Looking at the gurgling black syrup in the pot, Gu Zhengchen had a confident smile on his lips.
Gu built a stand, placed the earthenware bowl on the shelf, found wheat straw to plug the funnel mouth at the bottom of the earthenware bowl, and placed a clean black pottery jar under the earthenware bowl.
After Gu Zhengchen checked and determined that there was no problem, he and his mother took turns stirring the syrup. Gu Qingqing was responsible for adding firewood. After nearly an hour, Gu Zhengchen picked up the cattail leaf fan to remove the heat. Seeing that the syrup water had turned into fine beads, he stopped stirring. He took a trace of syrup from the wooden stick and twisted it between his thumb and forefinger. The syrup was already a little sticky to his fingers, and said to Gu Qingqing: "That's it."
Gu Qingqing dropped the fire stick, stood up quickly, looked at it, and said sadly: "Brother, it doesn't seem to be successful, it's still yellow and black..."
Gu Zhengchen found a ladle, poured the syrup into a clean wooden barrel, and said to the frustrated Gu Qingqing: "This is the first step, how can it be so fast?"
After all the syrup was poured into the barrel, Gu added some water to the pot to prevent the syrup from sticking to the pot.
"Brother, what are you doing now?"
Gu Qingqing asked.
Gu Zhengchen pointed to the syrup in the barrel: "Wait until the syrup condenses into sugar paste. Come on, brother, let me tell you about the history of sugar. "The Book of Songs·Daya" says, Zhou Yuan is pure, and the pansy tea is as sweet as sugar. There is an idiom. It’s called Ganzhiruyi, which is the ancient maltose..."
Gu Qingqing sat on a stool, holding her chin in her hands, listening carefully to her brother's story.
"Before the Tang Dynasty, people did not know how to make sugar from sugar cane. At that time, the sugar cane was eaten directly or squeezed for juice. During the Dali period of the Tang Dynasty, Monk Zou, a monk from the Western Regions, visited Suining in Sichuan and began to teach sugar making. Technology, from then on there were sugar trucks for crushing sugar cane, and cane sugar was born..."
Gu Zhengchen talked freely and checked the sugarpaste from time to time. After nearly an hour, the sugarpaste was basically ready.
Mrs. Gu held the tile bowl, and Gu Zhengchen lifted the wooden bucket and poured the sugarpaste into the tile bowl. After waiting for nearly half an hour, when the sugarpaste was completely solid, he took out the straw at the bottom, turned around and poured half of the barrel into the bowl. The yellow mud water was brought over and stirred continuously.
"Wait a minute, are you trying to pour the yellow mud water into the sugarpaste?"
Mrs. Gu quickly stopped.
Gu Qingqing's eyes widened. This is yellow mud water. There is a lot of yellow mud in it. How can you eat this when you pour it into sugar paste?
Gu Zhengchen nodded: "That's right."
Gu said anxiously: "How can this work? If you pour it in, wouldn't all the sugar paste be wasted? This is made from five pounds of brown sugar. Brother Zhengchen, we don't pour yellow mud water."
Gu Zhengchen blinked.
The yellow mud decolorization method does not use yellow mud, so what is used?
"Mom, you have to believe in your son. Qingqing, do you believe in your brother?"
Gu Qingqing nodded subconsciously. When he saw the half bucket of yellow mud water, he shook his head again, his braid swaying back and forth: "Brother, mother is right, you can't eat sugar if it has yellow mud water added to it."
Gu Zhengchen put the barrel on the ground and said to his mother, "Let me try it."
Mrs. Gu hesitated for a moment, then stretched out her hand to support Wabo: "That's all, I don't know where you got your method from, but if you want to try it - just give it a try."
"mother!"
Gu Qingqing became anxious.
Gu Zhengchen lifted up the wooden bucket, slowly poured half the bucket of yellow mud water into the earthenware bowl, put down the wooden bucket, looked at his mother and sister with regretful expressions, and said, "Just wait."
Neither Gu nor Gu Qingqing said anything. They had never seen such a wasteful person. Five pounds of brown sugar was ruined like this.
The two of them were in such a low mood that they didn't even eat much dinner.
Night comes.
Gu and Gu Qingqing looked at the candle several times, but they didn't see any changes. They only heard the ticking sound. When they looked carefully at the dripping water, they found it was all black, with no white at all. They both concluded that it was all white. Busy work.
Gu Zhengchen didn't have time to go to the yard to watch it, so he continued to write the second part of "The Legend of White Snake". All the money was collected, and he had to give someone a complete play. It was already the middle of the night when he finished writing, so he fell asleep.
Tick-tock——
Tick-tock——
Black molasses fell into the vat drop by drop, and the yellow muddy water in the bowl became less and less...
Mrs. Gu got up early, looked at the tile bowl in the yard, sighed bitterly, fetched water to wash it, and prepared to make breakfast. She passed by the tile bowl, glanced at it, and was stunned.
"Qingqing, Qingqing, come and take a look."
Gu shouted.
Gu Qingqing rubbed her eyes and ran out, went to the tile bowl, looked at the white things on it, and woke up immediately: "Mother, what is going on?"
Mrs. Gu shook her head in disbelief.
Gu Qingqing carefully pinched a little white sugar, brought it to his mouth, tasted it, his eyes lit up, and he shouted in surprise: "It's sweet, mother, this is white sugar, white sugar is really made!"
"Sugar?"
Mrs. Gu has never seen such white sugar, as white as snowflakes.
"Brother, brother!"
Gu Qingqing grabbed a handful of sugar and ran into the house, woke up Gu Zhengchen who was sleeping soundly, and said happily: "Sugar, brother, it's done!"
Gu Zhengchen yawned, glanced at the sugar in Gu Qingqing's hand, and said with a smile: "If you don't believe me, brother, the sugar is not for you."
"don't want."
"I'm the ruler."
"don't want."
Gu Qingqing grabbed the sugar and put it into her mouth, squinting her eyes in enjoyment.
Gu Zhengchen stood up, walked to Wabo, and said to his mother who was full of doubts: "Mom, this is just a craft of making white sugar. First scrape out the white sugar and see how much there is."
Gu didn't ask further. The bowl was full of white sugar, but the top five inches of sugar were the whitest, while the lower ones were white with a slight yellowish brown color. The water in the jar was filled with impurities.
After weighing, there was only eight taels of pure white sugar, and the other one pound and forty taels of white sugar were slightly inferior.
Five pounds of brown sugar is equivalent to two pounds and two ounces of white sugar.
Gu Zhengchen was quite satisfied with the result, and arranged for Gu and his sister to boil syrup again. He made another trip to the county town, gave Liang Heng the script of "The Legend of White Snake", and bought twenty kilograms of brown sugar.
For three consecutive days, the Gu family boiled white sugar and got a total of four kilograms of pure white sugar and more than ten kilograms of sub-grade white sugar.
Gu Zhengchen took the sugar and went to the county seat early in the morning.
Zhao family in Teng County.
Butler Zhao Shun found Zhao Feng and reported, "I heard that Gu Zhengchen bought a big fish a few days ago and also went to Yang's shop to buy some brown sugar."
Zhao Feng looked at Zhao Shun in confusion: "Where did Gu Zhengchen get the money? Could it be that he sold his sister to the Wang family?"
Zhao Shun shook his head: "I haven't heard of that."
Zhao Feng picked up the tea bowl, blew on it twice, and said with a cold face: "Gu Zhengchen made Ya'er cry for two days, I will never forgive him lightly! I heard that Gu Zhengchen and Wang Fugui have a seven-day appointment, right? Coming?"
"The day after tomorrow."
Zhao Shun replied.
Zhao Feng pondered for a moment and said, "The matchmaker is discussing the marriage between He Yaer and Zhang Shiping, a scholar from the Zhang family in the east of the city. If I remember correctly, Yaowen, Zhang Shiping and Wang Youcheng are classmates, right?"
"Yes, the second young master and them are both county students."
Zhao Shun smiled.
A cold smile appeared on Zhao Feng's lips, and he said: "The Zhang family is a big family, and Zhang Shiping has been recommended by the county magistrate. In less than three months, the appointment and dismissal documents from the imperial court will be delivered. This marriage needs to be settled as soon as possible. Shiping Xian My nephew hasn’t met Ya’er yet, so let’s give them a chance.”
Zhao Shun's eyes lit up: "What do you mean, sir?"
Zhao Feng had a look of solemnity on his face: "On the day when the Wang family pressed for debt, let Aunt Zhang accompany Ya'er to the riverside of Dayan Village to relax, and let Yaowen make an appointment with Shiping's nephew to go there and meet him from a distance. That's it. Come and kill three birds with one stone!”
"What does it mean to kill three birds with one stone?"
Zhao Feng picked up the tea bowl and blew lightly: "First, Shiping and Ya'er met, so the marriage can be settled early. Second, Ya'er saw with her own eyes that Gu Zhengchen was humiliated by the Wang family, and was in such a state of embarrassment that he knelt down. Beg for mercy, and the knot in your heart will be resolved. Thirdly, people say that my Zhao family regrets their marriage, and the Zhang family must have heard about it. Let Nephew Shiping see, it is not that my Zhao family regrets our marriage, but that Gu Zhengchen knows that he is not worthy at all. Go to the Zhao family, take the initiative to regret the marriage, and take this opportunity to rectify the Zhao family's reputation!"
【——
Thanks to readers such as Chao Yiqing, Shameless V, Qianlong Anxing, Zhuying Ruoran, zhang6145, etc. for their rewards. Thanks to Jingxue. 】
