The Martial Doctor-Chapter 132 - 122: White Sugar Refining

Dinner in the evening.

Sun Youwei specially asked about Xie, who was not present, since they came from Baihe County together, he was considered an old hand.

Although she knew it was Mr. Xie who misplaced her father’s "physician" order, she remained kind-hearted and didn’t really blame him.

"Mrs. Luu, later, make a bowl of noodles for Xie and add an egg, just say it’s arranged by me," Lin Miao instructed Luu Wan.

Luu Wan’s expression was a bit peculiar, but she agreed. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

There was definitely something going on between Xie and Mrs. Luu, Lin Miao could tell from Luu Wan’s expression.

"Xia Zhu, we won’t have small classes tonight, go home and spend time with your parents, and bring that Mr. Shen tomorrow, I want to talk to him." The pharmacy matters need to be prioritized, we can’t put all our eggs in one basket.

"Yes, Mr. Lin," Xia Zhu nodded.

...

After dinner, Lin Miao specifically called Liuli into the study.

"Liuli, to open a pastry shop, you first need to understand our target groups, who generally like to eat pastries," Lin Miao said. Since he was going to open a pastry shop, he couldn’t just let Liuli handle everything by herself, especially since she had no experience in running a shop before.

"Children and women, and also elderly people, tend to like pastries."

"You’re right, pastries are usually sweet, women and children love them, and some puff pastries are easy to digest, so elderly people also like them. Next, we need to develop products for these three target groups. Why are my pastries delicious? It’s not just my baking skills but also the ingredients, especially the making of shortening oil, and importantly, we use white sugar, which is ten to twenty times more expensive than common colored sugar..."

The technology for purifying colored sugar isn’t difficult, but the problem is that Dongshan Prefecture doesn’t produce sugar locally. This sugar is shipped from the south, and besides wastage, there’s the transportation cost. Even if a pound of colored sugar is shipped from the south, first by water, then by land, the price increases several times, not to mention the more expensive white sugar.

In this world, the production of colored sugar is quite considerable, so eating sugar isn’t particularly extravagant, but the price of sugar is completely different between sugar-producing and non-producing regions.

Logistics costs are consistently high here.

Besides sugar, there’s also salt, but the salt here is cheap because Lanzhou has salt lakes, and the salt from these lakes is inexhaustible, making the salt here cheap and pure.

So, salt purification technology is useless here.

Pastries made with colored sugar naturally fall short in taste and texture, so white sugar is necessary.

To create tasty pastries that don’t exceed the public’s economic consumption level, solving the issue of white sugar preparation is the priority.

Lin Miao knew the technology for purifying white sugar, but even though he knew it, he hadn’t practiced it, and wasn’t sure if it could be done in this world.

All these need experimentation.

Since he didn’t have time to do this himself, he could only entrust it to Liuli.

Even poor-quality white sugar costs a silver per pound, while colored sugar is just a hundred coins per pound. The official rate is that one tael of silver is around a thousand coins, but in reality, it takes between twelve hundred to thirteen hundred coins to exchange for one tael of silver, depending on the quality of the money.

A tenfold price difference.

Lin Miao wasn’t familiar with the white sugar preparation process in this world, but in his own world, before the Song Dynasty, white sugar was extremely rare and couldn’t be mass-produced, making it incredibly precious, unaffordable, and inaccessible to ordinary people.

Even by the Ming and Qing periods, white sugar was still much more expensive than colored sugar, and average households typically wouldn’t buy it.

Ancient people used a special tree ash adsorption method for making white sugar, and later in the Ming Dynasty, a method of using yellow clay water for large-scale decolorization.

But these methods were quite primitive, very time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The best method is the activated carbon adsorption decolorization.

The main obstacle is that ancient people didn’t know about this method, because once a method is mastered, nothing remains secret, and for Lin Miao, making activated carbon is not hard at all.

Lanzhou has high-quality black coal and smokeless carbon burning technology, so by just following the steps to make activated carbon, it can be created.

Even if the purity is slightly lower, as long as it’s usable, it’s fine.

"This is the method I mentioned for making white sugar. Follow the instructions to experiment first. There’s plenty of space at the bean product workshop. Once we make white sugar, it’ll be hard for our pastry shop not to make money."

"Master, even if we don’t open a pastry shop, converting colored sugar into white sugar can make us rich!" Liuli said, trembling with excitement as she held the thin sheets of paper.

"You’re right, but this technology must be kept in our hands. If outsiders learn about it, it spells trouble, so secrecy is paramount until it’s achieved!" Lin Miao reminded seriously.

"Understood, Master." Though Liuli didn’t understand why Lin Miao stressed the severity of the situation, she couldn’t doubt him since it was due to him that she regained her freedom.

"Master, I can’t handle all this by myself. Can I ask Shi Yin to help me?" Liuli asked.

"Sure, you two can handle this together," Lin Miao replied, "I’ll arrange for guards for when you go out. Safety is the most important; everything else is secondary."

"Understood, Master."

...

"Alright, it’s done. You shouldn’t have nightmares tonight," Lin Miao said after personally using needles on Sun Youwei.

"I checked my own pulse; there’s nothing wrong. Senior, if you have work, you don’t have to stay with me," Sun Youwei reassured with a comforting smile.

"No worries, I just want to spend more time with you, to talk," Lin Miao sat at her bedside and naturally leaned over to embrace his senior sister, "With Master gone, it’s just the two of us left—does this mean we now rely on each other?"

"Mm," Sun Youwei murmured. She was a bit indulgent in her junior’s embrace, relishing the feeling of being cherished and loved.

She didn’t have any grand aspirations for the future; living and living well was enough for her.

Now, she held a new thought: to live well with her junior, helping him as much as she could.

Even if it seemed insignificant.

"Senior sister, about Qin Yanran and I..."

The woman in his arms had already closed her eyes and let out gentle snores.

Lin Miao gently laid her on the bed, tucked her in, brushed back a strand of hair that fell over her cheek, leaned over and lightly touched her forehead, extinguished the light, closed the door, and left.

Sun Youwei slightly opened her eyes, turned on her side. Actually, she had heard him; she was pretending to sleep. She knew her junior was trying to be upfront with her, but she was still scared, not daring to face this reality.

She didn’t even know what she was thinking.

...

"Old Xie, Old Xie..."

"Oh dear, I say, boss, what’s all this yelling so early in the morning?" Mr. Xie turned to see Lin Miao and muttered a complaint.

"What time is it? I’m the boss here and I’m already up, yet you, the steward, are still lying in bed sleeping. Do you think that’s appropriate?" Lin Miao joked with a smile.

"Didn’t I pull an all-nighter yesterday and my illness hasn’t cleared up yet? You know that, right?"

"Were the noodles tasty last night?" Lin Miao chuckled.

Mr. Xie’s face immediately fell: "Boss, can you not make Mrs. Luu deliver meals to me in the future?"

"Why, are you feeling wronged by Mrs. Luu sending you meals?"

"It’s not about being wronged, I’m just afraid... forget it, you’ve definitely got something you need me for, calling me so early."

"Help me send a letter to the Star-Picking Tower and hand it to their Shopkeeper Bai." Lin Miao took out a letter from his pocket and placed it on the table.

"So, just a letter, I will send it right away."

"Make sure to hand it directly to Shopkeeper Bai, and tell him it’s from me to their young master Su Chen." Lin Miao reminded him.

"Got it."

"In the future, stop eyeing on Mrs. Luu, this time it’s croton, next time who knows what it’ll be."

"She told you?" Mr. Xie exclaimed in surprise.

"Haha, I guessed."

"You’re tricking me, Lin..."

"What, not satisfied? Looking to vent on me, then let’s find a place to spar. I’m pent up too..."

"Boss, you got me. I’ll go send the letter right now." Mr. Xie got up from bed, grabbed the letter from the table and tucked it into his chest.

Fighting with Lin Miao, not to mention his current condition, even if he were healthy, he’d still only end up getting beaten.

...

Coming out from the porter’s lodge, he heard a commotion at the front door, like a crowd had gathered at their doorstep.

"Old Xie, open the door and see what’s going on outside?"

Mr. Xie quickly wiped his face, ran over, removed the door bolt, opened it, and found quite a crowd at the front entrance.

Many were familiar faces, all neighbors from nearby streets.

"Dear neighbors, what brings you to our doorstep so early in the morning?" Mr. Xie was puzzled but since everyone was a neighbor, and it’s the New Year, he couldn’t just drive them away, had to ask what was going on.

"Mr. Xie, when will Mr. Lin the physician begin consultation?"

"Consultation typically stops for five days during the New Year festivities, unless it’s an emergency threatening life, so likely won’t resume until the fifth."

"Can’t it start a little sooner? We can’t wait any longer."

"Can’t wait, what’s the..."

"I’ve got a terrible headache..."

"I’ve had a stomach ache since yesterday evening!"

"My son suddenly has a fever this morning..."

"I coughed all night last night and feel awful. If I don’t see the physician, I fear this cough will be the end of me, cough cough..." said an old man covering his mouth, coughing violently.

The crowd each voiced their concerns, eager to see Lin Miao for treatment.

"Old Xie, explain to everyone, thirty consultation slots, I’ll see to it in the afternoon, then post a notice outside, we’ll close for another day tomorrow, and the day after starts consultations as usual." At a loss for handling the crowd, Lin Miao’s voice came from inside.

With so many gathered at the door, that’s not manageable either, can’t just drive them away, that would be improper.

"Thank you, Mr. Lin the physician!" A group of people bowed and expressed gratitude, spreading the news around.

Soon, the consultation point opened.

"Did you overindulge yesterday? Drinking too much, not surprising you have a headache. It’s not serious, I’ll give you a prescription, get the medication, take it, and you’ll be fine."

"Feeling down, had a couple more drinks..."

"You’ve been eating too much rich food these days, and your digestive system isn’t great, it’s no wonder you have diarrhea. I’ll prescribe some medication, take five doses to adjust, avoid greasy and spicy foods for the time being, got it?"

"Got it, Mr. Lin the physician!" The patient nodded gratefully.

"No worries, caught a bit of a cold, prescribe some medicine, sweat it out and it’ll be fine." Lin Miao checked on the child and quickly diagnosed.

"What’s your condition?" Another patient came in, face flushed, runny nose, headache, fever, body fatigue, nausea, vomiting.

Classic symptoms of wind cold invasion, directly treated with "Ma Huang Tang".

Another patient suffering from diarrhea, not from overeating but due to catching a cold and gastrointestinal dysfunction.

Lin Miao considered and prescribed Codonopsis and Atractylodes Powder, could also use Fu Zi Li Zhong Soup, but Fu Zi is toxic, if mishandled, the illness wouldn’t be cured, and might cause poisoning.

Soon thirty consultation slots were finished, but Lin Miao saw more still waiting outside, and had time, so asked Xia Zhu to add ten more slots.

The ailments during the festival mostly arise from overeating, particularly the diarrhea cases, nine out of ten were related to "eating".

During the New Year festivities, overeating and overdrinking won’t do.