Chapter 55 Digging a Pitfall-General, a senhora mandou você ir cultivar a terra(Miúdos de frango picantes)

Does this woman have any idea what she is doing?!
Even in a dream, one doesn't just casually go around tugging at a man's waistband!
What kind of dream does she think she's having anyway?
If Shao Daya were conscious, she would undoubtedly snap right back at him without a shred of politeness: Weren't you the one who made the first move?
Unfortunately, this body was far too weak. Shao Daya had stayed up for the better part of the night, and her current state was not all that different from sleepwalking.
Wei Ting grabbed her plump little hands, gritting his teeth as he hissed, "Shao Daya!"
Shao Daya stared right at him, her gaze dropping downward. "Oh!"
With a swift motion, she broke free from Wei Ting's grip, her little demon claws reaching downward—
Wei Ting's face turned pale, and with a swift chop of his hand, he knocked her unconscious!

Shao Daya slept all the way until the sun was high in the sky. Looking at the daylight filtering through the paper window, her head felt a little buzzed.
This feeling was just like waking up with total memory loss after a night of heavy drinking—decidedly strange.
"I... weren't I making pastries in the kitchen? How did I end up back in my own bed?"
She scratched her little head, genuinely unable to figure it out.
"Aah! Don't you dare snatch my pastries!"
It was Shao Erdan's voice.
Shao Daya snapped back to her senses with a start: "It's time to set up the stall! Oh no! The dim sum hasn't been made yet!"
She hurriedly lifted the quilt and got out of bed. Her clothes were neatly fastened—could it really be that she had been too exhausted last night, returned to her room, and crashed the moment her head hit the pillow?
The three little ones were in the kitchen fighting Shao Erdan for the pastries. Despite their small stature, they possessed six little demon claws between them; caught between defending and grabbing, Shao Erdan was completely outmatched.
"Mine, mine! They're all mine! My sister made them for me! Brother-in-law said so!"
"You're a grown-up, why are you fighting with little kids?"
Old Man Shao gave his son a sharp rap on the head with his knuckles, then handed the plate over to the three toddlers.
Wei Ting sat in the back courtyard polishing his crutch, radiating an aura of bone-chilling intimidation.
Those who knew would say he was polishing a crutch; those who didn't would assume he was tending to a bow and arrows.
Shao Daya approached him, looking down at him from above.
"Wei Ting."
"What is it?"
Shao Daya said thoughtfully, "Looking at you suddenly reminded me of a dream I had last night."
Wei Ting's hand paused in its motion of polishing the crutch, and he replied coldly, "I have no interest in your dreams."
Shao Daya walked around to face him and squatted down, lifting her gaze to look at him. "But I dreamt of you, and you were getting handsy with me."
Wei Ting shot her a cold glance. "Getting handsy with you? Is that even possible?"
Shao Daya mused, "I suppose it's pretty unlikely."
Putting aside Wei Ting's claim of having no interest, even if he did, given his temperament he would hardly stoop to taking advantage of someone in such a state.
It was all because this body's constitution was far too frail; once drowsiness took over, it hit her like intoxication, completely impossible to withstand.
She missed her previous life's physique so terribly.

Shao Daya reflected on it for a moment and still felt something was amiss. "And yet... it was awfully detailed."
Fearing he wouldn't understand, she added, "I pulled on your trousers."
She cast a sidelong glance at him. "Tell me, why would a dream feel so al—"
Wei Ting interrupted her coldly, "Don't you have the slightest self-awareness about why?!"
Shao Daya thought about it seriously. "Well, true. I did have a look."
Wei Ting: "......!!"
Shao Daya looked pensive. "I wonder if I actually touched it or not..." The dream had broken off at the worst possible moment.
Wei Ting was on the verge of exploding with fury.
Not only had he wasted the entire night without sleep, but so many complications had arisen. Most crucially of all, he still hadn't managed to find his token on her person or anywhere in her room.
Where on earth had this lass hidden his token?

During breakfast, Shao Daya noticed that Wei Ting's limp was even more pronounced than before.
She looked at Old Man Shao and said with a grave expression, "Dad, I told you earlier that his leg injury hasn't fully healed and he shouldn't be walking around. Look at how badly he's limping now."
Wei Ting swept a cold glare over Shao Daya and viciously took a bite out of the wheat pancake in his hand!
Old Man Shao gazed at his son-in-law's leg with a blank expression. "That's not right. He was walking just fine yesterday when we got back. How did his leg end up like this after a single night? Did you go out carrying pigs in the middle of the night?"
"Achoo!" Shao Daya turned around and sneezed.

Because Shao Daya had woken up late, they set up their stall later than usual. Old Li offered the brother and sister a ride part of the way on his ox cart.
Shao Daya reached into her purse to pay the fare, but Old Li refused to take it.
Lately, the little Shao family hadn't spared any effort in sending things over to their household; Madam Qian's basket was never empty whenever she returned from the fields, filled either with vegetables grown in their own garden or with the pastries and meat sent by the Shao family.
Granted, Shao Kang had wreaked havoc on a good portion of their vegetable patch, but those greens could still have been sold at the market—at worst, their appearance might have been slightly subpar, fetching a few copper coins less.
Yet what Shao Daya gave them far exceeded the value of those vegetables.
With their household lately flush with oil and meat, her daughter-in-law's complexion and overall health had improved tremendously. The midwife had even declared that this baby was guaranteed to be another big, chubby boy!
"Next time! Pay me next time!"
Old Li shoved the copper coins back into Shao Daya's palm and drove the ox cart away.
Shao Daya smiled. "Then many thanks, Uncle Li."
The two of them proceeded as usual to drop off goods at Luo Dazhuang's stall, collected the empty jars and payment for yesterday's delivery, and then headed in the direction of Jin Ji.
Shao Erdan spoke up, "Sister, were those pastries this morning really made for me?"
Shao Daya replied, "That's right. Did you like them?"
Shao Erdan beamed with radiant energy. "I loved them! They taste even better than the dim sum from before! What are those pastries called?"
Shao Daya answered casually, "Erdan Pastries."
Shao Erdan froze, looking at his own dear sister with sheer disbelief. "R-r-really-really-really Erdan Pastries?"
"Mm-hm." Shao Daya nodded with a smile.
Shao Erdan's heart surged with emotion. "T-then can we sell Erdan Pastries?"
"As long as you want to, of course you can." Shao Daya paused her steps and looked at him solemnly. "However, I will not sell the recipe."

Shao Erdan's mood was completely healed.
He was only thirteen this year, little more than a half-grown child when all was said and done.
He would be saddened by simple things, yet equally elated by an insignificant reward.
Walking down the main street, he grinned like a little fool.

At Jin Ji.
The master chefs in the kitchen had followed the recipe brought back by Shopkeeper Sun to recreate Shao Daya's three types of pastries.
Everyone took turns tasting them.
"Delicious!"
"They really are better than what we usually make."
"Turns out we had the method for making the oil paste wrong all along. Following her recipe yields a much richer, more delicate texture. Only—"
"Only what?" Shopkeeper Sun asked.
"It's just missing something," one of the chefs said.
The head chef remained silent.
From his perspective, it wasn't just missing *something*; it was missing *a great many things*.
"Could there really be something wrong with the formula?" Shopkeeper Sun asked anxiously. Forty-five taels of silver was no small sum! If he had bought a fake recipe, his responsibility would be immense!
"The recipe is fine," the head chef stated. Drawing on his experience, he could easily tell that the other party had not tampered with the proportions.
The differences in texture were caused by unevenness in dough fermentation time and cooking temperature.
In anything one did, talent was a prerequisite; some people were naturally born with a sensitive palate, capable of tasting nuances that ordinary people could not detect.
He himself was one such person, which was why he found this profession so effortless.
Yet clearly, that lass's talent was by no means inferior to his own.
The chestnut cakes and sweetheart cakes they had produced did not differ too terribly much in texture from the ones the lass sold; with more practice and preparation, those gaps could likely be bridged.
What truly made him frown, however, was the final pastry—the salted egg yolk pastry.
The salted egg yolk pastry they made was completely different from the one sold by the village girl.
"Is this also a matter of cooking temperature?" Shopkeeper Sun inquired.
Master Qin replied, "It's not the temperature; it's the ingredients."
Shopkeeper Sun protested, "We used the freshest, highest-quality ingredients available in town!"
Jin Ji's only drawback was its high prices, but it never compromised on ingredients.
"Could it be the egg yolks?" a chef suggested. "The recipe calls for salted egg yolks; we added salt, but the texture is still entirely wrong."
The egg yolks in the pastries Shao Daya sold had a sandy texture, exuded oil, and were savory and aromatic, whereas their own egg yolks were completely tasteless, bland, and dry as firewood.
The head chef pondered for a moment before saying, "I once had a kind of salted egg in the capital. The yolks inside had this exact texture."
Shopkeeper Sun was thoroughly startled. "You mean... we have to go all the way to the capital to buy them?"