My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

Two days after the Double Ninth Festival, when Chang An got home from school, he found something strange: according to the usual practice, Gu Li would wait for him at the door every day during this time. But today, when Chang An got off the carriage, he did not see the familiar figure, and he could not help but wonder.

He carried the bookcase and came to the servant guarding the door and asked, "Where is Gu Niang?"

"To answer your question, sir, Sanniang has gone out." The servant answered respectfully.

"Where did you go? Was there any guard following you?" Chang An became a little nervous when he heard that she ran away, and asked again.

"Sanniang said she was going to the East Market. Please rest assured, sir. The guards are with her." The servant replied.

Chang An breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's fine."

Just as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of a carriage wheel rolling on the road behind him. He looked back and found that his guard had just stopped at the gate of Chang's house in a carriage. Gu Li appeared from above, holding a basket in her hand. She looked up and saw Chang An, and shouted in surprise: "Chang Lang! You're back!"

She trotted to Chang'an, took his hand and walked towards the mansion. Chang'an saw her like this and asked, "What did you buy?"

Gu Li lifted up the basket in his hand, and Chang An lifted the white cloth covering it. Then she said, "I'm going to buy some candies. Even if we don't go out to buy candied haws, we can just make some candied haws at home."

Chang An looked at the black and yellow raw sugar in the basket, and his eyebrows couldn't help but jump a few times. This sugar looked a little scary, let alone soaking it in water. He thought for a while and took the basket from Gu Li. Seeing him like this, the other party couldn't help but feel a little confused, but still obeyed him obediently and let him take the basket.

"Mrs. Gu?"

"Hey."

"Do you want to eat some sugar?" Chang An asked.

"White sugar? Our family can't afford white sugar." Gu Li said, frowning.

"I didn't say we were going to buy sugar," Chang An said with a smile, "I meant we should make our own sugar."

"Ah?" Gu Li was even more confused.

But Chang An smiled, handed the candy to Huai Qin behind him, and instructed: "Put the candy in the kitchen, and ask the cook to bring more charcoal. Then send someone with a carriage to the East Market and the West Market to see if there are any people selling citrons and buying yellow mud, and bring back more along with the candy."

Huaiqin took the basket and nodded, and then Chang'an reminded him: "Tell the person who is going to buy citrons to hurry up and tell him that there will be a reward after he buys it!"

Huaiqin walked away to arrange the matters that Chang'an had asked her to do.

Gu Li was somewhat puzzled by Chang An's arrangements and asked, "What does Chang Lang want to do with these things? Are you going to use them to make sugar?"

"You'll know after lunch." Chang An kept it a secret and didn't tell Gu Li directly. Seeing this, Gu Li had no choice but to nod his head obediently and stopped asking questions.

After lunch, Chang An watched Gu Li drink the medicine, then led her to the kitchen, where all the things he had asked people to prepare were ready. The charcoal that had just been burned was piled on one side of the stove; on the table were two baskets of something similar to lemons, which was called "citron" in ancient times; and on the ground next to the table were three large sacks of sugar and two large sacks of loess.

Seeing this, Chang An nodded with satisfaction, then clapped his hands and called, "Come here, guys."

The servants in the kitchen gathered around and heard Chang An say, "Next, you have to come and watch and learn what I do. I'll tell you the reason later."

After hearing this, the servants, although they didn't know what their master was going to do, still nodded obediently and said yes.

Then Chang An asked someone to boil a large pot of water, and then took a basket of sugar and put it in another pot filled with water, and turned on the fire to boil the sugar water. Then Chang An asked someone to fill a dustpan with charcoal, break it up and pass it through the water. When he saw that the pot of water was almost boiled, he asked someone to pour the charcoal into the hot water and boil it.

Gu Li was standing next to Chang An, her eyelids twitching. As a candy lover, she couldn't help but get a little worried, so she asked anxiously, "Chang Lang, can you really make white sugar like this?"

"Of course, you will know soon." Chang An said confidently.

Seeing this, Gu Li could only stretch his neck and observe the changes in the pot.

Chang An took a spoon and stirred the charcoal briefly, then threw a few lemons cut in half into it. Then he looked at the sugar water next to him, and when he saw that it was almost ready, he reached out and pulled out some firewood, letting it heat up on a low fire so that too much sugar would not evaporate.

After waiting for a while, Chang An saw that the charcoal was almost cooked, so he asked someone to turn off the stove where the charcoal was being cooked. Then he picked out the cooked charcoal, poured out the water in the pot, and left the charcoal in the pot to remove the moisture.

When the water in the pot was completely evaporated and thick white smoke rose from the pot, the charcoal was dried. He called the waiter to move all the fire from the stove where the charcoal was boiled to the stove where the sugar water was boiled, and he found a pair of long bamboo chopsticks and put the charcoal into the sugar water on the other side. This scene made Gu Li very nervous.

"Go find two larger pieces of gauze and a bucket." Chang An instructed his servants while holding the charcoal.

After Chang An added some more charcoal, Gu Li's eyes were fixed on the sugar water in the pot. As the charcoal was added, she couldn't help but exclaimed: "Chang Lang, the sugar water seems to have become a little clearer!"

"So impatient?" Chang An put down his chopsticks and looked at her with amusement, "Don't be impatient, it's not over yet."

After the servants brought the wooden barrel and gauze, Chang An told them to cover the barrel with gauze and pour the sugar water in the pot into it. After the sugar water in the pot was filtered into the wooden barrel, he asked them to pour the sugar water back into the pot and continue to add charcoal. This was repeated two or three times, and the charcoal was used up, and the sugar water in the pot became clear.

Chang An couldn't help but smile when he saw this. After the sugar water was heated again, he asked someone to put out all the fire in the stove, then took out the second piece of gauze that he had prepared in advance and put it into the pot, leaving only a corner. At this point, the whole activated carbon decolorization method was over. The only drawback was that there was no real activated carbon, so he could only use charcoal boiled with citron instead.

Seeing that Chang An had finished all this, Gu Li asked tentatively: "Is it done?"

Chang An nodded and said, "This is the fastest method. It will probably extract a lot, but it will probably take another six or seven days."

"Ah..." Gu Li pouted slightly, "It still takes so long..."

Chang An pinched her slightly puffy face and comforted her: "Don't worry, I will let Gu Niang eat delicious candy."

Then he ordered people to prepare an empty jar, knock a few small holes in it, put hay in it, and put it on the open space outside. Then he ordered people to pour all the remaining sugar into it, and then ordered people to cover it with yellow soil. Then he ordered people to pour water on it, so that it turned into yellow mud water. This is the yellow mud coloring method.

Curious baby Gu Li asked again: "Chang Lang, what are you going to do now?"

"What? Are you heartbroken?" Chang An asked with amusement.

"Of course, so much candy." Gu Li was a little upset and stomped his feet in dissatisfaction.

"Okay, okay, listen to me." Chang An took her hand and said, "The method of boiling charcoal to make sugar just now takes a shorter time, but the sugar obtained is not much. And this method, although it takes a little longer, can obtain more sugar than making sugar with charcoal."

"Then how long will this method take?" Gu Li asked again.

"It will probably take one or two months." Chang An calculated and said, "In this way, our Gu Niang can eat sugar made from charcoal during this period. After the first vat of sugar is made, I will let them use only this method to make sugar. What do you think?"

"Then...what should I eat these days?" Gu Li pouted again.

Seeing her like this, Chang An smiled again, took her hand and shook it, and said, "Then during this period of time, when I get home from school every day, can I bring a string of candied haws to Gu Niang?"

Gu Li then compromised and said, "Okay then."

After Chang An gently scraped the tip of her nose, he turned around and said to the kitchen staff, "Leave that pot of sugar water there. After five or six days, a lot of white sugar will form on the yarn. Scrape it off, pack it up, and dry it. During this period, if you see white crystals on the wall or bottom of the pot, remember to take them out carefully, pack them up, and dry them."

Then he pointed to the jar in front of him and said, "This jar is sealed with mud. Remember to pour water on the yellow mud at least two to three times a day. You must always ensure that the yellow mud is moist."

"Yes, sir." The servants responded.

"You all know the method of making the sugar in that pot. When the sugar comes out, you can make it again. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me." Chang An said, "If you help me make sugar, I will not treat you unfairly. Each of you will get 30% more salary per month, and you can also take some of the sugar in this pot for yourself."

"Thank you, sir."

"But I will give you a reward. If I find out that someone has passed on these two sugar-making methods..." After giving the sweet dates, Chang An changed his tone and said, "You know my methods."

This is the Tang Dynasty. If this sugar-making method is known, who knows what kind of trouble it will cause. It's okay if it only involves me, but if it involves Gu Li, it will be bad. Hearing this, the servants also promised that they would not leak the sugar-making method.

Chang An nodded and took Gu Li back to the room. Back in the room, he sat at the desk as usual, holding his chin as if thinking about something. Then he looked at Gu Li who was sitting at the low table opposite and doing embroidery, and he shouted:

"Mrs. Gu?"

"Hey."

"Do you eat any candy?"

"I eat any kind of candy. I'm not picky." Gu Li answered without raising his head while doing the work in his hands.

When Chang An heard this, he picked up the pen with confidence and began to write and draw on the paper with full concentration. Gu Li occasionally raised her head in the middle of the process and saw Chang An buried his head, writing something very seriously, so she did not disturb him. Even when she wanted to cough, she tried her best to control the sound.

In this way, the two of them were doing their own things. After an unknown amount of time, Chang An finally put down his pen, left the desk, stood on the ground and stretched. Then he took the results he had just produced, walked to Gu Li's side, spread four sheets of paper on the table, picked up Gu Li and put him in his arms.

"Chang Lang, what is this?" Gu Li also put down the needle and thread in his hand, picked up the four pieces of paper on the table and started to look at them.

"This is a juicer, and the other three are molds," Chang An explained.

"What are these used for?"

"Of course, they are all used to make candy for you, Gu Niang," Chang An said, "Do you think my Gu Niang will only eat sugar grains or drink sugar water every day? That would be too unfair."

"I don't understand." Gu Li was an ancient man, so of course he couldn't understand something like a juicer.

"It's okay. My mother Gu doesn't need to understand. She just needs to eat the candy." As he said that, he gently pinched Gu Li's chin, asked her to face him, and left a mark on her little lips.

"How is it? Is this candy sweet?"

Gu Li also nudged himself in his arms and replied with a slightly red face:

"sweet......"