The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 034: Making medicinal sweets
Xia Yue Chu has just sent Cui Shu Qing off, returning into the room and she sees Qin Zheng looking at her sulkily. She laughs as she assures him quickly. "Don't rush, I have already thought through the task for you. Once everything is ready, we can start production anytime, but…"
"But what!" Qin Zheng asks anxiously. "Sister-in-law, do you need firewood or start the fire, leave all the laborious tasks to me."
"The laborious tasks are nothing much, but this is a work of skill and technique, I don't know if you can do this." As Xia Yue Chu speaks, she takes out a few pieces of wood planks with various length, which she has gathered over the last few days.
"What is this used for?" Qin Zheng's mind muddles into a puddle.
Xia Yue Chu gestures over it. "Can this be made into a wooden box, this is the base, these four surrounding the four sides, and then make some separators in the middle, making it look like eight to ten squares."
Qin Zheng stares at it for a moment without making any sound and finally scratches his head. "Sister-in-law, this is a hard problem to me, if you need, it would be easier to split this wooden plank into pieces."
Xia Yue Chu rolls her eyes at him, such a thin piece of wooden plank wouldn't require him to be split, she can split it using her own strength!
Xue Zhuang who is sitting by the window suddenly speaks. "Bring it over, I will have a look."
He takes those few wooden planks, measuring them for a bit. "You want to make this into some sort of carrier? Is it for roasted snacks?"
Xia Yue Chu becomes elated to see that he has understood the main point immediately. "Not for roasted snacks, but for sugar cubes, so the wooden planks need to be sand smooth. It would be best if we can buy a few pieces of white paper and lay it on the bottom, to make it appear clean."
When Qin Zheng hears that, his initial fervour has been dowsed out as if being splashed with cold water, whining miserably. "Sister-in-law, you want me to go sell sugar cubes? I am the most afraid when it comes to interacting with kids."
Xue Zhuang lifts his eyes towards Qin Zheng, shooting him a glint of deterrence.
Qin Zheng hurries to add. "But since Sister-in-law thinks it is workable, I can give it a try."
Xia Yue Chu sees Xue Zhuang taking out his dagger and dealing with those wooden planks, she then calls Qin Zheng outside to assist her with keeping the flames burning.
Previously when she is in town, seeing that there is a child who cries for sweets, but the adult responses is that sweets are not good if they eat too much. She suddenly thought of the medicinal sweets which she has eaten when she is young.
This stuff is actually not hard to make, the only problem is that the ingredients are not complete. There isn't any fresh mint or a few other fruits, she can only rely on her memory to choose a few ordinary yet not bad tasting Chinese herbs, for example monkfruit, gynostemma, Chinese liquorice, dried mints, and also hawthorn fruit, candyleaf, osmanthus etc.
The steps to make the medicinal sweets are in fact very simple. First, add water to the sugar and dissolve it, then add in the other ingredients to brew into a medicinal drink, simmering it till it thickens and until it starts pulling strings, then pouring it out onto a clean and smooth stone slab, cut it into little cubes once it cools down and finally, the end product is little pieces of medical sweets with different colours.
The only troubling issue is to be careful in maintaining the fire, it is easy to burn the sugar if the flames are too big and there is a constant need of stirring.
It is good that Qin Zheng is there to help, at least Xia Yue Chu does not need to exhaust herself to death.
She finds a sense of achievement in witnessing the little pieces of medicinal candies being made.
Though they do not have food colouring at the moment, the colour of the medicinal sweets appears to have a greyish tone, which is not that good looking, but surely it is a hundred percent natural without any preservatives.
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Especially for the osmanthus candy, Xia Yue Chu adds in the specially selected vibrantly coloured and beautiful dried florets. The pale yellow and half translucent candy cubes have a few organically shaped osmanthus inside each piece, making it stands out in appearance.
Qin Zheng cannot help but pick one up for closer inspection, when it is near him, he can smell the unique sweet fragrance of the osmanthus faintly. Putting it into his mouth, the taste is even sweeter.
"This flavour is not bad." He reviews as he tries the other flavours.
Although all the herbs that Xia Yue Chu picks have a somewhat sweet aftertaste, they still taste like traditional medicine, and it feels strange eating it.
"Sister-in-law, this candy flavour is a bit odd, can we really sell this?" Even with his ample faith towards Xia Yue Chu, at this moment, Qin Zheng cannot help but bubble up with doubt in his heart.
"Rest assured!" Xia Yue Chu smiles in reply. "This candy is called medicinal sweet, and the highlight is on the word medicinal."
After completing the few flavours of the medicinal sweets, Xia Yue Chu goes back into the room to check on the wooden box progress that Xue Zhuang is making.
The wooden plank and its partitions have been sanded clean. Both sides have been carved by a dagger into mortise and tenon joints.
Xue Zhuang assembles the box together and knocks it with the back of his dagger, attaching the joints into a firm fit. In an instant, a carefully crafted wooden box is presented before Xia Yue Chu.
But it is not yet completed, Xue Zhuang has found a sturdy wooden stick from who knows where, shaving it to make a hinge. Adding a movable wooden lid that can open and close on the top.
"You have such skilful hands!" Xia Yue Chu takes the box in her hands and pours out compliments. This is much more than what she has expected, never has she thought that Xue Zhuang has a talent with wood craft.
Xia Yue Chu washes the box clean and dries it well, layering with clean wax paper and then stocks up the different flavoured candies into each section of the box.
She brings that box full of candy before Xue Zhuang. "Come and try one? There is monkfruit, gynostemma, there is also chrysanthemum, osmanthus, hawthorn fruit and other flavours."
Xue Zhuang wants to tell her that he does not like eating sweets but seeing the evident joy in Xia Yue Chu through the curls in her eyes, his hand acts as if out of his control, stretching over to pick up a dark brown candy.
When the sweet enters his mouth, other than the taste of sweetness, there is also a faint medicinal flavour but it is not distasteful. For someone who does not like sweets like Xue Zhuang, it is in fact easier to accept comparing to the overly powering sweetness of the common sugar.
Xia Yue Chu sees the one he picks and smiles even more vibrantly. "Do you feel that sucking on this candy, your throat feels a little better?"
Xue Zhuang focuses on what he is experiencing base on what she says. He does not know if he is under the psychological effect or that it is truly effective, his mouth seems to start watering and there is something refreshing and cooling in his throat.
"I added monkfruit into this candy, monkfruit has the effect of causing salivation and relieving cough, dissolving the phlegm and moisturizing the lungs. You have been constantly coughing ever since the last time you got the fever, and you still refuse to eat your medicine. It will be good if you just eat one during your free time."
As Xia Yue Chu says so, she takes out another bowl which is filled to the full with all the sweets, placing it on the window sill for him.
Xue Zhuang lifts his head and looks towards Xia Yue Chu, his sight is unconsciously filled with inquiry.
No matter when it comes to her culinary skills or every single good idea she has, Xia Yue Chu holds too many questionable mysteries as a person.
She is but only a young madam from the countryside, even if her father from her maternal family is a private tutor, the things that she knows are too exceptionally wide.
Xia Yue Chu is hit with a sense of guilt by the way he is looking at her, telling him in a mumble. "Thanks for your hard work in making the wooden box, you should take a break quickly. I'm going to send some sweets to Big Ni Er and Second Ni Er."
Witnessing how Xia Yue Chu escapes like a frightened animal, Xue Zhuang mocks himself. He himself has a stomach full of secrets unable to be told to another, why trouble another by trying to inquire about their secrets.
He withdraws his attention, and his line of sight falls upon that bowl of medicinal sweets beside his hand. The corners of his lips form into a smile unconsciously.
Whatever it may be, it is not anything important, he decides to just leave it to her to do what she wants to do. At most, when she is in trouble, he can simply help her out.
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Translator Notes:
Translated by Yellow. Oct 2022.