Chapter 39 Thirty-nine Unlocking Soybeans

In the early morning, heavy snow fell.

The butler pushed open the door and looked at the heavy snow that was like white mist in the sky. He calmly loaded the whole bear skin and the bear paws packed in a box onto the carriage.

Compared to the thick snow at the beginning, the snow now is much lighter, but it is much colder than usual.

Olivia also discovered this problem after getting up early in the morning. She quickly put on thick clothes and planned not to go out all day.

Fortunately, the house was renovated a month ago and there are not many leaks.

This morning the brave recruits who had done well in the bear hunt were each given a piece of mail.

They still use spears now. Olivia has instructed George to send bows to them after they can use spears to hunt.

With Caesar training her soldiers, Olivia was not worried that these people would not be able to learn the skills.

Once their skills are fully developed outside, they can be used to guard the manor.

Olivia sat by the fireplace, pressed her ring, and received experience points.

Although the "Severe Cold Weather" mission still had a few days to complete, after accumulating +1 experience point every day for most of December, she had managed to accumulate 100 experience points.

Today is the day to unlock the mysterious seeds.

Olivia suppressed her joy, raised her hand, picked up the cup and took a sip of hot milk.

She made many wishes in her heart, such as for high-yield things like potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and pumpkins, and prayed for a long time for a miracle to happen.

Finally, she clicked on the mysterious seed icon that had lit up next to the 100 experience points.

Congratulations on unlocking the 100 experience point mysterious seed: Soybean.

oh?

Suddenly, Olivia began to fall into thought.

The yield of soybeans is several hundred kilograms per mu, which is a big difference compared to the staple foods mentioned above that have a yield of several thousand kilograms per mu. However, it is not as bad as she imagined.

At least, soybeans have many functions and are suitable for cultivation in her northern region.

The roots can improve soil fertility and can also be used to extract soybean oil.

Vegetable oils can fetch high prices in this area. Just look at the expensive olive oil, which is worth a silver coin per ounce.

The soybean meal after oil extraction can also be used to feed horses, chickens, cattle, sheep and other livestock.

As for soybeans themselves, they can be ground into tofu, bean curd sheets, dried tofu, bean curd, soybean paste... and so many other foods that she is familiar with, as well as soybean flour-based pasta.

After analyzing the functions, Olivia felt that this was an economic crop with very powerful functions!

She inspected the reward collection location with satisfaction, which was an ordinary seed store in the town.

Very good, tomorrow she will go to the town in person and bring this excellent crop home!

When spring plowing comes, we will arrange the most fertile land for planting.

Intercropping soybeans and wheat at different times seems to prevent many diseases and pests and provide fertility for wheat.

She refreshed the experience bar, and the next mystery item with a 500 experience level appeared.

The good news is that it’s still a seed, but she doesn’t know what kind of seed it is.

Five hundred experience points. It would take a year and a half just to sign in daily to accumulate them. If you do tasks that only give a dozen or so experience points each time, you would have to do dozens of tasks.

Olivia immediately shook her head, thinking that five hundred was an astronomical figure.

However, we can't be too decisive.

She is about to unlock a new game feature, "Dungeon Mission"

After this dungeon mission is unlocked, there will be more missions waiting to be done, and experience points can definitely be unlocked.

At worst, she could just tackle both the "main quest" and the "copy quest" simultaneously and spend 49 days on it.

Thinking of this, Olivia continued to eat a breakfast full of meat, eggs and milk with full energy.

However, before he finished the milk in the cup, Ethan ran in from outside and entered the restaurant.

"Madam, there are guests at the manor."

Olivia turned her head and looked at him: "Who is it?"

Olivia thought the person who came was her aunt or Letilan, who had been out looking for a craftsman for several days.

Ethan shook his head. "It's the Baudel family's carriage."

Oh? The name "Bodol" sounded familiar to her. It seemed to be in the same area as the Knight Real's fiefdom, southwest of Lavossen, east and west of her, quite a distance away.

It should take more than an hour to get here by car, right?

They arrived so early. Could it be that they set out before daybreak? Are they here to buy bear meat? News spreads so fast.

"Pour some hot milk..."

Olivia said this before she stood up and went to the door to greet them. At the same time, Adam had just opened the wooden fence by the low wall of the manor and let the Baudelaire family's carriage in.

At the same time, she opened the map and zoomed in on the white footprints. There were only two people, the wife of Knight Podor and her maid, both of whom were ordinary people with no talent.

She walked under the eaves, and the carriage slowly passed through the orchard and came to the front.

The wheels crushed the snow, and after it stopped, a maid stepped out and helped a middle-aged woman in an indigo woolen robe get out of the car.

Olivia raised a polite yet courteous smile and greeted the other party.

"Come in and sit down, Mrs. Bordall. Are you here to buy bear meat? Just send a housekeeper. It's snowing so heavily outside..."

Mrs. Bordall smiled apologetically and followed her into the house.

"I'm not here to buy bear meat." Mrs. Bordall looked at her maid and asked her to take the things out of the car.

Mrs. Bordall looked around at the door, then followed Olivia to the fireplace in the dining room and sat down.

Facing Olivia’s puzzled look, he said, “I’m here to ask for your help.”

Ethan brought hot milk and handed it to Mrs. Bordall.

"Help? How can I help you?"

Olivia was a little curious. She remembered that this lady's territory had few mountains, the land was flat, and there were abundant water sources. It was a major grain producer in Lavosen.

Madame de Bordeaux smiled but said nothing. She waited until her maid brought a large wooden box down from the carriage and brought it to the table before she spoke.

"I just heard that the Baroness has decided to build a monastery outside the city."

She pushed the wooden box over, opened the lid under Olivia's puzzled gaze, and pushed the box forward on the table.

The box had six compartments, filled with pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaves, aniseed, and a whole bottle of vanilla pods.

The first five spices, in the present market of La Vossen, were worth the same weight in silver.

Olivia raised her eyebrows, surprised that Mrs. Baudelaire learned the news so late.

I was also surprised that she could easily take out these expensive spices.

"This is?"

Mrs. Baudel pursed her lips, and with an air of chagrin, she made her intention known.

“This is actually what happened.”

She confided to Olivia the reason why she came to her house with such a valuable item.

The thing is, half a year ago, the Podor Manor had 20,000 pounds of wheat to sell to a big grain merchant in the town.

Because of the poor harvest the previous autumn, food was in short supply, so they agreed on a price of three souris per pound of whole-grain wheat, which meant that twenty thousand pounds was worth sixty gold coins.

This is the largest single income of the Baudelaire family in the whole year.

However, three days before the delivery, Knight Podor broke the contract and sold the wheat to a merchant who offered a higher price, earning a few more gold coins.

The big businessman who was originally going to purchase the wheat was immediately unhappy and went to the Merchant Guild of Lavosen to sue Knight Podor, saying that he did not give a week's notice in advance and violated the trading rules set by the Baroness for the guild.

The grain merchant opened three grain shelling workshops in the town, handling hundreds of thousands of pounds of grain every year and becoming very wealthy.

The Baroness wanted to punish Knight Podor by making him pay a few gold coins to the grain merchant, considering that he was a major taxpayer and in order to maintain the order of the guild.

However, the businessman refused and demanded double the compensation.

But Knight Podor was also an impulsive and hot-tempered man. He thought that this merchant was crazy. He actually dared to blackmail him, a knight, just because his business was big. He simply couldn't tell the difference between a big king and a small prince.

So, Knight Podor asked someone to follow the merchant and soon found out that he had more than one wife in the town.

Not only did he go to the bishop to expose the merchant, he also found some "witnesses" and gave the bishop a few gold coins.

Adultery in marriage violates the eight deadly sins in doctrine.

With the bishop's strong support, the merchant was sentenced to three years of corvée by the sheriff.

This was because the Baroness wanted to show mercy to him because of his business. An ordinary person would have been hanged.

After the corvée labor, the compensation was left unresolved.

But what was unexpected was that the businessman died after only working in the lime kiln in Zhi Territory for half a month.

This was something Knight Podor had not expected. He just wanted to make this man suffer a little, but he did not expect that this businessman had such a miserable life.

After the merchant died, his property was divided up among his wives and children, and Lavosen suddenly lost a major grain buyer.

The Baroness immediately disliked the Baudelaire family.

But a knight is a knight after all, and the baron cannot do anything to the knights under his leadership just because of the death of a merchant.

What if the knights in the territory felt that he was biased towards the merchants who could make money and did not care about them, his vassals, and the knights did not agree with him?

The baron really couldn't sleep well, so he did nothing.

However, from then on, the Baroness never invited Mrs. Baudelaire to the Baron's mansion to join in the entertainment again.

I don't want to do anything good for them.

This is called intentional neglect.

The Knight of Podor didn't care, but Mrs. Podor couldn't stand it. She still wanted to stay in this circle, help the Baroness with things, and make money to supplement the family income.

Other families had heard about the establishment of the monastery and started to spread the word, but she only just found out that the matter was settled.

Mrs. Bordall could no longer sit still.

She thought about it and realized that Olivia was the most popular person among the Baroness recently.

She was also there on the Baroness's birthday that day. It seemed that both Mrs. Held and the Baroness liked her, and Caesar also had a lot of face in front of the Baron.

According to what her subordinates had learned, the Baroness had assigned Olivia a job.

Mrs. Bordall felt that Olivia must be a smart person.

Besides, she was young and easier to talk to than the ladies she knew.

So, Mrs. Baudelaire came to Olivia with a generous gift, hoping that she could help speak for her or teach her some ways to please the Baroness.

"You said that the grain sale incident can't be blamed entirely on our family. The Baroness asked for the fine in gold coins, and we agreed to it. It was the other party who refused and wanted to double it, so my husband asked someone to investigate him.

It is also his own fault for not investigating and blaspheming God. He deserved the sentence he received. He died when he was trying to atone for his sins, which means that God did not allow him to atone for his sins. How can we be blamed for this?

My family pays twenty-five gold coins every year, rain or shine, and my husband goes out on patrol every day, never slacking off. How could he be so obsessed with such a small matter? He's just a businessman..."

Olivia nodded, thinking about how to respond.

It is obvious that neither the Podor family nor the grain merchants are kind people.

First of all, she felt that it was not impossible for her to help the Bodor family, but she could not do it herself.

Olivia looked at the box of spices. There were about twenty vanilla pods in the glass bottle alone.

The whole box of spices is worth ten gold coins. She spent a lot of money on it and her heart is really sincere.

"Mrs. Baudelaire, this is indeed bad luck for you."

She continued, "Those who violate the doctrine and blaspheme God will die, and besides..."

Olivia picked up the milk and took a sip.

Mrs. Baudel asked nervously, "What else?"

“Even though the Baroness is angry with you, it’s been so long.

Madam, you might as well take these things and go to the Baroness in person and ask her to apologize.

Maybe the Baroness will give you a way out?"

Olivia looked at her and said lightly.

Mrs. Bordeau looked embarrassed and said:

"You don't know, the Baroness is not easy to see. The people around her always curry favor with the powerful. Seeing that the Baroness ignored me, they pushed me aside. If I want to see the Baroness and apologize, I have to take care of them all..."

Olivia thought about it and saw that Mrs. Baudel had her own ideas, so she asked:

"Then how can I help you?"

Mrs. Baudelaire didn't waste any words with her and said directly: "The Baroness seems to like the desserts you make very much. I have inquired about it. The cook in the Baron's mansion follows the recipe every day. I also want to learn this from you.

Although I can't see the person, I asked my family member to deliver the things when he reports to the border, and no one can stop him.

I personally made her favorite dessert and sent it to her. If it doesn't work once, I'll try it twice. She can always see my attitude, right? "

Olivia listened and nodded.

As expected, he came to see the Baroness specifically to catch her preferences.

"So that's why. That's easy to explain."

Olivia didn't intend to use these skills to open a dessert shop to make money, nor did she intend to use them as exclusive skills.

Rather than using them to make money, it would be more practical if these recipes could help her become friends with a major grain producer.

As for money, there are many ways to make it if you have territory, but it is difficult to build connections, especially for something like this.

Olivia figured it out and immediately nodded and agreed to her.

“Well, I see it’s not easy for you, except for the few desserts that the Baroness likes.

I'll teach you how to make something the Baroness might like, and when you meet her, how about going to the Baroness's mansion and making it for her yourself?"

Since you want to express your apology, just do it a little differently.

Mrs. Baudelaire was overjoyed and nodded: "Okay, okay, then I really have to thank you!"

So Olivia took Mrs. Bordello and her maid to the kitchen.

It took her a whole morning to teach Madame de Bordeaux's servants how to make the Baroness's favorite dessert and had them try to replicate it.

After the replica passed the test, Olivia guessed the Baroness's taste and taught her how to make dumplings, noodles, and buns, the three musketeers of breakfast.

Mrs. Bordall thought it was wonderful; she had never seen such things before, and asked Olivia in surprise why there were so many.

"Don't say I taught you these things. Just say you researched them on your own to help the Baroness eat more."

After hearing this, Mrs. Baudelaire felt that Olivia was a very good person who actually cared so much about her.

"Okay, I'll do as you say!"

Mrs. Bordall stayed with Olivia until after lunch when she was ready to go home. Before leaving, she bought two gold coins worth of bear meat and bones.

Olivia kept smiling and sent her away. Then she stretched herself tiredly and rubbed her face which was almost stiff from smiling.

Mrs. Baudelaire is straightforward and talkative. It takes a lot of effort to earn a box of spices from her.

Olivia shook her head and asked Lucy to take the box of spices to the kitchen and lock it up.

However, she didn't have much time to relax. As soon as she sat down in front of the fireplace, the butler came back.

The butler came back with the money from selling the bearskin and went straight to Olivia to give the account. He didn't dare to run around for fear of losing it.

That bear skin was sold for six gold coins.

Olivia counted the money, and then the butler told him to deliver the bear paw to the baron.

The housekeeper thought about what happened in the morning, and now he was still confused:

“I went to the baron’s house and said I was there to deliver bear paws, and I happened to run into the sheriff who was also there to see the baron.

So the sheriff brought me before the baron and told me to answer him in person.

The Baron took one look at the bear paw and was very pleased. He sent it to the kitchen for more food and asked the sheriff to have lunch with him. He also gave me two silver coins as a reward.

Olivia couldn't help but laugh at the old housekeeper's rare look of innocence.

The butler scratched his head a little embarrassedly: "I have lived for decades, and this is the first time I have met the Baron."

In the past, when he went to the Baron's Mansion or the Sheriff to deliver things, no noble person ever came to see him.

They would just stand outside the door and wait for a few hours, letting their subordinates take their time to report back, and then they would just hand the things over to them.

When he went there today, the sheriff told the gatekeeper that next time he came, he should be taken directly to the baron.

"So, you don't have to wait at the gate when you deliver something in the future. Isn't that good?"

The butler also found out about this the first day. It turned out that he went directly to see the baron and it only took a short while to deliver something.

Olivia thought that if the master was well-treated, the servants would be well-treated as well.

In the afternoon, she went upstairs feeling relieved and put all the gold coins she had received today into her purse, counted the number, and locked the small treasury.

She didn't have much money to begin with, but she made a fortune on a trip to the Baron's mansion, earning more than twenty gold coins. She spent a few on buying equipment for the soldiers, and still had a dozen left.

Unexpectedly, this highly complete bear skin made the money back.

As for gold coins, no matter who you are, touching them will make you feel better.

In the evening, Olivia went to the kitchen, rolled up her sleeves, and planned to use these spices to make a pot of all-purpose brine that could be used all winter.

She searched around and found some skinned and salted grouse and hare in the kitchen. She also asked Ethan for a salmon he had just caught. She also found the sausages made by the cook and threw them into the pot along with the boiled and peeled eggs.

The scene made the cook and Lucy so frightened that they couldn't even breathe, and they wondered if the lady had made a mistake.

As a result, after skimming off the foam, Olivia added a little bit of each of the spices on hand, such as pepper, cinnamon, bay leaves, aniseed, nutmeg, etc.

After the soup boiled, Olivia poured kumquat wine into the pot, using it as white wine and tangerine peel, and added salt, sugar, and a little red wine to enhance the color.

If there is a good soybean harvest in the future, she can add soy sauce to it.

The cook and Lucy smelled the fragrance that filled the house and immediately understood what the lady did.

She boiled the pot of meat for a while, then let it cool for a while. Before dinner, Olivia took out the two grouse, two rabbits, eggs, sausages and other things.

She leaned in to smell it and almost fell over because of the fragrance.

This is not much different from the braised food I ate in my previous life!

Olivia divided the dinner into enough portions for herself, Caesar, and Fanon, and gave another plate to the cook, instructing her to preserve the gravy.

Although there is no way to preserve it for as long as the century-old brines in my previous life, it can be frozen in the cold winter and can be stored for a week or two without any problem.

"Wait until the soup is completely cold, then carefully scoop out all the meat scraps, put them into a jar without leaving a single drop, and lock it in a cupboard. Don't let anyone touch it."

The cook looked at the lady's serious expression and answered firmly as if she had been entrusted with an important task: "Don't worry, madam! I will definitely do it according to your request!"

After Olivia asked Lucy to bring the braised meat into the restaurant, Caesar and his men returned with a dozen soldiers after handing over their shift.

Olivia could hear the ear-piercing noise outside even though she was in the kitchen.

She walked out the door angrily and took a look.

These soldiers, all wearing new chain mail, walked over with bows and spears in one hand and prey in the other.

Olivia's anger subsided as soon as she saw it.

These soldiers carried two wild boars. It seemed that they were going to continue searching the wild boar den today.

Among them, there was a new recruit who was holding a cold piglet in his hand. He was so happy that he didn't want anyone to help him.

Seeing his wife in the backyard, his eyes lit up and he ran over to report.

"Madam! This is the prey I killed with a spear. I am the only one who killed prey with a spear today. Can I have a bow now?"

The soldier knew that the military supplies were managed by his wife, so the best way was to act coquettishly towards her.

Olivia nodded and said to George, who was leading the horse behind him:

"Well, George, go to the warehouse tomorrow morning and get him a bow."

George nodded and asked the soldiers to put down the prey and help build a rack to slaughter the wild boar.

The two wild boars drained two basins of blood and cut up a pile of meat.

Each soldier was given some offal, lard, and a thick piece of pork belly.

Olivia asked the cook to take the rest into the kitchen to pickle.

She asked the cook to clean the pig ears, pig tails, and pig tongues first, and then took out the freshly prepared marinade and couldn't wait to cook these things in a pot.

Olivia didn't even care about the braised rabbit head, and waited until the braised pig ears were served on the table before announcing the start of dinner.

Poor Caesar and Fanon waited in the restaurant until their stomachs growled before they dared to pick up their forks and take a bite of the spiced braised meat.

With so many spices, it’s hard to imagine it being unpalatable, especially since Olivia even rolled out noodles to go with it.

She slurped the noodles covered in marinade, took a bite of half a braised egg, and paired it with crispy pig ears and grouse.

It is considered that the whole person is unfolded.

Caesar and Fanon also kept silent and buried their heads in eating, refusing to waste a single bit, and even removed all the chicken bones and rabbit heads.

Especially Fanon. Tomorrow is another day of fasting. He seems to want to eat all the meat he doesn't eat during that period in one meal. It's heartbreaking to watch.

However, Olivia thought that when she went to buy some soybeans tomorrow, Fanon's vegetarian recipes would probably be expanded a lot.

…