In Su Qingluan's mind, she imagined the beautiful scene where everyone would be well fed and clothed. Unknowingly, a silly smile appeared on her face, making her look not too smart.
Mu Xingzhi watched with interest for a while Su Qingluan's silly smile caused by falling into some kind of fantasy.
His face was very light and imperceptible. It was not a smile with deep meaning, nor a smile with inquiring considerations, but a smile that came from the heart, with a relaxed and happy mood.
The smile was so faint that even Mu Xingzhi himself didn't notice it.
Only the little sparrow sitting on the branch of the fruit tree near the yard tilted its head and saw the smile in its eyes - but although this smile caught the bird's eyes, it did not win anyone's heart.
The tranquility of this moment was broken by Yang.
She didn't want to disturb her eldest daughter's conversation with Mu Xingzhi - mainly because she didn't want to disturb Mu Xingzhi, but...
"Da Ya, what's going on with those little dough bumps in your kitchen?"
Su Qingluan suddenly came back to her senses and then remembered that she had been "imagining the future" with Mu Xingzhi and completely forgot about the lotus cake dough in the kitchen!
"Mom, please don't touch it, I'm useful!" Su Qingluan raised her voice towards the kitchen.
"What kind of dough?" Mu Xingzhi calmed down, "If you are busy, don't worry about me, just go and do your thing."
"Speaking of which, this dough has something to do with you." Su Qingluan smiled slyly at Mu Xingzhi.
"Oh? Could it be that..."
"It's a 'favor fee' given to you." Su Qingluan smiled.
Mu Xingzhi smiled: "Really? I'm still looking forward to Qingluan's craftsmanship."
Su Qingluan immediately made a gesture of raising her head and chest: "Please wait quietly for the miracle to come!" After saying this, she also performed an exaggerated Western etiquette of a man inviting a woman to dance.
Naturally, Mu Xingzhi had never seen such a salute before, and was a little curious: "Qingluan's movements are very strange."
"When I saw foreign merchants saluting like this, I didn't know the specific meaning, so I learned it just for fun." Su Qingluan waved her hand and pointed in the direction of the kitchen, "I'll go and make the dough first. 'Get rid of it, otherwise my mother-in-law will be angry after you leave!"
As he spoke, he ran to the kitchen and processed the dough that had loosened enough.
Some carefully removed the cotton cloth covering it, and Su Qingluan breathed a sigh of relief: It's okay, because the weather has entered autumn, and it's cloudy today, so even if she went out for such a long time, the dough didn't rise. Up, it will not be completely scrapped.
Before leaving, the iron pot had been filled with oil, and since the dinner time was approaching, Yang had already lit a fire in the furnace in advance.
Su Qingluan showed a flattering smile and shook her arm at Yang: "Auntie, I want to use this stove to make this lotus cake. Can you use the stove next to it to make lunch? I will make lotus cake for you to try later. !”
"Hey, this name is quite unique... No, where is Mr. Mu? Is he gone?" Yang only sighed for a second before coming back to his senses and turned to ask Su Qingluan.
Su Qingluan was busy bringing the whole pan to the stove, and all his attention was basically spent on the pan. He didn't pay much attention to Yang's implication, so he took this sentence seriously without thinking about it. Said: "No, he is drinking tea alone in the yard."
"You left Mr. Mu alone in the yard, and you came here to make some kind of cake for you?!" Yang's voice suddenly rose an octave, which made Su Qingluan's hands tremble in fright, and she almost overturned the entire frying pan.
Fortunately, she had already put the oil pot on the stove. Although the pot shook, it still held firm on the stove.
After placing the pot firmly on the stove, Su Qingluan turned around helplessly: "Mom, I'm holding the frying pan. Don't suddenly raise your voice, okay... okay..." When she turned around, there was no one behind her. Su Qingluan turned around and saw Yang hurried to the yard.
Yang's voice has always been good, so even though there was some distance, Su Qingluan could still vaguely hear Yang's series of hurried apologies and words like "imprudent" and "ignorant". There were also occasional words like "it doesn't matter" from Mu Xingzhi.
Su Qingluan also understood that Yang didn't really want to scold her, but was afraid that she would make some mistakes in front of Mu Xingzhi, which would really make him unhappy and embarrass her.
"Should I say that you underestimated Mu Xingzhi's magnanimity..." Su Qingluan muttered softly, then smiled, "Or should I say 'care leads to chaos'?"
Thinking about it this way, Yang's incoherent apology seemed cute... although it was really unnecessary for her to be so nervous.
Su Qingluan initially asked Mu Xingzhi for help with a cooperative attitude, but the other party never gave a signal of rejection. Although she didn't know what Mu Xingzhi wanted, there was one thing Su Qingluan understood very well -
The initiative in this cooperation is completely in Mu Xingzhi's hands.
If you lack the help of the other party, you may not necessarily fail, but every step will be extremely difficult.
If such a shortcut is placed in front of you, and the other party does not explicitly reject you, it means that you have the value of cooperation.
Su Qingluan knew that Mu Xingzhi's refusal to refuse was definitely not a sign of a holy father mentality, and he was willing to help others without asking for anything in return. But she doesn't mind if the other party has their own agenda - after all, when it comes to getting things done, mutual benefit is the most stable and long-term way of cooperation.
So from the very beginning, Su Qingluan had made the plan to "work hard and work hard whenever it can be used" - of course, the benefits must be obtained one after another.
In the blink of an eye, the oil temperature has risen. Su Qingluan threw in some scraps of dough to test the temperature of the oil. Seeing that the dough was bubbling and floating, he put the dough that had been cut four times to form a "rice" shape on Li Shang, and gently Transfer to oil pan.
After a while, the high-temperature soybean oil formed a layer of fine and dense bubbles on the dough, and the crispy dough spread out layer by layer like a flower bud slowly blooming.
The green dough on the outside wraps around the light red dough in the middle, as if the lotus leaves are supporting the lotus flowers and slowly blooming.
After frying, the dough dyed with spinach juice shows a bright and slightly pale green color, while the red dough dyed with beet juice shows a light watery red color.
Add the light yellow flower center made of salted egg yolk instead of coconut in the middle, just like the lotus blooming in the water!
Su Qingluan breathed a sigh of relief: It was great. Whether it was dyeing or styling, the effect was better than she had expected before. Although there were some bumps in the process, the results were generally satisfactory.
In order to set off the color of the lotus cakes, Su Qingluan specially chose a dark flat plate and placed five lotus cakes on the plate - there was no way, the size of her tableware was limited, and the lotus cakes could not be placed on the plate. If it is too dense, otherwise there will be bumps and corners will be missing.
There were still six or seven lotus cakes that couldn't be put down. Su Qingluan first picked up the "petals" of one of them and pressed it hard - with a gentle "click" sound, the water-red petals were Twisted into pieces.
Su Qingluan threw the fragment into his mouth and chewed: Well, it has a light salt and pepper taste, which is very refreshing and unique. It has different levels and styles of saltiness with the salted egg yolk in the middle, but the taste formed after fusion is richer. It has a completely different flavor from the sweet lotus cake, but it is also very delicious.
The taste and crispiness were both satisfactory, and Su Qingluan could finally take out this plate of lotus cakes with confidence - in fact, if it were used as a "commodity", this plate of lotus cakes would have to be decorated with some decorations.
But firstly, there was not enough time, and secondly, although it was a "cooperative relationship", Su Qingluan still regarded Mu Xingzhi as a friend, not just a partner, so in this "private occasion", she subconsciously wanted to be more casual .
"Here comes the lotus cake~" Deliberately imitating the tone of the waiter, Su Qingluan trotted over and brought the lotus cake to the table in front of Mu Xingzhi with one hand: "Please treat me well!"
"This girl is so dishonest!" Yang said angrily, but it was probably because Mu Xingzhi was present that she didn't slap Su Qingluan on the back as usual.
Su Guangfu next to him also quickly apologized to Mu Xingzhi.
Seeing Su Qingluan serving snacks, Su Guangfu and Yang didn't think much about it at first - after all, at home, whenever they had free time, Su Qingluan would always make some new snacks, and the whole family was used to it.
So Yang stood up and said, "The two little ones are playing in the backyard. I'll call them over."
"No, no, no," Su Qingluan quickly grabbed Yang, "They two don't like salty snacks."
"Xiankou?" Yang was very surprised.
In the Su family, even Su Guangfu, who dislikes sweets the most, has his own preference for dim sum - in his opinion, dim sum can only be "authentic" if it is sweet. It is one thing that he does not like to eat it, but if it is made salty, He will feel very strange.
This is probably similar to the battle between sweet and salty rice dumplings. Some people may not like eating rice dumplings that much, but in their minds, rice dumplings should be sweet or salty. If it changes, they will feel very uncomfortable.
So in the Su family, unless Su Qingluan wanted to change her taste and occasionally make salty snacks for herself, most of the time, the snacks were sweet.
That's why Yang was so surprised when Su Qingluan made salty snacks this time.
Su Qingluan nodded: "This time I made it as a gift," he said, bringing the lotus cake in front of Mu Xingzhi, "How about this 'thank you gift'?"
When they found their eldest daughter bringing the lotus cake in front of Mu Xingzhi, Yang and Su Guangfu's expressions changed. Su Guangfu wanted to step forward and say something, but Yang quickly stopped him.
The two people were standing side by side, and Yang moved quickly, so Su Qingluan didn't notice.
Mu Xingzhi, on the other hand, glanced vaguely at Su Guangfu and his wife, and raised the corners of his lips slightly.
Su Qingluan didn't know why: "Why are you laughing so hard all of a sudden?"
