“Oh, come on! If you ask me, this young lady seems like a warm-hearted person too. Why don’t you pick out a piece of floral fabric from my stall as well?”
The shop owner was, after all, a businessman. He quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
Unfortunately, his attempt only hit a nerve with He Jiaojiao.
She immediately frowned and snapped,
“I’m not buying anything! Your floral fabrics are ugly and cheap-looking. They’re terrible! And you actually think I’d wear something like this? Do you even know whether you’re worthy of seeing me wear it?”
The moment she said this, Huo Guangji, who was standing beside her, immediately frowned and turned to look at her.
This woman really is unpleasant.
He had heard that she was an educated young woman, yet she had such an arrogant, condescending attitude.
He immediately stepped farther away from her, deliberately increasing the distance between them.
He Jiaojiao was furious, but there was nothing she could do.
After Huo Guangji paid the shopkeeper, he hurried away without another word. He Jiaojiao couldn’t even catch up with him.
Just then, the few female comrades who had come to the market with He Jiaojiao finally found her.
None of them knew what had happened.
One of the girls, who was usually very close to He Jiaojiao, immediately walked over.
Her surname was Li, and she loved gossip. Out of everyone in their dormitory, she was the closest to He Jiaojiao.
Because of that, she didn’t hold back when she spoke.
She walked over with a teasing smile and asked,
“Jiaojiao, how are things going with that Big Brother Huo of yours? You came all the way to this remote little place just for him. Did he disappoint you? We sisters even deliberately gave you two some privacy and wandered around this market twice!”
“What does it have to do with you? Why don’t you mind your own business? Do you have to dig into everyone’s gossip?”
He Jiaojiao was already in a terrible mood. Her friend’s question immediately made her lose her temper, and she didn’t show her roommate even the slightest bit of courtesy.
She directly mocked the girl’s habit of poking into other people’s business.
The girl was so angry that she almost choked.
She had only been joking. Who would have thought He Jiaojiao would suddenly explode?
She rolled her eyes and turned around, pulling the other girls along with her.
“Let’s go! We’re not talking to her anymore!”
He Jiaojiao was left standing alone in the middle of the street, tears welling up in her eyes as she felt completely wronged.
That damn Huo Guangji! Is he made of wood?
I’ve made it so obvious. How can he still not react?
By all rights, her looks and figure were far better than that country bumpkin of a wife of his.
So why couldn’t he take the hint?
He Jiaojiao didn’t know that happiness and misery could exist at the same time.
While she was worrying herself sick over Huo Guangji, Qin Yue’e had already tossed him out of her mind.
The buns at the shop were surprisingly delicious.
Qin Yue’e and Aunt Liu both felt that coming here had been worth it.
Although they had ordered vegetable buns, the portions were generous.
The dough was made from a mixture of coarse black wheat flour. On its own, it was somewhat tough.
But the owner had his own trick.
He mixed plenty of lard into the filling, which was made with soft squash. There seemed to be some chopped bits of egg mixed in as well.
There wasn’t much egg, but it still added a hint of richness.
The owner had also added some kind of seasoning. The buns were so delicious that Qin Yue’e and Aunt Liu couldn’t stop eating.
After finishing one large bun, Qin Yue’e was so full that she couldn’t help burping.
Aunt Liu sipped her mung bean soup and sighed appreciatively.
“This shop really gives you your money’s worth. Two cents for such a big bun! I thought they were probably made entirely from black wheat. Who would’ve guessed they’d taste this good? And look at how much filling they put inside!”
The shop owner was a clever businessman.
As soon as he heard a customer praising his food, he immediately joined the conversation.
“Sister, if you like them, why don’t you buy a couple more? If you can’t finish them now, you can take them home. It’s still a good deal! Our buns may be vegetarian, but we do use lard in them. To be honest, that’s my secret recipe. Go ahead and try them. I guarantee that once you taste them the first time, you’ll want them again!”
The owner wasn’t exaggerating.
But Qin Yue’e and Aunt Liu were both short on money, so they quickly waved their hands.
“That’s enough, that’s enough!”
After that, the two women felt too embarrassed to keep sitting inside and drinking free refills of mung bean soup.
They quickly picked up the two children, said goodbye to the owner, paid the bill, and left.
As they walked down the street, Aunt Liu was still savoring the taste.
“Xiao Qin, how do you think that owner managed to make black wheat taste so good?”
Both women made a living through cooking, so naturally, when one craftsperson encountered another, there was a little professional curiosity and competitiveness involved.
Qin Yue’e thought carefully about it and found it rather strange too.
Black wheat was simply wheat flour that had been ground without removing the bran and husks. Everything was left mixed together.
Because of that, the flour was cheap.
If one jin of wheat was processed into refined flour, you would only get around seven liang of flour. But if it was made into coarse black wheat flour, you could get nearly the full ten liang.
The problem was that black wheat didn’t taste very good.
It was difficult to make it soft and fluffy. Steamed buns and flatbreads made from it were usually coarse and hard, and they could scrape your throat when swallowing.
But the buns they had just eaten weren’t exactly fluffy either, yet they were still much softer and tastier than ordinary black-wheat buns.
That was why Aunt Liu couldn’t help asking.
Qin Yue’e thought for a moment before guessing,
“Aunt Liu, didn’t the owner just say that he added quite a lot of lard to the buns? Do you think he might have mixed the lard directly into the dough?”
“I remember seeing skilled pastry makers do something similar before. When they made pastries, they would mix lard into the flour. It made the dough smooth, soft, and glossy—almost like the surface of a freshly peeled egg.”
“That’s definitely possible!”
Aunt Liu immediately slapped her thigh.
“See, Xiao Qin? This is why I say you’re clever! I thought he had probably mixed the lard into the filling. But now that I think about it, that doesn’t make sense. If the lard were mixed into the filling, you’d probably taste the greasy bits, and it might actually make the filling worse.”
“So the owner must have played a little trick on us. He probably mixed the lard into the dough but didn’t tell us!”
The more they talked about it, the more interested Qin Yue’e became.
If they could figure out how to make black wheat taste this good, the soldiers at the unit wouldn’t have to eat coarse-grain flatbreads every day.
To be honest, eating those coarse-grain flatbreads for so long had already upset Qin Yue’e’s stomach.
She immediately winked at Aunt Liu.
“Why don’t we try it ourselves when we get back? Didn’t our unit still have some of that lard we rendered last time?”
“That’s all well and good!”
Aunt Liu couldn’t help laughing at the suggestion.
“But Xiao Qin, don’t forget—ours isn’t real pork lard. It’s badger fat! No matter how good badger fat is, it can’t replace pork lard. It has a strong smell.”
“If you can figure out how to get rid of that smell, then maybe you really can do what you said. We could add a little badger fat when making the dough. And who knows? It might make not only black-wheat buns, but even our coarse-grain flatbreads taste much better!”
Qin Yue’e had never known that badger fat had such a strong odor.
She silently took note of it.
Once they returned, she planned to get some flour and the rendered fat and run a few experiments.
Perhaps she could figure out a way to remove the unpleasant smell of the badger fat.