Chapter 63: New Understanding of Prices
"Wow! This rice is delicious! What is this?" Lolita stuffed a large mouthful of rice into her mouth and chewed it happily. "It tastes so good! And it has a sweet fragrance! Hmm, why have I never eaten it before?"
"This is glutinous rice. It's delicious." Jiangyou showed her his small bag with a smile: "Look, there's a little left. This is the rice."
Lolisa took the small bag, took a look at it, and her expression froze instantly.
"Magic rice?!" Lolisa was shocked, stunned, and collapsed as she screamed, "How can you cook with magic rice?!"
"What? Is this thing poisonous?" The two apprentice knights stood up quickly with the plates in their hands, their eyes alert.
"No, it's not poisonous, it's just too expensive!" Lolisa said angrily, "Magic rice is a top-notch potion ingredient and an essential thickener! 100 grams of this stuff costs one gold coin! How much did you use tonight? How much? It would take at least 300 grams to fill this chicken, right?!"
The two apprentice knights looked down at the glutinous rice on the plate, which was said to be worth half a gold coin, and began to stuff it into their mouths.
"What?!" Jiang You was also surprised. "Isn't this glutinous rice? Why is it so expensive?! I even use it to make wine!"
"...brewing...cooking..." Lolita's eyes widened, and she was about to collapse, "So you are so rich?
"You know, even when we're making potions, we only use a few grams of magic rice sparingly, grinding it into a fine powder before pouring it into the cauldron. We're not willing to add more... Ah, I didn't know magic rice could be so delicious when cooked... This is the taste of money!"
She took a few more bites from the plate and said, "Mmm, so sweet and sticky! So delicious! If only it weren't so expensive... Ahhh, it's expensive for a reason..."
Jiang You took a breath of soul fire in confusion, chewing it again and again: "Ah... I thought that since there are so many things piled up in the warehouse, they must be very cheap..."
Thinking carefully, she didn't see glutinous rice on the product flyer stuffed in the door... or other types of rice, and both the knight and Aunt Wolf seemed unfamiliar with glutinous rice balls and fermented rice... Hmm, could it be that she really mistook the potion ingredients for food?
Eating together is often the best activity to bring people closer together. The two apprentice knights were especially moved when they learned that their new superior and the skeletons around him had treated them with very expensive and delicious magical ingredients. Their attitude towards Andre improved a lot.
In their eyes, the Viscount had instantly transformed from a poor paratrooper with only a title to a true royal relative. What they had previously considered a drudgery of bad luck had instantly become a coveted opportunity to cling to the powerful support of their new superior. Their resentment vanished, their eyes sparkling.
Andre: "..." Although it was an accident, the result was in line with his expectations.
After having a good meal and a good drink, the apprentice knights had a great time talking to their new boss and got along harmoniously with him. Jiang You also learned a lot of common sense from Lolisa that she had previously taken for granted and misunderstood.
For example, the "glutinous rice" that Jiangyou knows is called "magic rice" in the Principality of Huntington.
Although glutinous rice itself isn't a magical plant, it possesses exceptional compatibility with magical elements in this magical world, making it an indispensable stabilizer in potions. Especially when mixing two unstable, violent magical ingredients, witches will add a certain amount of glutinous rice flour to the crucible to buffer the violent ingredients, thereby achieving a more stable potency.
Jiang You: “…” Well, I only knew that glutinous rice, cinnabar and black dog blood were often used by Taoists to ward off evil spirits, but I didn’t expect that it is actually a magical material here!
Moreover, since the geographical environment of the Principality of Huntington is comparable to that of Europe, with a high latitude and not warm or humid enough, it is impossible to grow glutinous rice. This stuff has to be imported from southern countries and is very expensive.
Glutinous rice is not a common dessert ingredient here. It is expensive and difficult to grow, but it is a very important and almost indispensable ingredient for potions. To buy it, one needs a wizard's license, a potion master's license, or a dark magic license. It is not something that can be bought cheaply, and no one would use it to cook... According to Lolisa, even the most crazy and extravagant nobles have never thought of such an idea.
——Of course, Jiang You suspected that those nobles were either not qualified to buy it or did not even know that this thing existed.
So in Lolisa's eyes, the fact that Jiangyou used the "magic rice" to brew wine and cook was like using a basket of pearls to cook, which was a waste of resources... Although it was indeed delicious, it was really a waste!
Jiang You also deeply felt the difference in thinking habits between the people here and his own.
As a foodie from a country of foodies, when Jiangyou saw the vegetable, fruit, and rice, he thought, "Is it edible? Is it delicious? How do I eat it?" But the locals here were thinking, "Can this be used as a magical ingredient? What is its compatibility with magical elements and its magical conductivity? How can it be used in magical rituals or potion recipes?"
Don't underestimate the common ingredients like vegetables, fruits and rice, but they can be found in more than half of the potion recipes that need to be swallowed orally - contrary to what most people believe, in order for a potion to be swallowed, it must first be 'edible'.
Therefore, when people consider the recipe of a potion that can be taken, they always start with edible things, rather than throwing salamander eyes, frog webbed hands into the crucible right away.
Jiang You: "..." It makes sense! Aren't many marinade ingredients traditional Chinese medicines used only by Chinese medicine practitioners before they were used in cooking?
"So, the magic rice and soybeans stored in the workshop's storage room are not actually food reserves for cooking, but ingredients for magic potions?"
"Magic rice, soybeans..." Lolita thought for a moment. "These things, combined with sage and love flowers, can be used to brew a love potion. But the most expensive is the magic rice. Soybeans are not that precious. Sage and love flowers grow everywhere by the river and are easy to pick."
Takumiu remembered the shelf of love potions in the workshop and muttered, "Case solved."
It seems that the owner of the house, Mi You, was not a poor person who went bankrupt from the beginning. She had real estate, stockpiled raw materials and unsold products. It was only because the backlog of goods could not be sold that the cash flow was broken and she went bankrupt!
The glutinous rice and soybeans in that storage room are both precious ingredients!
Jiangyou didn't even dare to think about how much expensive glutinous rice she had consumed unknowingly during these days... This must have cost four or five gold coins, right?
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