't be. Aunt Liu was about to decline, but before she could finish, Wei Qingqing interrupted her, "It's nothing, they're all from your own dogs. It's normal for neighbors to want a puppy... Our two big dogs were also from a neighbor." To prevent Aunt Liu from refusing again, Wei Qingqing even made up a lie.

"Well, alright then..." As expected, Aunt Liu didn't say anything more.

"Sister Liu, your mooncakes are so delicious! Can I learn how to make mooncakes from you?" Wei Qingqing asked.

"Of course, it's quite simple. Come to my house later, and I'll teach you." Aunt Liu readily agreed.

"Thank you, Aunt Liu. Let's go cook first. After dinner, we'll make mooncakes. My mother will be so happy to eat the mooncakes I made myself during the Mid-Autumn Festival," Wei Qingqing said happily.

The night is deep, and the moon is about to be full.

After dinner, Yang Ming and Xiao Bao watched TV at home, while Wei Qingqing went with Aunt Liu to Aunt Liu's house to learn how to make mooncakes.

The light in the outer room of Aunt Liu's house was on, but the wattage was low, and the light was dim and yellowish.

After washing the basin clean, Aunt Liu scooped a full ladle of flour from the flour jar. She explained, "Making mooncakes is very simple. You just use dry yeast to make the dough, then wrap the filling inside like you're making dumplings, press it into a mold, and bake it in the oven for about half an hour."

"What kind of oven do you have? Will a regular oven work?" Wei Qingqing asked.

"An oven would be even better, but we don't have one at home, so I made my own oven..." Aunt Liu introduced her mooncake oven to Wei Qingqing.

This is a brick structure, resembling a stove, but instead of a pot, it holds a large iron plate. Above the plate is a low iron rack for placing food to be baked. The lid is like a large iron basin, fitting snugly.

When using it, you light a fire under the stove and heat the iron plate until it's red-hot, emitting intense heat, which is how you cook things.

"You know what, it looks simple, but it's actually quite useful. At least it's much bigger than an oven," Wei Qingqing nodded repeatedly.

"Let me teach you how to make dough. Making mooncakes requires dry yeast, just like kneading leavened dough. By the way, the dry yeast I'm talking about isn't gluten..." Aunt Liu poured the flour into a basin, then scooped out a small spoonful of light brown powder from a small jar and sprinkled it into the flour. Then she added water and kneaded the dough. "This dry yeast is something I saved from making mooncakes last year. I dried it, ground it into powder, and kept it for next year. It worked quite well."

"Doesn't this look like leavened dough?"

"More or less!"

Once the dough is kneaded, let it rest in the bowl for a while. Then, Aunt Liu began to teach Wei Qingqing how to prepare the filling: "The filling is simple. You can decide what flavor you want, just like making dumpling filling. But you have to use sugar, and honey would be even better."

Aunt Liu used three kinds of fillings: peanuts, melon seeds, and sesame seeds, which she had prepared long ago for making mooncakes this year.

After preparing the filling, Aunt Liu took out a mooncake mold. The mold was very simple; it was just a round hole carved into a thick wooden board with patterns engraved inside.

"This mooncake mold is quite pretty..." Wei Qingqing took it and looked at it.

"This was made by Bao'er's father himself, it's been five or six years." Looking at the mooncake mold, Aunt Liu smiled wryly.

"Oh! By the way, Aunt Liu, are you planning to find a father for Bao'er?" Wei Qingqing said casually.

"..." Aunt Liu didn't speak, but her expression turned cold. She took the mooncake mold from Wei Qingqing's hand and began to make mooncakes in silence.

Wei Qingqing stuck out her tongue, knowing that her probing had displeased Aunt Liu, and that she needed to make amends quickly, otherwise their relationship would cool down. So she said, "Really, Aunt Liu, Bao'er is so pitiful without a father, and Yang Ming really likes her..."

"What did you say?" Aunt Liu's face had darkened after hearing Wei Qingqing's previous words, and she was about to turn hostile when she heard Wei Qingqing mention Yang Ming, so she was taken aback.

"I said, Yang Ming really likes her and wants to adopt her as his goddaughter..."

"...Oh! You mean this..." Aunt Liu blushed, realizing she had misunderstood. "Of course it'll be great, Bao'er will be overjoyed..."

"What happened to you just now? Why did you look so pale?"

"You brat, how dare you say that? You can't even speak properly..."

"Huh?" Wei Qingqing pretended to be stupid.

"It's nothing, it's nothing..." Aunt Liu touched her rosy cheeks and kept making mooncakes in silence.

"Oh... I see..." Wei Qingqing pretended to suddenly realize.

"Qingqing, have you heard? Aunt Zheng Yu is pregnant. When Uncle Zheng Yu got married, many people in the village said that she was too old to have children..." Aunt Liu changed the subject again.

"How many days has it been? You can tell already?" Wei Qingqing asked curiously.

"Uncle Zheng Yu was so desperate for a child that he started going to the hospital for checkups every three days, once a day. Today, when he came back, the news that Aunt Zheng Yu was pregnant spread throughout the village. Third Uncle and Third Aunt were overjoyed," said Aunt Liu.

The "Third Uncle and Third Aunt" that Aunt Liu mentioned are Zheng Yu's parents.

"I see." Wei Qingqing nodded, but her heart grew heavy. If this child were born and Zheng Yu really dumped him in front of Grandpa Zheng's house, how would the child's grandparents react? And how would the child's mother react?

The child's mother is young and might be able to withstand the blow, but what about the two elderly people? Before they had a grandson, they might not have been so bothered, but after having a grandson and then losing him, if they weren't dealt another blow, they would be...

Thinking of this, Wei Qingqing had no heart left to make mooncakes. She didn't hear a word that Aunt Liu said; only one sentence kept echoing in her mind: Yang Ming has done something terrible.

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