Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 129 Osmanthus Honey Water

Shen Yu smiled and tried to smooth things over: "Let Aunt Jiang and Dun Dun help me deliver the food. This cart is so heavy, I'm afraid I won't be able to pull it if I only bring Dun Dun and Yu Tao with me."

Li quickly followed Shen Yu's words and said, "Look at me, I'm so happy that I'm confused. This car is calm. Sister Jiang, you and Dun Dun should help Yuzhi deliver the food. I'll take Yutao to Xiaotuanyuanbing."

Jiang then relaxed and went briskly to help Shen Yu move the porridge basket.

Every day when delivering food at noon, they would see Zhao Dayong and Liu Sanjiang, two yamen runners. Shen Yu asked Dun Dun to put the two boxes of small reunion cakes that he had prepared, as well as some small reunion cakes for tasting, into a food box and put it on the car.

Shen Yu, along with Jiang and Dun Dun, delivered the lunch meals one by one.

He gave two boxes of small reunion cakes to the yamen runners and said a lot of words of thanks. He also gave each family two small reunion cakes with different fillings and patterns, introduced them, and asked them to taste how they tasted, how to customize them, etc.

As a result, the time taken to deliver the meal almost doubled.

After delivering the last portion, the three returned home, but to their surprise, neither Li nor Yucheng had returned.

Shen Yu was a little puzzled. Li only delivered 25 small reunion cakes, and there were only four or five families in total. How could the return be slower than when he delivered meals for the entire street?

Jiang smiled and said, "Miss Yuzhi must be exhausted. She introduced every store and said so much that I was tired just listening."

Shen Yu smiled and said, "I'm not tired, I'm just thirsty."

After hearing this, Dun Dun hurriedly went into the house and poured a glass of water for Shen Yu, and said with a smile: "Sister Yuzhi, try it quickly. This is the sweet-scented osmanthus honey water that my mother cooked this morning. It's warm now and tastes just right."

Shen Yu took it and took a big sip. The water temperature was indeed as Dun Dun said, warm and very comfortable to drink. The osmanthus honey was sweet and fragrant, but it was light and barely noticeable. It was not the kind of greasy sweetness, but very thirst-quenching.

Shen Yu drank a large cup of osmanthus honey in one breath, while Jiang was busy preparing lunch. Dun Dun was helping Jiang.

Shen Yu was thinking about Li and Yutao, and was about to go outside to take a look when he heard Li's usual loud laughter coming closer.

When the gate of the courtyard opened, Mrs. Li and Mrs. Xu came in together, followed by Yutao and Yucheng.

Shen Yu was stunned for a moment. Why did Xu Ma come here too?

Aunt Xu saw Shen Yu standing in the yard. She took two quick steps forward and saluted, saying, "Hello, Fourth Miss. It was the Second Young Mistress who asked me to come here with Young Master Yucheng."

Shen Yu asked doubtfully, "Does Third Sister have anything to tell you?"

Aunt Xu said with a big smile on her face, "Second Young Madam asked me to follow you and get to know the way. She said that Fourth Young Miss has a lot of things to do. If there are still people who want to order small reunion cakes from our family, she asked me to come and tell Fourth Young Miss. When they are ready, she also asked me to come and get them, so that Fourth Young Miss doesn't have to send them over and saves her the trouble of running around."

Shen Yu smiled and said, "Third sister is really thoughtful. Go back and thank your Second Young Madam for me."

Aunt Xu raised the food box she had been carrying and said, "Inside these are a plate of cloud cakes and a plate of jade cakes. They are both snacks made of glutinous rice. They were made in the kitchen this morning. Bring them here for the fourth young lady to try."

Shen Yu took it with a smile and thanked Xu Ma. Seeing that everything her master had asked her to do had been done, Xu Ma bowed and left.

After seeing off Xu Ma, Shen Yu finally had some free time to ask Li: "Mom, why did it take you so long to deliver those boxes of small reunion cakes?"

Mrs. Li said happily, "These ladies are so talkative. I thought I would just leave after delivering the cakes, but they insisted on opening each box and asking me to tell them what the fillings were. They said they never ordered a box of small reunion cakes with different fillings. They asked me to tell them so that they could talk loudly and show off when they delivered the cakes."

Li said hurriedly, "Go and get me a glass of water. I've been talking so much and my mouth is dry."

Shen Yu poured two cups of sweet-scented osmanthus honey water and handed them to Li and Yutao. Li drank them all in one gulp and said thankfully, "Fortunately, I was there with them when the little reunion cakes were made. Otherwise, I really wouldn't be able to remember how many fillings there were. Fortunately, I brought Yutao with me. Her memory is much better than mine."

Yu Tao was also beaming with joy. She held a water cup in her hand and whispered to Shen Yu, "Sister, mother received a lot of money today, all in silver coins."

Shen Yu nodded, and he and Yutao looked at Li with a smile.

Li seemed to have remembered this, and took out a small purse from her bosom, handed it to Shen Yu, and said, "These ladies have prepared silver coins for me, you can deposit them later."

Shen Yu then realized that he had been so busy these past two days that he hadn't even carved a seal yet. He would have to think about getting one carved on the way to the bank.

After lunch, only four boxes of small reunion cakes for Uncle Fusheng of Qiaozuoju were left unmade, so Li urged everyone to go to sleep for a while. In order to rush to make the small reunion cakes, they had been getting up early and going to bed late in the past few days, without any rest at noon.

Everyone was sleepy, so they quickly cleaned up the dishes and went to rest.

After a sound sleep, Shen Yu opened his eyes and found that the room had become dark.

Shen Yu jumped up, quickly put on his clothes and left the room.

The courtyard was bustling with activity. Mrs. Li and Mrs. Jiang were preparing the fillings for tomorrow, chatting quietly while doing their work.

Dun Dun, Yu Tao and Yu Cheng gathered around the small table, whispering something, and it sounded like they were practicing arithmetic problems.

Li saw Shen Yu coming out and said with a smile, "You're awake now. Wash your face quickly. We'll have dinner soon."

Shen Yu said a little embarrassedly: "Mom, how come you are all awake and no one woke me up."

Jiang said, "Sister Li feels sorry for you. These past few days, you have been busy with the reunion cakes from morning till night. Today, I finally have some free time. Seeing that you are sleeping soundly, I will let you have a good sleep."

Li also said, "You have hardly had any free time in the past two days. Tomorrow morning we will be selling small reunion cakes at the food stall, so we will be busy again. Take a good rest today. Earning money is important, but you can't just stop eating and sleeping for the sake of money. That won't work."

Shen Yu had a sound sleep and felt much more energetic. He felt that wrapping two hundred small reunion cakes right away would be no problem.

She smiled and said, "It's still mother and Aunt Jiang who care about me."

Li smiled and said, "Go and call the three of them. The soup is almost ready. We'll have rice with water for dinner today. It's refreshing and appetizing. We'll also have your favorite garlic-flavored eggplant.

The next morning, people who went to Shen's bun stall to buy buns did not buy and leave as usual. Instead, they were attracted by a large tray of small reunion cakes with ingenious shapes and colorful colors placed next to the winnowing basket.