63 The Festival (1/2)

”The best moments are best spent with friends and family around. Make Tong Xin Delicacies a part of this. Join us in celebration of oneness and prosperity in this year's Mid-Autumn Festival.” The commercial blared on the television to its two audience.

The large dining room seemed particularly empty with only two diners in it. They were Xiu Ling and her husband, Lin Kang. Elder Lin still had not returned from his business trip overseas and Mrs. Lin had gone on a holiday cruise with a bunch of her friends several days ago in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Lin Xi was already asleep in his room, leaving Lin Kang and Xiu Ling to share this muted dinner. There were maids hovering in the shadows but like most maids, they made no sound in the master's presence, unless directly addressed.

Lin Kang noticed his wife's plate had remained largely untouched and he frowned. However, he did not ask out loud what was wrong with her appetite, instead he continued to watch her closely. Something that he found himself doing more and more lately.

Xiu Ling eventually placed her pair of chopsticks down to signal that she was done eating. She pushed the bowl aside and leaned forward towards the plate of mooncakes the maids had left in the centre of the table as dessert.

In Lin Kang's recollection, his wife did not have much of a sweet tooth so he was curious why Xiu Ling would abandon the dinner directly for dessert.

To his surprise, Xiu Ling did not munch on the flaky dessert, instead she placed it in her palm as if to admire it. She twirled it around, looking at the details on the mooncake skin, sniffed at its nutty smell before placing it back on the plate.

Xiu Ling then slumped in her seat and sighed. Lin Kang was confused by her series of action.

Lin Kang was not privy to this but Xiu Ling's mother would make homemade mooncakes every Mid-Autumn Festival. It was not easy making a mooncake and it was already considered a lost art.

Xiu Ling tried learning from her mother once but the steps were too complicated and like many a pampered child, she would just leave the hard work to her mother and taste the reward when it arrived.

Mrs. Xiu would send Xiu Ling a box of her mooncakes whenever Mid-Autumn Festival arrived annually no matter where she was, be it at work or at the university. This would be the first year she did not receive the box of sweet delicacies from her mother. Mrs. Xiu probably did not want to remind the members of the Lin family of her supposed offense and so she did not mail any mooncake to Xiu Ling that year. Xiu Ling understood the difficulty her mother faced but this did not mean that she could stop herself from missing Mrs. Xiu.

Xiu Ling picked up the mooncake because she wanted to compare them to the ones made by her mother. She knew they were store bought because obviously no member of Lin family was going to go into the kitchen to bake mooncakes themselves. She doubted they even knew how to make a mooncake.