“It’s delicious, right?” Xue Sifu looked at them expectantly.
“Yes.” Jiang Yue and Xue Yan both nodded.
“It’s more delicious when it’s fried on the spot.” Xue Sifu laughed. “I’ll take you to town one day and let you eat fried food. I’ll go to Grandpa’s place and give this to him. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”
With that, Xue Sifu took the paper bag and was about to head over to Xue Da’s place, but before he could even take two steps, he turned back and yelled at Xue Dafu, “Father, before I came back, I went to Sanfu’s place to take a look. He said that he won’t be back for the time being. He’ll probably only be back after half a month.”
“Alright, I got it,” Xue Dafu replied.
Two small stools were placed in the corridor outside the central room. Li Hehua let Jiang Yue and Xue Yan sit on the small stools and continue eating chicken legs, while the others began to do their own things.
Everyone was very happy. Naturally, it was because Li Hehua only needed to eat to supplement her body.
While eating the drumstick slowly, Xue Yan looked at the cloth bag on the table in the central room, which contained three things 一 glutinous rice, wheat and rice flour.
“Can you tell me how to make this caramel candy?”
Jiang Yue gave a simple explanation.
The rough idea was to let the wheat germinate first, then steam the glutinous rice, mix the chopped malt with the glutinous rice, and ferment it. Then, filter it, and boil it. Finally, pull the boiled sugar. When pulled, air bubbles will form and the malt sugar will turn white. The more it was pulled, the harder it became, becoming the candy that was smashed and sold in the town.
Xue Yan immediately understood.
He knew that the first step was to let the wheat germinate, and that it would be easier for the wheat to germinate after soaking it for a night. He said, “Then let’s finish eating and go soak the wheat.”
“Yeah,” Jiang Yue replied.
After eating the chicken leg, Jiang Yue and Xue Yan took out a portion of the wheat and placed it in a large bowl. Then, they poured cold water into the large bowl and soaked the portion of wheat.
He would harvest the other wheat, as it might be useful in the future.
“Let’s find another sieve.” Jiang Yue said. “Tomorrow morning, we’ll spread the soaked wheat on the sieve and pour water on it two or three times a day. According to the current weather, it should be able to sprout in three or four days. He was using a bud to prevent the true leaves from sprouting. This candy also has another name, malt candy, which means this.”
Xue Yan nodded.
There was a wooden round sieve at home that could be used to sieve the crumbs from vegetable seeds and sesame seeds. The size was just right.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan took a sieve and put it aside for later use.
At this moment, Xue Erfu and Xue Wufu, who had scattered plant ashes in the field, returned. Plant ashes could prevent pests and could also be used as fertilizer. When they heard that Li Hehua could be cured by eating nutrients, they were very happy. When they heard that Xue Sifu was back, Xue Wufu immediately ran to Xue Da’s place to find Sifu. He couldn’t go by himself, but he brought Jiang Yue and Xue Yan with him.
They did not return even after dinner.
It was Xue Erfu who had called him back.
When Xue Erfu left, he also brought a bowl of food. These were the leftovers that Xue Sifu had brought back. He also gave it to Xue Da, who was so happy that his heart filled with love.
It wasn’t because there was good food, but because of the filial piety of the younger generation.
The next morning, after washing up, Jiang Yue took the sieve and spread the soaked wheat in it with Xue Yan.