Just as Cheng Loanloan was feeling disheartened, she suddenly slapped her forehead. "How foolish of me!"
She had a system store, and the store had books, just like an encyclopedia. Couldn't she just spend money to buy a book on how to make ice jelly?
She opened the store and searched. Sure enough, there were cookbooks related to ice jelly. Eight copper coins bought her a cookbook.
She opened the cookbook. It suggested ingredients: making ice jelly required adding lime powder to solidify it. This era probably had lime powder, but Dahe Village likely didn't. She could buy it in the store, but this skill would definitely be passed on to Wu Huiniang later. Where would Wu Huiniang find lime powder then?
She continued reading the cookbook. Although this cookbook was convenient, it was too perfunctory. It didn't even mention substitutes for lime powder.
Cheng Loanloan leaned her head on her hand, frustrated. She thought about the properties of lime powder and suddenly had an idea: what if she replaced lime powder with starch?
No sooner said than done.
Cheng Loanloan bought some corn flour, wheat flour, and various common flours from Dahe Village in the store, then went outside her house.
The four boys were each holding a bowl of ice jelly, sipping small mouthfuls. After each sip, they licked their lips, looking a little funny.
"This whole big basin is a failed product. If you drink your fill now, you won't be able to drink the successful product later." Cheng Loanloan chuckled and shook her head. "While it's still early, let's all help out again."
She divided the bowls of *shihua* seeds into several small basins, added corn flour, wheat flour, and starch separately, and then placed them in the well.
While waiting, Cheng Loanloan and Wu Huiniang prepared dinner together.
The food on the table was still wild vegetables and mushrooms, nothing new. The biggest shortage in the house was still meat; there was no legitimate reason to eat meat.
Plain rice with wild vegetables and mushrooms was considered the best food in Dahe Village.
After dinner, dusk settled.
Cheng Loanloan went to check the three experimental products. The ice jelly with added starch solidified the fastest, already having a jelly-like consistency. It would probably be ready in about the time it takes to drink a small cup of tea.
She got up to prepare the accompanying ingredients, took out all the bowls in the house, put peeled hawthorn meat in half of them, and thick, concentrated brown sugar water in the other half. Finally, she cut the solidified ice jelly into small square pieces, putting six pieces in each bowl, then steadily placed them into a bamboo basket.
There were only eight bowls in the house, and the basket could only hold eight bowls of ice jelly. She carried the basket out of the house gate.
At this time, there were still people by the fields.
The rice, which had been dry for almost two months, suddenly had water. Some experienced farmers couldn't bear to leave the field banks, walking back and forth in their own rice fields repeatedly, afraid it was just a dream.
When Cheng Loanloan passed by, many people actively greeted her, something that wouldn't have happened before.
She carried the basket to Old Zhao's house. The whole family was enjoying the cool air in the courtyard.
"Dashan's mother, you're here." Old Madam Zhao looked at the basket in her hand. "Did you cook something to eat?"
Cheng Loanloan nodded. "Didn't I ask the children to help pick *caolangdeng* a few days ago? This is made from that grass. It's my first time making it, so I don't know how it tastes. If everyone thinks it's not bad, I'll go to town tomorrow to see if anyone will buy it."
She took the bowls out of the basket, a total of eight bowls, and placed them on the table. Old Zhao's family had twelve people. She was about to suggest that the children come to her house to eat. Adding more wheat flour and corn flour meant they wouldn't be sold in town, but the taste would be the same, and there would be enough for the children to eat.
Before she could speak, Sun Shi quickly interjected, "Chun Hua, Dong Hua, what are you two doing? Hurry up and come over to get bowls, or there won't be any left."
Sun Shi's lips curled. Her eldest sister-in-law was too stingy. There were twelve people here, but she only brought eight bowls. That meant four people wouldn't get to eat. What if the Old Matron didn't allow the girls to eat? Then their third branch's two servant girls wouldn't get a single bite. No matter how you looked at it, the third branch would suffer a loss.