Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination

Chapter 103

Views:

Within two days, Ju Anzhai's recruiting and purchasing team sailed south.

This is the first time Ju'anzhai has gone to Fujian to purchase after its opening, and is also recruiting staff. The shopkeeper Ji took this matter very seriously and handled it with his own hands from beginning to end. But he was old after all, Cui Xie was worried that he had traveled such a long way, and finally decided to ask the guy from Chang Pao Nanbianer to take the guy from the Cuijia South Store.

The group of people in the Nanhuo Store originally believed that only they knew how to travel long distances to purchase goods, and they were also a little high-spirited. But since Cui Dahui was sent back to the countryside, the South Huo Store simply asked the young master to sell it. They knew who had the final say in this family, and they all honestly held their tails.

Cui Xie asked them to sign a business outsourcing red contract with Ju Anzhai, and with the official attestation, Fang Fang also counted them as half the proprietor. In addition, he is also used to running long distances. He has access and knows the rules of travel, so he manages those people obediently, and even the idea of being a monster on the road can't come up.

Because the silk and silk shop and the powder shop in the Cui Mansion also had to buy goods, Cui Xie asked the two shopkeepers to write down what they wanted to buy. The boats form a team and go together.

Due to the high mountains and rivers on the road and many gates, he took Senator Cui's post to Mr. Fang and asked him to make some connections on the road.

That's all they can do in Beijing. The risks on the road can only be handled by the long-distance team.

After Mr. Fang left, no one looked at the head office of his hometown. The shopkeeper Ji wanted to manage the affairs in the capital and could not get away, so he had to let Cui Yuan go back to take care of it first, and by the way, send someone to bring back the written manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth volumes.

Ju'anzhai's Three Kingdoms character engraving plate was bought early, and it is very convenient to install a thin strip engraved with comments on the outside of the text plate when it is typesetting. In the past few months since Cui Xie took the exam and entered Beijing, although the illustrations could not be updated, the text content had already been printed eighty times later. As long as new illustrations and color seals were engraved and bound, the book could be completed.

When the shopkeeper Ji came to Beijing to open a shop, he brought many craftsmen and apprentices. Those apprentices were not very good at printing, but they were already proficient in binding and packaging.

He also arranged for a skilled hand to trace the two posters in the store, and according to Cui Xie's idea, the engraving plate with the head, face and hands was reprinted, and the remaining part was painted according to the trace. If such a large picture is called hand-painted, it will take a long time to say, and the image will easily go out of shape. It seems that the hands and face are first determined, and the shoulders and lines are slightly different when drawing. The beautiful woman, Tutuer can sell it.

In the study, the shopkeeper Ji has always taken care of it in an orderly manner, so Cui Xie doesn't need to worry about everything. What really wants him to think about it is the powder shop.

Since that day, Cui Ting asked him to take him to talk alone, and soon brought in an eighteen-nine son named Cui Liang to help him and learn to make flower dew and soap.

There were a lot of spices and herbs in the soap, but they didn't have all of them at the moment, only a few packets of medicine were sent, and Cui Xie didn't recognize them at all. It is better to buy flowers. This is the season of gardenia blooming, and there are several flower gardens in the suburbs of Beijing that can be bought. Because the trial production only required a few kilograms of flowers, which did not take much manpower, Cui Liang went to see him with washed and dried flowers that night.

Cui Xie was a hard worker. When he saw him coming, he told him to spread some straw mats in the courtyard, spread flowers on top, and put on work clothes. He also instructed him to carefully wash the wine retort sent by Xie Qianhu, and then made a jar of precious high-quality wine, and let him use a cotton ball to dab it in the retort to detoxify the retort.

In fact, the wine retort that Xie Qianhu gave him is slightly different from the one that steamed flower dew:

Generally, the distiller for steaming flower dew is a combination of two small and round parts, the upper retort and the lower kettle, the flowers are directly placed on the bottom of the retort, the grate is on the top, an arc-shaped cover is buckled upside down, and the empty chamber above the cover is used for water injection and cooling. There are ring grooves for collecting cooling water around the grate. When a person burns a fire in the kettle, the water in the retort boils and brings out the essential oil in the flower, and then flows out from the drip port at the lower part of the retort.

The wine retort in the late Qing Dynasty was an oblong cylinder, which was placed directly on the stove for steaming; the water outlet was connected to the condensing ring at the retort mouth, and the retort cover above was hollow, which could be filled with water, and the steam was cooled by the water in the cover. , so that the steam containing essential oils condenses into water and flows out.

The tools are different, but the principle is the same, all rely on water vapor to extract essential oils.

In the chemistry book, the chapter on steaming wine only introduces the ancient distiller incidentally, but does not explain how to use it in detail. Cui Xie had only seen the big steamer that steamed wine, so he followed the method of steaming wine and asked someone to find a copper grate to put it in, put a dustpan flower on the grate, and fill the bottom of the grate with water. When the water inside is hot, open the water injection port on the top edge of the retort cover, pour in crushed ice made of saltpeter, and pour out the water after it has melted, and continue pouring ice. When the steam that came out was cold, it slowly dripped down the drip tube into a plain white magnetic bottle the size of a water cup.

After adding and changing ice several times in the cover, only half a bottle of snow-white flower dew was condensed in the end, with a thin layer of essential oil floating on the surface, which looked like a pot of white water if you didn't look closely.

Seeing that the water dripping from the mouth of the dropper was getting slower and slower, he pulled away the cloth covering his face, told Cui Liang to turn off the fire, and went back to his room with the essential oil to take a look.

The yard was not very cool at first, but the two of them had just come out of the sultry and dripping kitchen, and when they pulled off their masks, they felt a breeze blowing on their faces, which was incredibly refreshing. Cui Liang stuffed the water bottle with a cork, smelling the wind was full of fragrance, the fragrance made his nose numb, and sighed: "I liked the fragrance when I smelled it, but I always thought that I would give it to me when I got rich. The mother-in-law bought a bottle of wipes, but now she just wishes she would not wipe grease and powder for the rest of her life."

Cui Xie said with a smile: "I'm afraid that in the future, it's not that you dislike her sweetness, but that she dislikes your sweetness and forces you to take a bath every day."

Cui Liang raised his arm to smell it, and smiled bitterly: "I only feel that the nose is full of unpleasant fragrance, but I can't smell it."

When the two of them were steaming in the small kitchen, because the pot was full of flowers, the aroma of the whole room was steamed, and it was impossible to tell where the aroma came from. But carrying the flower dew from the kitchen to his house, he told Ye Feng to blow away some of the floral fragrance along the way, and his nose reopened, only then did he realize that the fragrance on his body was fragrant and refreshing, refreshing to the heart.

Cui Liang took off his big clothes outside the door, and sat in the side hall in only his middle clothes. He held the bottle in both hands, opened a little cork, leaned in and sniffed again, sniffled, and said with a trembling voice, "This is incense. Dew, it doesn't smell very fragrant, maybe it's because my nose is full of flowers, and I can't smell it, just a few catties of flowers steamed out such a little dew..."

Cui Xie asked him, "What does the fragrance from the Western Regions show?"

He honestly said: "It's hard to say. I've never seen anyone selling this kind of flower dew made from southern flowers, but they are all sweeter and stronger flavors such as roses and roses. And this flower dew is steamed from water, but I don't know how How long does it last?"

Silly child, this is pure dew steamed, and there is a layer of real essential oil on the surface. As long as the essential oil does not evaporate, it will be fragrant when it is opened.

It's just that the problem of oil-water separation has to be studied further. The essential oil on top can still be sold at a high price. If it is mixed with pure dew and sold together, it will be a bit of a waste.

Cui Xie took the bottle of Qinglu and fanned it with his hand to smell it. He felt that the smell from the fan was clean, slightly astringent of grass, and had no burnt smell. It should have been steamed. It's just that maybe because the whole courtyard is full of fragrance, I don't think it smells any special fragrance. As for the effect of lingering fragrance, let people try it.

He screwed on the lid and said to Cui Liang: "It's time to ban the night now. You can make do with finding a room in this yard to sleep in, and we'll talk about other things tomorrow. When I go out, ask Song Yan to help me prepare water for a bath - tell me He only wants saponins, no soap and pancreas, and tomorrow's clothes don't need incense. I can't stand the incense, so I have to give up the incense for a few days."

Song Yan quickly asked someone to send water and soap to the cool room. He disassembled his hair and washed the soap with water several times. He felt that he had washed off the aroma from his work before he woke up.

When he went to Shangfang for dinner the next morning, he asked Mrs. Cui to borrow a girl, saying that he wanted to try out the newly-made flower dew.

The flowers he steamed in the small kitchen in the yard, the whole yard was filled with the fragrance of gardenia, and the flowers were still hanging in the yard. It was hot at night and he refused to close the windows. He had been in the fragrance of flowers for a long time and couldn't smell it, but when he got to the upper room, everyone could smell the fragrance of his whole body and couldn't help looking at him, suspecting that he liked the fragrance he steamed yesterday too much, so he wiped it on himself. .

Cui Xie said to the old lady unconsciously: "Yesterday, the shopkeeper Cui Ting sent a few catties of gardenia flowers, and I took his son to steam this half bottle of flower dew. I just don't know how it compares to foreign flower dew. I want to borrow two people from my grandmother to compare."

The old lady smiled and said, "How can I compare! My grandson's steamed flower dew is not bad. It smells good and smells better than the one bought from outside!"

Cui Xie reluctantly said, "Grandmother said this because I'm the eldest grandson of your old man, so I can do anything? Other guests don't think so. We have to compare at home before we dare to praise them."

He wants to borrow two people, one uses his own gardenia dew and the other uses the rose dew he bought, to compare which scent will last longer and which tastes better. However, those who try the flower lotion can no longer apply fat powder, can not wear sachets, smoke clothes, and have to endure these points to use.

Those girls were all willing to support their mothers, and even Zhang's mother who served the old lady was a little tempted. Although Sister Yun also wanted to try it, she was reluctant to learn the new makeup look, so she had to sit there and learn from the ladies.

Mrs. Cui pointed to the two girls who didn't like to dress up, and said lovingly: "Just the two of them, the other people keep putting powder on them sooner or later, and the aroma penetrates into the meat, which is not as good as these two pure and simple ones. It's really fragrant."

Cui Xie naturally agreed, so he told them to bathe and change clothes, go to the sachets on their bodies, incense in the house, and stay away from the person who carried the incense on their bodies, and asked Xiao Songyan to get the flower dew he steamed and the ones sold in the store. Give them a try. The two girls were overjoyed. Those few were envious and jealous in their hearts, but they didn't dare to say anything, they all stood down aggrievedly and looked at Cui Xie secretly, hoping that one day when he steamed the flower dew again, it would be their turn.

Cui Xie didn't have time to worry about their careful thoughts, and only said to Sister Yun, "Don't worry, this has just been made, and there is still room for improvement. I will give you the best one when I come back."

The little girl immediately forgot about the tangle, and was so happy that she ate an extra bowl of porridge in the morning.

After Cui Xie arranged the experimental plan, he went to Guozijian with his schoolbag on his back. He went early, and after sitting for a while, the Xue Zhai was dyed with aroma, and the classmates only smelled the fragrance when he entered, I don't know where it came from, and he also discussed and studied whether there is a Zhai Fu who has a lodging here. through the house.

When he was queuing up to repeat the lecture, those who were close to him could smell the source of the aroma. Zhang Zhai led the team and smoked in front of him all morning. After the hall was scattered, he finally couldn't help but ask: "Where did you buy the incense of gardenia? like?"

Cui Xie asked in surprise, "Is it still fragrant? I have already washed it."

Zhang Zhaichang gave a meaningful "Oh": "Where did you get it from? I didn't expect you to study with the teaching assistant until the evening after school, so you don't delay doing anything else."

A few classmates surrounded him, shook their heads and smiled: "He Zhong is not too young, it's time to understand these things."

No no no, I don't understand!

Although Cui Xie is a man with 2 T mobile hard drives, his heart is still pure!

He quickly explained: "Last night, my servants learned to steam flower dew, and I helped them to see. It's been a long time on the side of the pot, and it's just the aroma. Brothers, where did they go?"

A young and romantic prison student went to visit Wazi, someone believed it, and a young and romantic prison student squatted by the fire to watch people steaming flower dew... Who believed

Everyone's eyes became deep. Cui Xie had no choice but to explain: "I have a fat powder shop at home, that shop is about to run out of business, and a few family members point to its expenses, so I have to help it, right? Because I don't see anything in that shop. Let them steam some new flower dew, if you don't believe it, they will make it in a few days, and I'll show you a few bottles to see."

A few supervisors said in disbelief: "Forget it, you don't need to send it. One day your store has a new product, let's go and have a look and cheer for you."

Zhang Zhaichang is a very romantic person. He knows more about these perfumes and the value of flower dew, so he asked him alone during lunch, "Are you really capable of steaming flower dew?"

Cui Xie shook his head: "It's not a complete success, I'm trying it out. Zhai Chang's wife and Ling Qianjin like this, I'll give you two bottles when it's done. Let's be honest, I presided over this matter. I This fragrance is because I steamed flowers in my own yard, and the whole yard was completely fragrant, so I was smoked like this, I am really not that kind of romantic person."

Zhang Zhaichang looked at his sincere eyes and believed it with the flow of the boat: "I believed in your character. If you spend time in the flowers every day, how can you still have the energy to study like this. I was not like them. Yes, Jing Ai pushes towards these romantic and colorful places."

Cui Xie hurriedly said a few words of humility, and then praised his character and thoughts.

After touting each other for a while, Zhang Zhaichang looked at him out of the corner of his eyes, and said lightly, "I don't dare to boast, in fact, I also know a little about Yu Xiangpin, and if He Zhongruo needs a counselor when making incense. , I can also come up with some random ideas."

He didn't know if it was sincere or polite, but Cui Xie's eyes lit up and stared at him with wide eyes: "Zhai Chang is really willing to help me? Yudi does have some questions about spices, and I don't know who to ask!"

That day, he pretended to have people send two or two of the spices he wanted to make soap, just to smell it in front of Cui Liang, put a few research poses, and then follow the recipes in the book to match them, so as not to avoid others. I wonder how he could come up with this recipe with a slap of his head.

But after the incident, the spices were sent, and the paper package was all bare and nothing, and he remembered that it is not the modern day that buys everything and gives you the instruction manual.

He didn't have a name, and he didn't know what the spice looked like. This was just the rhythm of revealing the stuffing. He didn't dare to mention the word "soap" to Cui Liang last night.

You must know that the one who really understands incense is Xiao Cui Xie, not him. Cui Liang, a powder shop clerk, doesn't understand spices. If he really sent a bunch of unnamed herbs in, he wouldn't have the ability to pick out the right spices to make soap!

In the past two days, I can make excuses to make flower dew to prevaricate the past, but when it is done, there is no way to delay it.

He planned to find a spice shop to pick up the ingredients according to the recipe and recognize the name, but he was worried that the shopkeeper would deceive him and give him fake and inferior ingredients. It just so happened that Zhang Zhai was willing to help, and it would be great if you could help identify the true and false!

Zhang Zhaichang shook his fan, driving away the strong aroma from his nose, and said with a smile: "If you want me to distinguish any aroma, then you have to stay away from me, or your nose will be full of gardenia fragrance, where else? But you can still smell it."

Cui Xie said with a smile: "I just want to buy some spices, but I'm afraid I can't buy good ones, so I want to ask the head chef to help me take a look."

The author has something to say: Pure dew is not very scientific. The freshly steamed flower dew should have a grassy flavor, and it is a bit astringent. I will change it. In addition, the articles in Chapter 94 have been simply annotated, and students who want to read them can read them again. In fact, the annotations are not very accurate, so I briefly explained the original topic, and sent the first few paragraphs of the two articles and some explanations.