On October 8 this year, the seventh day of the ninth lunar month, when the acacia rushed into the boring fast with red eyes, I was steaming flower cakes in the kitchen. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Speaking of which, more than half a month has passed, and nothing has happened in my life except for the trivial things of life such as eating and sleeping.

This should be a strange thing.

In the first half of the year, I experienced the most intense ups and downs of my life. Or maybe the ups and downs are too drastic, so God specially arranged such a long vacation for me.

In short, since Bailong came back, since I was sick and well, time has passed unconsciously. During this month, there were no natural disasters, except for the three solar terms that became weaker, and the changes in nature seemed to be as usual. I saw that many of the flowers and vegetables planted in the courtyard had undergone the process of yellowing and turning into dust, and only a few chrysanthemums had become very energetic and bloomed with bright yellow filament-like petals. The dwarf maple trees outside the precincts are gradually dyed in several colors by the autumn mood.

It was cold, especially at night. We had to work at night, and every time we walked out of the bar and went out to do something in the yard or alley, we could feel the chill that seeped into the cracks of the bones.

In the light of the street lamp, you can clearly see the white breath exhaling from your mouth. Inside the light, I always felt that the color of the air had changed, and it was so cold that it was like a ribbon of frost floating in the air. It was almost cold and dewy, and the night had become long, and at the end of the morning, you could see the yellowed blades of grass covered with a thin layer of autumn frost.

My tweed coat had been rummaged out of my suitcase. Even though my physical fitness is different and I don't fear the cold, I still prefer natural warmth to fight it.

I asked the white dragon in my consciousness, "Is that all?" Isn't it normal that I haven't had such a quiet first twenty years of my boring life? ”

The white dragon didn't solve my confusion, but replied, "No life, including me, can predict the direction of the Heavenly Dao. Since there is no revelation happening now, just wait and see. ”

I thought to myself: Can just waiting solve the problem? If you're just waiting, rather than trying to pursue it, maybe your mind is still asleep under the River Styx!

He dwells in my shell, and I don't know if my mental activity is open to him, but he doesn't consciously contradict my thoughts.

We humans naturally think differently from God, we are weak, lowly, and short, so we don't have time to wait for the so-called "revelation." The future we look forward to can only take the initiative to strive for and create with our own hands.

Of course, just because my life is peaceful doesn't mean that the human world is peaceful. The reason why I have been given a short break is because I am very different from normal human beings.

During this time, nothing happened in the world, but the human world was noisy and tumultuous day after day.

At first, a small number of people tried to come out of their hideouts, and when they found that there was no direct threat to their lives, but they did not know what had happened before and what tomorrow would bring, the thoughts of the entire human world suddenly became confused.

All kinds of voices have appeared, rumors have spread, but humanity is no longer as panicked as it used to be. The whole group suddenly fell into a hopeless rage.

For a time, there were those who summoned to have fun, those who vented to their heart's content, those who called for the construction of Noah's Ark, and those who thought that they should try to immigrate to the alien system. In short, there is everything in the reliable and unreliable, national borders, order, and law are all thrown aside, and the whole human world is like a desperate carnival under extreme excitement.

So, a while ago, there were more customers in our bar, and there were a lot of alcoholics, and those were just a precursor.

In a world like this, anything can happen. Therefore, when Bai Hehuan came to me with tears in her eyes, I felt very sympathetic and pity for her, but I was not surprised.

"What, someone bullied you?" I asked softly.

He Huan wore a white low-necked sweater covered with a plaid jacket, which was simple and warm. The kitchen was slightly hot, and she took off the thin scarf wrapped around her neck, and the strange "Gift Crest" attached to her white neck was particularly clear and eye-catching.

Hehuan didn't know when he cut his short hair that was ear-length, and this silver rose "tattoo" made the girl in front of him more pure and flawless.

Actually, I also feel a little strange. Since when did I no longer need to deliberately mobilize the vision of my inner eye, I can see things in this way, and see things that ordinary people can't see?

It turned out that in the passage of time that I was not aware of, I was still changing imperceptibly.

Hehuan calmed his breathing, struggled for a while, and finally said: "It's nothing, it's just that people are too difficult to deal with now, and there is no way to communicate at all." I just feel very frustrated, and I don't know why I really want to come and meet you, Brother Shining. You can't blame me, do you? ”

I smiled and shook my head. How could it be, you can trust me so much, it's too late for me to be happy.

It was already evening. I don't know what the people outside are like, and I don't know what grievances Hehuan has suffered in the communication with them, and it seems that she has no intention of speaking to me at the moment. But when she comes to this kitchen, maybe she will be better, because the smoke in the kitchen is calm.

It has been said that "the kitchen is the center of the universe". I sometimes feel the same way about this kind of subjective expression. Although I am not a housewife who uses the kitchen as my main position, I always feel a certain level of spiritual healing whenever I prepare food in the kitchen and forget everything for a while.

"It's almost the Double Ninth Festival, I'm making flower cakes, do you want to join us?" I extended a cordial invitation to her.

Hehuan was stunned for a moment and laughed.

"Who else will celebrate the Chung Yeung Festival now, really!"

That being said, she took off her coat and went to the sink to wash her hands carefully, apparently intending to join.

The chaotic aura that she had had been in when she entered the door had now calmed down, and it seemed that there were still people here in this chaotic era who were making flower cakes calmly, and it was like a shot in the arm for her.

Flower cake is Chongyang cake, which is a kind of food eaten when climbing during the Chung Yeung Festival. In addition to drinking chrysanthemum wine and Peizhuyi, there are records of edible flower cakes since the Song Dynasty. This time, it was Liqing who had a whim and clamored to eat Chongyang cake. Naturally, I couldn't ignore her intentions, and I spent three days researching the records and recipes, and I didn't start making them until today.

In fact, this chongyang cake is slightly similar to rice cakes, both are rice products, but it is a loose texture, which is a completely different taste.

The ingredients are not complicated, but they are quite cumbersome to make. Glutinous rice flour and japonica rice flour are needed, almost in a ratio of 3:2, plus caster sugar mixed together, and then add water slowly, little by little, stirring while adding, until all the rice flour becomes semi-wet and half dry, and there is basically no dry powder when pinched by hand.

Then it is sifted, using a sieve with a slightly larger mesh to pass the mixed powder through and sieve it into a fine powder.

This step is very troublesome, because the powder is semi-wet, so it is difficult to sift, and it is all pressed and mixed with a rubber spatula, which is very laborious to complete.

Now that all these preparations have been made and the various fillings that need to be prepared have been prepared, what needs to be done now is something that needs to be done by time.

I found a large round bowl, covered it with a clean cloth that was wet and wrived, and asked Hehuan to help me hold it, and then slowly poured the sifted powder into it, pouring it to as much as one-third of the large bowl. The poured powder must not be pressed with a spoon, otherwise all the work of sifting before will be in vain, so put it in a large steamer and steam for five minutes.

After steaming, take it out, spread a layer of red bean paste, then spread the remaining powder, sprinkle with nuts, candied fruit, green and red silk, osmanthus, and steam it in the pot again. After fifteen minutes, take it out and let it cool, then you can cut it and garnish it and eat.

This cake is hot and delicious, but the hot one cannot be cut beautifully, and the decoration is a particularly important part of the flower cake.

A sense of ritual is important after all.

While waiting for the cake to steam up, Hehuan and I sat at the cooking table and made small buntings for decoration out of toothpicks and colored paper.

In the records of ancient books, colorful flags are to be planted on the Chongyang flower cake, and handmade deer is placed on the cake in some places, taking the homonym of "Shilu cake". In short, the ancients believed that Chongyang ascending could avoid disaster, and it was inconvenient for people to go out to climb the height, and eating flower cakes could be regarded as an auspicious omen for avoiding disasters.

In this era, being able to avoid disasters is probably the most important wish of people.

"I didn't expect to do such an ordinary thing, my heart really calmed down, maybe it's ......"

Bai Hehuan paused, swallowed back the next words, and just said, "This cake is so beautiful, I really want to eat it!" ”

"Of course you can, we'll finish decorating together in a while, and eat as much as you want."

"Hmm!"

"Confident again?"

Acacia smiled slightly.

"Brother Shining, I've never lost confidence, I'm just feeling a little tired. It's chaotic now, but it won't be like this forever. I don't think people will succumb to fate, and after the chaos, they will definitely start thinking and use their own strength to solve all this. Many, many things have happened since ancient times, but we've survived, haven't we? ”

I looked at her in amazement, and she believed in the fate and future of humanity more than me, an abnormal human with more information.

I put a piece of flower cake on a plate, put it with a small fork, and pushed it in front of her.

This girl always says that she has gained strength from me, but perhaps she doesn't know that the person who has gained strength is often me.