A small breakfast shop in the street market, supporting the family and making money

"It's made by my aunt, so I'll have to eat a few more bowls."

Leng Yan was very considerate and took the porcelain bowl after she simply washed up. The sweet and fragrant taste filled her mouth as soon as she took a bite.

"Mmm, it's fragrant and sweet and tastes great!"

Leng Yan couldn't help but narrow her eyes: "Aunt, you also added osmanthus honey, right? This tastes so fragrant!"

"Ah."

Chen Yueshu nodded: "Sweet wine made from osmanthus honey, brown sugar and fermented glutinous rice is good for girls. Sister Su and girl Yan, you should drink more."

Leng Su and Leng Yan nodded continuously. After breakfast, the sun outside was already high in the sky.

The cool sunshine in the first month of the lunar year was already warm, so Leng Yan, her aunt and her sister-in-law found some dried peanuts from the utility room, and moved a small stool to sit in the yard and peel the peanut shells while basking in the sun.

The three of them chatted and laughed about family matters, it was very warm and comfortable.

"Time flies by so fast, and it's already the Lantern Festival."

Chen Yueshu was peeling peanuts in a winnowing basket, her face full of melancholy and reluctance.

After the Lantern Festival, the Chinese New Year is over, which means Leng Kang, an official in the court, has to go on duty, and they have to leave Lengzhan Village and rush to the capital.

In fact, they should have left for Beijing a long time ago, but because this was Leng Kang's first reunion year with his family, his colleagues specially changed his shift after finding out.

After Leng Kang returned from the battlefield, he was seriously injured and lost his memory. After his immediate superior died, he was taken back to the capital by his superior's superior.

Afterwards, he slowly recovered from his injuries. As they were not serious and they were afraid that his amnesia would have any sequelae, his superiors arranged a job for him as a gatekeeper. Later, he was promoted to the rank of city gate officer.

In this dynasty, the city gate guards were ninth-rank officials. Leng Kang was unfamiliar with the place at first, and had no relatives or friends in the prosperous capital.

Knowing that he had lost his memory, his superiors assigned him this job so that he could have more contact with passers-by. If he was lucky, he might run into his family during the inspection at the city gate. It was always more hopeful than staying in a deserted military camp.

This decision also completely changed Leng Kang, because he met his superior Chen Zhengan here.

Chen Zhengan is the captain of the city gate, with a rank of fourth grade. He is Leng Kang's superior, Chen Yueshu's father, and now Leng Kang's father-in-law.

Regarding Leng Kang's amnesia, his former superior gave a special message to Chen Zhengan, asking him to take care of him.

When Chen Zhengan first heard about amnesia, he found it very strange. On Leng Kang's first day on duty, he asked someone to come over to recognize his face.

This sight surprised him again. Leng Kang had sharp eyebrows and a tall and straight figure. He looked like a man from the battlefield, but his facial features were particularly handsome with thick eyebrows and big eyes.

After a brief conversation, he found that he was a generous, steady and unfawning person, which was quite to Chen Zhengan's liking.

Later, after getting to know him better, I learned that he had no relatives or friends due to amnesia, so I often invited people to my home for dinner.

As time went by, Chen Zhengan found Leng Kang more and more pleasing to his eye, and he began to think of recruiting him as his son-in-law.

By chance, Chen Zhengan and his wife arranged for him to let his daughter meet Leng Kang from a distance.

Leng Kang was good-looking, and his parents also praised him for his good character, so Chen Yueshu, who was in the boudoir, fell in love with him at first sight.

Seeing that his daughter was interested, Chen Anzheng mentioned the matter to Leng Kang.

At that time, Leng Kang felt that he was not worthy of her and refused the marriage because his family had not been found. However, he was later persuaded by the old fox Chen Zhengan to agree, and he even said that he would send someone to help find his family.

Later, Leng Kang and Chen Yueshu met several times before they got married. They fell in love with each other from the first contact, and they have been living in harmony since marriage.

Thinking back to the past, Chen Yueshu felt a little relieved because of her reluctance.

"Sister-in-law, it's a holiday today, don't be unhappy."

Leng Su knew why Chen Yueshu was sad, and kept comforting her: "We'll talk about the future later, let's just celebrate the festival happily today."

"Yes, auntie, this is also your home. You can return to it anytime and anywhere."

Leng Yan also followed suit to persuade him, but he had other plans in mind.

Today is the Lantern Festival and we are going to make glutinous rice dumplings, and of course we have to eat the most classic black sesame filling.

So after they peeled the peanuts, Leng Su prepared the most important black sesame seeds, sugar and lard for the black sesame glutinous rice balls filling, while Leng Yan fried the peanut kernels.

They peeled a lot of peanuts, and Leng Yan thought about her grandfather, father, and uncle drinking, so she left some peanut kernels, fried them slowly in hot oil over low heat, then served them out, mixed them with seasonings, and fried them into crispy peanuts.

She mixed the remaining peanut kernels with flour and eggs, fried them, and then added sugar to make sweet and fragrant peanuts for the children at home.

After she rubbed off the skins of the fried peanuts and crushed them into granules with a rolling pin, she used the same method on the black sesame seeds.

Adding a small amount of peanut kernels to the black sesame filling can enhance the flavor of the filling.

After all the ingredients were prepared, Leng Su brought over the appropriate amount of white sugar and melted lard. Then Leng Yan added the crushed peanuts and black sesame seeds to the white sugar and mixed them evenly. Then he added lard and water and mixed them into a dough.

Adding lard to the filling not only enhances the flavor, but also has another function. After the filling is evenly stirred, it slowly cools and solidifies as the temperature of the lard changes, but becomes fluid again after being heated.

This not only makes it possible to wrap the filling better, but also makes the black sesame filling flow out like quicksand when you bite into the glutinous rice balls, and the taste is extremely delicious.

Leng Yan doesn’t like eating glutinous rice balls very much. If she does, she will only eat a few with black sesame fillings. She doesn’t like other flavors either. After all, she will get sick of it if she eats too much.

After several people prepared the fillings, they began to knead the dough and make the skin. The glutinous rice flour used to make the dumplings had been ground a few days ago. All they had to do was add water and mix it. There was no need to roll out the skin. Just grab a piece of the mixed glutinous rice flour with your hands, roll it into a ball, flatten it, and then wrap it with the black sesame filling that had been portioned out. In this way, a round black sesame dumpling is ready.

It was the first time for both Chen Yueshu and Leng Su to make glutinous rice balls and they found it very interesting.

Chen Yueshu said so because in the past, the dumplings were made by the cook in the family. Leng Su said so because dumplings, which are made with rice, lard and sugar, are too expensive for ordinary people, so according to the Leng family’s situation in the past, they could not afford it.

Therefore, the people who were wrapping the dumplings found it novel and fun, and they finished wrapping enough for the whole family in just a short while.

Just at this time, Grandpa Leng, Leng Kang, Leng Xun and Zhang Cuiniang also returned from the town driving a ox cart with several children.

The shop was busy today because it was a holiday, so they went to help out early in the morning and now it was time for lunch when they got back.

"Mother, sister-in-law, and elder sister, we bought lanterns."

As soon as Leng Nianzhi got off the ox cart, he excitedly ran into the kitchen holding a lantern.