Chapter 42: Collecting Rainwater to Boil Ginger Soup

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Collecting Rainwater to Boil Ginger Soup

Ophelia scooped up a small portion with a wooden spoon, the powdery texture clearly visible. She pinched a tiny amount, rubbing it between her fingertips before placing it in her mouth to savor the taste. Tasting the faint sweetness, Ophelia’s face lit up with a brilliant smile, looking just like a flower blooming in the warm sun.

"It’s a success!" Ophelia exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

Ali, who had been sitting to the side waiting, was starting to doze off. Upon hearing Ophelia’s exclamation, it was as if a bubble had suddenly POPPED right at the tip of her nose. She instantly jolted awake and bounded over to Ophelia’s side. Because the stone pot was placed a bit high, she had to stand on her tiptoes to get a clear look inside. Her upper body was practically sprawled over the stove as she craned her neck to peer into the pot.

"Wow, it smells so good. I want to eat it." Saying this, Ali reached her hand straight into the pot. The moment her finger touched the brown sugar, she immediately yanked it back.

"Ah, it’s so hot! It hurts so much," Ali wailed, pulling a long face as she blew on her scalded, reddened index finger.

Ophelia hurriedly pulled Ali into her arms to inspect her finger. Discovering it wasn’t a serious burn, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Be careful. It hasn’t completely cooled down yet. How could you just stick your hand right in?" Ophelia tapped her little nose and said helplessly.

She took Ali’s hand and placed it into a nearby basin of cold water to chill it. Only then did the burning sensation on her fingertip slightly subside.

"Hehe, I was just too impatient." Ali turned her head and glared at her brother. "It’s all Klein’s fault for not reminding me! Hmph."

Hearing Ali’s yelp, Klein hastily got up as well, only to be glared at the moment he walked over.

"You were the one who was too impatient, and now you’re blaming me?" Klein raised an eyebrow, laughing out of exasperation.

Ali took her hand out of the cold water. Klein cast a glance at it, feeling reassured when he saw she was fine.

"Little glutton."

Ali scoffed coldly. She looked at her finger; her fair fingertip was stained with a bit of brown sugar, and she gave it a light lick. The reddish-brown powder entered her mouth, quickly melting upon contact with her saliva. A faint sweetness spread out. It was so sweet, so delicious.

Ali’s eyes were bright and shiny as she looked at Ophelia, having completely thrown the burn incident to the back of her mind. "Ophelia, this sugar is as sweet as sugarcane. It’s so delicious."

Klein looked at his sister’s hopeless behavior. He owned the second-largest Crystal Stone Mine on the Starfall Continent, and he had never let her lack food or drink since she was little. So how did he still end up raising such a gluttonous sister? He sighed. She was his sister; what could he do? He couldn’t exactly stuff her back where she came from, so he could only continue to spoil her.

"Ophelia, this sugar is soft and melts right in the mouth," Ali continued. "If sugarcane can be made into sugar like this, what about other fruits? Can they be made into sugar too?"

"They probably can, but we won’t know until we try." Ophelia didn’t dare to make any guarantees. After all, she only knew how to make brown sugar from scrolling through videos in her previous life. Without a phone now, she had no way to look up information. All she could do was figure it out through trial and error.

"Yay! Then I’m going to try it when I get back. I want to make sugar just like you, Ophelia." Ali clapped her hands in excitement. Squeezing the juice out of the sugarcane, boiling it, and stirring it seemed like a very simple way to make sugar. These were all things she had never come into contact with before. Everything felt incredibly magical, and she couldn’t wait to try it out herself.

"No!" Before Ophelia even had a chance to speak, Klein coldly stopped her.

"Why not?" Ali pouted in dissatisfaction, looking up at her brother.

"This is the method Ophelia came up with. You can’t just steal it, let alone secretly copy it!" In truth, there was another reason he disagreed. Ali was careless and sloppy in her actions, making her completely unsuitable for managing a fire or handling knives. Today was just a minor burn, but if she got seriously injured in the future, wouldn’t that be terrible?

"I... I didn’t think that far ahead," Ali said, hanging her head in dejection. She apologized softly, "I’m sorry, Ophelia. I shouldn’t have..."

Although she had been raised by Klein to be a bit spoiled and arrogant, she was actually a very reasonable little female. Knowing she was in the wrong, she didn’t try to deny it; instead, she openly admitted her mistake and sincerely apologized.

"It’s alright, it’s alright. Making sugar is a massive project. I can’t handle it all by myself, so if you’re willing, you can come over and help me often." She did a rough estimation in her mind. Today, she had brought out about twenty pounds of sugarcane, but she only managed to boil down around two pounds of brown sugar. However, they were currently in the middle of a torrential rainy season, and there was no telling when the rain would stop.

As long as the rain continued to fall, she would need to continuously make brown sugar to mix into the ginger soup for everyone to drink. But she didn’t just have to make brown sugar; she also had to boil ginger soup and peppercorn water. Now that she had already taught Grayson how to make the peppercorn water, the ginger soup and brown sugar were still huge undertakings. Having Ali’s help was perfect.

"Okay, then I’ll come over every day to help you make sugar."

Ophelia then returned to the stone house and brought out a large Beast Skin Bag filled with raw ginger. "Laxus, today’s ginger soup hasn’t been boiled yet. Find a few males to do it."

She had spent the entire day making sugar, and her body was truly exhausted. Furthermore, knowing that offering a little help breeds gratitude but offering too much breeds resentment, she couldn’t let these tribe members grow accustomed to her constant giving, only for her assistance to eventually turn into enmity.

"From now on, I’ll provide the ginger, and you can have the tribe members take turns boiling the soup," she added.

"Alright. Ginger soup isn’t hard to boil, and they have nothing better to do anyway. Just leave it to them and rest assured," Laxus said, calling over a large group of males to the kitchen to boil the ginger sugar soup.

The males arrived very quickly. Because water sources were precious right now, using water to wash the ginger was far too luxurious. They could only scrape off the ginger skin to conserve water. After scraping the skin completely clean, they used knives to slice the ginger piece by piece, placed the slices into the pots, added fresh water, and set them over the fire to boil.

In the Beast World, the young females had fragile constitutions. Unlike the males who built robust physiques through daily hunting, they could easily fall ill if they weren’t careful. To keep them from getting sick, Ophelia had decided to have the young females drink ginger soup every day to prevent colds and fevers.

Seeing the males gradually become proficient at the task, Ophelia stopped supervising them. Having busied herself in the kitchen for so long, she had already broken a sweat. Now, she needed to go back and get some proper rest.

But just as she stepped out of the kitchen door, she saw a few males with their heads huddled together, holding several carved stone basins in their hands.

Ophelia furrowed her brows. "What are you doing?"

The males were startled. Their hands trembled, spilling more than half of the rainwater they had just collected in their brimming basins.

"We’re catching rainwater to boil the ginger soup," the lead male said dismissively.

"The ginger soup is for the females to drink! How can you use such filthy water to boil it?" Ophelia said, getting a little angry.

"Well, it’s too troublesome to go scoop water from the pottery vats every time," he grumbled. "It’s easy for you, a little female. All you have to do is move your mouth, but we’re the ones who have to do all the hard work in the end."

Tyler had heard the entire exchange from not far away. He slowly approached, and although he didn’t utter a word, the air pressure around him plummeted. The surrounding atmosphere turned deadly serious, and the males felt a bone-chilling cold wash over them.