226 Practice

The next day, Jian Qingqing went to the county town and bought all the milk, flour, eggs, and so on. She began to teach her mother how to make various desserts, egg tarts, bread, and so on, as well as all kinds of milk tea.

She could no bear to use the box of tea that Ming Zhiyan had given her, so she randomly bought a box of medium-priced milk tea.

To make milk tea and drink desserts, all kinds of fruits and jam were needed. Generally, there were not many people selling fruits in the county town. Jian Qingqing called the children of the village to go up the mountain to pick fruits, and as long as they could eat, she would want them all. Then, she would choose to exchange them for money or sweets.

Almost all of the children were used to exchange for snacks, because it would not be long before the money was in their hands and would soon be taken away by the adults. Moreover, there was no place to buy snacks in the village, so it was not worth it to exchange them for money. Jian Qingqing agreed readily.

Although there were many kinds of wild fruits in the mountains, there were also many ferocious beasts. However, the officers and soldiers had gone up to hunt once before, and now those large ferocious beasts were hiding deep in the mountains and did not dare to come out.

Therefore, the adults were quite at ease when the children picked the fruits at the periphery of the mountains. Even if they did not exchange them for food, they would often secretly pick them. It was better to pick them to exchange for some snacks.

After the fruits were brought back, Jian Qingqing made all the jam she could out of the fruits. Those that could not be used to put on the cake or put into milk tea.

Mother Jian was very talented at making desserts. Basically, she could learn every single one of them after learning a few times. Moreover, she made them very beautiful. In short, they were much better than Jian Qingqing’s weird-looking ones, however, she still could not control the temperature and baking time well, so she ruined a lot of bread and cake.

historical

Mother Jian looked at the ruined bread with some heartache. She could not eat much at home, and she could not keep them for too long. She asked doubtfully, “Big Sister, is it not suitable for me to make these? Why don’t you open the shop yourself? I won’t do it. It’s such a waste.”

Seeing the confidence that mother Jian had built up with great difficulty being destroyed again, how could Jian Qingqing be willing to do so? She said, “Who said that? Mother, you’re doing much better than me! Look at how beautiful your cooking is. Look at mine. It’s so ugly that no one would be willing to buy it even if I were to make it. If you practice more, you’ll definitely be able to make it well. Moreover, this bread isn’t completely ruined and can still be eaten. How about we give it to the officials to eat? It’s been hard on them to help us clear the land every day.”

Mother Jian thought about it and felt that it was a good idea. She suddenly felt enlightened. “Alright, then we’ll give it to them to eat.”

It was not a waste to give food to the officials. Although the officials were helping their families develop the land, they were living in the county office and did not want their wages. They felt embarrassed.

These days, the officials had given them a few hundred acres of barren land. The barren land had been planted with food. Lord Ming had promised that this batch of food would be given to the officials after it bore yield, but the land would be left to them. In this way, their family had a few hundred acres of land, and the officials were still in the process of clearing the wasteland. So, it was hard to say how much they would be able to produce in the end.

Now that the abandoned desserts had a place to go, Mother Jian no longer felt sorry for the ingredients. Instead, she began to bake vigorously. After a few days of continuous baking, Mother Jian was already very familiar with the heat and timing, and the baked bread and desserts were getting better and better.

Seeing that Mother Jian was ready to finish her apprenticeship, Jian Qingqing gave her 2,000 taels of silver to let her do whatever she wanted.

With so much money in her hands, Mother Jian was both excited and nervous. She vowed to open the shop and make a lot of money.