You are my golden finger

Lin Xijin rode to the town on horseback, and when she came back she told Liang Derong to go to the town early the next morning to get the equipment for making mooncakes.

Liang Derong is a down-to-earth and hardworking man. I don’t know how early he set out. Before everyone had breakfast, he came back with a large cart full of things.

"Uncle De, why are you here so early? What did you bring back?" Xijia and Xinlan, who were playing at the door, came over and asked curiously.

"Oh, these are the utensils and ingredients that the master needs to make mooncakes!"

The two little girls didn't ask any more questions. They immediately changed direction and ran back to Lin Xijin. One of them held her arm and asked excitedly, "Sister, is it true? Are we going to make mooncakes ourselves?"

"It's true. The goods have been shipped back, so how can it be false?"

"Can we do it then?"

"It will be all right!"

After getting a satisfactory answer, the two little girls clapped their hands and jumped for joy.

An An didn't understand what was going on, so she clapped her hands too.

Duoduo and Mimi were circling around a few people.

Mimi had grown a lot and was now clearly a tiger cub, but the children and villagers were all used to it. No one was afraid of a big tiger, let alone a little tiger cub.

They did what they said. After breakfast, they moved the oven, molds and various ingredients for making mooncakes from the carriage to the kitchen, and Lin Xijin directed everyone to start making mooncakes.

Lin Xijin is going to make snow-skin mooncakes and baked mooncakes. There are three kinds of fillings for snow-skin mooncakes: custard filling, red bean paste filling, and purple sweet potato and taro paste filling; there are also three kinds of fillings for baked mooncakes: five-nut barbecued pork filling, egg yolk lotus seed paste filling, and red bean paste filling.

Chef Zou from Kyoto is an expert at making pastries. With a little guidance from Lin Xijin, she was able to make bright, soft and chewy ice skin. The various fillings were prepared by Lin Xijin herself.

Because of the mold, snow skin mooncakes are very easy to make. The children had a lot of fun making them. They ate them while making them and kept praising them for being delicious.

Lin Xijin ignored them and went to work with the cook to bake mooncakes. Except for the five-nut barbecued pork, which was a bit more troublesome, the other two fillings were also easy to prepare. Several batches of mooncakes were baked that afternoon, and the fragrance hit everyone's taste buds directly, making people drool.

Lin Xijin was not a stingy person. During dinner, she distributed all the mooncakes she had made that day to the servants. Each person got one snow skin mooncake and half a baked mooncake. Everyone was very satisfied with the meal and felt that they were really lucky to have met a good master.

After dinner, before it got dark, Lin Xijin picked up six mooncakes of each kind and went to the clan leader's house. She asked Uncle Dafu and Uncle Jianan to help her make some mooncake gift boxes according to the patterns she gave. There was a picture of Chang'e flying to the moon engraved on the box, and the words "Lin's Mooncakes" engraved on the bottom.

I originally planned to give them ten coins each, but Uncle Dafu and Uncle Jianan discussed it and decided to only charge five coins each. Lin Xijin didn't persuade me, because she would compensate them in other ways in the future.

For the others that did not need to be packed in gift boxes, the clan leader would find a few people who knew how to weave some simple small bamboo baskets. For those bought in small quantities, they would just be wrapped in oil paper.

"The four of you should go to Kyoto tomorrow and escort some holiday gifts to various governments. Also, if Ye Jinlin and Chuntao can get away, let them come back to celebrate the festival." Lin Xijin called Wu Lei and the other four and gave them instructions.

"Yes, master."

On the morning of the first day of August, the air in Shiziwo was already slightly cooler. Six carriages were parked in front of Lin Xijin's house. Four of them were heading to Kyoto. Wu Lei and his four companions escorted gifts to the Anguogong Mansion, the General's Mansion, the Imperial Tutor's Mansion, and the Ninth Prince's Mansion. Of course, the gifts for the General's Mansion were in duplicate, so it was self-evident who they were given to. The shop assistants, the shopkeeper, and Dr. Cheng also received gifts.

The first gifts were mooncakes in exquisite gift boxes produced by the space, six boxes per set, and various teas, fruits, medicines, and fine wines. To Lin Xijin, these were not worth much, but to outsiders, they were definitely a big deal.

The other two trucks were sent to two shops in the town and the county, mainly homemade snow-skin mooncakes and baked mooncakes. Today, a small amount of one truck was sent there to see how the sales would be.

The convoy set off quickly in the cool autumn breeze, raising a cloud of dust wherever it passed.

Unexpectedly, before noon, Liang Derong, who was delivering goods to the county, came back first. Without even having time to drink a sip of water, he came to the kitchen to find Lin Xijin.

"Master, the mooncakes shipped to the county were sold out before 9:00 p.m. Many customers requested restocking."

"Uncle De, don't be anxious. Sit down and have a drink of water first. After lunch, I will send Da Hu to the town and the county to ask customers to register for appointments first and come to pick them up at the appointed time. This way, we will have an idea of ​​what to do."

Before we finished chatting here, Li Zhong, who had been delivering goods to the town, came back. The situation in the town was similar to that in the county, and the mooncakes were sold out very quickly.

Lin Xijin had to assign more people to make mooncakes in the afternoon. She also called Aunt Mu Xiong, Aunt Da Fu, and Aunt Jian An, and temporarily transferred the two ovens from the pharmacy over, waiting to buy more tomorrow.

"Jin girl, your mooncakes are so delicious that I almost swallowed my tongue." Aunt Jianan joked as she entered the room.

"Yes, Xingwu brought it home yesterday morning, and I broke off a corner of it. Before I put it in my mouth, the fragrance made me drool. So before coming to your house today, I was thinking whether I should bring a saliva bag with me." Aunt Muxiong joked.

Everyone burst into laughter when they heard this.

"Okay, you naughty boys, stop joking and get to work. Customers are urging us to deliver the goods." Grandma Qi said with a smile.

"Don't worry, Aunt Qi. It won't be a problem. If it's not finished, I won't sleep tonight." Aunt Dafu also joined in the fun.

Although everyone was joking and laughing, they kept working and were all working enthusiastically.

The afterglow of the setting sun covered the earth with a layer of golden color, rich and warm, but the people busy in the kitchen had no time to appreciate the beauty. Just now, the two shopkeepers Xie Yonggui and Li Deguang came back in a hurry. After the two of them gathered together, they ordered more than 500 mooncakes in one afternoon, and most of them were in gift boxes.

The owners of the restaurant and drug store in the town also sent their servants to ask for fifty boxes each, probably as gifts for their masters.

This was a bit beyond Lin Xijin's expectations.

I just wanted to make some for myself, give them as gifts to relatives and friends, and make some money. But I didn't expect it to attract another wave of fans. It's really unstoppable when luck comes.

I probably can't keep up with the speed of making the gift boxes, so I have to use space to cheat.

The one hundred boxes for the restaurant and drugstore as well as the gifts for the county magistrate will be produced in the space.

We worked day and night like this, and stopped accepting orders on August 13th. Despite this, the moon was already high in the sky outside when we finished the last order.