Chapter 13: Seasoning
Before Chu Jiu set off, the old village chief had discussed the pricing of tofu with him.
Looking only at the cost, 10 copper coins worth of soybeans could make 30 servings of tofu.
The old village chief generously thought that selling 10 servings of tofu for 5 copper coins would be quite profitable.
But judging from Marco’s reaction, Chu Jiu estimated that Marco’s psychological price was far higher than the old village chief’s.
After all, this ingredient was a “lost craft” and a “high-end after-dinner dessert to relieve greasiness”!
If he set the price so low, it would make Marco doubt the preciousness of the ingredient.
So Chu Jiu didn’t answer immediately, but silently held up five fingers.
Marco was stunned: “50 copper coins…?”
Although the tofu was indeed delicious, 50 copper coins for a small serving was too expensive for ordinary people, and not many people in the town could afford it.
Chu Jiu nodded slowly: “Yes.”
Marco’s breathing became a little disordered.
Chu Jiu added, “50 copper coins, 10 servings.”
That was 5 copper coins per serving. Ten times the old village chief’s price.
But in Marco’s opinion, this price was only one-tenth of his previous guess!
Wasn’t this a great bargain?
Marco’s furrowed brows relaxed immediately, his eyes lit up, and he couldn’t stop smiling.
He praised Chu Jiu for being a sincere person and said quickly, afraid that Chu Jiu would go back on his word, “Okay! I’ll buy it!”
Hearing Chu Jiu say that there was a lot of tofu in the village, he immediately made a decision: he would go to Bean Village to purchase goods early tomorrow morning!
The deal was settled.
Marco bought the remaining 9 servings of tofu in Chu Jiu’s backpack, thinking about which customers to sell to first, and asked curiously, “What is this made of?”
Milk? Flour? Animal fat? Or some kind of plant juice?
Chu Jiu looked profound: “It’s made with a specialty from Bean Village.”
Marco was stunned, thinking that Bean Village had other specialties besides soybeans and corn?
But after years of experience, he knew that some things didn’t need to be asked, as long as they could make money.
*
When Chu Jiu came out of Marco’s shop, it was still early, and the other shops in the market were still open.
Chu Jiu bought a long roll of coarse cloth, two pottery pots, a kitchen knife, a frying pan, a bottle of wine, a set of spare flints, a stack of large plates, and a bag of coarse flour mixed with bran from Marco’s shop.
The other things he wanted were not in stock at Marco’s shop and needed to be purchased separately.
So Chu Jiu decided to go shopping in the market himself.
The market here was indeed full of merchants, and there were many colorful things.
After looking around, Chu Jiu successfully bought onions, tomatoes, celery, and some vegetable and fruit seeds.
He also found a textile shop selling clothes and quilts.
But a quilt here cost 200 copper coins and had a fishy smell of duck feathers.
Chu Jiu thought it would be better to sew one with linen cloth or use a beast skin sleeping bag.
After giving up on buying a quilt, Chu Jiu persevered in looking for a “wok.”
He wanted a large iron wok with a curved bottom for stir-frying.
However, all the pot vendors, including merchants like Marco, only had flat-bottomed frying pans and stew pots.
When Chu Jiu said he wanted an “iron pot that looked like a big spoon from the side,” the vendors looked puzzled and said: Shouldn’t pots have flat bottoms? How can they have pointed bottoms?
Chu Jiu quickly understood their confusion:
Just like how ancient Europe didn’t know how to “stir-fry over high heat” for a long time, this world simply didn’t have the cooking technique of “cutting vegetables into thin slices and quickly frying them in oil.” Naturally, there wouldn’t be corresponding woks.
Finally, Chu Jiu found a blacksmith shop in a corner of the market. He spent a full 350 copper coins to commission the blacksmith to make a wok for him in two weeks, and then have Marco bring it to Bean Village.
Unfortunately, although Chu Jiu knew how to make a wok, his hut didn’t have a furnace that could melt iron ore. Even if he knew the recipe and found iron ore, Chu Jiu couldn’t use his spiritual power to conjure a wok.
Besides bedding and a wok, there was a third thing Chu Jiu wanted to buy but couldn’t find:
Sauces and seasonings.
Chu Jiu went directly to the biggest seasoning shop in the market.
After hearing Chu Jiu say he wanted to buy “all kinds of spices and seasonings,” the shopkeeper happily introduced: “You’ve come to the right place.”
“In the entire Emerald Town, no one has more seasonings than I do.”
“Do you want sweet, sour, or salty?”
Chu Jiu was stunned and tentatively said, “Let’s see the salty ones first.”
The shopkeeper enthusiastically handed over a small jar: “Here, fresh fish sauce!”
“This is made from fish that has been soaked for a full half year!”
“Definitely salty enough!”
Chu Jiu believed that the sauce was definitely salty enough.
Because even without opening the jar, the strong smell of fermented fish and shrimp wafted out.
Chu Jiu’s mouth twitched, Little Can let out a “meow” as if he was about to vomit, and the little rabbit weakly roared: “What is this thing? It’s terrible, roar roar roar…”
Chu Jiu thought: This is a sauce they make by fermenting fish, just like how the Chinese ferment beans into soy sauce and bean paste. The principles are similar, but the raw materials are too different, and the methods are also different, so the final products have very different flavors.
He controlled his expression and said to the shopkeeper, “Let me see the sweet and sour sauces.”
The sweet sauces were much more normal, made from honey, jam, and butter. But the prices were shockingly high.
The sour sauce was vinegar made from grapes, and the price wasn’t too outrageous.
After looking around, Chu Jiu asked curiously, “Are there no other seasonings? Like pepper?”
In fact, Chu Jiu remembered having picture cards for seasonings like “pepper” and “cinnamon.” But except for Sichuan peppercorns and garlic, the gathering locations for other seasonings were not in the Forgotten Forest.
So before he explored those areas on the map, he planned to buy some ready-made seasonings and investigate the prices of these items.
However, the shopkeeper’s reaction surprised Chu Jiu.
“Pepper? Pepper?”
The shopkeeper repeated “pepper” several times, then stared at Chu Jiu in surprise, and finally said:
“How do you know about that? That’s the legendary black gold!”
“I heard that hundreds of years ago, before the monsters invaded, some pepper could be transported from far away.”
“Besides pepper, there’s also… what… oh! Cloves! Cinnamon!”
“Tsk tsk, it’s said that a tiny bit is incredibly fragrant, and a small bottle can be exchanged for dozens of sheep!”
“Now, not to mention our Emerald Town, even in Sea Moon City, there’s nothing like that.”
“Maybe there’s a little bit in Ancient Linburg… but that place…” The shopkeeper shook his head meaningfully.
As for what kind of place Ancient Linburg was, the shopkeeper simply waved his hand, refusing to say a word.
Hearing the shopkeeper’s explanation, Chu Jiu understood: No wonder Marco chose to boil offal in plain water. It wasn’t that he forgot to add spices, it was that there weren’t any here.
Chu Jiu didn’t ask “how much can I sell pepper for if I can get some,” or even “how much can I sell ginger for if I have some in my bag.”
In this resource-scarce alien world, rashly saying that he could find such expensive items might not be a good idea.
After all, his skills only protected him from monsters, not from robbers.
As for the urgently needed seasonings, like soy sauce and bean paste, he would have to make them himself.
*
After some shopping, Chu Jiu used the remaining copper coins to rent a small inn.
Chu Jiu lay on the hard mattress, using his scarf and clothes to make comfortable nests for the two little ones.
The little rabbit had eaten its fill of lamb and was now lying in the warm, soft nest, falling asleep instantly. While sleeping, it snored, “Hoo… roar…”
Little Can didn’t fall asleep as soon as it touched the nest, but walked around the small room, even jumping onto the windowsill to look around—it seemed to be checking if the place was safe and if there were any potential dangers.
Chu Jiu guessed that cats were probably more sensitive to their environment.
After inspecting, Little Can walked to its nest, looked at the snoring little rabbit next to it, and pushed its own cat nest with its paw, looking displeased, probably wanting to stay away from the snoring rabbit.
Seeing Little Can’s action, Chu Jiu simply sat up and moved the cat nest from the dresser to his pillow.
“Or, you can sleep here?” Chu Jiu said.
Little Can’s ears twitched, looking like “Since you insist, I’ll reluctantly agree.”
After Little Can curled up into a cat ball as usual, Chu Jiu poked its forehead with his fingertip and said what he didn’t have time to say in the afternoon:
“Little Can, did you sense in advance that it wasn’t a troll, but a little rabbit, so you ran into the forest?”
Little Can: “Meow!”—”Of course!”
Chu Jiu sighed, “Don’t act so impulsively in the future.”
Little Can: “…Meow?”—”Why?”
Chu Jiu: “I was very worried at the time.”
Chu Jiu wasn’t a very eloquent person, and he wasn’t good at expressing his feelings.
He only knew that when he saw Little Can’s shadow disappear into the dense forest, he was so nervous that he was sweating all over.
Little Can tilted its head: “Meow?”
Chu Jiu sighed again, “If there really was a troll there, or some other monster that hurt you, I… I would be very sad.”
Little Can didn’t meow again.
It raised its head and gently rubbed its forehead against Chu Jiu’s cheek.
