With Iron-Handed Chen Shi'an joining in, the remaining pine nuts were soon shelled.
They looked like peanuts with their skins removed and filled a large platter to the brim.
Pine nuts could be eaten raw or cooked. Chen Shi'an and Li Wanyin each picked up a few to try and found them delicious, with a rich, oily aroma and a delicate texture. That nutty flavor, combined with their mellow fragrance and slight sweetness, gave pine nuts their distinctive layers of flavor.
Fat Ink hadn't helped shell the pine nuts, but he had helped pick the pinecones!
Seeing that the pine nuts were shelled, the fat cat shamelessly came over to mooch a few.
Munch, munch. Chew, chew.
When Chen Shi'an carried the pine nuts into the kitchen, Li Wanyin and the cat followed him.
"Hehe, I've never had pine nut candy, and I don't know how it's made. Let me learn from you."
"It's very simple."
As he spoke, Chen Shi'an prepared the ingredients and utensils for making pine nut candy.
"First, we need to cook the syrup."
Chen Shi'an set a pan on the stove, poured in the maltose and white sugar he'd bought that afternoon, added some water, and heated it slowly, waiting for all the sugar to dissolve.
As he worked, he glanced back and discovered that Li Wanyin had taken out her phone at some point and was recording him.
"Keep going! I'll record a video so I can learn to make it myself later." Li Wanyin smiled at him on her screen.
It really was often hard to reconcile his eighteen years of age with all the strange and unusual skills he knew.
If most eighteen-year-old boys and girls had the air of students about them, Chen Shi'an mostly had the air of someone well