Chapter 288: In the Red

Chapter 288: Chapter 288: In the Red

With all the various household chores finished, Widow Xie and the siblings from the main branch officially returned to work.

During the days they had spent harvesting and drying sweet potatoes, Ji Huan had already finished drying all the necessary spices. She then sorted them by type and piled them in the two side rooms on the left of the rear courtyard.

In addition, she had hired someone to build three earthen stoves in the first of the side rooms on the right. They were outfitted with three large iron woks, along with ladles, spatulas, wooden basins, and tools like grinding troughs, stone pestles, and stone mortars.

The items might have seemed small and insignificant, but they had cost her nearly four taels.

Adding on the wages paid out at the beginning of the ninth month, Ji Huan’s personal savings were now just over fifteen taels. As for the fifty taels from the Golden Partner franchise fee, that was the workshop’s startup and reserve capital, which she didn’t plan to touch for the time being.

So, Ji Huan had recently started working overtime again, copying books.

She had originally planned to have the drifter help her copy, letting him work off his debt. ’He probably wouldn’t refuse,’ she’d thought.

But she had been too optimistic. Although his right hand could move normally, it wasn’t yet fully nimble. Even if he could hold chopsticks, holding a brush was a different matter entirely.

Ji Huan had him try writing. It took him nearly a quarter of an hour to barely manage a single line, a thin sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead. It was easy to imagine how much effort it took.

The result wasn’t satisfactory, either. The characters were stiff, and the strokes were unevenly weighted. In Ji Huan’s eyes, it would never pass muster with Boss Fang.

The drifter himself was clearly not satisfied, yet he insisted that Ji Huan leave the sample book, ink, and paper with him.

Ji Huan refused.

"Look, do you have any idea that I’m practically running a deficit right now? If I don’t find a way to make money, Dabao and I will be living on air before long, and you’ll be right there with us eating dirt. The problem isn’t just about increasing income, but also cutting expenses. The most important part of cutting expenses is not being wasteful, especially with precious things like paper and ink. I appreciate your desire to help, I really do, but please don’t cause more trouble for me. We can talk about this again when your hand has fully healed."

However, no matter how earnestly Ji Huan tried to persuade him, the drifter had only one response: "I won’t waste anything, and you won’t be living on air."

Empty words couldn’t convince Ji Huan.

"You say you won’t, and that’s that? You think your words are law or something?"

With that, she reached over to pull the book away, but the drifter placed his hand on it and wouldn’t let go.

They were close, almost face to face.

One was as immovable as a mountain; the other could only glare in frustration.

In the end, it was Ji Huan who gave up first.

Ji Huan left, fuming. Afterward, every time she went back to deliver his meals, she would pointedly check on the supplies, only to find them untouched.

The drifter had simply intensified his wrist exercises.

One day, when she went to the earthen hut, Ding ran into the yard to play where new grass was sprouting. Ji Huan happened to notice crisscrossing marks on the ground. It had rained lightly during the night, so the earth was soft, making the marks very clear.

Only then did Ji Huan realize that the drifter had been practicing his calligraphy in addition to his regular exercises. He used a branch for a brush and the ground for paper, not wasting a single penny of her money.

A wave of guilt washed over her.

’It was just some ink and paper, after all. So what if the drifter used them or even wasted them? Wanting to get better, striving to improve—that was never a bad thing.’

After that, Ji Huan never mentioned the matter again.

She had plenty to keep her busy during the day—drying and collecting spices, and finding time to help out on the other two families’ plots of land. As a result, she didn’t have much time for copying books and could only do a little at night by lamplight.

Even so, by the middle of the ninth month, she had finished copying two books.

There was still no progress on the drifter’s book, but Ji Huan didn’t press him.

"Wan, what’s all this... it looks just like a kitchen?"

Staring at the side room where the stoves had been built, Ji Xuelan was confused. She had assumed that after the spices were dried, they only needed to be ground in a trough or pounded in a mortar.

But Ji Mingfang said, "It must be more complicated than that. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been sorted so meticulously."

Ji Huan praised him, "Exactly. This third stage, the processing, is the most demanding part—"

There are nearly a hundred types of spices, and from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, each one has its own unique properties.

Their natures and flavors differ, as do their effects. Therefore, they cannot be used arbitrarily and must often be processed first. It’s similar to the processing methods used in traditional medicine; spices follow the same principles.

Unprocessed spices, regardless of their quality, are considered "raw." If used directly, they might not be effective at all.

Only by treating them according to their specific characteristics can their full effects be drawn out and any potential toxic side effects be eliminated.

"There are many traditional methods for processing spices. The most common ones are trimming, steaming, boiling, stir-frying, dry-frying, roasting, baking, and levigation.

Trimming is done to purify the spices or to cut and grind them. This is the most common processing method. It involves sorting, picking, rubbing, scraping, sifting, cutting, pounding, grinding, and filing to remove impurities, excess moisture, spoiled parts, and other non-medicinal components, ensuring they meet the required size specifications.

Steaming, as the name implies, uses steam or indirect heat over water to treat the spice material. This method can cook the raw material and also help separate its components. The heat and number of steaming cycles must be controlled precisely.

The main purpose of boiling is to adjust the spice’s properties and remove unpleasant odors.

Stir-frying is even easier to understand. You can either dry-fry them or fry them with other ingredients until they turn yellow, or until they’re scorched, and so on...

As for levigation, that involves grinding the pulverized spice material with water, then letting the resulting slurry settle. The sediment is then dried and finely ground for use. This method prevents the loss of powder during grinding and also separates the water-soluble components, making the spice finer."

The morning was spent mostly on Ji Huan’s explanations.

Widow Xie and Ji Xuelan were left feeling dizzy and overwhelmed. Even Ji Mingfang struggled to remember everything.

Ji Huan knew this wasn’t something they could master in a short time. So, she first went over the theoretical knowledge with them, then gave them a personal demonstration in the afternoon, and only then did she let them try it themselves.

At first, no one was willing. They felt the materials were too precious and were afraid of ruining them.

It was only after Ji Huan repeatedly emphasized that the ingredients selected for practice were defective ones that the three of them cautiously gave it a try.

Connecting theory with practice has always been the surest way to master knowledge and skills.

In less than two days, they had learned most of the basic processing methods. They were only a bit clumsy when it came to some of the particularly difficult ones.

But they couldn’t be blamed. Anyone would need time.

Widow Xie and the two siblings thought that once they learned all this, they had cleared the biggest hurdle.

As it turned out, they were still too naive.

"Spices themselves all carry some degree of strange odors and bitterness. To prevent the spice’s own flavor from affecting the dish, they must be pre-treated before use—"

Since different types of spices have different base flavors and their aromatic compounds have different solubility characteristics, the corresponding treatment methods also vary greatly.

Specifically, they are divided into two categories: "aromatic processing" and "bitter-aromatic processing."

And regardless of the type, soaking is the primary method of treatment.

"Aromatic spices have fewer strange odors and less bitterness, so soaking them in clean water can remove most of the unwanted flavors. However, the water temperature and soaking time vary for different spices."