The first volume of pearl curtains rolls up the western mountain rain at dusk Chapter 48: Two childhood sweethearts and one fool
His Royal Highness Prince Yu went to the teaching canteen in person to ask the canteen chefs how to cook. Given his status, naturally no one would stop him. However, the canteen chefs were frightened and their faces became terrified.
Xiahou Zhuo was very happy. For a man like him, saying a few harsh words to his father was his last bit of pride and self-esteem, and it was also the limit of his cruelty towards his relatives.
But in fact, his disguise was not very good in front of his father.
His status brought many conveniences. Things that others could not accomplish no matter how hard they tried, the prince could easily accomplish with just a word.
For example, Xiahou Zhuo said that he wanted to see how his father cooked, but Prince Yu felt that Xiahou Zhuo was injured and would be choked by the fumes if he entered the kitchen, so he asked if he could move cooking utensils and other things to Yan Qingzhi's courtyard.
If he asked a question, no one would say no.
So everyone in the small kitchen got busy, moving pots, pans, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar into Yan Qingzhi's yard. They also set up an earthen stove in the shortest time possible, and the big iron pot was scrubbed clean.
Yan Qingzhi and Li Diudiu came back carrying the repaired wooden barrel, and were both stunned when they saw the lively scene in the courtyard.
"my type!"
Yan Qingzhi's face changed drastically, and he only breathed a sigh of relief after rushing back to the courtyard. Although there were many people, fortunately people deliberately avoided the seedlings he planted, otherwise the mess would have been trampled upon.
Yan Qingzhi breathed a long sigh of relief and looked at Xiahou Zhuo. Xiahou Zhuo smiled at him and said three words.
"You're welcome."
Yan Qing smiled, thinking that it was him who helped guard the place.
Xiahou Zhuo had an expression that said "how should I thank you?", and although he didn't say anything, his eyes expressed it clearly enough. Yan Qingzhi replied with a look that said "if you hadn't come, none of this would have happened". Xiahou Zhuo then stretched out his evil hand towards the tender seedlings beside him.
"stop!"
Yan Qingzhi looked at the seedlings and said: "As long as the seedlings survive, I am still alive. If the seedlings die, you die."
Xiahou Zhuo still stretched out his hand, but picked up a small piece of dirt from the ground, hit Yan Qingzhi with it in a very feminine posture, and said "hate" in a very feminine tone.
Yan Qingzhi shuddered...
Li Diudiu, who was standing nearby, was shocked when he saw this scene. He said to himself, "I just slept in the master's bed for one night, why is he like this?"
Everyone's eyes turned to him because of this sentence. Xiahou Zhuo and Yan Qingzhi walked towards Li Diudiu at the same time. Li Diudiu turned around and ran. At that moment, he seemed to have ascended to become a land swordsman in mythology, flying close to the ground.
Prince Yu was learning how to cook in Yan Qingzhi's small courtyard. Dean Gao had to accompany him and praise him, which was more tiring than coaxing a child.
Li Diudiu didn't like this kind of scene, so he took the opportunity to escape from the yard and went to the woods. Sure enough, he saw Gao Xining sitting on the low wall over there, shaking his long legs as usual, with one of his cheeks bulging, and no one knew what was in his mouth.
"what are you eating?"
Li Diudiu went over and asked.
Gao Xining opened his mouth and showed it to him: "Hard candy, very sweet."
She took out two pieces of candy from the extremely cute little purse hanging on her waist and handed them to Li Diudiu. Li Diudiu opened the candy wrapper and took a look. It looked black, but when he put it in his mouth, a particularly strong taste of sucrose came out.
“Sweet, huh?”
Gao Xining looked a little proud: "I made it myself."
Li Diudiu asked, "So powerful?"
"Yeah, I learned it from reading a book."
Gao Xining asked: "Do you want to learn?"
She looked towards Yan Qingzhi's courtyard and said, "The adults will probably be too busy to talk to us for a while. How about I teach you how to make hard candy?"
Li Diudiu said: "Let's catch up on our lessons first."
Gao Xining jumped down from the low wall and pulled Li Diudiu: "No, I will teach you how to make hard candy. After I teach you, you can use it to trick little girls. Believe me, little girls like candy."
Li Diudiu: “…”
Gao Xining dragged Li Diudiu back to her house without saying anything, and dug out the raw materials for her hard candy. While preparing, she said, "You have to boil it first, and then put it in a cool place. But it will be very soft at first, so you need to put a small mold in it and wait for it to harden. Brush a thin layer of oil inside the mold so that it won't stick to the mold."
Li Diudiu looked very impressive. He asked, "Did you learn all this by yourself?"
"yes."
Gao Xining raised his eyebrows: "Praise me."
Li Diudiu said: "I really put a lot of effort into eating you."
Gao Xining: “Humph!”
Li Diudiu chuckled and said, "Wait for me."
He turned and ran out, and no one knew where he went. Gao Xining squatted in the shade, watching the sugar in the mold and waiting for it to harden. Not long after, Li Diudiu ran back with a few half-dried bamboos in his hand.
"I just ran back to get it."
Li Diudiu sat down, split the bamboo with a knife, and then cut it into very thin bamboo sticks like toothpicks. His left hand was the only one that was convenient, so he worked slowly. Gao Xining didn't know what he was doing, so he also took a knife and learned to cut the bamboo like him.
After cutting dozens of bamboo sticks, Li Diudiu asked Gao Xining to clean them and then insert the small bamboo sticks into the sugar in the mold.
Li Diudiu smiled and said, "This is convenient. I can eat it while holding it."
Gao Xining didn't know what happened, because of this little thing, he actually began to admire Li Diudiu a little.
While waiting for the candy to harden, the two of them learned martial arts in the yard. Li Diudiu taught patiently and Gao Xining learned seriously. Although she was not very good at practicing, she could explain it clearly.
This is a very strange thing. She could tell the power and even disadvantages of the moves that Li Diudiu taught her after practicing them twice. This was a great inspiration to Li Diudiu. But she couldn't practice them well and her movements were awkward.
After a while, the two ran over to look at the candies and found that they had become hard. Gao Xining held up the candies with a small bamboo stick and looked at them. The candies were still the same candies, but why did they become cuter after adding a small bamboo stick?
Two people cut the oil paper into small square pieces and wrapped the candies one by one.
Gao Xining saw Li Diudiu squatting there, deep in thought. She nudged Li Diudiu's shoulder and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Li Diudiu asked: "Can this be sold for money?"
Gao Xining was stunned: "You made this for me, are you going to sell it?"
Li Diudiu said: "We can do it again."
This girl's mind is so unpredictable. When Li Diudiu said he wanted to sell those candies, she felt uncomfortable and unhappy. She thought that this was a joint effort of both of them and of course it was a gift from Li Diudiu to her, so how could she sell it?
But when it came to making new ones to sell, she felt that it didn't matter.
"It's hot and it's hard to store. What should I do?"
Gao Xining asked.
Li Diudiu thought for a moment and said, "Wrap it with oil paper and seal it. Find a bucket and a basin, put the sugar in the basin, float the basin on the bucket, and place it in a cool place. That should be enough."
The two of them worked on it, and by noon they had boiled another small pot of sugar, put it into the mold, then inserted a small bamboo stick into it, and then put it into the water, and the cooling speed became faster.
While they were busy, Xiahou Zhuo came over and called them to come over for dinner. The meal was prepared by his father himself. Although he was already seventeen or eighteen years old, he still couldn't help but feel a little bit of showing off.
"What is this you did?"
Xiahou Zhuo asked curiously.
Li Diudiu replied: "Candy."
Xiahou Zhuo thought the candy had a strange shape, so he picked one up and held it up to the sun, finding it interesting.
"We plan to sell it and see if we can make money."
Little Gao Xining's face was full of hope and pride.
Xiahou Zhuo asked, "How much do you plan to sell it for? Have you calculated the cost?"
"cost……"
Li Diudiu and Gao Xining looked at each other and had forgotten about this matter. Even Gao Xining didn't know how much the raw materials cost. These things were bought by his grandfather. Anyway, they were for her to play with. Her grandfather didn't care, so she naturally didn't care either.
Xiahou Zhuo said, "When I have nothing to do in the afternoon, I will go out with you guys to take a look and ask for clarification. Anyway, there is more than a month in a field holiday, and we can have some free time anyway, so we can just have some fun."
He looked at the candy carefully and said, "Isn't it too monotonous? There is only this one kind. Look at the candy peddlers on the street. When they open the boxes, the candies inside are colorful and beautiful, and come in various shapes. Yours is not superior."
He thought for a moment and said, “But you can sell it this way.”
He put a candy aside and said: "If this candy is sold for ten coins, then..."
He took two sugar balls, put a small bamboo stick in between and said, "This is the extra quantity. Selling it for eighteen coins or sixteen coins, people will think that they are only missing a small bamboo stick, but they are missing several coins. They are getting a bargain because bamboo sticks are not valuable."
Li Diudiu said: "It's good, but why does this shape look a little weird?"
Xiahou Zhuo was stunned. He looked down at what he had done, and then his expression became interesting.
Fortunately, Gao Xining didn’t understand.
Gao Xining was thinking about another question: "This candy must have a name, what is it called?"
Xiahou Zhuo didn't realize at all that he had become childish when he was seriously discussing things with the two little guys. He didn't even think about it and instead just joined in.
He replied: "How about calling it bamboo candy?"
Li Diudiu said: "The name is okay."
Gao Xining pointed at the two sugar balls and said, "Is this called bamboo candy?"
Li Diudiu said: "The homophony doesn't sound good."
Xiahou Zhuo said: "Then we can call it stick candy, stick candy, or it looks like a hammer, so we can call it hammer candy, hammer candy, and we can sell hammer candy when we go out..."
Gao Xining said: "Lollipop!"
Li Diudiu: “Childish!”
Xiahou Zhuo said: "It's a name for a girl, listen to her mother."
Gao Xining snorted: "You can call it whatever I say. I have the final say over my candy!"
Xiahou Zhuo said seriously: "It does sound a bit sissy. Lollipop, what a childish name... It's better to call it Hammer Candy, Iron Hammer Candy!"
Li Diudiu said: "Although you are right, just listen to her."
Xiahou Zhuo smiled and said, "You two have the final say."
He stood up and said, "Let's go eat first. You two act as if you can make a fortune selling these candies. I'm not trying to discourage you. If you sell these lollipops well, I lose. You can make a condition. As long as it's within my ability, I'll agree to it."
Gao Xining raised the corner of his mouth: "You are not allowed to regret what you said."
Xiahou Zhuo said: "Regret? There is no such thing as regret in my life, Xiahou Zhuo. What about lollipops? Hahahaha... what lollipops... hahahaha."
