Chapter 438: The Formidable Mo Qinzi

New Moon Cake is what we call the ice skin mooncake.

In Great Chu, moon cakes are round flatbreads filled with either meat filling or sugar filling, which aren’t too tasty. Since Gu Jinli doesn’t like the moon cakes from Great Chu, she decided to make ice skin mooncakes for her family.

Brother Cheng, after hearing Gu Jinli say how beautiful and delicious ice skin mooncakes are, couldn’t wait to try them and was eagerly looking forward to Gu Jinli making them.

"Second Sister, I was wrong, I’m sorry. Please remember to make me some New Moon Cake," Brother Cheng promptly apologized to Gu Jinli. His older brother had taught him that a true man should know how to be flexible.

Gu Jinli gave him a glance: "Little foodie, tend to the fire properly, it can’t be too fierce or the medicinal ointment will burn."

After listening, Brother Cheng immediately pulled out two sticks from the small clay stove.

Gu Jinxiu sifted the herbal medicine finely and then took out a set of small copper scales. Following the amounts Gu Jinli had told her, she weighed the medicine, apportioned it, and in total prepared fifty portions.

Aunt Wu had given them plenty of herbs, and even after making fifty portions, there was still half left unused. Xiao Yu suggested keeping it for later to make and sell for some money.

This time, Gu Jinli was making a large batch of scar removal ointment, so she switched to a larger copper pot. The copper pot was also from Aunt Wu, who had given her quite a few tools for medicine making in exchange for making the scar ointment.

The three siblings had gotten up early in the morning and, busy until almost dusk, they finally finished making the fifty portions of scar removal ointment.

"Sister, these are the white porcelain bottles Aunt Wu sent over. Once the ointment cools down, you can fill the bottles and store them in our house’s chest. We’re going to head out first," Gu Jinli brought over the white porcelain bottles, placed them aside, and then hurried to the workshop with Gu Dashan, Mrs. Cui, and Gu Jin’an.

Today is already the 13th, and they need to give festival gifts to the workers in the workshop. The workshop will be closed the day after tomorrow so everyone can celebrate well.

Old Guo, He Dazhuang, and the others had finished their work and had already cleaned up the workshop, waiting for the Gu’s Workshop owners to distribute the festival gifts.

The Mid-Autumn Festival gifts were much more generous compared to those during the Dragon Boat Festival. The gifts were given per person, with each worker receiving one. Even He Dazhuang’s son got a gift – everyone got roast duck and various stews.

Carrying her family’s three roast ducks, He Dazhuang’s wife said, "We’ll keep this one to eat at home, send this one to my natal family, and this one..."

"That one is for your eldest son’s fiancée’s family, right?" He Tugou’s wife said before she could finish.

Smiling broadly, He Dazhuang’s wife replied, "Sister Tugou, don’t talk nonsense. My eldest son and Village Chief Yang’s granddaughter aren’t officially engaged yet. It’s just exchanging festival gifts between relatives, don’t read too much into it."

He Tugou’s wife jokingly retorted, "Just look at your face - it’s blatantly obvious that Village Chief Yang’s granddaughter will be your daughter-in-law. Asking us not to think too much? This is something to be happy about, not to hide. Having such a good marriage opportunity for your son, us aunts too are delighted. Isn’t that right, Xizi?"

Since Village Chief Yang found out that He Dazhuang’s family had joined Gu’s Workshop and were earning fifteen taels of Silver each month, he was quite envious. Village Chief Yang also wanted to connect with Gu’s Workshop, so he sent his wife to Mrs. He Yang’s natal family to discuss the marriage of their children.

He Dazhuang’s wife, who hails from Yangzi Gully, knew about Village Chief Yang’s character. Although Village Chief Yang was fond of wealth and aimed to enrich the village, his actions were largely upright. Village Chief Yang’s granddaughter was also a good girl, and He Dazhuang’s wife was indeed interested in establishing a kinship with Village Chief Yang’s family.

Indeed, after a month of discussions, the marriage between He Xizi and Village Chief Yang’s granddaughter was settled. They agreed that after the Mid-Autumn Festival, He Dazhuang’s family would hire a matchmaker to formally propose to Village Chief Yang’s family.

He Xizi’s face turned beet red when asked about it, and she ran off carrying her own festival gift, saying, "There’s no water in the water tank at home, I have to go back and fetch water."

"Hey, look at you, getting all shy," He Tugou’s wife couldn’t stop laughing as she pointed at Dazhuang’s wife: "Sister-in-law Dazhuang, with your thick skin, how come you gave birth to a son like Xizi who blushes so easily?"

Dazhuang’s wife replied: "Which young man doesn’t get shy when it comes to marriage talk? You think everyone’s like you, so casual about it."

And she added: "I’m warning you all now, my Xizi is thin-skinned, so don’t tease him all the time. Otherwise, you’ll have me to answer to."

"Goodness, you’re so protective of him, one would think you had a daughter if they didn’t know any better."

"What, can’t I protect my son?"

"Protect, protect, protect, as long as you’re happy, protect him however you wish."

Dazhuang’s wife and Tugou’s wife chatted and laughed together as they took their festival gifts home.

Mo Qinzi’s family and Mo Chunyue’s family also received their festival gifts and happily went home. However, Mo Kui faced some difficulty when receiving the Qi Family’s festival gift.

When Ms. Zhang and Mo Qinzi returned, Mo Kui hurriedly called Ms. Zhang into the room to whisper: "The Qi Family’s festival gift is quite generous, with three roast ducks and two bolts of cotton fabric, one of which is watermelon pink, said to be for Sister Qin to make an autumn outfit. Do you think...they might bring up that matter with our family? Should I quit my job after the festival... Otherwise, it wouldn’t look good."

Ever since He Cui’er’s mother falsely accused Sister Qin of having designs on Qi Kangping, Gu Daya had been paying attention and had asked Third Grandma to quietly bring it up to Ms. Zhang twice, hoping to marry Sister Qin to Qi Kangping as his wife.

Ms. Zhang was very pleased with the Qi Family: "The Qi Family is indeed good, Qi Kangping may be a bit older, but he’s honest, the family is reliable, they have good relations with the Young Master’s family, and they run a marinated food shop. If Sister Qin married into their family, she wouldn’t have worries for the rest of her life."

With a face clouded with worry, Mo Kui said: "I know the Qi Family is good, and because they’re good, I’m thinking about quitting my job. Where in this world would you hear of a father-in-law working for his son-in-law’s family? Not to mention that it wouldn’t sound good, but it would also put Sister Qin in a lower position and I don’t want to put her at a disadvantage."

Ms. Zhang felt Mo Kui made sense, and gritted her teeth: "After the festival, you should quit your job. Once you’ve done that, our family will agree to the marriage."

"I can’t quit," Mo Qinzi entered, looking at Mo Kui and Ms. Zhang: "Father, you earn your living through labor, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, and your daughter doesn’t think you’re dishonorable. Besides, our family needs silver to build a house, buy land, and send Xiangming to school. Without the Qi Family’s work, our family would lose several taels of silver in income every month. Your daughter can’t let the family lose out on silver just for the sake of personal pride."

Mo Kui earned a few hundred copper coins a day working for the Qi Family slaughtering ducks, which amounted to several taels of silver a month, a considerable sum.

Seeing her come in, Mo Kui said angrily: "You girl, now you’ve started eavesdropping, too. Get out right now, your parents will decide about your marriage."

Mo Qinzi replied: "If my marriage is going to cost our family several taels of silver every month, then I’d rather not marry at all. Our family is not like the local ones; we came here fleeing famine, we need to work hard to earn money and establish our household. The work from the Qi Family is very important to us."

Mo Kui wasn’t moved by her words, but got angry instead: "What do you know; I’m doing all this for you!"

Ms. Zhang said: "That’s right, Sister Qin, it doesn’t reflect well on you if your father works for your prospective husband’s family."

Mo Qinzi wanted to say more, but was driven out of the room by Mo Kui and his wife.

Left with no other choice, Mo Qinzi bit her lip and ran to the Qi Family to find Gu Daya.