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墨書 Inktalez
"Not enough? Then skip the tofu and get more meat!"
Wang Yan pouted; he didn't really like eating tofu.
"Hahaha, Yuan Er, you have no idea how the villagers feel about tofu," Wang Zhaoran explained with a smile. "This little guy doesn't like tofu, that's for sure."
"Actually, you only dislike it because you've only had old tofu. There are many kinds of soy products besides that, and you probably haven't tried most of them."
"Never tried? What are they?" Wang Yan asked curiously. Although he wasn't fond of tofu, he did enjoy eating!
"There's big tofu, small tofu, tofu pudding, soy milk, fermented tofu, and frozen tofu!"
"Wow, so many!" Wang Yan exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he realized that beans could be made into so many different foods.
"Yuan Er, do you know how tofu is made?" Seeing the two of them getting along well, Yu Suihuan couldn't help but chime in.
"Godmother, how is tofu actually made?"
Wang Yan was bright and eager to learn; it seemed he was interested in everything.
"In 114 BC, Liu An was granted the title of Huainan Wang. His palace was located in Anhui Shouxian. He was always obsessed with researching methods for immortality. One time, he tried using spring water to grind soybeans to make bean juice and used that to cultivate elixir seedlings. Unexpectedly, instead of creating an elixir, the bean juice reacted with gypsum and formed tofu, which has been passed down ever since."
"However, the tofu we make here doesn't use gypsum; we use lye water instead. Isn't there a saying? 'Lye water makes tofu; one thing overcomes another!'" Wang Zhaoran added, and the two of them exchanged words as if they were teaching a child.
Before long, they arrived at the Tofu Workshop, where steam was continuously rising from the small building. The indoor lighting was slightly dim, and several large vats were placed against the walls. The vats were filled with white substances—some thick and some thin—along with soy milk. On the other side stood a stone mill with remnants of soybean dregs still clinging to it.
A rope was tied to the beam above, connected to a wooden rod on the stone mill below. Two women, one old and one young, grasped the wooden handles, pushing in unison to keep the stone mill turning. A young girl, not very old, continuously scooped soaked beans from a large wooden barrel with a spoon and poured them into a small circular hole above the stone mill.
As they ground the beans, a milky-white residue and soy milk flowed through the reserved outlet of the stone mill into a larger wooden barrel below. Shortly after, a man scooped a large ladle of boiling water and poured it into the barrel. After being scalded by the hot water, a layer of white foam formed on top of the barrel, which the man scooped away completely.
Next, the women ladled out the contents from the barrel, pouring them into a bamboo basket lined with cloth that was set over a large pot.
"Grandma, what are you doing?" Wang Yan asked curiously, her little eyes darting around as she took in everything.
"Hahaha, this is filtering the bean residue!" replied the kind-faced old lady with a smile.
Yu Suihuan looked worried; fresh tofu was difficult to handle. It would easily break apart if jostled too much. By the time they got home, it would probably be nothing but tofu scraps.
"Auntie, can we borrow your donkey cart?"
"What? Borrow a donkey cart?" As soon as Yu Suihuan spoke, everyone in the mill turned to look at her in unison, their expressions as if they were staring at a fool. They had come all this way only to ask to borrow a donkey cart instead of buying tofu?
"Auntie, it's like this: our village is having a banquet today and we want to buy all your tofu. We came here on our bicycles and it's hard to carry it back, so we thought we could borrow your donkey cart. We’ll pay you for it!" Wang Zhaoran quickly intervened, and everyone in the mill finally relaxed.
"Are you really going to take all of it? That’s over ten boxes of tofu! You really want it all?" A middle-aged man stood up uncertainly, looking at them.
"Yes, we really want it all! How much will it cost? We don’t need to trade beans; we’ll pay you!"
Seeing Wang Zhaoran's sincere expression, the owner realized he didn’t seem like he was joking. "Wait a moment; let me calculate!"
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