Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"Um..."

Howa suddenly fell silent.

He didn't know either.

After thinking for a while, he said,

"Ask Little Six. Little Six knows."

Gang Gye said,

"They're used for cooking."

Old Madam Gang was already smelling the onions and cilantro.

The sharp, pungent scent was easy to notice. Hearing that they were used in cooking, she guessed they were probably something similar to ginger or garlic.

After asking a few more questions, she realized that was basically the case.

Gang Gye explained,

"I heard the merchants talking back then. They said you can use these in cold dishes, and they taste even better when fried."

"They said people in their region eat them like that all the time."

"Grandmother, we're going to make that huiyu dish anyway, right? I want to try frying these together with scallions and ginger."

"Maybe it'll taste even better."

Old Madam Gang thought about it.

There didn't seem to be any harm in trying.

They could fry a little first. If it tasted bad, they could simply stop.

Using a small amount of oil wasn't a big problem either.

So she readily agreed.

"All right."

As time passed, the rest of the family gradually returned.

Old Madam Gang told everyone about the onions and cilantro.

After Gang Jo-hang saw them, he frowned.

"Back then, weren't you two clearly drooling over fruit?"

"Little Six, are you sure you aren't remembering it wrong?"

If they ate something strange and became sick, that would be serious.

At the time, his injured leg had made it difficult for him to move around, so he had remained seated and watched the children.

The eldest brother had been waiting near the road entrance for the second brother to return.

But Gang Gye nodded firmly.

"I'm sure."

"The merchants said so themselves."

"I even saw their cook frying food with these."

"I thought it was interesting and watched him for a while."

"Then when we said we wanted to take the fruit seeds home and plant them, that man said I was cute and gave me these seeds too."

After hearing Gang Gye's explanation, everyone believed him.

Gang Gye never forgot anything he had seen once.

There was no reason for him to remember it incorrectly.

Besides, ever since he was little, people had always liked him because of his good looks.

Whenever people saw Gang Gye, they often wanted to tease him a little or give him something.

Since his son sounded so certain, Gang Jo-hang stopped questioning it.

No one else paid much attention to the seasonings either.

They probably assumed there wouldn't be much difference whether the dish contained them or not.

Old Master Gang sat in the courtyard waiting for the meal when something suddenly occurred to him.

He called Gang Gye over.

"The next time you meet that physician, tell him we sold the massage prescription to a medical hall."

"Your father wants to give him the silver we received."

That physician had treated them so generously even though they were strangers.

The Gang family couldn't be too greedy in return.

They weren't the kind of people who liked taking advantage of others.

Eight taels was certainly a large sum.

But if it hadn't rightfully belonged to them in the first place, returning it was only proper.

The only problem was that they had sold the prescription without asking the physician's permission.

At the time, everything had happened so suddenly that they hadn't thought that far ahead.

It hadn't been intentional.

As for failing to keep the massage method secret, neither Old Master Gang nor Gang Jo-hang thought that was a serious issue.

The physician had easily given the method to a strange child.

And if they had wanted to find another physician to learn how to perform the massage properly, then regardless of whether they sold it or not, keeping the method secret would have been impossible.

Besides, according to the physician, this kind of massage technique wasn't particularly rare.

Only a few details in that prescription were relatively new and clever.

It couldn't really be called a secret technique.

The price it had sold for also showed roughly how valuable it was.

Huichun Hall was a medical hall trusted by ordinary people.

If Huichun Hall said that, there was no reason to think they were lying.

Still, fundamentally, the Gang family knew they had handled the matter improperly.

So they had to do what was right.

Gang Gye nodded.

This was also exactly why he had decided not to keep using that mysterious physician as an excuse in the future.

Every time he did, it took forever to explain everything to his family.

Next time, he needed a different method.

"That physician probably won't care much."

"It wasn't an amazing prescription anyway, and the idea I gave him helped him a lot too."

"But if I meet him again, I'll tell him."

"Good."

Old Master Gang nodded.

"Even if he doesn't care, we still have to do what we're supposed to do."

Since all the dried huiyu had already been ground into fine powder, they decided to make one batch first and taste it.

After lunch, everyone followed Gang Gye's instructions.

They made the konjac, then sliced it into thin strips and scored the surface with small cuts.

Gang Gye himself had never specifically researched the ideal size for spicy konjac strips.

But in his previous life, he remembered a large food company advertising that research had shown their particular size gave the best chew.

Whether that claim had actually been true, Gang Gye had no idea.

Still, there was no harm in copying roughly the same size.

If the pieces were too large, then when they sold them, they might have to charge one copper coin per piece.

That felt awkward.

But if they sliced them thinner and smaller, they could give customers several pieces for one copper coin.

Ah.

They could also provide small toothpicks or bamboo picks to use like skewers.

Eating them little by little with a pick would make it feel as though the customer had received a lot.

It would also make the snack last longer.

Yes.

That seemed like a good idea.

After slicing the konjac, they couldn't season it immediately.

They first had to add water, freeze it overnight, thaw it the next day, steam it again, and only then season it.

Gang Jo-hang handled the freezing.

Ice made using saltpeter couldn't be eaten directly.

But if they placed saltpeter in a large basin and then put a smaller basin inside it, the food in the inner basin wouldn't be affected.

Since freezing took quite a while, they used the waiting time to prepare the chili oil needed for seasoning the next day.

They slowly heated cilantro, onion, star anise, cinnamon, and various other spices in oil.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were all common in this era.

Spices like star anise existed too.

People even used them to braise meat.

After years of trade and development, such spices weren't especially expensive.

With the rest of the time, Gang Gye clung to his father and learned a few more characters.

The next day soon arrived.

The moment everyone woke up, they hurried to take out the frozen konjac and let it thaw.

By the time breakfast was finished, it seemed to have thawed enough.

They placed the konjac on the steaming tray and began steaming it.

Once it was fully cooked, they naturally moved on to seasoning it.

Gang Gye made two flavors first.

One was sour and spicy.

The other was fragrant and spicy.

For the sour-spicy flavor, he added pickled red chili peppers and pickled ginger.

For the fragrant-spicy flavor, he used several kinds of doubanjiang they had bought in town, which they had further processed and cooked at home.

After everything was mixed, Old Madam Gang first fed Gang Gye a bite.

Then she gave each of the other grandchildren a taste as well.

Gang Gye's eyes immediately lit up.

This is really good!

It was soft yet springy.

Freezing had given it an even chewier texture.

Compared with the spicy konjac he had eaten in his previous life, they had reproduced the taste surprisingly well.

Old Madam Gang said,

"You adults should get your chopsticks and try some too."

"Tell me what you think."

The adults had been looking forward to this moment too.

Everyone quickly grabbed chopsticks and tasted a piece.

The fragrant, fresh flavor instantly filled their mouths.

But before the adults could even speak, the children couldn't hold themselves back.

"Grandmother, I want more."

Howa opened his mouth and begged for another bite.

"Me too! Me too!"

Dohwa immediately joined in.

Munsaeng and Haenghwa were the same.

Gang Gye had only been in this world for a few days.

Yet even he suddenly felt as though he hadn't eaten anything truly delicious in years.

He wanted more spicy konjac too.

"It tastes almost the same as the one I had before."

Old Madam Gang laughed happily.

"All right, all right. Come one at a time."

"Grandmother will feed you."

Of course she was delighted.

They had made something delicious.

If they sold it, they could probably earn money.

The adults also began giving their opinions.

To be honest, the flavor was extremely distinctive.

It was completely different from the ordinary cold dishes they had eaten before.

This was also an era where there weren't many foods of this type.

Even Old Master Gang, who didn't care much about food, had to admit that the spicy konjac tasted quite good.

The eldest son laughed.

"Looks like we really can do business with this."

Madam Sun took another bite and nodded repeatedly.

"Exactly. I'm sure a lot of people will want to buy it."

"No one in town sells anything like this yet."

"I think it can work."

Old Master Gang spoke decisively.

"Then let's discuss how we're going to sell it."

"If we're doing this, let's do it properly."

The discussion was for the adults.

It had nothing to do with the children.

Old Madam Gang scooped a plateful for them.

The children gathered together and happily ate, too busy to care about anything else.

That night, the family finalized the basic plan for the business.

There were still several preparations to make.

For example, they needed oil paper for wrapping the spicy konjac.

They also needed small bamboo skewers to give customers instead of chopsticks.

They had to decide where in town to sell it, and whether they needed stools or a table for the stall.

Once the discussion ended, Old Master Gang began assigning tasks.

"Starting tomorrow, we'll make the food."

"Since the huiyu needs to be ground into powder and then frozen overnight, we'll officially go into town to sell it the day after tomorrow."

"Third Son, go into town tomorrow and buy oil paper."

"You know the town well, so look around and find a suitable place for us to set up the stall."

"Eldest and Second, the two of you make a light wooden table tomorrow."

"Make sure it's easy for us to carry."

"Then cut some bamboo and split it into small pieces."

"People can use those to eat the spicy konjac."

All three brothers answered that they understood.

After the tasks were assigned, the second son spoke.

"Father, about Munsaeng's studies."

"We've discussed it, and we think it would be fine to send him to the same private school Daejang attended."

"Munsaeng isn't that young anymore."

"We'd like him to start learning as soon as possible."

If he didn't attend a proper school and continued only learning a few characters each day like he did now, it fundamentally wouldn't be enough.

Compared with children his age who were already studying properly, he would only be wasting time.

Old Master Gang had no objection.

The teacher at Daejang's former private school was a xiucai and taught more than thirty students.

After all, there was a common saying that xiucai were poor while juren were rich.

If a xiucai didn't accept many students, it would be difficult to support himself.

Otherwise, people wouldn't have come up with the saying that xiucai were poor in the first place.

That private school accepted almost anyone.

As long as someone wanted to study there, they could enroll.

However, judging from how many times Daejang had secretly skipped lessons, the teacher didn't seem particularly strict about managing his students.

Still, he was a xiucai.

His learning was certainly sufficient.

Most of the other private schools were similar anyway.

This one wasn't especially bad.