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Li Yu was not entirely certain why, but the moment he mentioned he and the kids preparing the zongzi for the fast approaching Duanwu Festival, his husband suggested inviting the Jinjue Princess and Ye Qinghuan over with their little one.
It had seemed something of a non-sequitur, but Li Yu could only be more pleased with the suggestion, agreeing immediately. It was rare that his husband ever suggested including others in their family plans. As a dutiful wife, he would be supportive of his husband’s plan to bring in their extended family to prepare for the festival.
This was how, the day before the Double-Fifth, Mu Tianchi found himself and his cousin expelled from a bright kitchen to the hallway beyond, a sense of unease growing in their stomachs as they looked from each other to the closed doors behind them.
Li Yu, on the opposite side of the door, clapped his hands together and smiled brightly at five toddlers, the Jinjue Princess, and the smiling baby Snow Bao nestled against his chest in a cloth sling. He looked encouragingly at each in turn, “Who’s ready to start cooking?” he asked.
The Jinjue Princess’s gentle face took on a look of bright determination as she nodded. She had one of her hands occupied holding the hand of a little one-year-old daughter. “We’re ready!” she said. The little girl, a near perfect blend of the Princess and Ye Qinghuan, looked up at her mother with a hand in her mouth but nodded as well, mirroring her mother’s determination.
Li Yu then turned his eye to the baos. The eldest three nodded solemnly. Noticing the youngest’s lack of response, the eldest poked his arm around the backs of the other two, bringing him to attention. Finally, the youngest bao nodded as well, looking up at his fish dad with wide, confused eyes.
“Ah, Li-Gongzi,” the Jinjue Princess said with some hesitation, looking at the assembled ingredients in front of them. “I must admit, I have never actually made zongzi myself for the Duanwu Festival before. It has always been prepared for me.”
Carefully cradling his daughter to his chest, Li Yu began pulling out stools for the little ones to reach the counter top. “This will be fun!” he said with a wink as Big Bao immediately began helping, pushing the stools into place for his brothers and cousin. “And just think how impressed our husbands will be with us.”
The Jinjue Princess’ answering smile was open and bright. “Alright then! We’ll do our best!” She held her daughter’s hand as she ascended the short steps to see the accumulated ingredients spread across the counter.
Li Yu had asked the kitchens to prepare the ingredients the day before, leaving them with perfectly soaked rice, red beans, mushrooms, bamboo leaves, and perfectly marinated pork belly ready to be assembled.
“Alright, watch closely!” Li Yu, who had never made zongzi before in his life but had seen them made countless times and thought how hard could it be , picked up a pliable bamboo leaf and wrapped it into a cone.
He turned it so the Jinjue Princess could see the shape, waiting for her serious nod of understanding.
He took a date and placed it into the bottom of the cone before he took a paddle and scooped some of the glutinous rice into the cone, pressing it into the cone and feeling the ends of the leaves start to get away from him, but the rice held it’s shape so it was probably alright.
He demonstrated the first one slowly, leveling off the rice and bean paste to get the roughly triangle-ish shape he was going for. When the filings and rice were in their proper place, he slowly demonstrated how to roll the zongzi and tie it with string to keep the dumplings together.
Really, whoever had thought to tie the leaves together must have been a genius, Li Yu thought as he used the string to keep the bamboo leaves in place. It hardly even mattered what shape the zongzi ended up in after rolling, since they would just be tied with string anyway!
Li Yu held up his zongzi for everyone to see, pleased to see wide and curious eyes looking back at him. “See?” he said. “Easy!”
The Jinjue Princess nodded, a look of determination on her face. “Let’s try it!” she said, squeezing her daughter’s hand.
Together, the 7 of them worked together to start making the zongzi, following the method Li Yu had shown them. Rice was leveled, bean paste spread, and everything proceeded better than Li Yu had expected until it came time to start rolling the zongzi in the bamboo leaves.
The Princess ended up with a split leaf, the youngest bao ended up flinging rice and red beans everywhere when it all got stuck to his hands after filling escaped the confines of its bamboo prison. The sticky rice got stuck to the Princess’ hair and the back of his brothers’ clothing.
He looked sheepishly up at his fish dad, expecting to be scolded when Snow Bao began giggling as Li Yu kissed the sticky rice from her face. Li Yu looked down at Bao #4 and smiled. “It’s kinda messy, huh?” he asked. “Do you want help?”
“I help, I help!” Big Bao jumped from his stool to run over to Bao #4, climbing up his stool to stand precariously beside him. He had to half throw himself across the counter top to grab another leaf for them both.
“I help,” he said seriously, looking at his younger brother and guiding his hands to make a cone shape. “Be careful,” he said in a tone that sounded remarkably like Mu Tianchi.
As the Baos worked together to make Bao #4 a new zongzi, the Jinjue princess caught Li Yu’s eye with a gentle smile. “You have such a lovely family, Li-gongzi.” her eyes seemed to grow misty. “Four wonderful sons, all ready to help each other at a moment’s notice.”
Li Yu smiled affectionately at them, holding Snow Bao a little more firmly. Before he could respond, a little voice at their elbows spoke up.
“Mama,” the little daughter of the Jinjue Princess was looking up at her with wide, sad eyes. “Mama help? Mama help?” she held out her hands covered in red bean paste.
The Jinjue Princess sighed with a smile, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket to wipe down the sticky hands of her toddler. Hands cleared of bean paste, the little girl’s eyes lit up with a bright smile. “Thanks mama!”
Li Yu and the Jinjue princess watched as she turned back to the leaf spread out flat in front of her. Very carefully, she reached out with her bare little fingers to get some of the bean paste once more, using both hands to spread it across the leaf.
Satisfied with her work, the little girl lifted her hands only to find them again covered in bean paste. Worried eyes turned back to the Jinjue Princess, holding out her hands once more. “Help mama? Mama help?”
Patiently, Li Yu and the Jinjue Princess helped the children to roll their sweet zongzi before starting on the savory mushroom and pork belly zongzi. These zongzi they formed into shapes that might resemble pyramids if one squinted and tilted their heads a bit.
Thus it was that after a half sichen, they had about a dozen somewhat haphazardly wrapped sweet zongzi and a similarly unique batch of savory zongzi. Once assembled, Li Yu and the Jinjue Princess helped the children to place their zongzi into pots provided by the kitchen.
The Jinjue princess looked a little concerned as she helped her daughter place her last zongzi. “Li-gongzi, aren’t these pots a bit small?”
Li Yu looked up in surprise from where he had been lifting Bao #3 to drop in his last zongzi. “They don’t need too much space, from what I remember,” he said, putting down Bao #3 and picking up Bao #1, who was carefully holding the barely-intact zongzi of Bao #4. Bao #1 very carefully placed the zongzi beside the others as Li Yu shifted Snow Bao to squeeze both of them gently with a smile. “My mother used to say they were supposed to be able to snuggle in the pot.”
Baos number 3, 2, and 4 began making noises of complaints. “Hugs?!” they started asking, gathering around Li Yu’s knees. “We want hugs! Hugs too!”
Laughing, Li Yu got to one knee and scooped them all into a hug, making Snow Bao giggle once more as she was peppered with hugs and kisses from her brothers.
The zongzi were set to boil, a plate placed above them to keep them from floating to the top. The Jinjue Princess looked from the pot to Li Yu. “And that’s it?” she asked, eyes wide. “That’s all it takes?”
Li Yu nodded. “Yep! That’s it. They’ll need to boil for a little more than a sichen, so we’ll want to check on them every now and then to make sure the water’s not too low, but now we can go outside to play while we wait!”
Li Yu threw open the doors to the kitchen only to find two very concerned husbands waiting for their wives and children. The Baos ran to Mu Tianchi and the Jinjue princess’ daughter toddled as fast as she could toward Ye Qinghuan who scooped her up with a broad smile.
“You’re finished?” Mu Tianchi asked, his voice quiet as he picked up Bao #4 and stooped to press a kiss to Snow Bao’s head where she was now dozing against Li Yu’s chest.
“Not quite!” Li Yu said brightly. “They still have to boil for a sichen or so, but then they’ll be ready! We were going to take the children outside to play.”
Mu Tianchi smiled. “Mn,” he nodded, helping to corral the children out to the palace gardens.
Once out in the fresh air, Li Yu and the Jinjue Princess sat to the side while Mu Tianchi and Ye Qinghuan took turns spinning the children in circles by their arms, making them so dizzy they started stumbling to the ground and giggling madly.
The Jinjue princess sighed, bringing Li Yu’s attention to her. She was looking out at their families, a small smile pulling at her lips. “It’s really more than I had hoped for,” she said quietly.
Li Yu’s eyebrows rose. He followed her gaze to see Ye Qinghuan scooping his daughter up into his arms and spinning in circles until he stumbled back a step, nearly losing his balance with Xiongfeng barking happily at his heels.
“More than you hoped for?” Li Yu asked. “What do you mean?”
The Princess tilted her head to the side, her eyes fond. “I always knew my marriage would be arranged for political purposes,” her smile grew. “I had only hoped that my husband would be an honest man who wouldn’t harm me or my children.” Her lips pressed together in something of a repressed smile. “How lucky I am to have the good fortune of marrying Ye Qinghuan.”
Silence fell between them until the Jinjue Princess blinked herself back to the present, pink beginning to dust her face. “Ah, I’m sure you feel the same way about your husband, as well,” she said, lowering her gaze demurely.
Li Yu looked over to where his husband had all four Baos somehow squished together in his arms, spinning them around until he collapsed in a pile of dumplings and robes.
“Yeah,” Li Yu said, pulling Snow Bao a little closer to his chest. “I think so too.”
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Mu Tianchi insisted on sending one of his attendants to check on the water level of the zongshi to allow Li Yu to rest with Snow Bao and the Jinjue princess. It was with some amazement that barely over half a sichen later, those attendants returned with plates of freshly made zongzi, ready to be unwrapped and devoured.
“That was so fast!” Li Yu exclaimed, picking up one of the neatly wrapped zongzi and untying the string carefully. “Wow! These turned out even better than I expected!”
As Li Yu began passing around the zongzi, the Jinjue Princess noticed a separate basket of what appeared to be half-disintegrated zongzi being passed to Mu Tianchi behind Li Yu’s back. She caught her husband’s eye, a silent laugh passing between them.