Chapter 482 I Still Have Many Ideas
A quarter of an hour later, the bowl of egg drop soup that had been highly anticipated was finally out of the pot.
Gu Zhigeng squatted at the stove door, watching his sister stirring the soup while whispering to the cockroach. He also saw with his own eyes the cockroach fall into the egg liquid and flutter, his brows wrinkled like the twisted piece of cloth on the stove.
"Sister, are you sure you want to give this soup to Lord Zheng?" She watched Gu Jiayue add two more spoonfuls of salt to the bowl. "Do you love or hate him?"
"What does a little kid know? Don't ask nonsense questions." Gu Jiayue slapped her in annoyance, "Go back to sleep or read a book."
She walked out briskly, carrying the bowl of soup. She started calling out from a distance, "Master Zheng, come and try the egg drop soup I made!"
Zheng Qinghe was walking slowly in the yard to digest his food. When he looked up, he saw the bowl of yellow soup, the egg liquid on Gu Jiayue's fingertips, and the cockroach crawling on her wrist.
His Adam's apple suddenly rolled, his stomach churned, and he almost vomited his dinner.
"Jiayue," he calmed himself down and forced a smile, "you seem to have changed a lot since you regained your memory."
"Oh? What's changed?" Gu Jiayue put the soup bowl on the stone table, deliberately placing the edge of the bowl closer to Zheng Qinghe's hand.
"It's... more lively." Zheng Qinghe's eyes moved back and forth between the cockroach and the soup bowl, his fingers curled up, wanting to touch but not daring to.
"Thank you for the compliment." Gu Jiayue smiled openly and pressed the spoon into his hand. "Drink it quickly, it won't taste good if it gets cold. After we finish, let's talk about the development of Annan County. If it's still early, we can also talk about education issues."
"It's an education issue..." Zheng Qinghe quickly took over, trying to change the subject. "The literacy classes you organized before were very effective. Now many people in the county can read and write. It's much more convenient to go out and do things, and fewer people get cheated. I plan to continue running this literacy class." As he spoke, he quietly moved his stool back.
"Really? I have a lot of good ideas, so drink the soup quickly and we'll talk in detail after you finish." Gu Jiayue pushed the soup bowl in front of him again.
"By the way, Jiayue," Zheng Qinghe racked his brains for a topic. "I've read your farming plan. If we raise cattle en masse, there might not be enough grass on the hillside. How about we open up some less fertile land and grow grass specifically? What do you think?"
"That's a good idea." Gu Jiayue nodded, but her eyes were fixed on the soup bowl. "Drink the soup first, otherwise it won't taste good when it gets cold."
Zheng Qinghe looked at the bowl of soup and felt his scalp tingling.
It seems that there is no way to escape today.
He asked tentatively, "When you were making this soup, that cockroach... stayed away, right?"
Far? Not far, I even swam in it.
Of course, Gu Jiayue wouldn't tell Zheng Qinghe the truth. "Of course it's far away. It's my darling. What if it falls into the pot and gets burned? I specially placed it in a safe place far away."
Zheng Qinghe finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He stared at the bowl of soup, mentally telling himself: This was the first time Jiayue had made something for him, so he couldn't let her down. This was also a great opportunity to get closer, so he couldn't miss it.
He stretched out his bony hand, picked up the soup bowl with slightly trembling fingertips, stirred it with a spoon, and then blew on it again and again when he put it to his mouth.
Finally, he made up his mind, scooped a full spoonful, and drank it with his eyes closed.
"puff--"
Zheng Qinghe had just swallowed the soup when he choked and vomited it out. He coughed continuously and his face turned red.
Gu Jiayue had anticipated this and retreated three steps away before he drank the soup. Now she was patting her chest and thanking herself: Fortunately, I dodged quickly, otherwise I would have to take a "salt bath".
Gu Zhigeng had been waiting by the side with tea, and he quickly handed it over: "Master Zheng, drink some water!"
Zheng Qinghe took the teacup and gulped down half of it. The stinging sensation in his mouth from being choked by salt finally eased a little. He glanced at Gu Zhigeng gratefully, then looked at Gu Jiayue with a look of helplessness in his eyes: "Did you knock over the salt shaker in the soup?"
It was too salty! So salty that his tongue almost lost all feeling.
Gu Jiayue looked a little guilty, but she still lowered her voice and asked Yue'er, "Is the mission completed?"
"It's done! Sister Gu, you are so smart!" Yue'er's voice was filled with excitement, "The system has added another ten health points to me!" She felt sorry for Zheng Qinghe being choked, but was also happy that the task was completed. She felt like a rabbit was running around in her heart.
"It's good that it's done." Gu Jiayue breathed a sigh of relief.
She also didn't want to trouble Zheng Qinghe, but if she didn't let Yue'er "participate" throughout the process, who knew whether the system would judge the mission as a failure?
In the end, it was all in vain and I couldn't even get Yue'er's health points.
As for the soup... she had planned it long ago and deliberately put so much salt in it just to prevent Zheng Qinghe from drinking it.
The salt helped a lot today.
I just used so much salt at once. I don’t know if my grandma will scold me if she finds out tomorrow morning.
Hmm? Gu Jiayue suddenly had an idea and turned into the kitchen. She took out a salt shaker and placed it on the stone table.
Zheng Qinghe was so frightened when he saw this that he suddenly shrank back, his hand holding the water cup shaking. "Jiayue, it's salty enough, really enough, don't add any more!"
Gu Jiayue moved the bowl of egg drop soup that no one dared to touch aside, making room for the salt shaker, and pointed at the salt inside and asked, "Zheng Qinghe, what do you think of this salt?"
Most of the salt consumed by the people in Da Gan is sea salt, followed by pond salt and well salt, and the supply range depends on the region.
People in the southwest mostly use well salt, and only a few rich people can buy sea salt and pond salt at high prices.
The imperial court had strict control over the sale of salt. Salt could only be purchased through official salt merchants with a "salt permit". Privately producing and selling salt was illegal.
No matter what kind of salt, if it is well purified, it will be white in color; if it is poorly purified, it will be mixed with mud, sand and minerals and will be gray or even a little black.
The salt that Gu Jiayue poured out was off-white, and some particles were black.
This kind of salt is of low quality, but it is the salt that most of the people in Dagan have been consuming for a long time.
Zheng Qinghe had been using high-quality snow-white sea salt since he was a child, but after serving as the county magistrate of Annan County for two years, he had also seen the inferior salt eaten by the people.
The Gu family's life was not bad. Although the salt they ate was not the best, it was considered a medium to high-quality salt that could be bought by ordinary people. But in his eyes, this kind of salt was really hard to swallow.
"This is low-grade salt. Eating too much will make you sick." He frowned and said, "I'll have someone bring you some snow-white sea salt tomorrow."
"Is the extraction cost of Dagan salt very high?" Gu Jiayue asked.
"By type." Zheng Qinghe recovered and explained to Gu Jiayue seriously, "Sea salt and pond salt are cheaper than well salt, but because so many people consume them, it takes a lot of manpower to mine and store them. So, in the end, they're about the same."
"If I can come up with a faster method to purify sea salt and reduce costs, do you think... I can exchange it for a favor from His Majesty?" Gu Jiayue's eyes were serious.
Zheng Qinghe nearly spit out the water he had just drunk, his heart racing. "Do you have a way to store salt? Is it better or faster than the current method?"
It wasn't that Zheng Qinghe was sensitive, but this industry was even more sensitive than his nerves. "Jiayue, there are some things you can't touch."
He was afraid that Gu Jiayue might lose her mind and do something that would make people regret.
"Don't worry, I've only seen this method in a book before, but I've never used it in real life."
Zheng Qinghe breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Gu Jiayue's explanation. "That's good. Let me tell you, the current emperor is a man who doesn't tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. He hates others meddling in matters related to people's livelihood. So let's not touch it casually."
If something really happened, he had no confidence in saving Gu Jiayue's life.
"I know my limits."
After getting the assurance, Zheng Qinghe breathed a sigh of relief and drank two more sips of tea. “What grace do you want?”
He couldn't figure out what kind of grace was worth her giving up such important technology?
What is she planning?
"Just tell me if you can do it or not?" Gu Jiayue didn't answer directly, but looked at him steadily.
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