“Our Shaofu has shu beans. Why did the Gongzhu send people all the way to the palace to fetch more?”
“Ah, children have all sorts of strange ideas. It’s hardly surprising that adults can’t understand them.”
“Look at the way Wu Gongzhu conducts herself. Is she an ordinary child?”
“She may be cleverer than most children, but look at the things she likes to do! Eating, drinking, and amusing herself! Isn’t that simply a child’s nature? A child of the royal house doesn’t play with yellow mud; she plays with yellow beans instead. Quite fitting, I’d say!”
“How is that fitting? A noble person who takes a fancy to bean leaves—does that make any sense? If a child of mine were so lacking in judgment, I’d certainly…”
Give the child a sound beating!
Knowing that such words would be disrespectful, the speaker grunted and swallowed the rest.
…
“Big fellow, put some strength into it!”
“A-Chi, you can do it!”
Ying Yang clapped her hands in encouragement.
The tall eunuch in reddish-brown clothing nervously adjusted his belt. Gripping the wooden handle with both hands, he drew a deep breath and pushed.
Clack. Clack.
The gray millstones, silent for so long, began to turn.
A wooden ladle scooped up soybeans that had soaked overnight. At first, because the opening in the millstone was small, no liquid emerged between the stones. But as one ladleful after another of water-swollen beans entered the mill, a white liquid mixed with bean pulp slowly flowed out and fell onto the white cloth spread beneath it.
The fine white cloth caught the pulp and filtered out the froth, allowing an even smoother, jade-white liquid to drip through.
Xia Wuju shuddered from head to toe.
“It’s just as Gongzhu said! The shu beans really have turned into jade nectar!”
He could not help gripping his medicine pouch. Inside were the salt bittern and calcined baihu stone the Gongzhu had specifically requested. He began to look forward to the “jade-square milk” she had spoken of.
A figure flashed past him.
It was Xiangli Ji.
“What is the principle behind this? Why? Why can a stone wei turn shu beans into liquid? Isn’t a wei for grinding wheat into flour? Oh! These beans contain water! If soaked beans can be ground into liquid, wouldn’t soaked wheat become wheat milk?”
Xiangli Ji’s expression was wildly animated. Shouting at the top of his voice, he looked almost deranged.
He embraced the stone mill and stroked it affectionately. Then he thrust his hand into the wooden bucket, scooped out a handful of soybeans, and squeezed them between his fingers.
Now that was something Ying Yang could not tolerate.
You little brat! Have you even washed your hands?!
“Are you all just going to stand there and watch him ruin the soy milk I wanted to offer my father? We don’t even know whether he’s washed his hands!”
The stunned onlookers came to their senses.
A-Chi, who had been turning the mill, angrily seized Xiangli Ji and struck him twice.
“You wretched little scoundrel! You dare spoil the Gongzhu’s work?”
“This is bad! Very bad!”
Xia Wuju stamped his feet in panic.
He had heard what the Gongzhu said. Xiangli Ji’s conduct was a grave affront, not something a few words could excuse.
“Xiangli Ji, have you gone mad?!”
Ying Yang walked to the wooden bucket with a cold expression and examined the color of the soybeans and water.
…One could always count on finding reasons to doubt the hygiene of ordinary people in Qin times.
The water, formerly clear and transparent, had turned a murky gray.
Qin had no public campaign teaching the seven-step method of washing one’s hands. Apart from nobles and those who served them personally, people used their hands for all manner of work. Even reasonably prosperous officials did not necessarily possess the habit of washing them frequently.
Xiangli Ji was responsible for managing the tool storeroom. Moving and repairing implements inevitably left dust on his hands; writing on slips and documents left traces of ink.
It was not yet the midday meal. He had not washed away any of that dirt.
“Change the water. Rinse all these soybeans again with clean water.”
Seeing black marks even on the white soy milk and bean pulp upon the millstone, Ying Yang suppressed her anger.
“And these too. Clean everything, quickly.”
“I intend to offer this food to A-Fu at today’s midday meal.”
She looked toward Xiangli Ji, who had been forced to his knees and restrained by attendants, yet still gazed at her with undisguised longing.
Her brows drew together.
“You’re a grown man. Don’t you know how to write the word respect? If you’re puzzled about something, you can ask me directly. But to put your hands on another person’s possessions without permission? You have no upbringing whatsoever!”
Even if she had been an ordinary person rather than a Gongzhu, Xiangli Ji would have had no right to handle her belongings simply because he was curious.
“Your family must have had a very difficult time raising you!”
She did not let Xiangli Ji speak.
Afraid that she might soften if she heard him plead, Ying Yang ordered the attendants to take him away for punishment.
Once her anger subsided, however, she could not help asking what would become of him.
Would he be put to death?
Xia Wuju felt somewhat relieved.
“So long as Gongzhu does not wish Xiangli Ji to die, he may be fortunate enough to preserve his life.”
“Very well.”
Ying Yang nodded.
Xiangli Ji was dragged away. The stone mill and soybeans were washed again, and the interrupted work of grinding soy milk resumed.
This time everything went smoothly.
More and more people happened to “pass by” and then stopped to watch. After Xiangli Ji’s outburst, the Shaofu dispatched a squad of guards to maintain order.
“A-Chi, rest a while. Someone else can take over.”
Ying Yang had once heard an old saying:
*There are three bitter labors in life: steering a boat, forging iron, and grinding tofu.*
Turning a mill was arduous work. Because the result was meant for eating, they could not simply harness a donkey or horse to it. They had to use human strength, and after enough time, even sturdy arms and backs of flesh and blood would grow weary.
“Th-thank you, Gongzhu.”
A-Chi panted heavily.
At first, he had been perfectly comfortable. He had even had time to think that the Gongzhu was underestimating him by arranging for someone to relieve him.
He had grown tall and strong from childhood. What effort could it possibly take to grind a few beans?
After a quarter of a shichen, he no longer thought so.
Time itself seemed to have slowed to a crawl.
Ying Yang directed the attendants to pour the raw soy milk into a pottery cauldron on the newly built stove.
Shaofu Qing Zao Hu offered her a new bronze cauldron instead. After considering the matter, she politely declined.
They skimmed the froth from the surface and simmered the milk slowly over a gentle flame, stirring it from time to time with a large ladle.
The raw, grassy smell of the beans disappeared.
A rich soybean fragrance spread through the air.
Taking advantage of his high position to stand close by, Zao Hu sniffed.
“What a marvelous fragrance!”
He too had come from poverty. Throughout his childhood and youth, he had eaten no small amount of bean porridge and leafy vegetable soup. He was hardly unfamiliar with shu beans.
Yet he had never known that beans, ground into liquid and cooked, could produce such a sweet, warm aroma.
Look at that jade-white color!
Smell that mellow, delectable fragrance!
Were these truly the same shu beans?
For countless generations, the poor had eaten beans merely to fill their stomachs. Could they really be this wonderful?
“Today, Zao Hu has had his eyes opened!”
His eyes widened. Rubbing his large hands together, he asked eagerly, “Most honored Gongzhu, might this minister be so shameless as to beg a cup of jade nectar as a reward?”
“Of course!”
Ying Yang inhaled the aroma with an expression of bliss.
“Later, I’ll set aside two jin for the Shaofu officials to taste.”
She smiled again.
“It’s not that I’m too stingy to share more. I simply soaked only four jin of yellow soybeans and two jin of black beans yesterday.”
Two jin of yellow beans and two jin of black beans would be made into soy milk. The remaining two jin of yellow beans were reserved for tofu pudding and tofu.
“Shaofu Qing can have someone soak more shu beans.”
Ying Yang glanced at the sun and checked the System’s clock.
“It’s now the first ke of yuzhong—nine in the morning. If the Shaofu soaks its beans until rishi—three in the afternoon—that will be just right. During bushi, from three to five, you can grind the beans and cook the milk. You can even set some tofu.”
“Set tofu?”
Setting tofu required time, so Ying Yang did not drink the first batch of soy milk.
Instead, she held out a hand to Xia Wuju.
Only after confirming that the gypsum had indeed been calcined did she use it.
Xia Wuju volunteered to grind the gypsum into powder.
He had actually brought a small medicine mortar with him!
One cauldron held approximately two and a half jin of soy milk.
Ying Yang picked up a small spoon. She had specifically spent popularity points to have the System test and calculate its capacity: when filled to the brim without overflowing, one spoonful held 1.5 grams.
Carefully, she measured one and a half spoonfuls of calcined gypsum powder into a pottery bowl, added water, and stirred until evenly mixed.
Zao Hu narrowed his eyes.
“May I ask Gongzhu what this powder and water are for?”
“This is a coagulant.”
Ying Yang poured the water containing the gypsum powder into a steaming wooden bucket.
“A coagulant? What does that mean?”
Zao Hu and Xia Wuju asked in unison.
“When a liquid becomes a solid, that is called coagulation. A coagulant is a substance that helps it happen.”
As she spoke, the second bucket of soy milk finished cooking.
Zao Hu stared in astonishment.
“We still can’t drink it?”
“Shaofu Qing, please be patient. You can drink the third bucket.”
Ying Yang poured salt-bittern solution into the second bucket.
Zao Hu let out a long sigh.
“This minister is beginning to envy Wangshang…”
Dawang would not have to endure this maddening wait.
He could simply enjoy the delicious novelty once it was ready.
How wonderful!
Author’s Note
Today I went out especially to buy a cup of soy milk, hehe. And for lunch I had stir-fried dried tofu too~
Translator’s Notes
– Stone wei (石硙): A stone mill used to grind grain or beans.
– Baihu (白虎石): A traditional term for gypsum.