My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

Chapter 192 Chang'an's Zongzi

"Sister Qi, where is Sister Qi? Why are you busy alone?" At this time, a maid saw Chang Qi sitting alone in the backyard cutting cloth and asked.

Because the names of the two sisters Chang Qi and Chang Qi are so similar, and their pronunciations are similar, and Chang Qi is the elder sister and Chang Qi is the younger sister, they call them that to avoid confusion.

"My sister went to buy needles and thread. We don't have many needles and thread at home, not even colored thread or long needles." Chang Qi said.

"Indeed, the Marquis and his wife just moved in not long ago, and they are slowly filling up any missing items." The maid nodded, then asked, "Does anyone have a record of reporting to the Madam?"

"Of course there is." Chang Qi smiled, then continued to compare sizes and cut the fabric.

Chang Qi's words were all true, but she didn't tell the whole story. Because the two sisters' original intention today was indeed to buy needles and thread, but when they were about to leave, they learned that their two masters were going out. So Chang Qi, who was originally going to buy needles and thread, did her job by the way: guarding Gu Li.

As soon as he went out, Chang Qi found a few "rats" and quietly followed them for a distance before taking down the man. However, he never expected that his own master had sharp hearing and accidentally made a little more noise, and was almost discovered.

As for Zhang Jiazhen, the news of another spy's death soon reached his ears. Immediately, his face turned sour - this was a new spy who had just been sent out not long ago, and he was eliminated without doing anything?

Could it be that Marquis Dingkang has some guards in his home?

The servant beside him saw that he looked unhappy, so he asked, "Prime Minister, do you want to send more people out?"

Zhang Jiazhen sighed and said, "Forget it. If we send more people out this time, it will be a waste of manpower."

"Then let's go on..."

Zhang Jiazhen waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about him. He's just a kid who happened to become a marquis."

In fact, Zhang Jiazhen didn't really intend to ignore Marquis Dingkang, but there was no need to deal with him in a short time.

Marquis Dingkang is still young and seems to be favored by the emperor. If he goes too far, it will not end well.

......

Chang An and Gu Li arrived at the West Market soon. As soon as he got out of the carriage, he first looked at the eaves around him. After confirming that his tail was not exposed, he lifted the curtain and let Gu Li out.

After instructing the driver, Chang An took Gu Li and two maids to the West Market. They first bought some rice dumplings and glutinous rice, and then Gu Li took Chang An to buy chestnuts and red dates.

"Oh, that's right!" After Gu Li bought some red dates and chestnuts, he asked Zhen'er, "Zhen'er, do we have any honey at home?"

Zhen Er nodded and replied, "Yes, Sanniang."

Chang An was a little confused and called out softly, "Mother Gu?"

"Hey."

"What do we need honey for?"

"Making zongzi," Gu Li said as a matter of course, but then he thought that his son Chang Lang didn't really celebrate festivals before, so he asked again:

"Could it be that Chang Lang has never even eaten zongzi before..."

When he said this, Gu Li's face showed some inexplicable feeling of "heartache", and then he looked at Huaiqin who was standing behind Chang An, wanting to see if it was really the case.

As expected, Gu Li got a "shake head" answer from Huaiqin. Gu Li immediately felt distressed again, holding Chang An's hand and said:

"It's okay, Chang Lang, it's okay. When we get back later, I'll make Chang Lang a zongzi, okay?"

But in fact, the original owner had never eaten zongzi, so what did it have to do with Chang An now? The reason why Chang An was confused was that he was actually a southerner before he came here, and he ate salty zongzi, and he didn't know that sweet zongzi had to be put in honey.

Oh, this is such a beautiful misunderstanding.

"Okay."

Chang An smiled and pinched Gu Li's cheek, then said, "How about I make a zongzi for Gu Niang when I go back?"

Gu Li tilted his head: How can I make zongzi if I have never eaten it? Is this the legendary "I have never eaten pork, but I have seen pigs run"?

However, she couldn't spoil the fun of her beloved husband, so she smiled and said, "Okay, I'll make one for Chang Lang, and Chang Lang will make one for me too."

"But the rice dumplings I want to make are different from those made by Gu Niang." Chang An said with a smile.

Gu Li didn't say much, he just put his little hand in the other's palm and said, "Then Chang Lang, take us to buy materials?"

"Ah."

Chang An took Gu Li and the others to a butcher shop, which once again made them feel confused. Chang An secretly glanced at them and thought that their surprise was normal. In the Tang Dynasty, chestnut sweet dumplings were common, and meat dumplings were rarely seen, let alone salty meat dumplings.

So Chang An said to the butcher: "Pick up these pieces of fresh pork for me!"

"okay!"

......

Then Chang An went to buy some mung beans, mushrooms and salted duck eggs. These were normal ingredients, but he used them to make rice dumplings. The female relatives around him felt a little confused.

Gu Li couldn't help asking, "Chang Lang, are these used to make zongzi?"

"Yes," Chang An nodded with a smile, and then said, "I will make some different rice dumplings for our mother Gu this time."

"Different rice dumplings?" Gu Li was a little excited at this time.

At this moment, Huaiqin suddenly shouted:

"Sister Qi!"

Chang An was startled at this moment, and his nerves were tense. Chang Qi would appear here, could there be some unclean eyes? So he hurriedly looked in a certain direction - at this time, Chang Qi was carrying a basket and looking at them not far away.

Chang Qi stepped forward and respectfully greeted Chang An and Gu Li, saying, "Greetings, my Lord, Madam."

"Sister Qi, have you bought the needles and thread?" Gu Li asked at this time.

"To reply to my lady, I have bought everything." Chang Qi nodded slightly, then opened his basket, which was filled with threads of various colors and several sewing kits.

"Buy...a sewing kit?" Chang An was stunned for a moment, then looked at Gu Li.

Gu Li nodded and said, "Yes, sister Qi asked me today and said that we don't have enough needles and thread at home, so she wanted to buy some."

Chang An nodded, and simply stopped thinking about it, and said directly: "Since Sister Qi is here, there is no need to walk back, just take the carriage with us."

After Chang Qi simply said "No thanks", Chang An changed his tone to an order, and she agreed: "Thank you, my lord, madam."

After returning home, Chang An took all the ingredients to the kitchen and told them to prepare them in advance. He also explained how to process each ingredient. He even asked the servants to find a mill to grind pepper, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, cumin seeds and other ingredients into powder.

Before going to bed at night, Gu Li said excitedly: "Chang Lang, we will start making rice dumplings tomorrow."

"Well, is Madam Gu excited?" Chang An molested Gu Li on the mouth again and asked.

"Well, because tomorrow Chang Lang will be able to eat his first Zongzi!" Gu Li said, "and the first Zongzi Chang Lang will eat is the one I made myself, so of course he's excited."

Chang An smiled and tapped Gu Li's forehead, saying, "Mother Gu, don't get excited!"

"Why?"

"Because we need to go to bed. We won't be able to sleep if we are too excited." Chang An helped her to the bed and said.

"Then go to sleep. You can make zongzi tomorrow."

Gu Li lay obediently on the bed, and consciously pulled the quilt over to cover him. Chang An smiled, blew out the candle, and went back to lie down beside Gu Li.

......

Since Gu Li's implantation reaction ended, he woke up earlier than Chang An every day. As usual, they stayed in bed for a while before getting up to wash up. After everything was ready, the couple held hands and went to the kitchen together.

After the instructions last night, all the ingredients were ready. So the couple rolled up their sleeves, grabbed a stool, sat on it, and made zongzi with the servants.

The servants on Gu Li's side were all making sweet date rice dumplings, while Chang An's side were making Cantonese rice dumplings. However, the servants had never seen Cantonese rice dumplings, so Chang An's performance was basically just a demonstration.

"Two of you go take out the soaked glutinous rice and mix it with salt and oil."

"Go get two more people to get the pork, cut it into pieces, and bring the flour you ground yesterday, and mix it with the pork."

"You, go and add some white wine to the salted egg yolks you bought yesterday, and steam them for half an incense stick."

After giving instructions, Chang An began to select the leaves for the zongzi - for his wife, of course he had to choose the best. After selecting the leaves, he also prepared all the necessary ingredients.

So Chang An rolled up his sleeves and started to wrap zongzi: he folded the zong leaves into a triangular cone shape, put glutinous rice and mung beans in first, then put a few pieces of pork on top of the first two, and finally covered them with a layer of mung beans and glutinous rice.

Afterwards, he added a piece of zongzi leaf on the left and right sides and on the surface of the zongzi, wrapped it into a triangle, and tied it tightly with the zongzi rope he bought yesterday.

After putting down the first zongzi, Chang An took a few more pieces of zongzi leaves, folded them and put a red date in them. He then filled the zongzi with a handful of glutinous rice, a few pieces of meat and mushrooms, and a whole processed salted egg yolk before covering it with rice.

After all this work, Chang An finished wrapping two dumplings. He turned around and looked at Gu Li - she had already wrapped the dumplings and was sitting there with her hands behind her back, looking at him with a smile.

"Has Chang Lang finished wrapping the rice dumplings?" asked Gu Li.

"I've wrapped two." Chang An showed the dumplings he had just wrapped in front of Gu Li, "This one is a salty pork dumpling, and this one is an egg yolk and meat dumpling."

"How many did Gu Niang pack?"

"One." Gu Li then took his hands out from behind his back, revealing a big zongzi, which was a circle larger than the normal size.

"So big?!" Chang An was stunned for a moment, "What's the filling inside?"

"Red dates, chestnuts, honey, and..."

Gu Li stood up from the stool at this time, walked to Chang An's side, leaned close to his ear and whispered:

"Gu Niang's heart..."