Empress Who?

Chapter 22

"Hey Kaiyu, Has Huyin returned from the fields as well?"
I asked Kaiyu after our discussion was over. Kaiyu and Huyin both worked in the rice fields these days with other villagers and came home very late at evening.

"Yes my lady, today is the last day of the harvest. Therefore, the work was completed early today. Also, the villagers are going to prepare a festival tomorrow night to celebrate the rich harvest this year."
Kaiyu said happily.

The villagers worked hard to ensure a good harvest. The richer the harvest, the more likely it is to trade with travelling merchants. The people of this village have the habit of exchanging the surplus with the travelling merchants when there is a large harvest. So a good harvest is a really good reason for them to celebrate.

"That's great! If there is a celebration, I will provide free sweets and pastries. After all, it is only thanks to the kindness of the villagers that we have been able to live here safely."
I said happily. I am really grateful to these kind villagers for giving us a place to call home.

"My lady, you are very kind. Villagers will be really happy to hear then."
Kaiyu said with a big smile. You can forget about the villagers; I clearly know that Kaiyu is very happy to hear the news. No matter how hard he tried to hide, I knew Kaiyu and Huyin both loved eating the little pastries I made.

"Yes yes, the 'Villagers' will be really happy. Go now. I have to start the preparations for that now. I might not be able to get home tonight, so don't worry and take a good rest tonight."
I said trying to shoo him out.

"Stay here tonight? My lady, I'll ask Huyin to come here to keep your company."

"For what? It would be ridiculous to send a young girl to keep her older brother company. people will think I'm a wimp. "
I huffed annoyed.

"But my lady you are not a man. It is not safe for young girl...."
Kaiyu started to rumble only for me to cut him off with a grumble.

"Oh come on Kaiyu. Only you and Huyin know about my real gender. Besides, few cooks will also be here helping me. Don't try to make me a joke in front of others okay?"
I pushed him out of my study.
"Gooo..."

Kaiyu sighed and shook his head muttering "Stubborn as always."

"I heard that..."
I sang and he left with a defeated face. 
I rubbed my hands together in excitement and mumbled "Oookay... lets get to work"

I went to the kitchen and looked for the ingredients in hand to choose a perfect sweets recipe for tomorrow's celebration. For the past year I have been doing some experiments to make important baking ingredients because in here, we don't have the chemical ingredients like baking soda, cream of tartar, yeast, or even butter. Therefore, I had to make them all from scratch and I succeeded in many times with the help of the memory of my past life. On many occasions I had thanked my dear grandmother, who loved making everything by herself for sharing her knowledge with me.

I pulled a huge bag of wheat flour off the shelf and a box full of cocoa powder that I made a few days ago. My chocolate-flavored foods have become the new favorites of the people of this town and also of the cutomers. At first they were a bit reluctant to try the chocolate because it was something new to them. Obviously, the people of this time had no knowledge of chocolate. But after trying the mini chocolate cakes I made all of them fell in love with the chocolate.

"Oh yeah ... I know what we need now ..." I smiled and called out to two cooks from the main kitchen.

"Young master, what can we do for you?"
The senior cook Peizhi asked. Both he and his partner Hong have great talent for baking and especially kneading dough.