novelraw Chapter 217 Osmanthus Cake
Chapter 217 Osmanthus Cake
I don't know when I fell asleep.
When the bedroom door was pushed open, Su Wuli's consciousness was slightly awakened.
The footsteps entering the house were very light, deliberately suppressed.
Yu Chen stood by the couch for a while.
The blanket covering Su Wuli slipped down a little, revealing her shoulders, and the collar of her undergarment was askew, exposing her collarbone.
He reached out and pulled the blanket up to cover her shoulders.
Su Wuli's eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.
The moonlight shone from behind the man, revealing only his silhouette.
He has broad shoulders and a narrow waist; standing by the tatami mat, he looks like a tree.
Su Wuli wasn't fully awake yet; her mind was still drowsy, but her body had already started moving.
She instinctively shrank closer to him, pressing her face against his waist and wrapping her arms around his waist tightly.
Yu Chen placed his hand on the back of her head and gently rubbed it.
Did I wake you up?
Su Wuli shook her head and buried her face in his waist.
He didn't say anything.
He took off his outer robe and draped it on the rack, then lifted the blanket and lay down.
She immediately moved closer to him.
Yu Chen reached out and pulled her into his arms, her face pressed against his chest.
He had just returned from the study, still smelling of ink mixed with candle smoke.
It smelled bad, but she didn't move.
"Go back to sleep," Yu Chen said in a deep voice, tightening his arms around her.
"Hmm." Su Wuli closed her eyes again.
She didn't know when he fell asleep, only that Yu Chen's breathing became heavier and slower, and his fingers were still on her head.
Su Wuli slowly opened her eyes and looked at his face by the moonlight.
He was asleep, but he looked very tired.
His brows were still furrowed.
She raised her hand and pressed it against his brow, gently rubbing it.
Her brow relaxed slightly, and her fingers remained motionless.
After a while, she withdrew her hand, buried her face in his neck, and closed her eyes.
This time, she fell asleep quickly.
I woke up the next day and returned to my apartment.
……
Su Wuli had been thinking about the osmanthus cake for several days.
The day after she returned to her apartment, she searched for tutorials online.
The search results were all over the place; some said to add glutinous rice flour, some said to use only rice flour, and some said to dry-fry the osmanthus flowers...
She read through more than a dozen articles, picked the one that looked the most reliable, copied the materials list onto a sticky note, and stuck it on the refrigerator door.
On days when she didn't have any work commitments, she would tinker around in the kitchen.
The first thing I made was as hard as a brick; it was so hard it hurt my teeth if I bit into it.
The second one was a little better; at least I could chew it, but it was too sweet, so sweet it tasted bitter.
She reduced the sugar, and it wasn't sweet enough the third time.
The fourth time, she used osmanthus flowers, soaked dried osmanthus flowers and kneaded them into the dough, which gave it a faint fragrance when steamed.
But the texture is still wrong; it's too sticky.
……
That day, her phone rang while she was kneading dough in the kitchen.
The name "Wen Yan" popped up on the screen. She wiped her hands and answered the call.
"What are you doing?"
Wen Yan's face appeared on the screen, with her living room in the background, and she was wearing pajamas.
Su Wuli rested her phone against the condiment bottle, facing the camera.
"Make something to eat."
Wen Yan looked at the mess behind her.
Several bowls were placed on the stove, flour was sprinkled on the table, a bag of powdered sugar was open, and an egg beater lay across the cutting board.
"Are you cooking or blowing up the kitchen?" Wen Yan teased with a laugh. "Be careful, don't smash the kitchen to pieces."
Su Wuli lowered her head and kneaded the dough, not looking at her, "I'm not a kitchen disaster."
The dough spun in her hands; she flipped it over and continued kneading. "I'm just good at it."
"What are you good at? Turning the kitchen into a crime scene?"
Wen Yan chuckled, then her smile suddenly faltered.
"You didn't just do this for fun..."
Su Wuli didn't stop kneading the dough. She took it out of the bowl and placed it on the cutting board to continue kneading.
"You never used to go into the kitchen," Wen Yan continued. "Last time you were too lazy to even cook instant noodles and ordered takeout instead."
Su Wuli lowered her head, looking at the flour stuck to her fingers.
Wen Yan was quiet for a while, then she laughed.
A slightly teasing voice rang out, "Is this for your hunky guy?"
Upon hearing this, Su Wuli's fingers paused for a moment.
I looked up at my phone screen.
On the screen, Wen Yan's face was visible, her eyebrows raised and the corners of her mouth turned up.
"A macho man? What did you say?" Su Wuli's eyes darted around.
"The one you have?" Wen Yan laughed, continuing to tease, "Why didn't you just buy it? You actually made it yourself?"
Su Wuli lowered her head and continued kneading the dough.
Because her thoughts had been exposed, her face flushed red, starting from her earlobe and spreading upwards all the way to her earlobe.
Wen Yan laughed out loud on the other end of the screen, directly pointing out, "Your ears are red."
"No," Su Wuli denied guiltily.
"Still not admitting it? Look at your ears, they're as red as boiled shrimp."
As soon as she finished speaking, Su Wuli subconsciously raised her hand and touched her ear.
It was definitely hot.
She lowered her hand, and her flour-covered fingers left a white mark on her cheek.
Wen Yan saw this and laughed even harder.
"Alright, alright, I'm not teasing you anymore."
Wen Yan softened her tone, "You make your osmanthus cake, I'll watch you, just don't blow up the kitchen."
Su Wuli hummed in agreement and lowered her head to continue kneading the dough.
A thin layer of flour was sprinkled on the cutting board, and the dough became smoother and smoother in her hands.
Wen Yan kept rambling on on the other end of the screen, talking about which brand had recently released a new lipstick, and which celebrity was trending on social media...
Su Wuli listened and occasionally responded.
"Your technique is actually quite good." Wen Yan looked at her friend, who was getting into the swing of things, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Who did you learn it from?"
"Tutorial." Su Wuli put the dough into a bowl and covered it with a damp cloth.
"I found it online and chose the simplest one."
"Why did it take so many days to make something so simple?"
"Even something simple is difficult for me."
With a hint of distress, Su Wuli put the pot aside and began to tend to the osmanthus flowers.
Wen Yan watched from the other side of the screen as she scooped out the osmanthus flowers, drained the water, and sprinkled them on the cutting board.
"How much are you making? Are you planning to open a shop?"
Su Wuli ignored her.
Mix the osmanthus flowers and sugar together and set aside in a small bowl.
"How many times did you do it?" Wen Yan pressed.
Su Wuli thought for a moment. "Five times, plus today, that's the sixth time."
Wen Yan remained silent for a while.
"You made osmanthus cake six times for a man?"
Su Wuli didn't reply immediately, but instead took the risen dough out of the bowl.
Roll it out into a thin sheet on a cutting board.
Then sprinkle osmanthus sugar on top, roll it up, cut it into small pieces, and arrange them in a steamer.
"You're finished," Wen Yan said from the other end of the screen.
Su Wuli looked up at her.
Wen Yan leaned back on the sofa, hugging a cushion, and said, "Su Wuli, you're finished."
"I just want to give it a try," Su Wuli replied.
Wen Yan looked at her, smiled, and didn't tease her any further.
"Okay, give it a try. If it works, send me two pieces to try."
"Yes, definitely." Su Wuli smiled sweetly at the screen.
Although she succeeded in the end, Su Wuli still felt that the taste was somewhat lacking, so she tried it again later.
……
Whenever she wasn't filming, Su Wuli would find time to practice, and she wanted to let Yu Chen eat osmanthus cake one more time.
That morning, Su Wuli was woken up by a warm embrace.