It’s a nice thought: a mooncake, sumptuous and decadent, as a gift to accompany a proposal for one’s hand in marriage. That’s what one man, a 21-year-old surnamed Qin, thought. And if only he had stopped there, at the thought, which is really what counts.

Instead, he walked into a supermarket in Daozhen, Guizhou on the morning of September 19 and stole a box of mooncakes, according to Guizhou Metropolis Paper. He then presented the box to his girlfriend, 20-year-old Ms. Zhao.

Meanwhile, while checking inventory later that day, supermarket owner Mrs. Liao discovered she was missing a box of mooncakes worth more than 100 yuan.

Here’s where the story takes a comedic turn. After returning home, Mrs. Liao saw her store’s stolen box of mooncakes. She immediately connected the dots and called the police.

Ms. Zhao is Mrs. Liao’s daughter.

When confronted, Qin confessed and apologized, repeatedly, to both his girlfriend and her family.

We don’t know whether Ms. Zhao wound up accepting Qin’s proposal. We hope so. There’s a family sitcom in here somewhere, and who’d want to be denied that. In the season finale, Mrs. Liao will be suspending Qin’s car on top of an apartment roof.

(H/T Kevin McGeary)

A 15-centimeter thick, 3-meter wide mooncake weighing 1,200 jin (600 kg, or 1,323 lbs) was unveiled at Eurasia Supermarket in Changchun, Jilin province yesterday, according to China Navis. The pictures that follow are via Sina Weibo.

That’s a lot of mooncake to not eat. The main ingredients are flour — lots of flour — sugar, nuts, and red bean paste. The top of the cake depicts the story of Chang’e flying to the moon, the legend that inspired the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is tomorrow.

Speaking of mooncakes.

UPDATE, 9/19, 1:02 pm: Disgusting mooncake in Hefei:

Hackers have infiltrated the local government website of the city of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province (sx.gov.cn) and replaced four of the five pictures in the “featured images” slider with mooncakes that display unflattering messages against the Chinese government.

As first noticed by Yaxue Cao, here are screenshots of the website and the offending mooncakes, which read: “Bite to Death the CCP” (Communist Party of China), “Overthrow CCP,” “Bitterly Hate CCP,” and “Get Lost, CCP.”

As of this moment, the subversive mooncakes are still on the website’s frontpage. Let’s see how long it takes someone to notice.

Mid-Autumn Festival is Thursday, during which mooncakes are given as gifts and subsequently re-gifted, and re-gifted again, and again, until someone throws them away.