Chapter 703: Another Reunion Festival Year

Days passed one by one, and a few days away from the Mid-Autumn Festival, Di Yelei began making mooncakes.

He vividly remembered making mooncakes with Zhang Peng last year and that Liu Sisi favored the mooncakes he made. Therefore, he planned to make them by himself again this year.

This time around, he made considerably more and catered for a myriad of flavor preferences.

Chicken-flavored, candied fruit flavored, barbeque flavored, bean paste-filled, lotus paste-filled… a complete assortment.

While Di Yelei was in the process of making a batch, Liu Sisi took one, cut it into small pieces, and allowed everyone to have a taste, earning universal praises from the group.

“I never imagined that the Old Master was proficient in kitchen work!”

Xue Yi and Xue Lan, along with a few other little maids, were delighted as they tasted the mooncakes in their hands.

“There’s much you don’t know, our Master, apart from making mooncakes, can make a lot of delicious food. Back at home, the snacks and pastries for entertaining guests were all made by your Master. It’s one of the things I love most about him!”

Fearing that the laughter might startle Di Yelei, Liu Sisi quickly puts in a good word for him.

“Never knew our Madam was won over by the Master’s excellent cooking skills!”

The group fell into another fit of giggly laughter.

But Di Yelei didn’t mind at all: “What Sisi said is all true. At the time she was pregnant and couldn’t eat much, I made all kinds of pastries and snacks to coax her into eating for fear she might become malnourished. But when the children were born, they were triplets, which gave me a real fright!”

Triplets! It’s nerve-racking to have just one child, let alone three all at once. No wonder he was scared.

Liu Sisi giggled.

“Now you understand my hardship? It’s all thanks to your good cooking skills that the three children are growing up well. You should make some more delicious food today, so we won’t have to go out and buy any.”

Di Yelei looked at Liu Sisi intently: “Agreed! I will make some of each. To make up for my wife who gave me three big fat boys.”

Liu Sisi was heartened by the thought that he was doing this mainly to give her face.

Although Di Yelei didn’t say anything about the variety of food on the table lately, he surely noticed every change.

Di Yelei returned in the afternoon and worked tirelessly until the third period of late night. With the help of Granny Hu, Ms. Gao, and others in making preparations, he finally stopped to take a shower.

Liu Sisi took inventory, and an impressive array of pastries and desserts filled the available space in the kitchen.

Liu Sisi was busy calculating. Even though they used more than one tael of silver to make these pastries and desserts, they would probably cost more than ten taels to buy in the market. It’s because the grains, meats, sugars, and so on used to make the snacks and pastries were from their own home, with no additional costs.

The most essential point was the ample amount of mooncakes and pastries, enough for the ancestral worship without additional purchases.

Before long, Di Yelei came in, toweling off his wet hair.

“Tomorrow morning, I’m planning to take the mooncakes to the barracks to distribute to the soldiers so everyone can have a Reunion Festival.”

Liu Sisi considered it: “Good idea! Let’s all celebrate the Reunion Festival together. And while you’re at it, give everyone a couple of days off to rest.”

“Sure! I’ll remember that.”

Di Yelei endured for a while before he eventually asked, “Sisi, there is no more silver in the manor, right?”

“How do you know we’re out of silver?” Liu Sisi wondered curiously where she had given that away.

“It’s obvious if you pay just a little attention,” he said.

Di Yelei’s face was full of certainty. “Even though, we still have a variety of dishes at home, they are the common dishes of this season. Plus, you’ve been missing a few golden ornaments from your vanity box, I just guessed it,” he explained.

“I never thought you’d be this observant,” she teased.

Liu Sisi joked and quickly got up to evade his gaze by pretending to help Di Yelei wipe his wet hair.

How did he find out that a few pieces of her golden jewelry were missing? It was simply…

“Sisi, it’s my fault for making you suffer,” he continued.

Di Yelei turned and directly grabbed her hand, pulling her into his arms: “I always talk about working hard to make money so you can have a good life, but instead, I always drag you down with me, forcing you to worry about financial matters. I …”

Before he could finish his sentence, a small hand covered his mouth.

“I don’t like hearing the word ‘burden’. You’re not allowed to say it anymore! We are husband and wife, there is no such thing as one burdening the other. As for the money, you don’t have to worry. The land that we rented out will give us a big grain harvest after autumn. Thus, we will no longer have to buy grain, let alone spend any silver on it!”

At these words, Di Yelei’s eyes immediately brightened. He slapped himself on the forehead.

“Right! Look at my memory. I completely forgot about it!”

“Isn’t it? While most of the neighboring lands have been hit by a disaster, we bought fertile land. That comes with hot spring manor, so it wasn’t affected. The harvest from this fertile land is enough for our expenses next year. As for the dozens of acres of land in Upper Village, it will be enough to provide for father and the others.”

Talking about this, Liu Sisi’s face was also filled with smiles: “Plus, now that the bridge repairs and new dock construction have been completed, we won’t have to spend on these things anymore. Also, I’ve changed the day of giving out porridge to the 1st and 15th of the lunar month, thus greatly reducing the burden on the manor. As for the academy, we just need to wait and see how many students we can enroll.”

What Liu Sisi didn’t say was that the initial investment for the new shops had been fully completed, and they were now just waiting to collect silver.

But this waiting for the harvest… wasn’t so pleasant!

“That’s good…”

Di Yelei remarked lightly.

Although Di Yelei only said it simply, Liu Sisi could still hear some implications.

“Is anything the matter? Do you need money? How much?”

Liu Sisi asked seriously: “Didn’t the Eunuch Xiao reward us with several buckets of pearls and some jade and other treasures according to the Imperial Decree? If we convert them into silver, that should tide us over.”

“We can’t recklessly use those things. They are imperial rewards,”

Di Yelei immediately refused it: “I have mentioned it before, the requirement from the imperial court for Prince Gong to purchase horses has not been fulfilled. The amount needed for this is really huge, so there is no use in you worrying about it. Unless the gold mine starts to produce, otherwise, all our present worries would have been for nothing…”

Liu Sissi naturally heard about this. The astronomical figure was indeed not what she could afford.