Chapter 148

Qin Su was unaware that the two of them were talking at cross purposes.

She grew up in the palace and had limited contact with peers. Her closest relationship was with Ye Yan, so it was quite unusual for her to encounter a child of similar age. She did not reject Zhu Cai's enthusiasm.

However, as she chatted with Zhu Cai, she suddenly noticed something.

"You mean the icing is expensive?" Qin Su asked.

Zhu Cai said, "That's right. My father said he wanted to make sugar, and he needed something called sugarcane. But sugarcane is only found in the south, so it's rare and therefore expensive."

After saying that, he was secretly pleased with himself for using an idiom in front of his newly met, beautiful friend, and puffed out his chest, looking somewhat proud.

Qin Su was somewhat puzzled. She turned to Ye Yan and called out, "Ye Yan, come here quickly!"

Ye Yan seemed to have been waiting for her to call him, and immediately got up and came over: "What's wrong?"

“Zhu Cai said that sugar is now made from sugarcane, but sugarcane production is low, so sugar is very expensive.” Qin Su explained the whole story clearly. “But I clearly remember you telling me when we ate pastries before that sugar was made from beets.”

Ye Yan was taken aback: "Isn't sugar made from beets these days?"

Zhu Cai, sitting opposite him, exclaimed in surprise, "Beets can be made into sugar?"

Zhu Lao Er, who was tending the fire, craned his neck and asked, "What vegetables can be used to make sugar?"

When the group gathered together and had a conversation, Ye Yan realized that he had been going astray before.

Because he ate either in the palace or in the general's mansion, he never lacked sugar in his diet, so he naturally assumed that sugar was not uncommon in this era.

Moreover, in his impression, many modern pastries claim to be secret recipes passed down for centuries from the Qing Dynasty imperial court, so there must have been sugar used to make desserts in ancient times.

So when Qin Su asked him how the desserts were made and where the sugar came from, he told her it was extracted from beets, since sugar production from beets is convenient and produces large quantities.

However, he did not know that sugar production from beets did not appear until the late Qing Dynasty. Before that, there was no such process; only maltose and cane sugar existed.

Children are naturally curious, and when Zhu Cai heard about this novel sugar-making method, he asked, "Don't beets have a lot of leaves? How do you make sugar from them?"

Ye Yan glanced at him and said, "Actually, it's not difficult, it's very simple. First, wash it, then chop it up and juice it, and then use the carbonation method to make it."

"The carbonation process can produce white sugar with very few impurities."

Ye Yan did have some basic chemistry knowledge. He began to think: "That means we need carbon dioxide and lime, so we need a lime kiln, and we need limestone to be mixed with coke..."

Qin Su had long since learned what carbonic acid and carbon dioxide were through years of asking questions, and she discussed them with Ye Yan with great interest.

Zhu Cai was completely bewildered, having no idea what they were talking about.

He glanced at the symbols Ye Yan had drawn on the ground with charcoal, then at Qin Su's quick response, and his chest, which had just puffed up, quietly deflated again.

Zhu Cai thought sullenly, "So my father was right. I need to study hard, otherwise I won't be able to make any new friends."

...

After finishing their meal at Zhu Lao Er's house, Qin Su and the other two returned to the palace to rest. Before leaving, they secretly left a silver ingot as payment for the meal.

Although Zhu Lao Er didn't say it, they all saw that the Zhu family only had three chickens in total.

Emperor Jingxi kept his promise and summoned the prefect of Chunrong City to arrange matters concerning Zhu Lao Er. Qin Su and Ye Yan slipped back to their room to write a memorial on sugar production from beets.

Qin Su was writing furiously when she suddenly heard Ye Yan sigh softly.

She looked up, puzzled, and asked, "Why are you sighing?"

Ye Yan sighed, "I actually bullied a child."

Using modern chemical knowledge to bully an ancient child—who would believe that?

He paused, then said somewhat dejectedly, "But I can't help it."

Qin Su: "?"

What happened? Who did Ye Yan bully? How come she doesn't know?