Trap in a Book

Chapter 15

The next morning, the lean man in black once again sat up on the tree. He looked down at the small house and noticed a small brown fuzzball kept going back and forth at the door.

Xiaomei got up with a lot on her mind. She knew she couldn't possibly kill him as he was too skilled, and there was barely a chance for her to get him injured as well. What could she possibly do? She tried to make herself feel better by lying to herself that she could do a sneak attack on him, but in reality, that was not possible as well. She heard scratching noises at the door and went to open the door. To her surprise, there was a small handful of berries on the floor with the chipmunk sitting there. "Are these for me?" she laughed. The chipmunk shook its head before crawling onto her dress and climbing up onto her shoulder. "Are you the one who gave me a bag of rice," she jokes before picking all the berries off the ground and heading inside to give the chipmunk his half of the shared nuts.

The man in the tree said, "Look at that. I'm going against a chipmunk."

Xiaomei went back outside to wash the berries while the chipmunk stayed behind with LiMei as it was eating peanuts. Xiaomei lifted the bucket out of the well and set it down before throwing the berries in the water. She headed back while thinking about what she should do with the berries. Should they just eat it or make something out of it? She then started a fire, placed a pan over the fire and dumped the small handful of berries in, and poured a generous amount of sugar in as well. She stirred the berry and sugar mixture as the sugar started to dissolve and turn into a liquid while the berries burst. She continued to stir until the mixture became thick and turned into jam. She then set it aside before heading back inside to grab a bowl of glutinous rice flour, oil, and clean water. "Miss, do you need any help?" LiMei asked once Xiaomei entered the house, as she was watching and playing with the chipmunk. "No, I'm fine," she replied before making her way out.

Xiaomei started boiling the water and added some sugar to the water until it dissolved. She removes the water from the fire and pours the hot sugar water into the glutinous rice flour. She mixed it until it was a round ball of dough. She kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes until it became a smooth ball. She then divided it into pieces. She then flattened the pieces and filled them with some of the jam before reforming a ball. She then heated the oil before frying up the balls. She was disappointed that she didn't have any sesame seeds to make it official sesame balls but this will do. She continued to fry until it puffed up and the outside was golden brown. "LiMei," she called out. "Food is ready!" She brushes her hair aside from her face and notices familiar black clothes. She looked up in the tree to spot ZhangWei, leaning against the tree with his arm crossed. She forced a smile before saying, "Mister Wei, I'm sorry to disappoint you. It seems that I'm better."

ZhangWei chuckled and said, "That's a shame,'' and disappeared. She showed her fist where he had disappeared and was pleased that he would finally leave her alone.

"Miss, who are you talking to?" LiMei had left the house.

"No one," she said, carrying a plate of "fried sesame balls" inside. She took a last glance at the empty trees.

The very next day, a bag full of berries was left at the door. She picks it up and looks around to see no one. She looked up at the tree to see no one. "Miss, who gave us a bag of berries?" LiMei asked.

"I'm not sure...," she said.

"What should we do with it?" LiMei asked another question.

"Since the person gave it to us. Might as well make use of it," Xiaomei said and headed to the well. She washed the berries before making more jam. Since there were more berries than yesterday, it took a longer time. While waiting, she made glutinous rice flour dough and grinded some walnuts to make some walnut milk. After the jam was finished, she poured it into a jar and heated the walnut milk. She then put a spoonful of jam into the milk and stirred before dividing small pieces of the glutinous rice flour dough into little balls and throwing them in. Once the rice balls floated up, she took the pot off the fire and served food.

However, the next day there was a piece of pork hanging at the door. Xiaomei unhooked the piece of meat and looked around again to see no one. "Who keeps giving them food?" she said. ZhangWei hasn't shown up since that day as the trees were empty. It made sense as the story is progressing. He probably had finally met with Baozhai and talked. So it couldn't be him? "Is it Bao?" she said...

Xiaomei had started cutting up the meat and vegetables, green onions, cilantro, and red pepper, while the rice was cooking. She poured oil into the pan and tossed the chopped pork in before adding salt and red pepper. As the pork was almost fully cooked, she added the green onion. Once the green onion is cooked, she tosses the cilantro before taking the pan out of the fire. Xiaomei thought, if only she had the proper ingredients she could have made hong shao rou (Red braised pork belly) before she sighs in sadness.

"Miss, it smells delicious," LiMei said. The aroma was strong as everyone in the palace could smell it.

"What's that smell? It smells so good." ChuHua said while the others (Baozhai, LiJie, and BoJing) with her were curious as well.

"Oh, it seems that the kitchen is cooking something delicious," a henchman said, following the emperor. The emperor stopped before taking a nice sniff and nodded his head in agreement.