Xiao Changyi didn’t feel the need to carry coins on him, but seeing how insistent An Jing was, he accepted them.
However, when Xiao Changyi returned from the town after buying tofu, he had bought An Jing a piece of honey cake. The honey cake cost five coins each and was topped with plenty of red dates, looking very tasty indeed.
Logically, An Jing felt Xiao Changyi shouldn’t have bought it, but emotionally, she felt sweetness radiating from the inside out, incredibly sweet. Her man was really willing to spend money on her~
Taking a bite of the soft, fluffy honey cake, she found it sweet but not cloying, sticky but not tacky, and she immediately praised, "Delicious!"
Xiao Changyi saw An Jing eating with joy, and he, too, was very happy.
But An Jing didn’t immediately take a second bite. Instead, she held the honey cake to Xiao Changyi’s mouth, and he took a bite just for the sake of it. He didn’t really like sweet things, but since she asked him to eat it, he did.
Just like the last time she gave him a piece of candied fruit, and he ate it.
"Is it delicious?" An Jing asked with a beaming smile. After having lived together for so long, she knew he wasn’t fond of sweet food—it was intentional on her part.
Xiao Changyi kept a straight face and nodded, "Mhm."
An Jing said no more, sparing Xiao Changyi from eating more of the sweet honey cake. She simply continued to eat, all the while smiling at Xiao Changyi, her smile reaching the depths of her eyes.
As for the overflowing tenderness in those eyes, she understood it, and he understood it even better.
Although Xiao Changyi’s face remained expressionless, his heart swelled up in an instant. She was pleased with him, just as he was pleased with her.
After finishing the honey cake, An Jing started cutting the twenty pounds of tofu into small blocks.
An Jing asked Xiao Changyi to bring a basket, first laying a layer of dry rice straw in the basket, then placing a layer of the cut tofu on top; then another layer of rice straw, followed by another layer of tofu on top... repeating this process until they could only fit four layers with the twenty pounds of tofu.
The final layer of tofu was still covered with rice straw.
The reason for using rice straw was because it contained Bacillus subtilis, which could promote the tofu to ferment into moldy tofu faster.
An Jing had Xiao Changyi place the basket in the corner of the kitchen and then said, ", it should start to mold in about seven days."
"Mhm." Xiao Changyi didn’t ask further.
"When the moldy tofu is ready, I’ll let you be the first to try it, okay?" An Jing asked with a smile.
"Mhm." Xiao Changyi’s lips unconsciously curled into a slight smile.
Seeing this, An Jing laughed even more joyfully.
After thinking it over, she then said, "This moldy tofu has another name, ’fermented bean curd.’ Let’s call it fermented bean curd when we sell it, if we call it moldy tofu, it feels like telling people how it’s made."
She intended to make money off this moldy tofu, and if she really could make money, then naturally, the method of making moldy tofu couldn’t be made known to others.
"Mhm." He had no objections.
By the time Xiao Changyi and An Jing had set up a large vegetable garden in the courtyard, the tofu had already molded and grown fur.
As soon as she saw the fermented tofu was ready, An Jing had Xiao Changyi bring the already prepared liquor and seasoning.
The seasoning was a mix of chili powder and salt, already stirred evenly.
An Jing first passed each piece of the fermented moldy tofu through the liquor, considering it a bath in white spirit, and then rolled the moldy tofu in the seasoning until it was evenly coated. Finally, she placed the seasoned moldy tofu into an already washed and drained clay jar.
Xiao Changyi squatted opposite An Jing, holding chopsticks, mimicking her by giving the moldy tofu a bath in the white spirit, evenly coating each piece with seasoning, and then placing them into the clay jar.