Chapter 8: Making Tanghulu

Through her conversation with her father, So Yeonhui learned quite a few things.

For example, she discovered that Ju Hajin had an extremely poor relationship with the Crown Prince, the son of the Empress. She also learned that Cheongyang County fortunately wasn't under the influence of Noble Consort Yeon or the Chancellor's faction.

On the other hand, she also found out that the region suffered frequent natural disasters, making life difficult for ordinary people.

"There's no better place to build achievements and earn merit."

If disasters were common here, then simply succeeding at relief efforts would be enough for her accomplishments to reach the imperial court.

"And even if that doesn't happen, helping the local officials and building good relationships could let me quietly develop influence."

The capital region might be firmly controlled by the Yeon family through the Noble Consort, but the frontier was different.

However, before any of that, she needed to accumulate enough wealth to support many people.

Which meant there was now one more reason her tanghulu business absolutely had to succeed.

As soon as her parents left early in the morning to continue clearing farmland, Yeonhui secretly woke her siblings and gathered them in the kitchen.

Then she handed each of them a bamboo straw made from finger-thick bamboo.

"What are these for?"

"To remove the seeds from the hawthorn berries. The seeds are toxic, so eating them by mistake can be dangerous."

Medicinal hawthorn was usually dried and brewed, so people simply split the fruit in half and sold it.

But she couldn't prepare tanghulu that way.

"I'll show you how to remove the seeds."

Picking up a freshly washed hawthorn berry that gleamed bright red, she demonstrated.

Placing the bamboo straw against the center of the fruit, she gently twisted and pushed.

Crunch.

The flesh split neatly.

"Now do the same thing from the other side."

Turning the fruit over, she repeated the process from the opposite end before pushing a little harder.

The seed popped out along with a tiny bit of flesh.

"See? Easy, right?"

The children stared at the berry, now perfectly hollowed through the middle, and gasped.

"That's not hard at all!"

"Yeah! We could use this trick to remove jujube pits later too."

As expected, her younger brother's mind worked especially fast whenever food was involved.

Yeonhui smiled.

The three of them worked diligently, and before long they had processed all the hawthorn berries.

Especially the youngest, Yeonu, whose hands were surprisingly nimble.

"You're really good at this, especially for your first time. I guess you inherited Father's dexterity."

"Huh? Father is good with his hands too?"

"Of course. He made all the chopsticks and ladles we use. These skewers were made by him too."

As she spoke, Yeonhui threaded the hawthorn berries one by one onto the skewers she and her father had prepared.

Immediately, her sister exclaimed in admiration.

"Wow, they're pretty! They look like strings of beads!"

"They do. But they'll look even prettier once they're coated in sugar."

After all, attractive food sold well.

A snack as visually appealing as tanghulu was bound to be popular.

There was, however, one problem.

How exactly was she supposed to explain sugar to her siblings?

"They know malt syrup, so the concept itself won't be difficult. But if they ask where I got something this valuable..."

She looked at her younger siblings.

Despite her vague and reckless plan, they were faithfully following her lead, threading berries onto skewers with determined expressions.

"Alright. Trust should be repaid with trust."

After a brief moment of thought, she set down the skewer in her hand.

Then she addressed the two siblings, who were busy making hawthorn skewers.

"Guys, I actually have something to confess."

The sudden seriousness made the children blink in confusion.

Taking advantage of their defenseless state, Yeonhui launched her surprise confession.

"Starting yesterday, I suddenly gained a mysterious power. It's a gift from Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva."

Did Sister eat another poisonous mushroom?

She had seemed perfectly normal all morning.

Yeonsu and Yeonu frowned skeptically.

"What kind of power?"

Yeonsu asked cautiously.

Yeonhui swallowed nervously and quietly opened Jijang Mall.

The floating window remained invisible to the children, but she continued speaking.

"Remember the dream I told you about? The world in that dream was very different from this one."

"Yeah."

"My power lets me earn merit by doing good deeds, and use that merit to buy things from the world I saw in my dream."

As she spoke, she immediately purchased a bag of sugar.

A cardboard box instantly appeared out of thin air and dropped onto the floor at her feet.

Thunk.

"Uh...?"

"W-What?! How did a box just appear out of nowhere?!"

The children jumped to their feet in shock.

But Yeonhui calmly opened the box and took out the bag of sugar.

"What do you think? Pretty amazing, right? This is called sugar."

Holding up the white bag before her siblings, she grinned.

The children looked ready to faint.

* * *

"W-What did you say that was?"

"Sugar."

"And... what's sugar?"

"A sweet seasoning extracted from sugarcane. Think of it as something similar to malt syrup."

As she spoke, Yeonhui poured the sugar into a pot.

Then she added half as much water and began dissolving it slowly.

"Is it snow? It melted into water!"

"Idiot. It's sugar that looks like snow, so of course it's called sugar!"

Though Yeonsu scolded his twin, his own astonishment was steadily turning into disbelief.

"Sugar. It really deserves that name."

The powder was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Pure white, finely grained crystals that sparkled as they poured.

And when dissolved in water, they became completely transparent.

"...The world you saw in your dream really had things like this everywhere?"

"More or less."

"Was it some kind of immortal realm?"

"What? Of course not."

A world where criminals like Ju Hajin prospered wasn't any heavenly paradise.

She waved dismissively.

Just then, clear bubbles began forming in the syrup.

Immediately she reduced the firewood flame and dropped a little syrup into a bowl of cold water.

"Now try taking out what's inside and taste it."

The children eagerly reached in.

The moment they popped the hardened sugar into their mouths, their eyes widened.

"Wow! It's really sweet!"

"W-What? Why is syrup crunchy?"

In this era, "sugar" generally referred to honey, rice syrup, or malt syrup.

Malt syrup was usually sticky or rock-hard unless dissolved.

Pure sugar syrup, however, hardened into a crisp shell with no stickiness.

And its sweetness was incomparable.

The siblings marveled at the unfamiliar texture and the sweetness spreading across their tongues.

"Good. Looks like it worked."

Satisfied, Yeonhui picked up a skewer of hawthorn berries.

She quickly dipped it into the syrup, rotated it lightly, and lifted it out.

"Wooow!"

As the syrup flowed evenly over the berries, the children gasped.

The ordinary red fruits were now covered in a transparent, glistening coating.

"Wow! It's so pretty!"

"It's not even finished yet."

"Still!"

Yeonhui chuckled at Yeonu's excitement and carefully laid the skewer onto a ceramic tray she had prepared.

"If the coating is even, just place it on the tray to cool. But before the syrup gets too sticky, we need to finish the rest as quickly as possible."

After that, there was no need for further discussion.

It became a battle of pure repetitive labor.

With practiced hands, Yeonhui rapidly coated skewer after skewer and lined them up neatly on the tray.

How long had they worked?

Eventually the tray was completely filled with sweet-smelling tanghulu.

About half an hour later—

"Hey! I think these are already hard!"

Yeonu exclaimed while touching one of the earlier skewers.

"Try lifting it carefully. If it comes off the tray cleanly, it's ready."

Following her instructions, Yeonu gently picked one up.

The tanghulu separated perfectly from the tray.

Its appearance was breathtaking.

"So beautiful..."

Yeonsu muttered in a daze.

Five bright fruits lined up in a row looked like precious jewels strung together.

The transparent sugar coating made the crabapple-red berries shine even more vividly.

Whenever they moved slightly, sunlight reflected off them, making them sparkle like gemstones.

"So? Do you think they'll sell?"

At Yeonhui's question, the children nodded as though entranced.