Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

"Song Sanniang!" A girl's voice came from outside the yard.

Song Sanniang went out and saw that it was Song Zuen's sister, Song Zuling.

Sanniang used to have little time to play with the children in the village.

I played with my cousins, or the kids from the neighborhood.

She learned to read from Song Zuen, and gradually became familiar with Song Zuen's sister, and the two sometimes studied together.

"Why are you here?" Song Sanniang was a little puzzled.

"Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. We plan to go to the stream to pick up snails and catch crabs tomorrow. Do you want to come with us?"

Song Zuling was a little excited. For children in the countryside, going up mountains and down rivers, catching fish and shrimps are the happiest things.

"Okay, okay, when?" Song Sanniang also became happy after hearing this.

She has been here for so long, but apart from going up the mountain to pick tricholoma, she seems to have not done anything interesting in the countryside. She is really looking forward to it.

"When you come back from town, I will come to see you when my father comes home. Okay, I have to go call other people." Song Zuling said and ran away.

In Guangdong, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, after the family has finished their reunion dinner, they will set up an altar in the courtyard.

Place moon cakes, grapefruit, persimmon, winter melon candy, lotus root candy, etc. to offer to the moon and pray for family reunion.

Then the family will enjoy the moon in the yard while eating. In addition to moon cakes and fruits, fried snails with basil are also a must.

Some families will prepare food for the barbecue, some will set off fireworks together, and children will run around with special Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns, with scenes of Chang'e flying to the moon, Jade Rabbit pounding medicine, and flowers in full bloom and the full moon, which is quite lively.

There is still half a month before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Should I make some mooncakes to sell? Song Sanniang thinks that she can make some quick money during the festival. She will go and see what the mooncakes on the market are like tomorrow.

Song Laoer sawed the bamboo into several pieces, each piece was just long enough to reach the chest of Si Niang and her husband, so that they could feed the chickens more easily.

Then split the bamboo into pieces, each about a finger wide, and start weaving them together like a bamboo scroll.

Before he was halfway done, Mrs. Song called him to eat, so he put down the work, washed his hands, and went to eat.

When everyone was having dinner together, Song Sanniang brought up the idea of ​​making mooncakes.

Song Lao Er: "To make mooncakes, you need an oven. You need to find a master to make the oven."

Song Sanniang hadn't really thought about this problem, but she just came up with this idea.

“How long does it take to make an oven?”

"It's very quick to make a baking oven. It can be done in one day. Then you can bake it the next day and it'll be almost done." Song Lao Er replied.

Mrs. Song interrupted, "What do you use to pack the mooncakes? Do you just wrap them in oil paper?"

Song Sanniang: "Old ginger is still spicy. I am still too young."

Song Lao Er laughed.

"There's still more than half a month left, so there's still time. Your uncle is at home, I'll ask him to make the oven for you, he knows how to do it.

You can try making the mooncakes first. I'm sure they have gift boxes for sale. Go check it out tomorrow."

Song Sanniang became happy again, and Song Ersao shook her head, "Just spoil her."

Si Niang and Wu Niang were very happy because they had mooncakes to eat.

After dinner, Song Laoer quickly finished building the chicken coop and placed it next to the toilet in the backyard.

Si Niang and Wu Niang put the chicks in, added new food and water to them, and then happily watched them sleep together in the chicken coop.

Chickens can't see at night, so they huddle together to sleep and do nothing.

Song Lao Er went to talk to Song Lao Da about helping to build the oven and told him Song Sanniang's request. Song Lao Da patted his chest and promised to finish it for her the next day.

Song Lao Er agreed with him that he would go find bricks in the morning, and Song Lao Da would go fetch mud.

The next day, Song Laoer went to the village to see who had stone bricks after breakfast. He asked someone and found out.

The clan leader's family had some left over from building a house, and the clan leader's wife used it to surround the vegetable garden.

He went to talk to the clan leader's wife, and she asked him to move the bricks. She refused to take money, so Song Lao Er gave her a hundred coins, and he borrowed a cart to push the bricks away.

When he returned home, Boss Song had already returned with several loads of mud. The oven was placed in the front yard, in front of the utility room.

The two brothers worked together for the whole morning. After lunch, the eldest brother Song did not rest and continued to work, while the second brother Song went out.

Today, Song Sanniang learned Aunt Wu's method and shouted to sell her goods.

You know what, many customers passing by would take a look, and some would stop to buy one or two bowls.

At first Song Sanniang couldn't speak, but Aunt Wu saw how cowardly she looked and started to shout for her.

Song Sanniang followed and shouted once or twice, and slowly she got used to it.

With just a few shouts, today the products were sold out half an hour earlier than usual.

She asked Aunt Wu to help her look after things while she went to the fruit shop to look at the mooncakes.

The fruit shops in the East Market do not sell as many varieties as those in the West Market.

Song Sanniang went straight to the mooncakes and asked about them. Mooncakes have lotus seed paste, red bean paste, five-nut paste, coconut paste, black sesame, lotus seed paste and egg yolk fillings.

There are gift boxes, which include ordinary paper boxes and wooden boxes.

The common packaging is to wrap several pieces in a tube with oil paper. Of course, they are also sold in bulk.

Song Sanniang asked about the price, which ranged from eight to fifteen cents each.

The price of gift boxes ranges from eighty to three hundred wen, while the price of paper tubes ranges from forty to fifty wen.

Song Sanniang bought a lotus seed paste and egg yolk one for 15 cents, and a red bean paste one for 8 cents.

She broke off a little bit of each and tasted it. It was a traditional Cantonese-style mooncake with a thin skin and lots of fillings.

But the old problem was that it was too sweet and easy to get sick of, so she packed up the rest and would go back to give it to Si Niang and the other two greedy little cats.

She went back to thank Aunt Wu, then picked up the basket and went to the West Market.

After leaving the basket with Song Laoer, she went to the fruit shop.

The mooncake packaging here is obviously more exquisite than that in Dongshi.

Paper boxes are not only square, but also rectangular, octagonal, round, printed, decaled, and hollow-carved.

Gift boxes are made of different woods, such as logs, mahogany, and pear wood. They come in single-layer and double-layer sizes, and they also come in a variety of carvings and prints.

Although the fillings are similar, the prices are much higher, with the most expensive being more than ten taels per box.

As soon as Song Sanniang left the fruit shop, she decided to make lava mooncakes.

Make four kinds of fillings: custard lava filling, matcha lava filling, black sesame lava filling, and coconut milk lava filling.

Although her favorite is snow skin mooncakes, she should not torture herself in this world without refrigerators. If she wants to make so many snow skin mooncakes every day, how much ice will she need?

But it’s different for lava mooncakes, you just need to freeze the lava filling, so not much ice is needed.

The lava filling must be frozen so that it does not burst when baking.

At that time, the ice in the north was frozen in the winter and stored in ice cellars, while the south relied on saltpeter to make ice and ice shipped and sold by foreign merchants.

She had seen the fishmongers with ice cubes before, so she decided to wait and ask where they got their ice.