Chapter 1106 – #263_명절(3) – DeepL

#1100

1.
Blessings come after a series of late nights and vigils.

Thanks to Sharon’s insistence, we’ve decided to spend the holiday with our lovers.

But he can’t leave work behind, so after working into the evening, Xiu packs up some baribari fruit and heads to the hut where his lovers will be waiting.

He was greeted with a suspicious look in his eyes.

“Your assistant’s face is so pale.”
“Welcome.”

All the lovers were dressed in hanbok.

“What’s going on?”
“In Xiu’s hometown, they wear these traditional clothes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so Ms. Sharon prepared them for us.”
“What do you think? Are they nice?”

Patriotism and national pride aside, hanbok, especially modified hanbok, is beautiful in its own right.

Adding the beauty of a witch to a simple outfit is more than Xiu could have imagined.

Amelia is dressed in a light blue cloth with a delicate hairpiece.
The twins wear their paper “bangs” at an angle instead of their usual half-bonnet.

Leroy wears his hair in a tight braid and ties the ends with a cloth.
A teacher with a hydrangea-shaped back braid.

Rinne wears her hair like an everyday outfit without any discomfort.
Dorothy in a traditional Hanukkah look.

Their modest outfits, which don’t show much of their bodies, make you feel like you’re entering the den of a gumiho.

It is an ecstatic sight that purifies the soul.

“Xiu is here, so let’s eat.”

Almost as soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a table of heart-warming food.

Hot gonggakbap, braised short ribs with long-orphaned flesh, various hotpot, herbs, and kimchi are arranged on the curved upper legs.

“I did it myself, hehe. I bought the crab because I thought it would be better to buy it than to do it myself.”

Sharon’s cooking skills aren’t exceptional, but the food, prepared according to the recipe, reminded me of long-forgotten Mid-Autumn dinners.

Something she hadn’t had since her parents died, something she’d forgotten about during her time as a slave in Gehenna.

“Oh, Sharon, what is this? It looks like fried fish.”
“That’s dongdongjeon. That’s chili jeon, that’s meat jeon.”

“Oh, this soy sauce crab paste is so delicious. I can’t believe you can make a dish like this with blue crabs.”
“It’s delicious with rice on the carapace. I’ll get some sesame oil.”
“Miss Sharon~ I’ll have some too~”

Sharon used her sensitivity to set out food for Amelia, who couldn’t eat spicy food.

“Ms. Amelia, I made this with as little liver as possible, so it should be easy for you to eat.”
“It’s delicious…!”

Amelia, who was wary of the spicy, salty, and sweet flavors of Korean food and fumbled with her cutlery, was able to eat comfortably.

Next to her, Linnaeus and Eloa are savoring their food.

“It looks like they season it with fermented foods, including salted fish.”
“Miss Sharon, do you happen to have the recipe for these braised short ribs?”

It’s obvious that Xiu likes it so much that he’s on the verge of tears, so she’s going to make it for him.

We sit in a circle, chatting and relaxing.

For dessert, we were served persimmons, apples, and pears that Xiu had bought and made with the intention of giving birth to a beautiful child.

After enjoying the delicious food, there was a tension between the lovers.

‘If you make a beautiful song, you will give birth to a beautiful child.
‘Then what is a beautifully made song?
‘How can we determine the standard of ‘beauty’, which has changed countless times throughout history?
‘Shouldn’t the standard of evaluation be xiu?
‘Food is not only beautiful on the outside. Taste is also a part of beauty.

In the heat of the competition, the songmaking had taken a strange turn.

“Okay, we’re going to have a contest for the best songstick to be chosen by Xiu, and each of you should bring your prepared songsticks.”
“What is it, why is he so serious?”
“Referee, please be quiet. This is important.”

Sharon solemnly declared, using the dried persimmon on her chopsticks as a microphone, and Amelia was the first to present her song.

“I made this with Xiu in mind.”

Even though she couldn’t use magic, Amelia is pretty good with her hands.
With the sesame oil on the outside, the songpyeon looked like something out of a home shopping commercial.

“Oh, it’s beautiful, I’ll eat it.”

Xiu’s eyes widened as she popped a piece into her mouth.

“Hmm?”

At first glance, she thought it was just another pretty, ordinary matsutake.

But the aroma was different.
The rich aroma of pine needles, the tightly concentrated scent of sesame oil, the savory flavor of sesame seeds, and the sweetness of dripping brown sugar.

Like an egg cracking, the trapped flavors spill out, playing an orchestra in her nostrils.
Amelia has woven together a major in “flavor,” which is so important to the taste of food.

“Next, Ms. Leroux.”
“Whoops, Jim wins anyway. Xiu, you should try Jim’s handiwork.”

Leroux held out the plate with a smug hunch of his shoulders.

“…Is this a rosette?”
“Yes.”

There it was, a parrot clam-like matsutake that had scrupulously guarded its golden ratio.

It was so beautifully crafted that even an industrial ruler could not make a single error, and the proportions had been set in advance to account for the deformation that would occur when heat was applied.

It was the work of the Great Witch’s delicate telekinesis.

“It is written,” she said, “that Jim shall win.”

But despite Lerouet’s ebullience, the flavor itself was mediocre.

It was a basic dish with nothing special about it.

“I’ve never eaten anything like this before, but please enjoy.”

Next up was Eloa’s.
She was the first one to bring in a bowl, and it was easy to see why.

Her pinkish-pink matsutake was about twice as big as a normal matsutake.

It was almost like a rice ball.

“I wanted you to have a full stomach, so I made a generous portion…. It’s gotten too big.”
“Ugh, no, thank you, I’ll eat it gratefully.”

Inside was a chestnut filling made from finely ground chestnuts, and it tasted like Mont Blanc.

It was delicious because it was made by utilizing the know-how of the original food.

“I’m so bad at this~”
“Shiya, try mine!”

Afterward, we ate Sharon’s and Dorothy’s, which were just as good.
Sharon’s had red bean paste and Dorothy’s had black beans, and they were also delicious.

“Yum.”

Linnaeus served his next with a very nervous step.

The other lovers were stunned as soon as they saw the neatly plated songpans on their plates.

“What is that?”
“When did you…?”

Rinne’s plate was beautifully decorated, like the finger food that fine dining restaurants serve as an event on Chuseok.

Boiled and disinfected pebbles lined the bottom, foliage filled it to resemble a garden, and a translucent tricolor pineapple was placed on top of the rough pebbles.

Linnaeus had recently created his own version of the pine cone, using his culinary skills at their peak.

She didn’t just use Sharon’s glutinous rice for the filling, but also mixed glutinous rice to make the most of the tangy texture.

“Cheating! Cheating!”
“Somehow, you were rambling in the kitchen by yourself….”

Rinne didn’t blink at the yelling and shouting around her.

“In turn, I filled them with schisandra-marinated whole red beans, black bean mousse, dried dates and pine nuts.”

Harmony among sisters-in-law is an important virtue, but not in this case.
Linnaeus’s wish is to have a beautiful child.

Even the twins, who were a little afraid of Linnaeus, accused him of being a “pansy!” while Xiu tasted a batch of Linnaeus’ roses.

“Oooh, it’s really new, isn’t it?”

Of course it was, and it was delicious.

It felt like eating a dish, not just a matsutake.
It was refreshing and new to eat Linnaeus’ matsutake with all kinds of “kicks” added to it.

“…….”

Linnaeus was pleased.

“That’s good.”
“Our songpyeon is no joke, either. Now, assistant, ah!”

The twins looked at Linnaeus, who was quietly delighted, and then produced their own song.

In truth, Odile and Odette were not as authentic as Linnaeus, but they had their own distinctions.

“I’ll eat it.”

Xiu took the morsel from Odette, chewed it well, and stood tall.

“How’s that, assistant? Is it delicious?”
“I thought it would be boring with just perilla and sugar, so I added cheese and octopus.”
“The cheese adds flavor, and the octopus adds texture.”

Somehow, the moment I put it in my mouth, it tasted like something that shouldn’t be in a song.
This is what happened behind the scenes.

Xiu swallowed desperately and breathed only through her mouth.

“…Ma, it’s delicious, thank you.”
“What are you talking about? There are only four left of Odile Odette’s Fusion Song.”

For Xiu, the twins’ cooking was a new world.
It was a wonderful new world, one that brought a truly dystopian tyranny to each of his taste buds.

“This one has oysters in it.”
“What? What’s in it?”
“Phew, I had a hard time getting to the mansion.”

“This is a salmon salad.”
“Salmon salad? Songpyeon? Are those words that can be connected?”
“Of course! Oh, by the way, you should have had that first, the salad is supposed to whet your appetite.”

The contest ended with Xiu’s complexion pale with exhaustion from a feast that rivaled a bio-experiment.

Afterward, he could barely contain himself as he dipped the chilled dried persimmons and floated pine nuts into the crystallized citrus.
The spicy sweetness of the ginger, combined with the fragrant cinnamon, cut through my stomach.

After enjoying the full Chuseok set, I shared the good news.

“What? Two days and three nights?”
“Yes, because I’ve been working a bit hard lately.”

Xu’s declaration of two days and three nights was golden for the lovers.

As the new president of the organization, he hadn’t seen much of her lately, and the sleepover rotation had become a bit of a nightmare.

But to be able to stay with his assistant, Xiu, Nangun, and Honey for two days and three nights!

However, this is also a competitive event.

There are only two nights during the two days and three nights of vacation.
This means that only two people will have the chance to claim Xiu’s bed.

Unless something happened, a three-way foursome with another lover would be embarrassing.

Judging by Xiu’s reaction to the hanbok, which reveals a lustful look in her eyes, this outfit is a winner.
Add in the Chuseok buff, and you’ve got yourself an exceptionally hot night!

The lovers’ choice for the non-negotiable Mid-Autumn Festival costume request.

“Well, let’s settle on this one!”
“Okay!”
“Are the rules the same as before?”
“Yep. Four horses, one pack, and you have to get the exact number of squares right to be last.”
“Good.”

This was the folk game of Yuchun in Xiu’s hometown.