Before leaving, however, Lin Yaozu’s curiosity got the better of him, and despite not knowing how the mooncakes tasted, he placed an order for a box of each of the four flavors.
When he heard the price, Lin Yaozu was genuinely shocked. He never imagined that a simple box of pastries—just six in total, even if tied to the Mid-Autumn Festival—could fetch such an exorbitant price.
“What kind of delicacy is this?” he wondered. “I’ll have to try it for myself!”
With that, Lin Yaozu left two taels of silver and departed, thoroughly puzzled.
The packaging samples arrived at Ji Wei’s house ahead of schedule.
They didn’t disappoint after Ji Wei’s detailed explanation. The inner packaging paper was slightly soft but firmer than ordinary packaging paper. When folded along the cuts, it formed a flat square box with a brief four-character blessing on the front and some simple border designs.
The outer packaging was hard and couldn’t be easily bent, showing that it had been compressed tightly to achieve the effect.
Compared to modern paper boxes, the craftsmanship was top-tier for its time, though the surface wasn’t as smooth as Ji Wei had imagined. This was due to differences in the tools used, but Ji Wei didn’t mind too much.
The biggest difference from his original vision was the color. The promotional drawings he had meticulously crafted by hand were, of course, much more refined.
The packaging paper was crafted by a skilled artisan who carved the designs, applied color, and then printed them uniformly. Even a small inner package required several different molds—one for the blessing, one for the borders, and others for various details, which were then pieced together.
Although the color discrepancy was noticeable, the result still captured about seventy to eighty percent of what Ji Wei had envisioned, and the final product was much better than he had anticipated.
After pointing out some areas for improvement, the errand boy from the print shop hurried back to the city with Ji Wei’s feedback. Since the distance between the two places was dozens of miles, it wasn’t easy for him to make the trip. Taking advantage of the early hour, he took a donkey cart back to Qingcheng.
Each sample of the different designs arrived in two sets, which, when combined with both the inner and outer packaging, formed ten boxes of mooncakes.
Ji Wei had no intention of wasting these newly made samples. He went to the grocery store and the market to buy duck eggs, red beans, sesame seeds, peanuts, lotus seeds, and a variety of other ingredients. Unable to carry everything himself, he asked one of the grocery store clerks to help him deliver the goods back home.
When the large quantity of ingredients arrived at the house, it startled Liu Yimian. However, understanding what Ji Wei intended to do, he quickly put down his book, rolled up his sleeves, and joined in to help.
The Cantonese-style mooncakes were planned to come in four flavors: red bean paste, lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk, peanut and sesame, and fresh meat.
Only the salted egg yolk needed to be prepared in advance. Ji Wei asked Liu Yimian to help separate the whites and yolks of over twenty duck eggs. Then, they buried the yolks in a large amount of fine salt, covered them, and placed the container in the well to keep it cool, preventing spoilage in the hot weather.
After curing for about a day and a night, the salted yolks would be ready for use in the filling the following morning.
Since Ji Wei had already made red bean paste before, and the process for making lotus paste was similar, this time he instructed Liu Yimian to handle both. First, they steamed the beans, and then mashed them before cooking them with oil and sugar until smooth.
For the sesame and peanuts, they had to be roasted with sugar to release their fragrance before being ground into a fine powder.
Both sesame and peanuts are naturally oily, so after grinding, they gave off a rich aroma and could easily be shaped, ready to be combined with the mooncake dough.
Among the four flavors, the fresh meat filling was the most unique.
Ordinarily, fresh meat mooncakes don’t fall under the Cantonese style. However, Ji Wei had created a modified version. He finely minced meat with a mix of 80% lean and 20% fat, and seasoned it with minced ginger, garlic, pork lard, soy sauce, malt sugar, cane sugar, and eggs, blending everything thoroughly to make a filling that paired with the Cantonese-style dough.
The two of them spent the entire afternoon rolling, stuffing, and baking mooncakes.
The rich fragrance permeated the entire courtyard. If the gate hadn’t been tightly shut, many curious neighbors would have come knocking, wondering what Ji Wei was making.
The next day, once the salted yolks were ready, they washed off the excess salt and wrapped them with the lotus paste and mooncake dough. After baking, the two of them packed the mooncakes into the newly made boxes—four flavors in total, filling eight boxes.
Four of these boxes were prepared as gifts for County Magistrate Lu Zhanhong.
To enter the high-end market, how could they overlook someone with the highest status in the area?
Ji Wei carried the four exquisitely packaged boxes to visit Lu Zhanhong, but it turned out that Lu was out meeting an old friend, and his son, Lu Yushu, was attending school. With no one familiar at home, Ji Wei left the mooncakes and a promotional flyer before heading back to Changliu Town.
Both Lu Zhanhong and Lu Yushu were out, and Madam Lu had little interest in the mooncakes. As a result, the four boxes, along with the flyer, were set aside, awaiting the return of father and son.
Two days later, Lu Yushu returned from school, and Lu Zhanhong saw off his friend. The family gathered for a rare meal together when Madam Lu suddenly mentioned the four boxes of mooncakes.
“Mooncakes? What’s that?” Lu Zhanhong was curious and asked someone to bring them.
Lu Yushu recognized Ji Wei and had already told his parents about the cookies and doughnuts Ji Wei had made, which had left them both astonished.
However, Lu Zhanhong, who knew Ji Wei from the courtroom, thought that the success of the cookies had been a fluke. He was skeptical that Ji Wei possessed such talent.
“Are you talking about the Ji Wei from Changliu Town?” Lu Zhanhong asked, holding the elegant hard-paper box, surprised.
“I haven’t met him myself, but the steward said he introduced himself as Ji Wei from Changliu Town. So it’s probably the same person you and Yushu mentioned,” Madam Lu replied, being informed by the steward.
After hearing this, Lu Zhanhong became even more curious.
“Well, it seems like the prodigal son truly has returned,” Madam Lu laughed, clapping her hands.
“If that’s the case, it would be quite remarkable,” said Lu Zhanhong, though he still had his doubts. Meanwhile, Lu Yushu quickly opened one of the boxes, revealing six neatly arranged mooncakes inside.
“What dedication! This craftsmanship is simply extraordinary,” Madam Lu exclaimed, accepting one of the pale lavender boxes from her son.
Lu Yushu, after carefully examining the packaging and even sniffing it, commented, “This doesn’t seem hand-drawn; it looks printed. The lines are a bit stiff.”
Nodding, Lu Zhanhong added, “If it were hand-drawn, it wouldn’t be top-quality. But if it’s truly printed, then it’s a masterful work.”
They had only ever seen printed text, not printed images.
Only Ji Wei could answer their questions about this.
“Father, look. Each box has different words on it,” Lu Yushu pointed to the small writing in the lower corner.
“Fresh meat flavor, lotus paste with salted egg yolk—these sound interesting,” remarked Lu Zhanhong as he casually unwrapped one of the packages, revealing a reddish-brown mooncake about the size of half a palm, with intricate patterns pressed into its surface.
The design complemented the packaging, enhancing the sense of craftsmanship.
“I’ve been an official for over a decade, in both large prefectures and small towns, and I’ve never seen such delicately made pastries. Are these mooncakes designed by Ji Wei for the Mid-Autumn Festival? If he made these by hand, I must reevaluate my opinion of him,” said Lu Zhanhong, urging his wife and son to taste the mooncakes while he sampled a piece of the lotus paste with salted egg yolk flavor.
The sweetness of the lotus paste and the savory salted egg yolk, combined with the soft, smooth texture of the dough, created a delightful balance. Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Zhanhong examined the yolk.
“This yolk is both salty and fragrant, harder than regular yolks, with a striking red color. It’s quite a distinctive flavor,” he commented.
“Father, look at this fresh meat mooncake. It’s made with a generous portion of pork—so savory and aromatic, even better than the meat patties you love!” said Lu Yushu excitedly.
Madam Lu, having chosen the black sesame and peanut flavor, was also delighted. The rich aroma of roasted sesame and peanuts, combined with the sweetness of cane sugar, filled their senses.
After just one bite, all three were captivated by the unique texture and taste of the mooncakes.
“Father, these mooncakes would make excellent gifts for your friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival,” suggested Lu Yushu, running his fingers over the textured packaging. “I thought the cookies and doughnuts were impressive, but Ji Wei has truly outdone himself with these.”
“You’re right, Yushu. I should order more of these to give to my friends when they visit,” agreed Zhanhong, checking the flavors listed on the box. “How about this—let’s order four boxes of each flavor?”
“Sounds great, but I wonder how much they cost,” asked Madam Lu.
“However expensive they are, they can’t be that costly. Judging by the craftsmanship, they must take a lot of effort to make. If you want to order them, you’d better do it soon,” Madam Lu advised.
Father and son agreed and instructed the steward to arrange a visit to Changliu Town in the coming days to place their mooncake order with Ji Wei.
However, the mooncakes that Ji Wei eventually sold were somewhat different from the ones he sent to the Lu family.
The commercial version came with six mooncakes per box, in two different flavors, sold as a pair for one tael of silver.
The ones sent to the Lu family, however, were a special set with one flavor per box, and two boxes per pair. The value of this two-tael gift was something the Lus had yet to realize. Only when they met Ji Wei later would they understand how generous his gesture had been.
But that’s a story for another time.
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1