I Became the Eldest Daughter of a Fallen Family - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 8. Making Tang Hulu
Through her conversation with her father, So Yeon-hui learned quite a few important facts.
For instance, that Ju Ha-jin was on terrible terms with the Crown Prince born of the Empress, or that Chungyang Prefecture fortunately lay outside the sphere of influence of either the Honored Consort Yeon or the Prime Minister’s House.
She also learned that the region suffered frequent natural disasters, making it a rather harsh place for common folk to live.
‘There’s no better place to build real strength and earn merit.’
In a region plagued by calamities, providing adequate relief alone would bring recognition to the court.
‘And if nothing else, by assisting the local administrator and building good relations, I could quietly expand my influence.’
The Capital Region was tightly controlled by Yeongga, backed by the Honored Consort, but this frontier region was different.
Still, to accomplish any of this, she first needed to accumulate enough wealth to feed many people in this area.
The tang hulu business had just acquired one more reason it absolutely had to succeed.
Once her parents left at dawn to clear new fields, So Yeon-hui quietly woke her younger siblings and gathered them in the kitchen.
She then distributed bamboo straws, each one carefully fashioned from finger-thick bamboo, to each of them.
“What’s this for?”
“To remove the seeds from hawthorn fruit. The seeds contain toxins, and eating them by mistake can be very dangerous.”
Hawthorn used as medicinal material was typically dried and boiled anyway, so it didn’t matter if they split it in half for sale, but tang hulu hawthorn had to be prepared differently.
“I’ll show you how to use this to remove the seeds.”
So Yeon-hui spoke as she picked up a hawthorn fruit, cleaned and gleaming with a fresh shine, alongside the bamboo straw.
Placing the straw at the very center of the red fruit and gently twisting as she pushed it in, a soft cracking sound emerged.
“Now just do the same on the other side.”
She flipped the fruit and, using the straw, gently carved away the flesh on the opposite side in the same manner, then applied a bit more pressure with her pushing hand.
The seed popped right out along with a small amount of fruit flesh.
“See? Simple, right?”
The children gasped in wonder when they saw the hawthorn, now with a neat circular hole and nothing but the seed removed.
“Not hard at all! We could do this as much as we need to.”
“Yeah. When we remove jujube pits later, we could use the same method, couldn’t we?”
When it came to food, the boy’s mind certainly worked fast.
So Yeon-hui smiled faintly at her clever younger brother’s remark.
With the three of them working in concert, their hands moved with such diligence that they finished preparing all the hawthorn fruit without taking long.
The youngest, So Yeon-u, in particular, showed unusually deft and swift hands.
“You’re doing wonderfully for your first time, really. You must have gotten your manual dexterity from Father?”
“Huh? Father has good hand skills too?”
“Of course. Those chopsticks we use, the ladles—Father made them all. And this skewer here, he made it for us too.”
As she spoke, So Yeon-hui threaded the hawthorn fruits one by one onto the skewers she and her father had prepared beforehand.
Her younger sister immediately let out a gasp of admiration.
“Wow, how pretty! It looks just like beaded string!”
“Right? But it’ll look even prettier once we coat it with sugar.”
A treat that looked appetizing sold well, just as a fancy-looking rice cake found its market. Tang hulu, looking so delicious, ought to sell splendidly, wouldn’t it?
There was one obstacle, however: how on earth would she explain the existence of “sugar” to the children?
‘They have malt syrup, so they won’t struggle with the basic concept. But if they ask where we got such precious honey candy…’
So Yeon-hui gazed at her two younger siblings for a moment.
Despite the plan being utterly groundless, they wore such determined expressions as they followed her lead, stringing the fruit onto skewers.
‘All right. Faith deserves to be answered with faith.’
After a moment’s deliberation, So Yeon-hui set down the skewer she’d been working on.
Then she spoke to her two siblings, who were absorbed in making hawthorn skewers.
“You two, I actually have something to confess.”
At her sudden serious tone, the children blinked blankly at her.
Taking advantage of that unguarded moment, So Yeon-hui launched her confession attack.
“Since yesterday, I’ve suddenly gained a mysterious ability. Jijang Bosal gave it to me.”
Did Sister eat the wrong mushroom again?
But she seemed fine this morning at least.
So Yeon-su and So Yeon-u both frowned simultaneously, wearing suspicious faces.
“What kind of ability?”
When So Yeon-su asked, hoping for clarification, So Yeon-hui swallowed hard and quietly opened the Jijang Mall.
The children seemed unable to see the window floating in the air, but she paid it no mind and continued.
“You remember the dream I told you about? I said that world inside the dream was very different from this one.”
“Yeah.”
“My ability lets me gain merit by doing good deeds, and I can use that merit to buy things from the Dream World.”
With that, she immediately purchased a bag of sugar.
As if on cue, a delivery box materialized in the air and dropped with a soft thud at her feet.
“Huh…?”
“What, what is it? How did a box just appear from thin air…!”
The children jumped up from their seats in shock.
But So Yeon-hui, unmoved, opened the cardboard box and pulled out a bag of sugar from inside.
“Impressive, right? This is ‘sugar,’ the thing I bought using that ability.”
She held the pristine white bag of sugar before her siblings’ gaping faces and smiled broadly.
The children now looked as though they might faint at any moment.
* * *
“What, what did you say it was?”
“Sugar.”
“Sugar… what is it?”
“A sweet seasoning extracted from sugarcane. Just think of it as something like honey candy.”
So Yeon-hui spoke as she poured sugar into a pot.
Then she added half that amount of water and gently began dissolving the sugar.
“Snow, is it? It melted and turned to water?”
“Idiot. Since it’s snow-like sweetness, that’s why it’s called sugar!”
Though she teased her twin, So Yeon-su’s wonder was beginning to shift into genuine amazement.
‘Sugar. It really does deserve the name.’
It was the finest powder he had ever seen.
From the moment the brilliant white, fine-grained powder tumbled down, he found it captivating, but when she dissolved it in water, it became perfectly transparent.
“…So the world Sister saw in her dreams has things like this everywhere?”
“Well, yes.”
“Could it be the Immortal Realm?”
“What? That can’t be.”
It was a world where criminals like Ju Ha-jin strutted about freely—hardly the Immortal Realm!
She waved her hand dismissively.
Then, as pretty, transparent bubbles began rising gently, she quickly reduced the fire and carefully dropped a bit of the dissolved sugar syrup into a bowl filled with cold water.
“Now, do you want to try what comes out of this?”
At her words, the children eagerly reached out.
The moment they put the sugar clumps from the water into their mouths, their eyes grew wide.
“Wow! It really is sweet!”
“What, what? Why is the candy crispy?”
In this era, “sweetness” typically meant honey, rice syrup, or malt candy.
Malt candy was generally either sticky or so hard that it was difficult to eat without dissolving it in water.
But pure sugar syrup, when cooled hard, lost its stickiness and retained only a light crispness.
‘And the sweetness surpasses malt candy by far.’
The siblings marveled repeatedly at the novel texture and the pure sweetness that bloomed across their tongues.
“Good. It looks like it’s working.”
Confirming that the syrup had set properly, So Yeon-hui picked up a hawthorn fruit skewer with a satisfied expression.
She quickly dipped the skewer into the syrup, rolled it gently, and withdrew it.
“Ohhh…!”
As the syrup dripped down and spread evenly, the children cried out in wonder.
The plain red hawthorn skewer from just moments before now gleamed, dressed in a transparent coat.
“Wow! So beautiful!”
“It’s not even finished yet.”
“Still!”
At So Yeon-u’s exclamation, So Yeon-hui chuckled and carefully set the tang hulu skewer on a ceramic platter she’d prepared beforehand.
“Once the syrup coating is even, just place it on the platter to cool. But you have to hurry and finish the rest before the syrup gets too sticky.”
What followed was endless, mindless labor.
With practiced hands, So Yeon-hui swiftly coated the skewers in syrup and arranged them neatly on the platter.
After repeating this many times, the platter was finally brimming with tang hulu, releasing a sweet fragrance.
About half an hour later.
“Oh! These seem to have hardened already?”
So Yeon-u gently touched one of the earlier-made skewers and called out.
“Carefully pick one up. If it comes cleanly off the platter, we’re done.”
At her sister’s words, Yeon-u carefully lifted one skewer.
As her sister had promised, the tang hulu released from the platter displayed nothing short of ethereal grace.
“So pretty……”
So Yeon-su murmured, entranced.
Five fruit pieces threaded on a single skewer looked just like a string of jeweled beads.
The hawthorn fruit, especially, now clothed in transparent sugar, glowed a vivid red, and with even the slightest movement, it caught the light and sparkled like a true jewel.
“What do you think—will these sell well?”
At So Yeon-hui’s question, the children nodded as if bewitched.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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