The young girl's mood had just visibly dropped for a moment. Zhao Ce didn't know what was going through her little head. But seeing the young girl quickly perk up and smile at him, he didn't think too much of it.
In modern times, girls her age would be going through puberty, and their minds are always filled with all sorts of strange thoughts. Zhao Ce had never been a parent, so he naturally didn't understand the emotional ups and downs of these sensitive teenage girls.
He figured he didn't need to comfort the girl, as she always managed to cheer herself up quickly even when feeling down.
Zhao Ce chuckled, "Working is bound to get dirty. It's okay, we'll do it together." During the rest of the process, Su Caier didn't feel comfortable looking at her husband's hands again. Her hands were work hands and naturally couldn't compare to her husband's scholarly hands.
She perked up and they quickly finished processing the yellow clay. The processed yellow clay was set aside, and they could only pour it on the crystallized sugar after it had formed into sugar crystals inside the house. At noon, the two cooked a pot of wild vegetable porridge. They added some salt, stirred it, and then dripped two drops of sesame oil.
Zhao Ce found the wild vegetables a bit bitter, but Su Caier ate them with great satisfaction. In her husband's home, they ate three meals a day, each bowl filled with a lot of white rice. She never even dreamed of such a life before. After eating, she burped softly and cleaned up the dishes.
The sugar water in the pot had not yet crystallized. Zhao Ce lazily sat at the table, dozing off and enjoying this rare moment of free time. Su Caier picked up her needlework and continued sewing her clothes beside him. After finishing one side, she looked up at her drowsy husband.
When the sugar water in the pot had cooled down enough, Zhao Ce spread the dried grass he had made under the sun on the bottom of the tile he had made himself. He poured the black and yellow, semi-solidified sugar into the pot and set it aside. Then they could start making the yellow clay water.
Su Caier, who was inside the house, quickly put down her needlework and went out to help. She was also very curious. Making white sugar from charcoal was already enough to overturn her worldview. And now, yellow clay could also make white sugar. Even if she thought about it until her brain exploded, she wouldn't be able to figure it out.
Not to mention her, even the entire Ming dynasty's scholars couldn't think of it. Zhao Ce had already moved the wooden basin to a shady spot outside and boldly said to the curious little girl beside him, "Bring the water!"
The little helper quickly took action and scooped a spoonful of water into the wooden basin. Zhao Ce held a wooden stick and stirred slowly. After stirring for a while, Su Caier slowly added more water.
Slowly but surely, the yellow clay water in the wooden basin filled up. After washing his hands, Zhao Ce squatted down and, without fear of getting dirty, reached in to make sure that all the yellow clay inside had melted. He then moved the basin of yellow clay water to the side of the self-made tile where the sugar had already formed into blocks. He let it sit for a while. He placed a wooden barrel under the bottom of the pot, and the dry grass at the bottom was pulled out from the outside.
Zhao Ce said, "I'll start." After saying that, he scooped up the solution on top of the yellow clay water. Under Su Caier's nervous gaze, he slowly poured it down from the top of the sugar block. The yellow clay water slowly seeped into the sugar block from the top. Su Caier nervously swallowed her saliva. Could this really make white sugar?
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Then a miraculous scene really appeared. Black residue flowed out from under the bottom of the pot and slowly dripped into the wooden barrel below. On top of the sugar block that had been drenched in yellow clay water, a layer of white frost was left behind. The top layer was about five inches thick and very white. It looked even cleaner than the white sugar made from charcoal.
It was almost identical to the white sugar that Zhao Ce had seen in modern times. Zhao Ce squatted down and used a shovel to gently scoop off the top layer. He placed it in a clean basket. Su Caier watched this magical scene, and her little mouth was astonished, forming a small "O" shape.
This white sugar was even whiter than the one they had previously made with charcoal! "Husband, husband." "White sugar..." "We really succeeded!" Zhao Ce also nodded happily. "Not bad, we succeeded." As he spoke, he scooped up another spoonful of yellow clay water and poured it down from the top. After a large basin of yellow clay water had been poured, all the sugar blocks in the pot had been made.
The sugar on the basket would be ready to be stored after drying. Su Caier couldn't resist squatting down and looking at the basket of white sugar. "So not only charcoal but even yellow clay can be used to make white sugar..." She couldn't believe it and wanted to touch the white sugar with her hand. But thinking of her dirty hands, she withdrew her hand. "Husband, this is so miraculous." Su Caier's eyes sparkled with admiration as she looked at Zhao Ce.
Zhao Ce was quite pleased with the little girl's admiration. He coughed lightly and said somewhat proudly, "It's just some methods left behind by our ancestors. It's not that miraculous." "Ancestors?" Su Caier widened her eyes in surprise. Haven't the ancestors all become immortals? "Husband, you must be a heavenly immortal, so the heavenly ancestors told you this method?" Zhao Ce was speechless. "What I meant was, I read it in a book." "The ancestors wrote down these methods in a book. I saw it, so it counts as something left behind by the ancestors, right?" "I'm just an ordinary person. How could I be an immortal?" Su Caier nodded thoughtfully. "So it was written down in a book by the ancestors..." Zhao Ce laughed and said, "Let's not talk about that. This time, I'll teach you from the beginning." Su Caier immediately agreed seriously.
The method of pouring yellow clay water onto sugar was indeed much more convenient than using charcoal. The bag of original sugar that Zhao Ce had bought was all turned into white sugar by the two of them by the evening.
The basket was filled with white sugar drying in the sun. All the money they earned from this was pure silver. Both of them were in a good mood as they looked at the white sugar.
At night, as usual, they washed up by the light of the stove before climbing into bed one after the other. Su Caier yawned and said, "Husband, should we buy some soybean oil the next time we go into the city? Otherwise, we might get our white sugar dirty while working in the dark." There was a lamp in the house. However, the remaining bean oil that was used as fuel for the lamp had been eaten by mice.
The sesame oil that Zhao Ce had bought was much more expensive than bean oil, and Su Caier naturally didn't want to use it to light the lamp. So for the past few days, the two of them had been working in the dark at night. When they went into the city last time, Zhao Ce didn't remember this. Su Caier had been poor before and had never wasted money on such things. But these past two days, the time they spent working in the dark had become longer and longer, so Su Caier thought of reminding her husband about this. Zhao Ce agreed.
The room fell into a brief silence. Zhao Ce thought the little girl next to him had fallen asleep from exhaustion. He was about to close his eyes and sleep when he heard a rustling sound from beside him. He waited quietly for a moment, and then he felt a rough little hand lightly touch the hand he had placed beside him.
The little hand seemed to realize it had touched the wrong place, and it shrank back slightly. Then, it gently grabbed the sleeve of Zhao Ce's inner garment. "Husband, immortals have to return to the heavens," the little girl said softly. Zhao Ce replied in a low voice, "Hmm." "We are all ordinary people, so let's just live our lives here well." The little girl seemed very happy. She tightened her grip on the sleeve. "Can I hold onto husband's sleeve while sleeping?" Zhao Ce smiled and said, "Okay." "Then, husband, sweet dreams..."