Making White Sugar

"She is a doctor herself."

"She's a doctor?" Gu Anfang in surprise.

For some reason, the image of his Third Concubine lying on the ground after being hit, with a look of forbearance on her face but without saying a word, kept echoing in his mind.

Even if she scolds me a few times, it's fine.

How can she be so emotionally stable?

She's actually a doctor...

"Yes," Gu Wanning said, "Her family used to be imperial physicians, so she knows some medicine. She was the one who treated my mother before."

Gu Anfang finally found the right person.

This isn't his fault; it's Xu Weibei's fault for having too many concubines.

"And another thing," Gu Anfang added, "Do you know how to raise the little horse that the Marquis gave to Zhi Nu?"

Gu Wanning got a headache just thinking about Xiao Ma.

Xu Weibei insisted on keeping her without explanation, saying it had nothing to do with her and was for Zhi Nu.

But Zhi Nu also said she didn't want it anymore.

Xu Weibei added that he was just a child and didn't understand anything.

"I won't," Gu Wanning said. "I'm returning it to the Marquis."

"Give it back? True, you're already divorced. So when are you going to give it back?"

"In a few days."

"Alright, I'll take care of it for you first. I'm afraid you won't know how to care for it, and the pony might get sick in a few days."

Gu Wanning looked at him and smiled.

Gu Anfang his face away. "I didn't mean to take advantage of you, I just... I really do like you."

"Then I'll trouble you, Third Brother, to take it back and raise it for now."

"Take it back? I can take it back?"

"Well, if I leave it here, I'll have to take extra care of it. Besides, Huahua doesn't like it; it always spits at it... I'm afraid it'll drive Huahua crazy."

That's Fifty Thousand Taels silver in cash!

Gu Anfang led the pony away, but fearing that Zhi Nu would be reluctant to leave, he wanted to take Zhi Nu with him.

Zhi Nu indicated that he was willing to give it up.

He liked the pony, but after Xu Weibei told him that he couldn't ride it yet, he lost interest.

So Gu Anfang led the pony away.

Er Ya snorted and said, "Let's see if he'll still talk bad about you after he's taken your bribe."

"He's just stubborn," Gu Wanning said.

Even if the old problems couldn't be solved, didn't they still come to help?

She didn't want to owe anyone a favor.

Chapter 160 Boiling out white sugar

"Girl, shall we make the sugar ourselves?" Er Ya asked excitedly.

Looking at her, who had also worked all day but was still full of energy, Gu Wanning suppressed her own doubts.

She's so weak.

She was so tired she didn't even want to move a finger.

"Look at my hands." Gu Wanning held up her hands, which were red from holding sugarcane and a knife. "Do you think I can still work today?"

"Just tell me, I'll do it."

"I don't want to move my mouth, I just want to sleep," Gu Wanning said. "You should go and rest too."

"When will we try it?" Er Ya asked anxiously. "Aren't we going to the Princess's Residence tomorrow?"

She was extremely anxious and eager to see the sugar refined.

You know, that's all money!

"I was lying to the Marquis. We're not going anywhere tomorrow; we'll just stay home and make sugar." Gu Wanning yawned and said, "Please let me go today."

"Okay."

The next day, Gu Wanning ladled out the boiled sugar syrup, added yellow mud water, set it aside, and then went inside to write a letter to her second sister-in-law.

Although I'm not going today, I promised my second brother I would visit him, so I'll have to go sooner or later.

Let me write a formal invitation first and arrange a time, so as not to be presumptuous.

Er Ya, however, squatted motionless, staring intently at the mixture of sugar water and muddy water, waiting to witness the moment of miracle.

Gu Wanning finished writing the invitation, then picked vegetables, chopped meat, and made wontons.

She waited until after lunch to pour out the top part of the settled sugar water and put it back into the pot to boil.

"Will this work?" Er Ya asked doubtfully as she stood up and peered into the fire.

"Give it a try; there's nothing to lose if it doesn't work. Brown sugar isn't cheap either."

"But sugarcane is expensive. The sugar you make from sugarcane is more expensive than buying sugar directly."

"That's natural," Gu Wanning laughed. "Transporting sugarcane is difficult. If we really want to do this business in the future, we'll have to process the sugar directly at the production site. Besides, stone mills... are too labor-intensive."

What else can we do?

"Let's talk about it once we can boil down to white sugar."

Gu Wanning now finally believes that no path in this world is wasted, and every step counts.

A regret from my past life: studying agriculture offered no future, so I had to switch careers after graduation.

Thinking about all those nights I stayed up because of my passion makes me feel sorry for myself.

But who would have thought that we could use these skills now? I only regret not learning more back then.

The south has abundant water resources, so water mills could be considered.

"Girl, it's white sugar, it's white sugar!" Er Ya exclaimed excitedly as she looked at the white crystals that had formed.

Gu Wanning was calmer than her, looking at the white sugar and saying, "There are still some impurities in it; perhaps it could take a little longer to settle. But for our first attempt, it's not bad."

"This isn't even considered impurity; it's much better than the white sugar you buy outside."

Gu Wanning smiled and said, "We were meant to do better than them."

She produced the white sugar, and then began to tackle the challenge of "water milling".

She knew nothing about machinery; her only memory was of reading the "Agricultural Book" in her previous life.

The Agricultural Book contains records about water mills.

Because Gu Wanning had some talent in painting, her classmates said that the illustrations were unclear and didn't look real at all. So, during the summer vacation, she re-copied and enlarged the illustrations from several ancient books.

Among them was a water mill, and because it was relatively complex, she spent more effort on it.

Gu Wanning drew the water mill from memory.

However, this water mill is used to husk grains; if it is to be used for juicing, some modifications are necessary.