Chapter 78: This Scene Caught Her Off Guard

Making jujube sugar wasn’t difficult at all. It involved the simplest steps of removing stems, cleaning, pounding, adding water, extracting juice, and simmering. The tools needed were just a stone mortar, a piece of cloth for filtering juice, a pot, and a jar that had been scalded with boiling water and left to dry for storing the syrup.

The difficulty lay in the quantity they had collected, nearly three baskets full. After removing the stems, there was almost a bucket’s worth. As a result, each step took a very long time, and just removing the stems and pounding took quite a while.

When it came to simmering the sugar, there wasn’t much technique involved. It was just a matter of controlling the heat and stirring diligently towards the end.

Shen Ning had watched it all and felt that she could do all these things next time.

The siblings watched as the initially greenish-yellow juice filtered out gradually turned red with simmering, eventually becoming a very enticing reddish-brown syrup. It was truly magical.

When it came time to jar the syrup, they were simply ecstatic. The two little ones brought over the jars that had been dried in advance, eagerly watching as Sang Luo scooped the syrup from the large pot into the jars, one spoonful at a time. The sweet fragrance made the siblings salivate.

When the jar was almost full, the sides of the pot were scraped clean, and it was just right to fill a jar.

Looking at the full jar of jujube sugar, the siblings had expressions of longing, as if they wanted to hug the jar and enjoy its aroma, just like when they saw honey.

Sang Luo found it amusing and called out to the two little ones, “Go get a bowl and two pairs of chopsticks.”

The siblings’ eyes lit up. They didn’t linger around the jar by the stove; instead, they ran to the wooden counter where the bowls and chopsticks were kept and brought back a bowl and three pairs of chopsticks. They happily handed the bowl to Sang Luo.

Sang Luo used a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot several times. After scraping it clean, she brought up the spoon, which was now half full of brown syrup.

With their toes curling and their necks stretching, the siblings eagerly watched as the syrup was poured into the bowl, their eyes shining like little squirrels. When almost all the syrup had been poured, Sang Luo scraped the bottom of the pot again. This time, there wasn’t as much, but it was enough to make the two little ones happy.

“Alright, use the chopsticks to scoop and eat.”

A pair of chopsticks was handed to Sang Luo. “Sister-in-law, you should join us!”

Sang Luo didn’t hesitate and took the chopsticks with a smile. She dipped them into the syrup and then rolled and rolled until the syrup at the bottom had cooled down and solidified into a semi-solid state, making it easy to roll up. After a few rolls, one end of the chopsticks looked like a lollipop.

The two little ones followed suit, rolling with great joy. With one big and two small ones, they raised their chopsticks and lifted them to their mouths, enjoying the sweetness, fragrance, and smoothness!

The satisfaction from this mouthful was truly worth the effort!

In fact, if there were molds available and some bamboo sticks to shave, they could have made lollipops, which would have sold for a higher price. But it required colder weather and lower temperatures, and they would have needed the soft molds from later times to easily remove them from the mold, so Sang Luo didn’t bother.

Shen An and Shen Ning were already as satisfied as if they had fallen into a honey jar.

“Sister-in-law, this is so delicious!”

“It’s even better than honey.”

Childhood memories were supposed to be the most comparable in terms of taste. However, Shen Ning felt that this was even sweeter and more delicious than the honey her older brother had brought back once when she was a child.

Sang Luo smiled and asked, “Should we keep some for ourselves?”

The siblings shyly smiled, and in the end, they nodded together.

Shen An: “I’ll go pick honey pawpaws with Sister-in-law every day from now on. Sister-in-law, there should still be some in the mountains, right? Shall we look for more?”

However, Sang Luo shook her head. “If we come across them, we’ll pick them, but let’s not go deeper into the mountains on purpose. It’s deserted in there, and we might encounter wild animals. We wouldn’t be able to handle that.”

At that moment, Shen An thought to himself that it would have been great if his older brother were here. His older brother and the mountain folks dared to venture into very deep places.

But just as this thought crossed his mind, he recalled recent events regarding tax payments. Some people from the village who had left the same year as his older brother hadn’t returned but were still required to pay taxes. Many households were upset about this, and Shen An had actually heard some things.

Because of what he had heard, he didn’t dare to dwell on it further. Only by not thinking about it could he continue to hold onto some hope.

So when he heard Sister-in-law say not to venture deeper, he simply nodded obediently.

The three of them each tasted a bit of the sugar. The remaining syrup at the bottom of the bowl was covered by Shen Ning with a plate and kept for later as a snack. She also said, “Tomorrow morning, we can add some sugar to the egg flower porridge. I’ve never had sweet egg flower porridge before, but I imagine it must be delicious.”

Just the thought of it made her mouth water.

There was still some residual sugar left in the large pot, but it wasn’t easy to scrape out. After the clay pot had cooled down, Shen Ning added a few ladles of water and boiled it. Using a wooden spoon, she occasionally poured boiling water over the sides of the pot to dissolve any sugar residue, producing quite a bit of sweet syrup. She ladled it into soup bowls and covered them.

These past two days, apart from going into the mountains to pick sour jujubes and dig up konjac roots to dry, Sang Luo went to the jujube tree every day with Shen An. Naturally, there was no chance of a bumper harvest like the first day. Some tall bamboo had grown by the tree, entwining with its branches. The two of them vigorously shook the bamboo poles, causing some ripe jujubes to rain down like a shower.

After picking for two days, they also made half a jar of jujube sugar. Seeing that there were over two hundred pieces of dried sour jujube cakes, Sang Luo decided not to wait any longer and planned to accompany Qin Fangniang and others to the county the next day.

In the evening, she brought out the broken earthenware pot from under the bed. Originally full, the pot now looked no different from an empty one.

There were only over seventy cents left from the last time she bought cotton. There were quite a few pieces of paper inside, rolled up into a bundle.

Sang Luo took out all these pieces of paper, called Shen An, and brought over his small sand tray. Using a tree branch, she began to make vertical tally marks on the sand tray.

Of course, Arabic numerals weren’t possible. She used the text from the Great Qian Dynasty that she remembered. It wasn’t as convenient to write, but there was no other choice.

After adding up a stack of receipts, she counted. Initially, she had directly repaid 2,500 cents, and with the sales of mushrooms and vegetarian tripe in the following half month, she had already paid back 6,355 cents of the 7,200 cents debt.

“We still owe 845 cents,” Sang Luo pondered.

Tomorrow morning, she would deliver twenty catties of vegetarian tripe to Dongfu Building for 340 cents, leaving a balance of 505 cents.

There were 368 pieces of sour jujube cakes, which amounted to 368 cents.

So, there was still a shortage of 137 cents.

Sang Luo thought about the jar and a half of jujube sugar. She felt that she would be able to settle the account with Dongfu Building the next day. She breathed a sigh of relief and neatly stacked the stack of receipts from Dongfu Building, along with the seventy-odd cents, into the money pouch.

After putting the empty earthenware pot back under the bed, she said, “I’m going out for a bit to see who has a measuring cup. I need to borrow one.”

She couldn’t use a scale to weigh the sugar tomorrow. For semi-liquid substances like this, only containers could be used for measurement. The wooden spoon in the house wasn’t persuasive enough, so it was better to use the measuring cup commonly used during the Great Qian Dynasty for vinegar, soy sauce, and wine.

However, in peasant households, where they didn’t make a living from making alcohol or vinegar, the probability of having a measuring cup was very low. If they really didn’t have one, she would have to go to the bamboo utensil shop the next day to buy one.

After walking around, she really couldn’t find one. She was about to return when Mrs. Chen reminded her, “Go ask at the Zhou family in Zhou Cunzheng. I remember your Aunt Zhou likes to buy medicinal herbs for soaking in alcohol. Maybe they have one at home.”

Hearing that the Zhou family in Zhou Cunzheng might have one, Sang Luo hesitated a bit.

She could manage to produce some items to sell, which was not a secret among several families in the Chen family’s circle. Due to the cooperative relationship, each family knew their boundaries and didn’t pry or ask too much. They might even actively help cover up a thing or two.

Because of this, Sang Luo went to three households to inquire if they had a measuring cup to lend.

If it were the Zhou family in Zhou Cunzheng, they actually knew a bit about her situation. However, Sang Luo didn’t fully trust them yet.

Sugar was a precious commodity in this era, especially rock sugar, which was just malt sugar. Its production method was quite widespread, with occasional rural women knowing how to make it. Sang Luo’s jujube sugar might have been known to some if there were relevant records in medical books, but she hadn’t found anything like it in her original memories.

So Sang Luo preferred not to attract attention in the village.

She shook her head. “Never mind, I’ll buy one from the shop tomorrow morning.”

Seeing her response, Mrs. Chen guessed that she might be planning to sell something and nodded. “That’s fine. Those things aren’t expensive.”

The next morning, Sang Luo went to the county early with Qin Fangniang and a few others.

This time, Zhou Cunzheng and the others didn’t accompany them. Instead, they had Feng Liuniang, who usually roamed the streets carrying goods for sale, keep an eye on the grain shop situation and prices to avoid going in vain and wasting the entrance fee.

Although Sang Luo had come to the county herself, she still had Qin Fangniang help take the vegetarian tripe. She planned to sell her goods, collect enough money, later retrieve today’s receipts from Qin Fangniang, and then go to Dongfu Building to exchange them for a promissory note.

The Gan family and Feng Liuniang knew that Sang Luo sold something else, but they didn’t know where she sold it. Therefore, they didn’t invite her to join them. After everyone entered the city, they went their separate ways.

Sang Luo’s first stop was naturally the woodwork shop. They had everything from wooden to bamboo utensils, and the measuring cup was made of bamboo and indeed inexpensive, costing just two cents.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for using it to sell sugar for measurement purposes, the requirement for a measuring device would need to be at least accurate. Otherwise, making one oneself wouldn’t be difficult.

After buying the measuring cup, Sang Luo prepared to go to Yongfeng Pavilion first to sell the sour jujube cakes, so the carrying basket wouldn’t be too heavy.

As she arrived, the door of Yongfeng Pavilion had just opened, and the shop girl who was wiping the counter saw Sang Luo. Her expression was pure delight, and she turned around and exclaimed, “Shopkeeper, Madam Sang is here!”

The strict shopkeeper looked up and saw Sang Luo. His face lit up with a smile, and he quickly walked out from behind the counter. “We’ve been waiting for you!”

As he spoke, his eyes glanced at the carrying basket Sang Luo was holding.

Seeing the wooden board in the basket with four jars placed on top and bottom layers, his eyes sparkled. “We’ve been waiting for your crystal candied fruits. The little we had from last time was sold out by yesterday morning. I was just worrying, and here you are, perfect timing. Let’s pack and display them right away.”

With that, he called two shop girls to move the jars for repackaging.

The two girls were originally stationed by the counter, and they had done this job several times before. Since the shop was now open and customers could come in at any time, they knew that the crystal candied fruits had been particularly popular these days. So, as soon as the strict shopkeeper spoke, the two of them went to grab the jars, ready to quickly count and repackage them for display.

Sang Luo couldn’t stop them in time, as the two jars of jujube sugar placed on the bottom and top of the wooden board were swiftly picked up by the two shop girls from Yongfeng Pavilion.

Sang Luo hurriedly called out, “No, those two are at the bottom.”

However, the shop girls were already by the counter, and with just a quick bend, they had already picked up the items and placed them securely. The lids were also halfway opened. There was no time to react.

One of the shop girls exclaimed, “What’s this?”

Sang Luo: “…”

This was a situation she hadn’t anticipated.