Chapter 298: Let me show you a trick, my dear! The Yellow Mud Syrup Method!
After the juice was boiled down, several women gathered around to watch the excitement.
“The quality is pretty good, black and yellow with a nice shine, but isn’t it quite a stretch from the gold you mentioned?”
Sister Zi bent down, brushing aside the purple strands of hair that fell by her ear.
She poked the sugar syrup that Li Mo had boiled, finding it still warm enough to make a small hole with a single jab.
Then she brought her sugar-coated finger to her mouth and gave it a lick, nodding thoughtfully, “It is indeed quite sweet.”
Twenty pounds of juice resulted in only about two pounds of syrup.
The critical part is that this isn’t the final step yet.
Once all the steps are completed, it’s likely there won’t be much left of the finished product.
“It’s not over yet; I’ll perform a trick for you to open your eyes.”
Li Mo chuckled and patted Sister Zi’s pouting backside, signaling her to step aside.
Sister Zi shot him an annoyed glance.
Red Lotus, standing nearby with her eyes wide open, felt a bit awkward watching them.
By the large vat of boiling syrup, there was a funnel that seemed ready for use.
Next to it lay a bundle of dry grass.
Li Mo pulled out a handful of the dry grass to block the bottom of the funnel, then lifted a big jar to start pouring in the syrup.
Layer by layer, dry grass followed by syrup.
After only five or six layers, the two pounds of syrup had disappeared entirely.
“And then? What will it turn into?”
Red Lotus curiously stared at the funnel, and after a long time, couldn’t discern any changes.
She asked Li Mo, who was mixing mud nearby, with confusion.
Li Mo rolled up his sleeves and poured packets of yellow earth into a water bucket.
After a few rounds of stirring, the clean water in the bucket became murky yellow mud.
Sister Zi supported her arm with one hand, her other hand pinching her chin.
After circling the funnel twice, she suddenly winked at Red Lotus and said, “It will turn into gold.”
Red Lotus might have doubts about Li Mo, but Sister Zi unconditionally believed him.
She had witnessed Li Mo’s miraculous methods more than once.
If bark and bamboo could turn into white paper, this lump of slurry might really be transformed into gold.
“Bragging.”
Red Lotus pouted and spat out two words.
“Don’t believe me? Then how about we make a bet?”
The soft and enchanting eyes of Sister Zi shimmered with a brilliant light of wisdom.
Red Lotus’s eyes brightened, and she was about to agree.
Then she heard Yan Lingji beside her let out a soft cough.
She looked at Yan Lingji with suspicion.
Yan Lingji subtly shook her head.
The two of them shared a bed and ate from the same bowl; Red Lotus immediately understood her meaning.
She shook her head vigorously like a rattle drum.
“I’m not gambling, I’m definitely not gambling with you.”
Sister Zi never made a losing deal or did anything without assurance.
In this courtyard, Fei Yan had the highest talent, and Sister Zi had the highest intelligence—this was a universally recognized fact.
Sister Zi disdainfully pouted.
This girl has gotten smarter lately; she’s not that easy to trick anymore.
As they were chatting, Li Mo walked over with a bucket of yellow mud water.
Without saying a word, he lifted the bucket and started pouring it down.
Red Lotus gasped and opened her mouth wide, staring in shock!
The others were equally baffled by his actions.
Only when half the bucket of yellow mud water had been poured did Red Lotus realize what was happening.
“You, you, you, can this still be eaten?”
Originally, the liquid did not seem appetizing, and now with the mud water poured over it, it was completely inedible.
Even the usually detached Duanmu Rong couldn’t help but shake her head in amusement.
Doing this was no different from wasting food.
Jing Ni, however, sat next to the stone bench with great interest, watching Li Mo busily.
Back in Han State, when Li Mo was making paper, Yan Lingji had a similar reaction as Red Lotus.
In the end, that technique of transforming decay into the marvelous left Yan Lingji completely stunned.
“Of course, it can be eaten; whether it looks good depends entirely on this step.”
Li Mo set down the bucket, which was a third full, and pulled out the straw blocking the exit of the funnel.
The yellow mud water inside the funnel began to drip down in a fine stream.
Li Mo lifted the bucket and continued pouring the yellow mud water.
The yellow mud water continuously seeped out from the bottom of the funnel, mingling with some melted black and yellow syrup.
Sister Zi took the opportunity to peek into the funnel while Li Mo was busy lifting the yellow mud water.
She immediately exclaimed in surprise, “Hey? It seems to have changed color! Red Lotus, come over and take a look!”
“What changed color?”
The ground was covered in yellow mud water leaking from the funnel.
Hong Liang tiptoed over, lifting her skirt and hopping along.
She stretched her head to look into the funnel and gasped in surprise.
“Wow, why did the color get lighter?”
The originally black-yellow syrup had turned much lighter, becoming a semi-transparent red.
It looked like the fire rain stone from the Baiyue region.
Only, it had many pits and holes on the surface that didn’t look good.
“Not done yet; the color can get even lighter.”
Li Mo brought over a bucket and slowly poured the yellow mud water into it.
As soon as the yellow mud water was drained, a miraculous scene occurred.
The originally semi-transparent red syrup seemed to fade away; not only did the color lighten, but the thinner edges even started to turn white.
“A little more.”
Li Mo nodded, bringing over the last two buckets of yellow mud water.
One bucket after another, he poured them in.
After the last bit of yellow mud water leaked down from the funnel, Hong Liang and Sister Zi, who had been watching, gasped in astonishment, unable to close their mouths.
The syrup in the funnel had completely transformed.
The original black-yellow had completely retreated, leaving only a semi-transparent crystal riddled with holes.
Li Mo took out the crystal piece.
He lifted the straw underneath.
There was another piece of crystal of the same quality.
In total, there were five pieces, all of similar nature.
After rinsing the five pieces of crystal in clear water to wash away the residual mud, they suddenly became more translucent.
“Let me see, let me see! Wow, what happened to the color on this? It’s all gone!”
Hong Liang exclaimed as she snatched a piece of crystal from Li Mo’s hand and raised it to the sunlight.
The golden sunlight immediately penetrated the crystal, appearing lustrous and colorful.
It was completely different from the previous black-yellow color.
The others gathered around as well.
One person grabbed a piece from Li Mo and examined it closely in hand.
“Although it looks much better than before, this pockmarked appearance is still a bit awkward,” said Sister Zi, pinching a sugar piece that was smaller than her palm.
“To be able to remove the original black and yellow and transform it into something so crystalline is truly unfathomable.”
Jing Ni smiled at the corner of her mouth.
“My husband is really impressive!”
“What is the purpose of this item?”
Duanmu Rong held a piece of sugar cube in her hand, looking at Li Mo with a strange expression.
Is this the skill of the National Advisor of the Qin State?
A magic trick?
Li Mo took a porcelain bowl and snatched the sugar cube back from Hong Liang’s hand, using the energy within his body to evaporate the moisture from it.
Holding the sugar cube, he placed his hand over the mouth of the bowl and smiled, “This item is worth a fortune.”
After saying that, he gently exerted force in his hand.
The sugar cube immediately began to crumble, falling like white snow into the bowl bit by bit.
Before long, the sugar cube in his hand was completely crushed.
He extended the porcelain bowl in front of the several women, saying, “This is the finished product.”
The women stared in awe, completely speechless.
Inside the bowl lay a layer of snow-like particles, shimmering with a crystalline glow in the sunlight!
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