Chapter 139 Sour Blueberries
What does this mean? Is it because she's bored and they're giving her more land to farm for fun?
Yuan Hongqu measured it with her feet and found that the width was five steps wider, so the length must have been much longer as well.
However, this increase in area is not like an extra piece of open space appearing out of thin air; rather, it's more like the land is growing more evenly, with the spacing between her plants increasing.
If she hadn't planted the same number of plants at the original spacing, resulting in a small area remaining, she would never have imagined that the land area of the space had increased without her noticing.
Yuan Hongqu glanced at the crops in the space, and then without hesitation scattered a handful of ginseng seeds all over the yard.
The greater spacing between spatial crops means more gaps between land plots. Ginseng occupies a small area, and in this world of Dream of the Red Chamber where medicine is scarce, ginseng plays a vital role. So what else should we grow if not ginseng?
Yuan Hongqu was like a hardworking little bee, diligently working in the space.
In her dream, Daiyu toured the entire Peach Blossom Spring courtyard for the first time. Previously, she could only stand at the entrance and look into the courtyard, but now she was able to walk around inside.
As for the small building, apart from the kitchen, she still couldn't see anything else.
Even so, it was enough to make Daiyu happy.
Anyone who dreams of a small courtyard that is evergreen all year round, with fruits everywhere and ginseng growing under the trees, is sure to have a sweet dream.
In her dream, Daiyu could smell the fragrance of flowers and eat fruits and vegetables that she had never heard of or seen before.
Moreover, after waking up from the dream, she could still occasionally eat the same food made by Granny Yuan as in the dream.
She's living a very comfortable life.
Last night was the eve of the Lunar New Year. In her dream, she saw a small blue fruit in the garden, like a gemstone. She tasted it and found it delicious. The flavor was neither too strong nor too weak, with a light sweetness and a hint of sourness, a perfect balance.
When Daiyu woke up in the morning, she felt that although the courtyard was chilly, she could still faintly smell the fruity fragrance of the fruit she had eaten the night before.
The fragrance lingered in the yard all morning, faint yet persistent.
"Susu, can you smell a very special sweet fragrance?" Daiyu couldn't concentrate on writing or reading at all. The fruity fragrance was getting stronger and stronger, and she couldn't focus at all. All she could think about was where the fragrance was coming from.
"You smelled it too, young lady?" Lan Su asked somewhat embarrassedly. "I thought I was hallucinating."
"Let's go look for it!" Daiyu put down her book and stood up. "I bet it's because Granny is back, bringing back some fresh stuff from the estate, and she's making something delicious!"
Zijuan quickly helped her put on a crane cloak and changed her into thick deerskin boots before she went out.
Following the smell, I found it was indeed coming from my own kitchen.
Because the Lin family is now small, Daiyu's daily meals are prepared in the small kitchen of Jiaoyun Garden, and the taste really does come from that small kitchen.
The sweet aroma in the small kitchen was even stronger, almost overwhelming the entire space. As soon as Daiyu entered, she felt as if her whole body was covered in this sweet scent. If she stayed inside for a while, she probably wouldn't need to scent her clothes for several days, as the smell would permeate them completely.
Despite its sweetness, it wasn't cloying at all; instead, it felt incredibly refreshing, making you want to explore it further.
There was only one person in the kitchen, stirring a small ceramic pot on the stove. The pot contained a nearly transparent blue sauce, and the sweet aroma was coming from it.
"Oh, Sister Xiangtao, what are you doing here? Don't you usually make these yourself, Granny?" Daiyu thought it was Yuan Hongqu making the sauce, but when she saw the person stirring the sauce, it turned out to be Xiangtao.
Has she returned from the estate?
"Miss, I came back this morning. There's been a lot going on at the estate today, so Granny Yuan might not be back until tonight," Xiangtao replied, her hands never stopping.
When Granny Yuan left in the morning, she only said she was going to the estate. Daiyu assumed she was going to the greenhouse to pick ripe fruits and vegetables and didn't know there was anything else going on.
"Has something happened at Granny's estate?"
"It's nothing serious, Granny Yuan can handle it by going over there." Xiangtao stopped stirring, then dipped a chopstick into the dark blue sauce and put it in the water. The sauce clumped together in the water but didn't dissolve.
She placed a cloth under the pot and carried it down. "Miss, you can use it after the blueberry jam cools down. Granny Yuan instructed me to make a blueberry-flavored pastry for you today, to be served this afternoon."
"Blueberries?" Daiyu chewed on the word, then saw a plate of crystal-clear blue berries next to her. Weren't those the blue berries she had tasted in her dream last night?
"Is this it?" She picked up a small berry.
Xiangtao nodded, "They grew in the greenhouse on the estate. There were only a little over two pounds of them. Granny Yuan told me to boil half of them into blueberry jam and put the other half on pastries. Granny Yuan said that you shouldn't refuse to eat them just because they are a little sour. You often read books, which strains your eyes. Eating more blueberries is good for your eyes."
"It's not sour," Daiyu said, putting a blueberry in her mouth. The next second, her beautiful eyebrows furrowed slightly.
She ate more sweet than sour food in her dream last night, but today the food is more sour than sweet, so it doesn't taste good.
But if the nanny's good intentions are just revealed like this, how heartbreaking it would be for her!
Daiyu forced herself to swallow the blueberries.
Lan Su suppressed a laugh, and seeing this, Xiang Tao quickly scooped up a small spoonful of blueberry jam.
"Girl, have this. I added half a pound of sugar to the blueberry jam."
Daiyu took a small bite with the spoon in Xiangtao's hand. It wasn't sour at all, and the taste was even better than the one she had eaten last night!
"Sister Peach, why don't we make blueberry jam with the rest of the blueberries?" She really couldn't stand the sour taste, but the flavor of blueberry jam made from sour blueberries was just so tempting!
“Miss, we’ll need fresh blueberries when we make the pastries later. The finished pastries definitely won’t be sour,” Xiangtao said. “Granny Yuan also taught me a recipe for making milk tea with fruit. Why don’t you try making it for me with blueberries?”
"That would be wonderful!" Daiyu clapped her hands and laughed. Yuan Hongqu always forbade her to drink too much of this, but today, since the nanny wasn't home and Xiangtao was willing to make it for her, that was wonderful.
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