The Yellow-Clay Decolorization Method, White Sugar!

Gu Zhengchen watched the black syrup bubbling in the pot, a confident smile on his lips.

Gu Shi put together a stand and set an earthenware basin on it. She found some wheat straw to plug the funnel opening at the bottom, then placed a clean black pottery jar beneath the basin.

After checking that everything was in order, Gu Zhengchen took turns with his mother stirring the syrup, while Gu Qingqing fed the fire. They boiled it for nearly two hours before Gu Zhengchen picked up a palm-leaf fan to fan away the steam. Seeing that the bubbles in the syrup had become tiny beads, he took a thread of syrup from the stirring stick and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. It had begun to stick to his fingers. "That's enough," he told Gu Qingqing.

Gu Qingqing dropped the fire poker and hurried over to look. A little crestfallen, she said, "Brother, it doesn't look like it worked. It's still yellowish-black..."

Gu Zhengchen found a ladle and scooped the syrup into a clean wooden bucket. He told the dejected Gu Qingqing, "This is only the first step. How could it be that quick?"

Once all the syrup had been poured into the bucket, Gu Shi added a little water to the pot to keep the remaining syrup from sticking.

"Brother, what do we do now?"

Gu Qingqing asked.

Gu Zhengchen pointed at the syrup in the bucket. "Wait for it to set into a sugar paste. Come, let me tell you about the history of sugar. The Book of Songs: Major Odes says, 'The plains of Zhou were rich and fertile; even bitter herbs were sweet as malt sugar.' There's an idiom, 'to savor it as sweet malt sugar.' That malt sugar was the maltose of ancient times..."

Gu Qingqing sat on a stool with her chin cupped in both hands, listening attentively to her brother.

"Before the Tang dynasty, people didn't know how to make sugar from sugarcane. Back then, they ate the cane directly or pressed it for juice. During the Dali era of the Tang dynasty, a monk from the Western Regions, Monk Zou, traveled to Suining in the Shu Region and began teaching sugar-making techniques. From then on, there were sugar mills for pressing sugarcane, and cane sugar came into the world..."

Gu Zhengchen spoke at ease, checking the sugar paste from time to time. After nearly another two hours, it had mostly set.

Gu Shi steadied the earthenware basin while Gu Zhengchen lifted the wooden bucket and poured the sugar paste into it. They waited nearly another hour until the paste had fully set, then he pulled the straw out of the bottom. Turning around, he brought over half a bucket of yellow-clay water and kept stirring it.

"Wait, you aren't planning to pour that yellow-clay water into the sugar paste, are you?"

Gu Shi hurried to stop him.

Gu Qingqing's eyes widened. This was muddy water, full of yellow clay! How could they eat the sugar paste after pouring that into it?

Gu Zhengchen nodded. "Exactly."

Gu Shi said anxiously, "How can you do that? Won't it ruin all the sugar paste? We boiled this down from five jin of black sugar. Zhengchen, let's not pour in the muddy water."

Gu Zhengchen blinked.

If the Yellow-Clay Decolorization Method didn't use yellow clay, what was he supposed to use?

"Mother, you have to trust your son. Qingqing, do you trust your brother?"

Gu Qingqing nodded instinctively, then saw the half bucket of muddy water and began shaking her head, her little braids swinging back and forth. "Brother, Mother is right. Once you add muddy water to sugar, you can't eat it anymore."

Gu Zhengchen set the wooden bucket on the ground and told his mother, "Let me try."

Gu Shi hesitated, then reached out to steady the basin. "All right. I don't know where you learned this method, but if you want to try-then try."

"Mother!"

Gu Qingqing grew anxious.

Gu Zhengchen lifted the bucket and slowly poured the half bucket of yellow-clay water into the basin. Setting the bucket down, he looked at his mother and sister, whose faces were full of regret. "Just wait."

Neither Gu Shi nor Gu Qingqing said anything. They had never seen such wastefulness. Five jin of black sugar, ruined just like that.

Both were so dispirited that they barely ate any dinner.

Night fell.

Gu Shi and Gu Qingqing went out several times with a candle to look, but saw no change. All they heard was dripping. When they examined the falling liquid closely, it was entirely black, without a hint of white. The two became even more certain that all their work had been for nothing.

Gu Zhengchen had no time to look in the courtyard. He continued writing the latter part of The Legend of the White Snake. Having accepted the money, he had to give them a complete script. By the time he finished, it was the third watch of the night. He lay down and fell straight asleep.

Drip-

Drip-

Black molasses fell into the jar drop by drop, while the yellow-clay water in the basin gradually diminished...

Gu Shi rose early and looked at the earthenware basin in the courtyard, letting out a bitter sigh. She fetched water to wash up and prepared to make breakfast. As she passed the basin, she glanced inside and froze.

"Qingqing, Qingqing, hurry over and look."

Gu Shi called.

Gu Qingqing ran out rubbing her eyes. When she reached the basin and saw the snowy-white substance on top, she was instantly wide awake. "Mother, what happened?"

Gu Shi shook her head, unable to believe it.

Gu Qingqing carefully pinched up a little white sugar, brought it to her lips, and tasted it. Her eyes lit up, and she cried in delight, "It's sweet! Mother, this is white sugar! We really made white sugar!"

"White sugar?"

Gu Shi had never seen sugar so white, as pure as snowflakes.

"Brother, Brother!"

Gu Qingqing grabbed a small handful of white sugar and ran into the room. She woke the sleeping Gu Zhengchen and said, brimming with joy, "White sugar! Brother, it worked!"

Gu Zhengchen yawned, glanced at the white sugar in Gu Qingqing's hand, and said with a smile, "You didn't trust your brother, so there's no white sugar for you."

"No!"

"I make the rules."

"No!"

Gu Qingqing stuffed the white sugar into her mouth, her eyes narrowing in bliss.

Gu Zhengchen got up and walked to the basin. He told his bewildered mother, "Mother, this is simply a craft for making white sugar. Let's scrape it out first and see how much there is."

Gu Shi asked no further questions. The basin was full of white sugar, though only the top five inches were the purest white. The sugar beneath was white with a slight yellowish-brown tinge, while the jar contained the water and impurities.

After weighing it, they had only eight liang of pure white sugar, along with one jin and four liang of slightly inferior white sugar.

Five jin of black sugar had yielded two jin and two liang of white sugar.

Gu Zhengchen was quite satisfied with the result. He had Gu Shi and his sister boil more syrup while he made another trip to the county town, delivered the script of The Legend of the White Snake to Liang Heng, and bought another twenty jin of black sugar.

For three days straight, the Gu Family boiled sugar, producing a total of four jin of pure white sugar and more than ten jin of the slightly inferior kind.

Gu Zhengchen packed up the white sugar and headed to the county town early in the morning.

The Zhao Family residence, Teng County.

The steward, Zhao Shun, found Zhao Feng and reported, "I heard that Gu Zhengchen bought a large fish a few days ago, and also bought some black sugar at the Yang Family Shop."

Zhao Feng looked at Zhao Shun in puzzlement. "Where did Gu Zhengchen get the money? Could he have sold his sister to the Wang Family to settle his debt?"

Zhao Shun shook his head. "I haven't heard anything of the sort."

Zhao Feng lifted his tea bowl and blew on it twice, his face cold. "Gu Zhengchen made Ya'er cry for two days. I will never let him off lightly! I heard he made a seven-day agreement with Wang Fugui. Isn't the deadline nearly here?"

"It's the day after tomorrow."

Zhao Shun replied.

Zhao Feng pondered for a moment, then said, "The matchmaker is arranging a marriage between Ya'er and Zhang Shiping, the scholar from the Zhang Family in the east of town. If I remember correctly, Yaowen, Zhang Shiping, and Wang Youcheng are fellow students, aren't they?"

"That's right. The second young master and those two all study at the county school."

Zhao Shun said with a smile.

A sinister smile appeared at the corner of Zhao Feng's mouth. "The Zhang Family is wealthy, and Zhang Shiping has received the county magistrate's recommendation. Within three months, the court's appointment papers will arrive. We need to settle this marriage soon. My worthy nephew Shiping hasn't met Ya'er yet, so let's create an opportunity for them."

Zhao Shun's eyes lit up. "You mean, Master?"

Zhao Feng's face took on a ruthless air. "On the day the Wang Family comes to demand repayment, have Aunt Zhang accompany Ya'er to the riverside at Dayan Village to clear her head. Have Yaowen invite my worthy nephew Shiping there too, so they can see each other from a distance. That way, we'll strike three birds with one stone!"

"What are the three birds?"

Zhao Feng lifted his tea bowl and blew gently on it. "First, once Shiping and Ya'er have met, we can settle the marriage sooner. Second, when Ya'er sees Gu Zhengchen humiliated by the Wang Family, reduced to a miserable wreck and kneeling to beg for mercy, the knot in her heart will surely come undone. Third, people are saying our Zhao Family broke off the engagement, and the Zhang Family has no doubt heard those rumors. Let my worthy nephew Shiping see that it wasn't our Zhao Family that broke it off. Rather, Gu Zhengchen knew he was utterly unworthy of marrying into our family and broke it off himself. We can seize this opportunity to restore the Zhao Family's reputation!"