The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

Seeing that her older brother was engrossed in his own world after finishing his meal, Shen Cao secretly left the study.

Although it was already autumn, the weather was still very hot. Indeed, no matter what era you live in, you can feel the power of the autumn heat wave.

The night was quiet except for the chirping of insects. Shen Cao looked up at the moon, which was big and bright. The entire sky was filled with stars, and the moonlight pierced through the clouds.

She could even see the environment in the yard clearly, a sight she could only see when she was a child in the countryside in her previous life.

She never imagined she would have the chance to experience such a midsummer night again in her lifetime.

Shen Cao walked into the kitchen. Her parents had already gone to the front to get busy, while her younger brother and sister had run out to the street to play with their friends.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner, and the curfew has been relaxed a bit these past few days. As long as it's not too late, almost no one is enforcing the rules.

Moreover, in the past two days, all kinds of lanterns have been hung in front of the shops, and the streets have been brightly lit, with children walking together everywhere.

Shen Cao placed the finished lotus seed paste mooncakes on the table to dry.

She went into the ice cellar and took out the minced pork that she had prepared earlier.

The pork was minced beforehand.

Flatten the scallions and ginger with a knife, add a little Sichuan peppercorn, and pour in about two teacups of boiling water to make scallion and ginger water.

The main purpose of scallion and ginger water is to remove the fishy smell and increase the meat juices.

She then took out a packet of pickled mustard tuber from her storage space and chopped it into small pieces.

Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, a suitable amount of white sugar (to enhance the flavor, not the sweetness), and chopped pickled mustard greens to the minced meat. Pour in one-third of the scallion and ginger water and stir well, mixing all the water into the meat filling.

Then add a little soy sauce, sesame oil, and one-third of the scallion and ginger water, and continue stirring.

Finally, add a little soy sauce, sesame oil, and the last third of the scallion and ginger water. Continue stirring until the meat filling becomes firm and forms a ball. Then, put the stirred meat filling into the ice cellar and freeze it to set its initial shape.

Since mooncakes don't need too much liquid, the amount of scallion and ginger water must be carefully controlled. Otherwise, if the filling is too watery, it will soak through the flaky crust and affect the appearance and taste.

Divide the partially shaped meat filling into equal portions and roll them into balls.

Frozen minced meat is easy to roll into balls.

Place the meatballs on a tray and put them in the freezer. They will be ready to use when needed.

Shen Cao took out lard to prepare the most important part of making pork mooncakes: the flaky crust.

She took an appropriate amount of lard, then added flour to it, and kneaded the dough according to her usual method of making pasta, until the flour and lard were fully mixed and there was no dry flour left in the dough. The pastry was then ready.

Then take another appropriate amount of flour, pour in water, and knead it directly into a dough for later use.

Cover the oil-based dough and the regular dough with a damp cloth and let them rest for a while.

Cut the proofed oil-based dough and regular dough into equal portions.

First, knead a small portion of dough until smooth, flatten it, and roll it into a long, tongue-shaped sheet. Then, roll the oil-based filling into a sheet of the same shape. Stack the two sheets together and roll them up from the edges to form a roll.

Flatten the dough rolls, overlap them, and repeat continuously. The more times you repeat, the more layers of flaky pastry you will have in the end.

After repeating this process several times, the dough was rolled into a round wrapper, just like making dumpling wrappers. Then, the frozen meatball was wrapped inside and placed on a tray with the sealed side down.

After Shen Cao finished wrapping all the mooncake skins, she filled a tray completely.

The remaining minced meat should be frozen for later use.

Bake the fresh meat mooncakes using the same temperature and method as the lotus seed paste mooncakes.

Fresh out of the oven, a savory aroma, completely different from the sweet taste of lotus seed paste mooncakes, wafts out.

Shen Cao asked her father to carve a seal with the character "Shen" for her. She then dipped the seal in bright red food coloring and used it to imprint the character "Shen" in the center of each meat mooncake, signifying that it was produced by the Shen Family Restaurant.

Shen Cao had just finished making the fresh meat mooncakes when her younger brother and sister ran in, each holding a large teacup and gulping down water, their hair soaked with sweat.

Both of them smelled the meat and, while drinking water, glanced in Shen Cao's direction.

"You two drink slowly, don't rush."

"After you finish drinking, go back to your room, change your clothes, wipe the sweat off your head, and then eat the fresh meat mooncakes."

The two nodded vigorously, finished their water, and hurriedly ran back to their room.

After the two had changed their clothes, Shen Cao had already served each of them a fresh meat mooncake on a plate.

Freshly baked meat mooncakes are the best, so she gave one to each of her parents in the front room and her older brother in the study.

She first took a small bite of the mooncake's crust, which crumbled easily.

She took another bite and finally bit into the filling. As she squeezed it, the meat juice filled her mouth, making it incredibly delicious.

Her mouth was filled with the aroma of meat and pickled vegetables. She squeezed the fresh meat mooncake she had just taken a bite of, and the outer skin crumbled under the pressure, squeezing out the meat juice from the filling.

The brown sauce and the oily pork looked delicious.

To avoid wasting any, she quickly bent down and bit into the fresh meat mooncake, sucking out a mouthful of juice so loud you could almost hear it.

She quickly finished the meat mooncake, licking her lips, still wanting more.

After my younger brother and sister changed their clothes and came back, they quickly picked up the fresh meat mooncakes and started eating.

Having had the experience of eating lotus seed paste mooncakes for the first time, the two of them were very careful this time.

They were still flustered by the juice, but luckily there was a plate to catch it, otherwise they would have had to change their new clothes again.

After finishing their meal, the two of them licked the plate clean of every last drop of gravy they had spilled.

The two of them ate two mooncakes each before they were satisfied.

The situation of Shen's parents, who were watching the shop outside, was similar to that of Shen Qing and Shen Wan. The two of them ate with relish, and several customers who were eating in the shop were very curious about what the two of them were eating.

They were all delighted to hear that the store would be selling it in a couple of days and said they would definitely come to buy it.

Fresh meat mooncakes taste best when they're fresh out of the oven, so Shen Cao doesn't make many; she can make more when it's time to sell them that day.

Mooncake crusts and other ingredients can be prepared in advance and stored in an ice cellar. They can be taken out and used directly when needed.

In a thatched hut in a fishing village, Granny Zhang has been able to afford bait lately, and she has been able to catch something every day when she goes to collect the traps.

Therefore, during this period, she delivered fish to the Shen family's restaurant every day, earning at least thirty coins each time.

After each fish sale, Shen Cao would wash her fish basket clean before giving it to her.

She had to pay for Shen Cao's boxed lunches before, but after Shen Cao showed her the price, she tacitly agreed that Shen Cao would put two boxed lunches in her fish basket every time.

The little girl actually noticed that the fish she sold were always a little cheaper than those in the market.

The reason for the low price is that they are afraid the fish won't sell.

She had looked at the prices on the menu of Shen's Restaurant beforehand, and calculated that the price of two boxed meals plus the cost of the fish was roughly the same as the market price of fish.

Originally, she didn't want to take advantage of others, but after the girl calculated it this way, the two of them were even.

Grandma Zhang's granddaughter's complexion has become much rosier because of the improved diet she has been eating these past few days.

She smiles much more often now. With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, she goes out every night to play with her peers.

She was covered in sweat when she came back today. While wiping her sweat, Grandma Zhang told her not to rush so much in the future, or she might catch a cold.

Li Xiaoyu smiled and nodded, then mysteriously took something out of her pocket and handed it to Granny Zhang.