The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man-Chapter 59: Preparing Ginger Tea

Leng Yuan set down the wooden bucket and closed the woodshed door.

The firewood in the woodshed was mostly gone; there wasn’t much left.

This was to be expected. No one had time to go up the mountain during the Qiushou. In a few days, everyone would head up to stock up on wood for the winter.

He quickly washed himself, then picked up the coarse cloth clothes hanging to the side and put them on.

He often went up the mountain, and since he always came back dirty, he kept a set of clothes hanging in the woodshed for convenience, just in case.

When Leng Yuan returned to their room, Gu Jiaojiao walked in carrying a bowl of ginger tea.

"Drink the ginger tea. It’ll warm you up."

Leng Yuan didn’t refuse. He took the bowl and began to drink.

The room was dim, so Leng Yuan didn’t look closely at the tea in the bowl.

He was a little surprised when he tasted its sweetness.

Taking a closer look, he realized the liquid in the bowl was the color of brown sugar.

"Where did this sugar come from?"

He remembered that they didn’t have any sugar at home.

"Is it good?"

Leng Yuan nodded.

Times were tough, and sugar was a real luxury.

Ordinary families might go a whole year without tasting sugar. Of course it was good.

Seeing that Leng Yuan liked it, Gu Jiaojiao’s eyes brightened. "I made it myself."

Leng Yuan wasn’t surprised anymore.

’Perhaps he’d been surprised so many times that he was just used to it now.’

He took another sip and noticed this brown sugar wasn’t quite the same as the usual kind; it seemed a bit sweeter.

"Made from corn stalks?"

Gu Jiaojiao was startled for a moment, then couldn’t help but give him a thumbs-up. "You could actually taste that? You’re amazing."

Having lived together for a few days, Gu Jiaojiao had come to understand Leng Yuan’s tastes.

’This man is rather picky about his food.’

When he encountered delicious food, his brow would smooth out, and his whole body would relax.

But when faced with ordinary food, though he would eat it, he’d maintain a cold expression the entire time, as if he were just completing a task.

At first, Gu Jiaojiao found it amusing, but she later discovered that Leng Yuan was incredibly sensitive when it came to food.

He could even taste subtle flavors that were difficult for most to detect.

And now, Gu Jiaojiao finally understood the reason for his cold expression.

’His sense of taste must be exceptionally sensitive. The flavors of delicious food are probably amplified, and naturally, so are the flavors of bad food.’

’What others might find merely unappetizing would be utterly disgusting to him.’

’No wonder he always looks so cold.’

’How else could he suppress what he was tasting?’

Gu Jiaojiao waited until Leng Yuan had finished the entire bowl of sweetened ginger tea before she spoke.

"I’m thinking of making some more sugar, but the corn stalks seem to belong to the collective. Do you think I could buy some from the Production Brigade Leader?"

She had found two bare corn stalks on the road earlier today. Since no one wanted them, she brought them home and tried boiling them down into sugar. To her surprise, it had actually worked.

She could only make it into a syrup to store in a jar and scoop some out when needed, though.

But no one would complain. After all, sugar ration coupons were limited; just having any at all was a blessing.

Leng Yuan was silent for a moment before speaking slowly.

"You should be able to buy some from the Production Brigade Leader."

Usually, those corn stalks were distributed to each household to be burned as firewood. No one used them to make sugar.

Of course, that was also because no one knew how.

It required precise control of the heat. Too much, and it would turn bitter; too little, and it would just be a watery liquid that spoiled after a few days.

Some kids, however, did like to pull up the stalks and chew on them.

Gu Jiaojiao was thrilled to hear she could buy them.

"With sugar, we can make lots of delicious things for the New Year! We can make sugar cakes, sponge cakes, and fried dough twists..."

None of those things tasted good without sugar.