Brewing Brown Sugar

"Greetings, Lady Stella!"

"Greetings, Lady Stella!"

The crowd reacted one after another, instinctively clearing a path for Stella and bowing to offer their respects.

Stella held her head slightly high, her posture straight as she walked gracefully through the crowd, nodding faintly to the people on either side in acknowledgment.

Lina followed behind with a haughty, adorable expression; it was she who had just called out.

"Greetings, Lady Stella!" Thomas, naturally recognizing the Count's daughter, immediately stepped forward and bowed deeply.

"Hmm, this perfume of yours smells wonderful. I would like to purchase some," Stella finally spoke for the first time.

"It would be my absolute honor, Lady Stella!" Thomas was overjoyed. He had thought today's endeavor was going to be a failure, but he never expected to attract the Count's daughter. "Lady Stella, may I ask how many bottles you intend to purchase? I shall fetch them for you at once!"

"My Lady intends to purchase them all. Steward Thomas, how much for a bottle of this perfume?" As soon as Thomas finished speaking, Lina leaned in; matters of trade were naturally handled by her, the personal maid.

"Ah! You want them all?" Thomas was dumbfounded.

"What is it, Steward Thomas? Will you not sell them?" Lina asked, puzzled.

"This... Lady Stella, Lord Nalant instructed me before we set out that... each person is limited to one bottle..." Thomas replied cautiously. Seeing Lina's eyes widen with a hint of rising anger, he quickly changed his tone: "However, Lady Stella is certainly an exception. Lady Stella, if I sell you seven bottles first, would that be acceptable?"

Thomas felt a bit anxious. If Lady Stella refused, he didn't know if he would be punished by his Lord upon returning, especially since the Lord had said he wanted to use this opportunity to promote the perfume and prepare for the next batch.

"Thomas, this is Lady Stella..." Lina was still somewhat annoyed, blaming Thomas for being ungrateful.

However, Stella stopped Lina with a gesture. She smiled faintly and nodded, uttering two words: "That is acceptable!"

"How much is a bottle of this perfume?" Stella asked softly in person.

"In reply to Lady Stella, fifty silver coins per bottle!"

"Fifty silver coins? Is it that cheap?" Stella looked slightly surprised, her azure eyes blinking twice. She then said in an irresistible tone, "Such a wonderful perfume should not be so cheap. Lina, give Steward Thomas seven gold coins!"

Stella was not foolish. Seeing the cheap bottles containing the perfume, she immediately deduced the likely reason for such a low price, and she gave the order directly to Lina.

Lina looked at her mistress in disbelief, but under Stella's gaze, she eventually complied and took out seven gold coins.

Handing the gold coins to Thomas, Lina took the seven bottles of perfume, and the mistress and her maid departed from the crowd.

"Thank you, Lady Stella!" Holding the seven gold coins, Thomas thanked the departing Stella with the utmost respect.

"Everyone..." After Stella left, Thomas looked toward the crowd.

However, before he could finish his sentence, the crowd erupted at that very moment.

"I want one bottle! Here is a gold coin!"

"I want one too! Here is a gold coin..."

"I..."

In an instant, Thomas was swallowed by the crowd. Fortunately, Quick and the others remained by the table, preventing the perfume from being knocked over or stolen in the scramble.

"Seventeen gold coins! Lady Stella is truly a kind-hearted lady!" Looking at the bright, golden coins in his hand, Thomas was filled with emotion.

Because of Stella's single action, the price of the perfume had doubled, and it had been snatched up in an instant.

Now, with Lady Stella's influence, Thomas believed that the next time he came to Tulip City to sell perfume, the Storm Territory's 'Dragon Brand Jasmine' would definitely be even more popular than this.

Nalant did not yet know that his self-righteous belief that 'good wine needs no bush' had nearly caused the perfume to stagnate due to the pride of the nobles, and that the situation had ultimately been saved by the Flower of Tulip, who had given him the chance to save thirty years of hard work.

At this moment, a carriage loaded with sugarcane was slowly entering the castle.

"My Lord, what should we do next?" Vivian and Sherry looked at their Lord with eyes full of anticipation.

"Hmm, extract the juice. Use the stone mill I had the stonemasons make to crush all these sugarcane stalks and collect the juice!" Nalant held a piece of sugarcane in his hand, chewing it without regard for his image, while answering the two beautiful girls' questions.

"Oh, right, before that, we need to wash the sugarcane clean!"

Six days had passed since the caravan set out, and some of the fast-growing sugarcane had already matured.

While the stonemasons were building the stone latrines, Nalant had also instructed them to build a large stone mill and a series of stoves on the side of the castle's front courtyard.

That's right, a series of stoves.

The stoves were at least twelve meters long, and a total of eight large pots could be placed on top of them.

Nalant had built this based on the primitive methods of boiling Brown Sugar he had seen as a child in his previous life.

During his summer vacations as a child, he used to visit his grandmother's house, where there was a rural brown sugar factory nearby. To steal sugarcane, he and his group of idle friends would always hang around the factory, so he had become quite familiar with the process of boiling brown sugar.

Boiling sugar—the name alone suggested it shouldn't be difficult, provided one had the raw materials.

First, one needed to extract the juice by crushing the washed sugarcane after cutting off the ends.

After extracting the juice, it was placed into the first large pot to boil. During this process, it had to be stirred constantly to ensure the sugarcane juice was heated evenly.

Once it was boiled sufficiently, it was ladled into the adjacent second pot to continue boiling.

After boiling for a while longer, it was ladled into the third pot.

Through this repeated boiling, the sugarcane juice became thicker and more viscous with each subsequent pot.

By the time it reached the eighth pot and the sugarcane juice had turned into a syrup state, it could be ladled into wooden containers to cool.

Once the syrup had completely cooled, they would have sweet and smooth Brown Sugar.

Do not doubt it; making Brown Sugar really did not require much technical skill.

As Nalant began to provide guidance, Vivian and the guards immediately started to busy themselves.

After the sugarcane was washed clean, it was taken to be juiced; under the pressure of the stone mill, the liquid flowed continuously along the grooves into wooden barrels.

Once the sugarcane juice had been extracted, he instructed the guards to start a fire and begin boiling it.

One guard looked after two large pots, standing by the stove with a long ladle as tall as himself, constantly stirring the liquid within.

"My Lord, this sugarcane juice is getting less and less! Isn't this too uneconomical?" Sherry had already eaten two whole stalks of sugarcane, and seeing the juice in the pots steadily decreasing as it boiled, she felt a pang of heartache.

Originally, when she heard her Lord say he was going to make a food as delicious as honey called Brown Sugar, Sherry had been full of anticipation.

But now, she felt it would be better to just eat the sugarcane directly; after all, the sugarcane was already very sweet, and it wouldn't be a waste.

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