Chapter 106: Too Poor to Eat Pickles
After Meng Chong let out a burp, he rubbed his swollen and rounded belly with a smile that was uglier than crying, "Your Majesty, it's still a bit bitter."< br>
When Zhu Zaijing heard what Meng Chong said, he couldn't help but wonder. There was already a lot of sugar in it, and if he added more, it would really be too much.
Zhu Zaijing couldn't help but pick up a bowl of green tea that he had just prepared and took a sip. After taking this sip of green tea in his mouth, Zhu Zaijing also felt the taste carefully.
It is indeed a bit bitter, but where is the problem?
How to control the ratio of tea powder and sugar?
At this moment, Zhu Zaijing couldn't help but have a headache. He originally wanted to make a bottled green tea drink that was popular before time travel, but he never expected that this process would be so difficult.
Not to mention how it tastes now, the first step of grinding the tea powder took Zhu Zaijing a lot of effort. Otherwise, the first grinding of the tea powder would be used to make green tea drinks. What is in the tea soup? Almost all the tiny tea residues can be seen with the naked eye.
So in order to make the tea residue invisible, Zhu Zaijing had to improve the grinding process and gave extremely high rewards to the craftsmen who made the tea powder.
Now the tea powder has finally become finer, and there are no more tea residues floating in the liquid. However, the taste has not been neutralized well, and there is always an inexplicable feeling.
The taste is so different from the green tea that Zhu Zaijing drank for two yuan and a half a bottle before traveling through time. It tastes like oolong tea that costs four yuan a bottle.
This flavor is really hard to come by.
After all, the Ming Dynasty was still an era of relatively scarce material life, even for the princes and nobles.
So sweets are the king of this era. If you really want to come up with that kind of bland oolong tea drink, there is a high probability that it will not be eaten in the Ming Dynasty.
After all, what kind of tea do these dignitaries want to drink? Why spend so much money to drink a tea drink that is not much different from the tea you usually brew, and even tastes worse?
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for Zhu Zaijing to push this immature drink to the market.
Otherwise, wouldn’t this sign that has been maintained for almost a year be destroyed?
Zhu Zaijing gritted his teeth and said, "Try again! Don't stick to tea powder and sugar this time. You can also try other seasonings, such as honey, fruit nectar, etc. I don't believe it. There is no popular drink."
Zhu Zaijing picked up the "Tea" booklet of "Yongle Dadian" and read it, hoping to find inspiration from the wisdom of his ancestors.
But it is a pity that although the wisdom of our ancestors is superb, it is still within expectations.
If you really want to create the best-selling bottled green tea of later generations, you still have to carry out a lot of trial and error experiments.
Faced with such a result, Meng Chong had no choice but to continue adjusting the proportions according to Zhu Zaijing's requirements and continue to test more added ingredients according to Zhu Zaijing's requirements.
But even so, Meng Chong did not complain at all.
Because Meng Chong knew very well that the reason why he was able to do these things was because of Zhu Zaijing's selfless trust in him.
Like Teng Xiang, Chen Hong, Li Fang and others later, they were far behind. They always had to be a step away from knowing the core secrets, or even not be able to know them.
Therefore, with this special trust, even if Meng Chong drank to his heart's content, he was still willing to do so.
Zhu Zaijing read the book for a while and thought that today was the time for Gao Gong to teach, so he said: "You try it slowly here first, I am going to class. The drinks made from these experiments , just taste it, don’t be stupid, drink it all at once, if you keep drinking like this, you will be strangled to death sooner or later!”
Although Zhu Zaijing’s words were very rude, they made Meng Chong feel very sad! It's touching.
Meng Chong replied: "I remember this, my slave."
Zhu Zaijing hummed, "Okay, then you can continue the experiment here. I am leaving."< br>
Zhu Zaijing left here and went to the study in the front yard. Not long after Zhu Zaijing arrived in the study, Gao Gong arrived.
When Zhu Zaijing saw Gao Gong arriving, he stood up and went to the door to greet him, "Mr. Gao."
When Gao Gong saw Zhu Zaijing greeting him, he also hurriedly greeted him He bowed: "I pay my respects to the prince."
Zhu Zaijing smiled kindly and said: "Sir, please come in quickly. The students have been waiting for a long time."
Gao Gong was very happy when he saw Zhu Zaijing's enthusiastic and eager-to-learn attitude. It was a great blessing in life to have such a respectful and eager-to-learn student.
After the two of them arrived and sat down in the study, Zhu Zaijing seemed to suddenly think of someone again.
Zhu Zaijing asked: "How is Hai Rui now?"
Gao Gong replied: "Hai Rui is now in charge of government affairs at the Ministry of Household Affairs. I heard that he is planning to marry both my mother and his wife. Take it over. Hey, I really don’t know how he can live in the capital after taking my mother and madam over.”
At this point, Gao Gong couldn’t help but sigh. As a veteran in the capital for many years, Gao Gong was very aware of the difficulties in the capital, and it was unimaginable that he could really take over his mother and his wife with only a meager salary.
When Zhu Zaijing heard this, he also said thoughtfully, "Hai Rui is really the most filial person to take my mother over."
Gao Gongdao: "The most filial piety is true, but the cost of living in the capital is extremely high. Gao, what will he do if there are two more mouths suddenly added?"
Zhu Zaijing also said helplessly: "Langzai, I am not a boy who wants to scatter money, and even if I dare to scatter, he will. He may not dare to accept it, so he can only solve his difficulties by himself."
"But based on my understanding, I feel that Hai Rui will not let my mother and madam come over like this. They are all idle. Maybe her mother and wife will have to weave at home for household needs."
"When his mother and wife really arrive, you can send him some rice, flour, grain and oil on my behalf. A few kilograms of meat, otherwise their family would probably have to eat pickles in the capital.”
When Gao Gong heard what Zhu Zaijing said, he couldn't help but sigh, this Hai Rui is really a weirdo!
If this were applied to ordinary Beijing officials, how could they live in such poverty?
No matter how hard it is, you can still eat meat a few times a month. Now that I heard what King Yu said, it was really possible that Hai Rui and his family could live in the capital eating cornbread and pickles.
Gao Gongdao: "I have remembered it."
Zhu Zaijing also agreed, "Just treat Hai Rui with a normal attitude. He is a very arrogant person and does not like to take advantage of others." People are cheap, and they won’t accept even if you give them a lot. So it’s better to be normal and let him pay if he wants to, and let him pay back if he wants to. Anyway, don’t force yourself to do anything.”
Gao Gong also responded with deep understanding. During this period, he had more contact with Hai Rui. Hai Rui was indeed as Zhu Zaijing said. Sometimes the two of them would eat out together, and they would be so tight that they couldn't open the pot. Hai Rui actually rushed to pay. I really don’t know what he was thinking.
But precisely because of this, Gao Gong also felt that Hai Rui was an open and sincere person, without the philistinism and selfishness of ordinary people, and he was a friend worthy of deep friendship.
It’s just that sometimes Gao Gong also feels that Hai Rui’s character is a bit fucked up because of his personality and perspective on things, but overall he can still tolerate it.
So in addition to Zhu Zaijing's instructions and respect, Gao Gong also tolerated Hai Rui to a certain extent. Otherwise, with his temper, he and Hai Rui would have been at odds with Mai Mang over their opinions on certain things. .
Of course, this is also a temper that treats things differently than people. Therefore, from a certain perspective, Gao Gong, who has a hot temper, can be regarded as a cute person.
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Asking for a monthly pass
(End of this chapter)