Chapter 25: Golden Corn Pancake!

“Such pretty beads!”

Xiao Sizi tiptoed over and reached out a chubby little hand to pick at them. “Are they made of gold?”

“More precious than gold.”

Su Mu tossed the husked ear of corn into a bamboo basket. “If this stuff is planted well, the yield per mu…”

He paused and didn’t finish his sentence.

Saying it out loud would probably scare these Great Tang natives to death.

“Alright, stop staring.”

Su Mu kicked over another small stool. “Sit down and husk.”

Li Lizhi froze.

She was Princess Changle!

Having her wash dishes had been one thing, and she had endured peeling garlic, but now he was making her sit in this run-down courtyard to husk some unknown crop?

“Um… Su Mu.”

Li Lizhi held the ear of corn somewhat awkwardly, trying to steer the conversation back to business. “Yesterday’s… method of making ice with stones…”

Su Mu didn’t even look up. His hands moved with lightning speed, accompanied by the nonstop sound of tearing husks.

“Want to learn?”

Li Lizhi’s heart skipped a beat, and she hurriedly nodded. “It is truly marvelous. If it could…”

“Husk this basket, and I’ll tell you,” Su Mu interrupted, pointing at the massive pile weighing a full fifty jin.

Li Lizhi: “…”

This man was definitely doing this on purpose!

But then she thought of Imperial Father’s eager gaze before she left, and her bedchamber that was too swelteringly hot to bear.

Li Lizhi gritted her teeth, gathered her skirt, and plopped down onto the palm-sized wooden stool.

“Fine, I’ll husk!”

Copying Su Mu, she gripped the leaves at the top and yanked downward with all her strength.

The task looked simple enough, but doing it proved far harder.

The husks were wrapped tightly and remarkably tough.

Li Lizhi’s pampered fingers, which had only ever held brushes, ink, and zither strings, turned red after just two ears. Snapping off the tough stalk at the base was especially grueling.

“Aiya!” Xiao Sizi hadn’t been idling by either.

Unable to move the bench, the little girl sat right on the ground, hugging an ear of corn thicker than her own arm as she bared her teeth and wrestled with the leaves.

“These clothes are so hard to take off!”

Xiao Sizi’s face was flushed red, her little hands gripping tightly as she pulled to both sides with every ounce of strength in her body.

Rip!

She pulled so hard that while the leaves tore free, her little body lost balance, and she tumbled backward with a thud, legs flailing in the air.

Yet her hands still clung tightly to her hard-won prize.

“Hahaha!”

Looking at this overturned little turtle, Su Mu couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

He reached down, lifted Xiao Sizi up, and patted the dirt off her bottom. “You’re too small for this. Go over there and pluck the silks clean. Don’t cause trouble here.”

Xiao Sizi didn’t mind at all. Scrambling to her feet, she treated the corn silks like a new toy, plucking them one by one while humming her own little sound effects.

Soon, the courtyard was filled only with the crisp sound of tearing dry husks.

Li Lizhi grew faster and more proficient with each ear.

At first, she had worried about her fingernails, but soon she stopped caring altogether.

Repetitive labor was tiring, yet it brought an unexpected sense of calm.

Watching the plump, golden ears of corn pile higher and higher in the bamboo basket gave her an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.

Besides, the crop smelled genuinely wonderful.

It wasn’t the floral scent of pollen, but an earthy, pure sweetness. The moment an ear was husked, the raw, fresh aroma of sweet corn milk drifted straight into her nostrils.

“What on earth is this?” Li Lizhi shook her aching wrists and couldn’t help asking again.

Su Mu glanced at the nearly empty sack and nodded with satisfaction.

“It’s called hope.”

He stood up and carried the basket of glittering golden spoils over to the well to rinse them.

“As for the ice-making method you asked about…”

While washing the corn, Su Mu spoke casually, “The principle is quite simple. That stone is called saltpeter.”

Li Lizhi instantly perked up her ears, even freezing her hands in place.

“When saltpeter comes into contact with water, it absorbs the heat from the water.”

Su Mu didn’t bother hiding anything. After all, once the window paper was poked through^[1], it wasn’t much of a secret anyway. “Once the heat is gone, the water naturally turns into ice. After the water freezes, you can boil the saltpeter solution dry, and the precipitated powder can be reused.”

Li Lizhi felt completely lost in the clouds.

Absorb heat? Precipitated?

Still, that didn’t stop her from committing every word to memory.

Saltpeter… absorbs heat in water… She recited it silently twice, terrified of forgetting a single word.

“Got all that?” Su Mu glanced back at her.

Li Lizhi nodded solemnly. “I have it memorized.”

“Even if you remember it, it won’t do much good.”

Su Mu poured cold water on her enthusiasm. “Saltpeter is strictly controlled as a primer for gunpowder; ordinary folks can’t get their hands on it. Only families with deep pockets and broad influence like yours could afford to mess around with it to make ice.”

Li Lizhi blushed.

Imperial Father indeed wanted to secure this method for the imperial court. She hadn’t expected this man to see through everything so clearly.

“Alright, the wage is paid, so now it’s time to provide lunch.”

Su Mu set the cleaned ears of corn upright on the cutting board.

He switched his kitchen knife for a thinner, lighter blade.

Keeping the edge flush against the base of the kernels, he sliced downward cleanly.

Shhhk, shhhk, shhhk.

Row after row of corn kernels peeled away, scattering across the cutting board like golden beads to reveal the pale cobs beneath.

His knife work was exceptionally steady. Every kernel remained whole and intact, without catching any of the tough core.

Xiao Sizi had long abandoned the silks and was now leaning against the stove, standing on her tiptoes to watch.

“They turned into golden beans!” The little girl’s eyes sparkled, and she reached out to grab one and pop it into her mouth.

“It tastes grassy and raw. Don’t eat it,” Su Mu said, swatting her little hand away.

He poured the sliced corn kernels into a large basin, cracked in two eggs, added half a bowl of pure white starch, and stirred in a generous spoonful of freshly rendered lard.

His chopsticks stirred rapidly.

Every single kernel was coated in egg and starch, becoming glossy and sticky.

He fired up the stove.

This time, he didn’t deep-fry it in heavy oil, opting instead for a shallow pan-fry.

He brushed a thick layer of oil across the bottom of the pan and let it heat up.

Su Mu lifted the basin and poured the mixture into the pan, quickly spreading and pressing it flat with a spatula.

Sizzle!

As the batter hit the hot oil, a marvelous aroma billowed up instantly.

It was the toasted scent of grain coaxed out by sizzling fat, mingled with the richness of eggs and an intensely fragrant sweetness.

This sweetness was bold and assertive, unlike honey; it was the hearty, grounding sweetness of wholesome grain that made one feel secure just by smelling it.

Li Lizhi’s nose twitched.

She had tasted countless delicacies in the imperial palace, but not even the tribute flatbreads from the Western Regions^[2] possessed a scent so pure.

Her arms, sore from shucking corn earlier, suddenly did not ache quite as much.

Su Mu lowered the flame and covered the pan to let it cook for a short while.

This allowed the starch slurry to set, binding the loose kernels into one large pancake.

Estimating that the time was right, he lifted the lid.

A dazzling gold!

The entire pancake sat against the black base of the pan like a golden full moon, its edges already browned and curling upward.

But he was not finished yet.

Su Mu drizzled another swirl of hot oil around the edge of the pan.

As the oil heated, the bottom of the pancake crackled and popped. This was to give it an even crispier crunch.

Finally, it was ready to come out.

The giant corn pancake slid cleanly and intact into a woven bamboo basket.

Su Mu grabbed a handful of white sugar and gave his wrist a flick.

The snow-white sugar drifted down over the piping-hot, golden kernels, half of it melting on contact into a glistening syrup that coated every single “golden bean.”

“Golden corn pancake, all done.”