Translator: 549690339

After that, Aunt Xue began to boil the milk, which might be cow’s milk.

She added frosting and glutinous rice flour to the milk, stirred them with a stirring rod until the sugar was completely dissolved.

She then let it simmer over low heat, stirring constantly.

At first, it was watery and not thick at all, but as the temperature rose, the milk would gradually thicken.

When it finally turned into a very thick paste, she took the milk pot off the fire.

Because the temperature inside the pot was still quite high, she had to keep stirring for a while to keep the paste smooth and lump-free.

Then, while it was still hot, she used a spatula to pour the milk paste into a greased wooden tray, smoothing the surface as much as possible, before leaving it outside to cool.

Meanwhile, Aunt Xue prepared another bowl of glutinous rice flour, a bowl of beaten eggs, and some toasted breadcrumbs.

Once everything was ready, the milk pastes had already solidified into jelly. Aunt Xue cut them into pieces of about the width of a finger.

She used a flat spoon to scoop up a piece of the milk jelly and rolled it in the glutinous rice flour to lock in the moisture, then rolled it in the beaten egg, and finally in the breadcrumbs before frying it in the oil over low heat.

When it was fried to a golden brown color, she took it out and placed it on a plate lined with dry lotus leaves, and the crispy milk cakes were successfully made.

“Miss, try it.” Aunt Xue handed a pair of chopsticks to Yingbao, “Be careful, it’s hot.”

Yingbao took the chopsticks and took a bite out of a crispy milk cake.

The crust was crispy, the inside was tender, and her mouth was instantly filled with a rich sweet milk flavor.

“They’re really delicious.” Yingbao ate one and wanted to eat more, she was a bit unsatisfied.

Aunt Xue laughed: “These milk cakes taste best when freshly fried, they are not as good if left for a long time, so in our shop, we fry them on the spot.

If your home is not convenient for frying, you can directly coat the milk jelly with a layer of sugar bean powder, it will also be delicious.”

“Thank you for letting me know, Aunt,” Yingbao thanked her.

As for the sugar bean powder, she knew about it because her Second Aunt Yanru could make it.

It involved washing yellow soybeans, frying them in a pan until they were cooked, then crushing them into a powder, sieving the coarse grains out, adding powdered sugar and mixing evenly.

This kind of sugar bean powder was very sweet, and many kinds of pastries used it as a filling, or sprinkled it on the outside.

After learning how to make crispy milk cakes, Yingbao excused herself from the kitchen.

She went to the front hall looking for her older cousin but couldn’t find him. Uncle Chou and Aunt Chou were not there either, only little Jin Tong was playing with his bamboo toy horse in the courtyard.

Yingbao went over and asked: “Jin Tong, have you seen my older brother?”

Jin Tong nodded, wiped his nose, and pointed to a moon gate, “Sister took brother to feed the fishes.”

Yingbao looked at the moon gate. That should be the inner courtyard, right?

What was her cousin thinking, running off to the inner courtyard with a girl to feed fishes?

Yingbao quickly went over to check.

As soon as she entered the moon gate, she saw a flower lattice wall blocking her view.

This kind of flower lattice wall was not high, on top were carved windows. You could see the scene of the inner courtyard through the window, but Yingbao was short and couldn’t see anything even when she tiptoed.

Suddenly, she saw Uncle Chou and Aunt Chou peeking through the window into the courtyard.

“Uncle Chou, Aunt Chou.” Yingbao called out.

Chou Fugui and his wife were startled and quickly turned around. When they saw it was Yingbao, they sighed in relief.

“Oh dear, I was about to invite your brother for dinner.” Aunt Chou grinned and walked over. She took Yingbao’s hand and led her away from the flower lattice wall, while giving her husband a knowing glance.

Chou Fugui understood, coughed, and called towards the courtyard: “Rong’er, the dinner table is ready. Please invite Shopkeeper Jiang to come over for a meal.”

“Okay!” A crisp voice came from behind the lattice wall.

Aunt Chou led Yingbao to a flower hall. The square table in the hall had already been set with some dishes, and chopsticks. A kitchen maid was pouring tea from a hot water pot.

After a short while, Chou Fugui also walked in, hands behind his back, followed by his son Jin Tong. Behind them was Jiang Cheng, who was in turn followed by Miss Chou Rong.

As they entered in a line, they took their seats one after another.

Yingbao looked at her older cousin and noticed his composed demeanor and natural expression, which slightly alleviated her worries.

It seemed that Miss Chou Rong had indeed only taken him to feed the koi, and there was nothing ambiguous between the two.

During the meal, Chou Fugui blatantly and subtly complimented his daughter, and Jiang Cheng pretended not to understand, responding vaguely and saying nothing else, only burying his head to eat.

Madam Chou began to praise how clever and nimble Yingbao was again, encouraging her daughter to spend more time playing with Yingbao.

Yingbao naturally agreed.

Since she had just learned how to make their pastries, she could not turn her back on them.

After dinner, Chou Fugui personally sent the siblings home, also bringing two boxes of just-made crispy milk cakes for Yingbao.

In the afternoon of that day, Jiang Cheng went to pick up Yuanbao from his private school, and locked up the shop and backyard doors early next morning, taking his younger brother and sister, along with two large baskets of gifts, back to their hometown.

Yingbao had initially wanted to buy some sheep or cow’s milk in the county town and make crispy milk cakes for her family, but she failed to find any.

Helplessly, she could only divide the two boxes of milk cakes gifted by uncle Chou, one for Yuanbao and one for herself to give to her younger brother.

The cart drawn by the skinny horse didn’t travel fast, but it wasn’t slow either, about the same speed as a donkey cart.

The obedient young horse didn’t even need to be leashed, it followed the skinny horse all the way, without lagging behind at all.

These two horses were basically recovered now, but they still needed to be nursed slowly until they fully recovered.

“Yingbao, where did you put all those silvers?” Her younger cousin didn’t deposit the silver in the bank, which made Jiang Quan very curious.

More than a thousand taels, a hundred or so pounds of silver, where did Xiaotangmei hide them?

Yingbao patted a locked wooden box next to her and said, “In here.” In fact, she had stored them in her cave.

Jiang Quan looked at the wooden box, highly doubtful.

This was the box he had loaded onto the cart, and while it was somewhat heavy, it didn’t seem like it weighed a hundred or so pounds.

Forget it, why bother himself about it. Anyway, no one could beat his cousin in hiding things.

As the saying goes, on the twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month, you start rising the dough; on the twenty-ninth, you steam the bread.

The three sisters-in-law of the Jiang family joined together to make red bean buns, assorted bun fillings, and flower swirls.

The first steamer of steamed bread was tasted by Old Man Jiang and his wife Mrs. Jiang Liu, and only then were the children and grandchildren allowed to eat.

Yingbao and her brothers each took two buns with assorted fillings and ran out to the training ground for practice.

Children from the village also came to train, but most of them watched and cheered from the side.

After a session of training, Yingbao sat on a stone bench by the field to rest, when she saw Chuchu, the newly-wed bride in a green jacket, brought over a bowl of sweet soy milk.

“I just boiled this, try it.” Chuchu’s face was radiant with a sweet smile as she sat down next to Yingbao, teasing, “You didn’t even come back when I got married, you must have forgotten about me.”

Yingbao blinked her eyes.

She had indeed forgotten about it, but fortunately remembered when buying New Year’s gifts, so she specifically bought a pair of beaded flowers with silver and turquoise for Chuchu.

She took out a silver flower bead from her pocket and put it in Chuchu’s hand: “I picked this one from the county town, it’s a wedding gift for you.”

Chuchu opened the silk cloth package, took out the two silver bead flowers, and attached them to both sides of her hair bun, asking, “Do I look good?”

“You look good,” Yingbao nodded, took a sip of the sweet soy milk, its rich aroma engulfing her.

Chuchu looked too beautiful now, her face like a tender flower, delicate and charming, even the birthmark on her forehead couldn’t mar her beauty at all.

Chuchu hugged Yingbao and quietly thanked her: “Thank you, Yingbao.”

If Yingbao hadn’t taken her in back then, gave her silver and mushroom spores, she might have been married off by her father to some random person in that village. She might have never had the chance to see the world outside the mountain gully, let alone meet a good man like Zhang Lang.