In addition to the gifts for the Lu family, Yu Yin also prepared gifts for Captain Qiao and Comrade Wang Wenbo for the New Year.
Yu Jun said that at the Kyoto Hospital, Captain Qiao and Captain Wang Wenbo took good care of him. Although it was because of Yu Yin, the details were also important, and they put their heart into it.
Yu Yin also learned that Captain Wang Wenbo was Wang Wenye's brother, so she felt even more obligated to show her appreciation.
The New Year's gifts were similar to last year's: tea, honey, dried mushrooms, sausages, dried fruit, canned goods, rice noodles, rice cakes... mostly food, especially fruit.
Since fresh fruit couldn't be mailed, and dried fruit couldn't be sent either, Yu Yin made a lot of canned fruit.
Speaking of this, Yu Yin really admires Lu Shurui; people with strong learning abilities are truly admirable.
Yu Yin wanted to make canned fruit. Fruit wasn't a problem; she had plenty at home. She also managed to buy a batch of canning jars through connections. The most difficult thing to obtain was white sugar.
Brown sugar is easy to obtain; sugarcane growers here and there make their own brown sugar using traditional methods, keeping it for personal use or exchanging it for other goods. However, brown sugar doesn't look good for canned goods. And with limited sugar coupons, it's impossible to mass-produce canned goods.
Yu Yin racked her brains for several days, but could only vaguely remember a folk method to turn brown sugar into white sugar. It seemed to involve using activated charcoal to decolorize the sugar, thus turning it into white sugar.
But Yu Yin couldn't remember exactly how it happened. She had only caught a glimpse of it while watching a video, but hadn't watched the whole thing.
Seeing her hesitation, Lu Shurui asked her about the general principle and then began the experiment.
First, they needed to make their own activated carbon, something Yu Yin knew could be done by burning coconut shells. Lu Shurui researched and asked locals, finally managing to turn coconut shells into activated carbon. Although compared to the refined coconut shell activated carbon of later generations, it was inferior in appearance and adsorption capacity, it still had some effect.
Lu Shurui has a strong experimental spirit. He melts brown sugar in water, separating it into small portions, and slowly experiments to see what ratio of brown sugar water and coconut shell activated charcoal is more compatible and produces the purest white sugar.
Add the dissolved brown sugar to hot water, then add activated charcoal and stir constantly. After stirring thoroughly, filter through cheesecloth. If the color is still dark, add more activated charcoal until the color disappears. Place the filtrate in a steamer, heat to evaporate some of the moisture, remove, and let cool. White sugar will precipitate out.
Lu Shurui was patient and meticulous. He experimented constantly, finding the optimal ratio to produce high-quality white sugar. Yu Yin loved watching Lu Shurui conduct his experiments; she found it particularly captivating. It proved the saying, "A serious man is the most handsome!"
With Lu Shurui's help, Yu Yin was able to make different varieties of canned fruit. To extend the shelf life, Yu Yin also found edible preservative plants, extracted their juice, and boiled it together with the canned fruit. This plant is colorless and tasteless, and does not affect the taste. Yu Yin learned this method from a doctor from an ethnic minority group, a method that has been passed down for hundreds of years.
Even after the New Year's gifts were sent, Yu Yin's courtyard remained bustling with activity.
Yu Kang, along with Ping An, An An, and the neighbor's Chu Yang and Chu Chen, played with them in various ways every day. Yu Kang's health visibly improved; he was no longer pale and bloodless.
Yu Yin still has to go to work every day, so she leaves the household affairs to Lu Shurui, which puts her at ease.
As a qualified teacher, how could I let children not study and run wild? Every morning, after cleaning up, Lu Shurui would begin teaching.
Ping An is still very young. The reason I need to study is entirely due to my uncle, who doesn't like to study. I was just a byproduct of that.
The three younger children didn't have to write; they could sit and read a comic book. The two older children, however, were in trouble. They had to write, and write neatly at that; if they didn't write well, they had to rewrite it. Comrade Yu Jun was given the important task of supervising them, making sure anyone wasn't paying attention, as that would result in punishment.
With everything, big and small, clearly arranged, Lu Shurui could finally get things done in peace. Ping An's dirty clothes needed washing, the weeds in the vegetable garden needed weeding, the chickens needed feeding, and the barn needed tidying up…
Lu Shurui feels like he's a typical stay-at-home dad now, with endless housework and unresolved legal disputes. Fortunately, he doesn't dislike doing these things and even enjoys them every day.
Those who received Yu Yinnian's gifts were quite agitated, especially upon seeing a large number of canned fruits. These weren't canned fruits made from hawthorn, apples, or oranges, but from pineapple, and the most eye-catching were the canned strawberries. The strawberries weren't large, resembling wild strawberries, but they were bright red and looked incredibly tempting.
There are relatively few types of fruits that ripen in winter. In July and August, lychees are in season and can be made into canned lychees and canned grapes. Although Yu Yin has quite a few of these in her space, there is no reason to take them out, and it doesn't make sense, so she can only let it go.
The elderly men who received New Year's gifts preferred tea, especially Wang Wenye's grandfather, who truly loved drinking tea. Over the years, he's accumulated quite a few insights and experiences.
Captain Qiao was a little surprised to receive the New Year's gift. He had kept his promise, thinking that Comrade Yu Yin would sever ties with him and never have anything to do with him again. He had always known that she was someone who hated trouble; otherwise, she wouldn't have readily accepted the money from his mother.
It seems that her brother is very important to her, so important that she casually used the promise he made, so important that she was grateful to her for his safe arrival and gave him a New Year's gift.
He accepted Wang Wenbo's New Year's gifts without feeling guilty, having already helped out himself. He learned from his younger brother's letter that Comrade Yu Yin was an excellent cook, and he was in for a treat. The tea leaves—he couldn't let his grandfather see them, or they'd be gone. The dried fruit, dried bamboo shoots, sausages… they were all delicious. He'd take them home and have his wife cook them properly according to the labels.
Yu Yin's New Year's gift not only went to the heart of the motherland, but also to the former Bund.
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