Turning Water into Meat

Zhang Xuezhou didn't openly flaunt his presence because there was a girl named Aqiao in his family who came from the King of Huainan's Household.

He believed that A-Qiao had taken good care of him and that she had done her best to treat him in order to gain freedom, but Zhang Xuezhou would never gamble on people's hearts.

He took Dong Zhongshu's gypsum ore, applied half a bucket of gypsum water as instructed, and then went directly to the Pingyang Marquis's residence.

Behind Zhang Xuezhou, a horse-drawn carriage was pulling a load of beans, and many boys were waiting beside the carriage, rubbing their empty stomachs.

Eating too many beans can cause bloating and diarrhea. This may seem like a minor problem, but under limited medical conditions, it can be a fatal cause.

If a food could kill someone, people would naturally avoid it. Even hungry children know that dried beans shouldn't be eaten indiscriminately.

Dried beans are very cheap, and some vendors add beans to meat dishes for cooking and seasoning. If too many beans are mixed into the meat dishes they sell, it will cause them to shout and curse.

These are indeed not very appealing beans, so they are unlikely to fetch a good price.

For just two and a half ounces, you can fill a whole bag with beans.

One hundred and a half taels of silver brought a cartload of beans, including five and a half taels of silver for the cart fare.

Many teenagers craned their necks, their eyes filled with a mixture of fear and anticipation.

Eating meat indoors goes unchecked, and no one has the ability to verify it; there are always ways to circumvent the prohibitions.

In short, it's fine to do things secretly, as long as you don't get caught red-handed, everything will be fine.

"Brother Huo, isn't this your home?"

"Uh-huh!"

The boys behind him murmured amongst themselves, while Huo Qubing was a little nervous, unaware that Zhang Xuezhou would bring everyone to the Marquis of Pingyang's residence.

The Marquis of Pingyang's residence was where Huo Qubing lived, but it was not considered Huo Qubing's home.

Huo Qubing dared to rummage around outside, but he didn't dare to do anything reckless in the Pingyang Marquis's residence. He only moved around within the designated area and didn't even set foot in some parts of the Pingyang Marquis's residence.

No matter how audacious Huo Qubing was, he wouldn't dare to act recklessly and end up homeless.

He looked somewhat nervous, wondering how Zhang Xuezhou would manage to exchange a cartload of beans for meat at the Marquis of Pingyang's residence.

"Young Master is home! It's Lord Dongfang!"

The Pingyang Marquis's residence remained unchanged for over a decade. Marquis Cao Shou of Pingyang had not returned to Chang'an City, and the vast mansion housed only a handful of people.

Zhang Xuezhou visited the Marquis of Pingyang's residence few times, but Zhang Xuezhou was someone who served the new emperor and even slept in the same room with him.

Wei Qing and the others were on official business and did not return to the Marquis's residence. Zhang Xuezhou communicated very smoothly with Cao Bao, the steward.

Cao Bao even gave Huo Qubing, who brought his friends into his residence, considerable face.

"Come on, let's crush these beans. After crushing them, we'll cast a spell and then eat the meat!"

The tool used to grind beans is a stone mill. This tool is used to grind medicinal herbs or millet to make rice paste for making pancakes. It is not often used to grind beans.

After Zhang Xuezhou found out where Cao Bao was, he called Huo Qubing for help, and Huo Qubing had no choice but to lend a hand.

You're quite strong!

The young boys of Zhang Household Village were skilled at archery, and their strength was extraordinary, even in their teens, they had the strength of three or four hundred pounds. Zhang Xuezhou was quite out of place back then.

When Zhang Xuezhou saw Huo Qubing's lean, muscular arms turning the millstone, he felt that Huo Qubing's arms had the strength of a hundred pounds.

That kind of power is enough to take down a kid with one punch, no wonder these illegitimate children are so obedient.

"As long as you give us meat to eat, we'll grind not just a cartload of beans, we could grind ten or a hundred cartloads without a problem," Huo Qubing said, pushing the millstone. "Just don't try to fool us children!"

"Look at my face, do I look like someone who would lie to children?" Zhang Xuezhou laughed.

"That's hard to say!"

Huo Qubing replied sullenly.

So far, Huo Qubing hadn't seen any meat; he only felt that Zhang Xuezhou was likely a fraud.

If Zhang Xuezhou hadn't run to the Marquis of Pingyang's residence, and if the residence hadn't been right next to it, he would have suspected that Zhang Xuezhou would have run away after playing them for a fool.

Half believing and half doubting, Huo Qubing had no choice but to turn the millstone.

"Watch closely, if you want to build strength, you have to practice turning the millstone from time to time. I was five years old and I already had your strength. When I'm eight or nine..."

From time to time, Huo Qubing would also educate the many young children, and occasionally ask people to help him turn the millstone.

Zhang Xuezhou then collected the soybean residue, found a cloth bag, squeezed and filtered it, and followed Dong Zhongshu's instructions in everything he did.

Why didn't you soak the beans before grinding them? Soaked beans are easier to grind!

While Zhang Xuezhou was making soy milk in the kitchen, he was also met with Huo Qubing's complaints.

"I'll soak next time!"

Zhang Xuezhou waved his hand, indicating that it was fine for strong people to do more work, and that it was inevitable that he would make mistakes since this was his first time making one.

At this point, it was unclear whether the outcome would be successful or not, so Zhang Xuezhou didn't care much about efficiency.

A ladle of gypsum water was slowly poured into the boiling soy milk. Zhang Xuezhou saw the liquid become cloudy, then gradually turn into milky white, formed tender pieces.

"Wonderful! This is practically a coagulant for beans! This way of combining internal and external elixirs to create new things is ingenious!"

When gypsum water is added to soy milk, a completely new ingredient is created.

The tender white blocks can be eaten directly, or they can be put into a mold and squeezed to remove the moisture, becoming a firmer block.

Watching the large chunks of white meat solidify in the cauldron, Zhang Xuezhou ladled out a bowl and was the first to taste it.

"Tender and smooth, sweet without being bitter, the bean flavor completely masks the gypsum taste; this white meat is truly a strategic resource!"

The first attempt at making boiled pork belly was quite successful, except that not soaking the beans made it a little tiring for the kids.

In the real world, making tofu is at most adding another ingredient, but in a society where resources are scarce, this food can be a strategic asset for sustenance.

The strategic value of turning waste into food is too great; it's no wonder the King of Huainan's Household is sharpening his knives.

If you squeeze the water out of white meat to make it firm, there's no problem with people who don't know the process eating it as meat. After all, most people see vegetables as green plants, and it's hard to change their mindset overnight.

"Incredible! With a flick of his hand, the broth turned into meat!"

Zhang Xuezhou marveled at how the gypsum water was used to make soy milk, a clever combination of internal and external alchemy. Rong Tianding, who was helping Zhang Xuezhou tend the fire, was stunned for a few seconds, while Huo Qubing stared wide-eyed at the wonder before him.

Huo Qubing had heard of the Fake Technique of Turning Stone into Gold, but he had never heard of anyone turning water into meat.

He looked at the white stuff in the cauldron and thought it was all white meat.

Every tiny bit of soy milk that Zhang Xuezhou grinds is a continuous source of meat.

Huo Qubing glanced at his friends grinding beans in the distance, and realized that even if they were stuffed, they couldn't finish this cartload of beans.

"I want to take a couple of bites to taste it!"

"Enough to fill you up!"

He asked Zhang Xuezhou for a bowl of boiled pork with a pale yellow liquid. Huo Qubing blew on it several times, grimaced, and swallowed the scalding hot pork.

"I can't taste anything, give me another bowl!"

Aside from being hot and slippery, Huo Qubing couldn't taste the meat, but he did feel a bit full.

Eat as much as you want!

Zhang Xuezhou personally conducted the tests and found that the toxic side effects of white meat were so low that he could not feel them. An ordinary person could eat too much white meat and die from overeating, but it was absolutely impossible for them to die from diarrhea.

He also allowed Huo Qubing to eat it.

If we say that he is a cultivator with a body that has resistance, and that he is an adult with fully developed organs, then testing the white flesh would be prone to overgeneralization. At least the lower limit could be measured for the five-year-old Huo Qubing.

In addition to Huo Qubing at age five, there were also a bunch of six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, and ten-year-old boys spinning millstones who could be tested.