The Lucky Farmgirl-Chapter 1902 - 1877: Talent

Mingda laughed and pulled her, "Sister, don’t listen to their nonsense. I believe she’s touched the liver and kidneys, but I can’t believe she’s touched the heart. I’ve only heard she’s performed abdominal surgery, not heart surgery."

Changyu seemed struck by lightning, about to cry without tears, "Mingda, why are you scaring me like the others?"

Bai Shan slightly frowned, curiously asked, "Princess Changyu, I heard from Manbao that you also like to eat lamb offal soup, which is all heart and liver, why are you particularly afraid of it in humans?"

Changyu: ...

She eats lamb offal, not human offal!

Why can’t I be afraid?

After scaring Changyu a bit, they picked up the basket and went down the mountain.

The servants at home fetched clean water from the well to wash the fruit and their hands.

Surprisingly, Changyu and Mingda didn’t go back inside but sat with Manbao and the others near the well, reaching out to splash the freshly drawn water.

The water was so cool that Changyu immediately dunked her hand in, wetting her sleeve. She joyfully splashed the water around, exclaiming, "So refreshing!"

Manbao nodded repeatedly, not stopping Changyu but preventing Mingda from playing with the water, "You’re weak, don’t play with cold water."

The palace maids secretly sighed with relief and were about to get some hot water from the kitchen when Ms. Fang brought over water from a wooden bucket that had been warmed by the sun, scooped two ladles into a basin for Mingda, and smiled, "This water has been sunning for a long time, it’s just right to use."

Mingda reached out to touch it and found it indeed warm. She was curious, "You can sun water?"

"Of course you can," Manbao said. "In the summer, if you don’t want to use too much firewood, you can bathe with sunned water."

Mingda and Changyu were hearing this for the first time and found it very novel.

Once all the fruit was washed, Changyu stared at Bai Shan and Bai Erlang and ordered, "You eat first."

Bai Shan: "..."

He glanced at Manbao, picked a medium-sized one, took a bite, and his eyes brightened. He nodded slightly at everyone, saying, "This one is nice, it’s sweet. Maybe last time it wasn’t ripe, so it was sour."

After saying this, he ate the whole fruit with relish.

Hearing that, Changyu immediately picked an especially large one and took a big bite. As she chewed, her eyes widened involuntarily, and she was torn between spitting out or swallowing. It was so sour her tears almost fell.

Bai Shan leisurely finished the fruit in his hand, washed his hands, and looked at Changyu with a frown, concerned, "Is it sour? Could it be because the fruits aren’t from the same tree?"

All the fruits were mixed together, who knows if they’re from the same tree?

Changyu didn’t realize Bai Shan’s prank, covered her mouth, and went to spit it out. It was really too sour.

As soon as she left, Manbao couldn’t help but laugh and clapped Bai Shan, "You hurt the enemy with eight hundred; you hurt yourself with a thousand."

Bai Erlang silently put back the pear he picked, retracting his paw. He thought something felt off.

When Changyu returned, everyone stared blankly at the basket of pears, "Did we pick so many just for fun? Such a waste."

For eating matters, they naturally turned to the eldest sister-in-law.

Manbao stood up, "I’ll go ask my sister-in-law."

Junior Ms.Qian looked at the pears they picked and smiled, "Why not make pear wine?"

She laughed, "Using sugar and yeast, I can make a few jars of pear wine for you. It should be sweeter and tastier than plum wine."

Changyu curiously asked, "Can you make fruit into wine? I’ve only heard of flower wine."

Junior Ms.Qian replied, "I don’t know how to make flower wine, but Aunt Rong does. I only know how to make pear wine, thanks to the recipe Manbao found."

She didn’t know before, but since the kids now socialize and entertain guests at home, they sometimes drank a little wine, which they didn’t actually enjoy.

Since they had tasted sweet grape wine before, Manbao thought about using other fruits for wine because the grapes at home seemed unripe.

Manbao searched through the encyclopedia and eventually found recipes for plum wine and apple wine for Junior Ms.Qian.

Junior Ms.Qian tried making it and found it okay. She thought fruit wines had minor differences, with the main issue being the cost.

Because sugar was very expensive. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Only wealthy families brewed such wines, and making it at home was for Manbao and the kids.

Comparatively, grain-based wines suited Old Zhou’s taste, even though they were expensive, but grain was much cheaper than fruit and sugar.

Upon hearing about winemaking, Mingda was indifferent, but Changyu enjoyed drinking and quickly asked, "Can we use such sour pears for wine? Will the wine be sour or sweet?"

Junior Ms.Qian honestly replied, "Sour sweet, I guess."

She explained, "Sour sweet tastes better. Adding too much sugar makes it too sweet and overwhelming."

Manbao said immediately, "I’ll listen to Sister-in-law."

She told Changyu, "On food matters, following my sister-in-law’s advice can’t go wrong."

Changyu, who was just about to suggest adding more sugar, hesitated, then decided to listen to Manbao and nodded, "Okay, then let’s have sour sweet."

Junior Ms.Qian took out some jars to make it for them.

She often pickled things, and the house might lack other things, but jars were never in short supply.

She looked at the four baskets of pears, eventually finding five clean jars, washed the pears again, and began to peel the pears.

Ms. Fang and others hurried to help, Manbao rolled up her sleeves to join, but Junior Ms.Qian slapped her hand back, "We’re using knives here; don’t mess around. Your hands are precious, go play aside, it’ll be done soon."

Despite the number of pears, with many hands, they worked quickly.

After peeling the pears, they cut them, removed the cores, and placed the pieces into jars.

Zhou Lixue brought out all the sugar from home and handed it to his mother.

Junior Ms.Qian estimated and nodded, feeling they had enough.

Old Zhou looked at it from afar and told Ms.Qian, "Such a big jar of sugar for just a bit of wine, it’s a sin."

Ms.Qian shot him a look, "Shut up; that sugar was brought by the in-laws."

Because Manbao and the children liked snacks, even when Old Madam Liu came to the manor, she brought a lot of sugar, just for making various treats.

Junior Ms.Qian didn’t fill the jars completely, leaving a third for fermentation. She layered sugar and fruit pulp, while Manbao squatted nearby, watching. She noticed Junior Ms.Qian didn’t use scales but judged by feel, only smelling when adding pears.

Changyu was very curious, "Why smell the pears?"

Manbao explained, "To check if they’re sour."

She continued, "My sister-in-law is amazing. Just by smelling, she can tell if the pears are sour and roughly how sour."

Changyu clicked her tongue, "So amazing?"

Manbao nodded.

Junior Ms.Qian chuckled, "Not that amazing, just estimating roughly, getting a feel for it."

Manbao continued telling Changyu, "The sense of feel is a talent."

Changyu looked at Junior Ms.Qian and then at the fruit pulp in the jar, nodding in agreement.