Amazing Pastoral World: Unparalleled Medical Queen

If the Linhe Street area in the east of the town is the most prosperous area in Jinji Town, then the area near the Shiqiao in the west of the town is recognized as a slum by the whole town. Peddlers, hooligans, homeless vagrants gather there... The environment is dirty and messy, and there are great safety hazards. If it were in modern times, it would be an area that needs to be focused on in urban management.

When the carriage drove towards Shiqiao Street, the main street in the west of the town, people would occasionally look out from the dilapidated houses on both sides of the road, looking at the carriage with either suspicion or curiosity. People who had carriages were usually from wealthy families, and such families would not normally come to the west of the town.

From time to time, there were piles of garbage on the roadside, and flies were flying around as the carriage passed by. The stench penetrated the carriage through the partition window, causing Lu Ke'er to hold her breath and frown.

Lifting a corner of the car curtain, Lu Ke'er saw several children in tattered clothes or even naked running and playing on the roadside. Some of the children were rummaging through dirty garbage, looking for the items they wanted.

Lao Zhong stopped the carriage and asked a resident for the address of the abandoned old house. Although the resident looked surprised, he still told them.

The old house is not far away. Just walk straight along the street, turn right when you see the stone bridge, and you will see it.

When the carriage actually stopped outside the old house, Lu Keer realized how dilapidated the old house was.

Half of the gate had disappeared, and the other half was temporarily supported by a broken wooden board. There were several large holes in the wall, and people could crawl in directly.

Through the hole in the wall, you can see that the weeds in the yard of about ten square meters have been cleared. Several ragged children are drying wild vegetables, chopping firewood, and two girls in their teens are taking care of two two or three-year-old children... Everything seems to be in order.

Qiu Yu, who came with Lu Ke'er, knocked on the broken gate. A girl about twelve or thirteen years old with a black spot on her face timidly poked her head out.

"Who... who are you looking for?"

"Is Shi Chenxing here?" Lu Ke'er looked at her with a smile.

"You...are you Miss Lu?" The girl's eyes lit up, her previous timidity immediately disappeared, and a sincere smile appeared on her face.

"Do you know me?" Lu Ke'er was a little confused.

"Brother Xing came back a few days ago and told us about Miss Lu. Miss Lu is our benefactor!" The girl hurriedly opened the gate, "Please come in, I'll go call Brother Xing now."

Shi Chenxing was very excited when he saw Lu Keer coming: "Hello, Miss."

Shi Chenyu beside him also raised her cute little face and greeted her happily: "Hello, Miss."

The brother and sister in front of me looked in much better spirits than the last time I saw them. They were also dressed neatly. Although their clothes were worn out, they had been washed and were not covered with dirt like the day I saw them.

Lu Ke'er nodded secretly and asked Lao Zhong to take the purchased items: "I brought you some food and daily necessities, please keep them."

Shi Chenxing shook her head repeatedly: "Miss, I haven't spent all the money you gave me last time. I can't take it anymore."

"Take it first." Lu Ke'er asked Lao Zhong to carry it in without saying anything, and followed Shi Chenxing into the yard.

"I came here this time to discuss something with you."

When they heard that the benefactor who helped them had arrived, all the children in the yard came out to meet him, except for two children who were looking for work outside and had not yet returned.

Through understanding, Lu Ke'er also had a preliminary understanding of these homeless children.

These children are all homeless and pitiful. The oldest one is sixteen years old, named Hu Zi, who goes out early in the morning and is still looking for work outside. The youngest is only two years old, and one of his legs is born short. Among these children, some of their families have suffered disasters, their families have been broken up, and they escaped by themselves; some were abducted by human traffickers, escaped halfway, but could not remember where their homes were, so they lived on the streets; some were abandoned by their families because of their disabilities... The little girl with a black spot on her face is called Chou Ya. She has been disliked by her parents since she was a child. They beat and scolded her, forced her to do all kinds of hard work, and did not let her have enough food. That's fine. Two years ago, her parents wanted to sell her to a 50-year-old widower with a bad temper. She would rather die than obey, so she ran away from home.

Lu Keer sighed.

In modern times, her parents divorced and she was raised by her grandmother. She never received love from her father or mother since she was a child. She always thought she was unfortunate. But compared with these children, she found that she was much luckier.

Although she lacked the love of her father and mother, she had no worries about food and clothing, and her grandmother loved her very much.

The missing part deep in my heart seems to be slowly being filled by something...

"Miss, please tell me if you have anything to say." Shi Chenxing and other children looked at Lu Ke'er eagerly.

Lu Ke'er found it a little funny.

She took out a cloth bag and opened it: "Look, what is this?"

The bag is filled with red fruits, which look very tempting.

"Is this hawthorn?" Shi Chenxing asked.

Lu Ke'er nodded approvingly: "Not bad. I plan to do business in this area. You have to help me."

When the children heard this, they puffed out their chests and said, "How do we do it? Miss, just tell me."

Shi Chenxing frowned slightly and said, "Miss, hawthorn trees are not uncommon in our hometown, but because they taste sour and astringent, not many people like to eat them."

"That's a pity." Lu Ke'er smiled, "Fortunately, everyone doesn't know the wonderful uses of hawthorn. Hawthorn is a good thing. It has the effects of strengthening the spleen and appetite, digesting food and removing stagnation, promoting blood circulation and removing phlegm, lowering blood lipids and blood pressure. In short, eating it in moderation is good for the body."

"But miss, it's too sour and not tasty." Shi Chenyu frowned, and her little face wrinkled like a walnut, as if she was tasting the sourness of the hawthorn.

"Haha, Xiaoyu, don't be afraid. We have a secret method to make the hawthorn taste good." Lu Ke'er asked, "Where is your kitchen?"

They took her to a simple room. The room was drafty on all sides, with a stove in the middle and two large vats beside it, one for water and the other for rice and flour. Some vegetables and ingredients were scattered on a tattered wooden rack against the wall, and some were tied with ropes and hung under the beams.

There was a pot on the stove, which had been scrubbed clean. The stove was also very tidy, with salt, sauce, vinegar and other condiments placed in small jars on the stove.

Seeing Lu Ke'er looking around the kitchen, Shi Chenxing said, "Miss, these were bought with the money you gave us. Before this, we almost never cooked by ourselves."

"It's hygienic and convenient to cook by yourself." Lu Ke'er said, "It's just that the kitchen is a bit shabby. When you make money in the future, you can renovate it."

Everyone was very excited after hearing this.

The lady said that they would be able to make money in the future.

Lu Ke'er rolled up her sleeves and prepared to start, but Qiu Yu stopped her: "Miss, let me do these rough jobs."

The master had specifically instructed that the young lady should be served well and not be allowed to do this kind of work.

Lu Ke'er blinked and smiled, "Are you worried that I can't do it well? Don't worry, I'm used to doing it at home."

After cleaning the pot, she took out a bag of maltose. Qiguo had limited sugar-making technology, so there was no white sugar as white as snow as in modern times. Although this kind of maltose was sweet, its color was not good-looking, it was gray-brown.

When little Shi Chenyu saw the maltose, his eyes lit up and he kept swallowing his saliva.

"Miss, miss, it's maltose, very sweet!" she shouted excitedly.

When the other children heard this, they also became excited.

Maltose is a luxury in their lives, and only rich people can afford it. Most of them are children from poor families and have never eaten maltose since they were born. Although they have never eaten it, they have all heard that maltose is sweet.

There is no child who doesn't like sweets.

Shi Chenxing's curiosity was also aroused: "Miss, what are you going to do?"

"Candied haws."

"What is this?" Everyone was very curious.

“A delicious sweet and sour treat. Children’s favorite.”

Lu Ke'er answered while making a fire.

Qiuyu and Chouya volunteered to be her assistants. When the other children saw this, they also wanted to help. Lu Keer then assigned tasks to everyone.

The boys make bamboo sticks and the girls wash the hawthorns. After washing the hawthorns, wipe off the water with a clean cloth.

"Be sure to wipe off the water, otherwise the syrup will not harden easily when you coat it later." Lu Keer explained.

After drying the hawthorns, string them one by one on thin bamboo sticks, with five hawthorns on each stick.

Next, it was time to boil the syrup. Lu Ke'er poured 50 taels of maltose and 25 taels of water into the pot and boiled it over medium heat. Before the syrup in the pot boiled, she kept stirring it lightly with a wooden spoon. After the syrup boiled, she turned to low heat and boiled it until the syrup became thick.

Then, before the syrup cools down, coat the hawthorns with syrup as quickly as possible.

Lu Ke'er didn't buy many hawthorns, so she only put about 20 strings together. Soon, these 20 strings of candied haws were ready.

Lu Keer picked up a string and handed it to Shi Chenyu: "Xiaoyu, come and try it."

Shi Chenyu was so happy looking at the string of candied haws covered with syrup in her hand that she was reluctant to eat it.

"Come on, eat. Why don't you eat?" Lu Ke'er urged her when she saw that she was reluctant to open her mouth.

"Haha, Xiaoyu, you're reluctant to eat it, right?" a boy joked.

"Such beautiful candied haws, I don't even know where to start eating it." Qiuyu smiled.

"It's a pity there is no granulated sugar. If the hawthorns were coated with syrup made from granulated sugar, they would be beautiful. Bright red and sparkling. They are nothing like the candied haws we have now, which are so dark brown that you can't even see the original color of the hawthorns." Lu Ke'er glanced at the freshly-baked candied haws with a look of disgust on her face.

She distributed a string of candied haws from the plate to everyone present.

But everyone just stared at the candied haws in their hands with cherishment in their eyes, and no one opened their mouth to eat.

"Don't be reluctant. We will have food every day in the future." Seeing this, Lu Ke'er felt sad and distressed, and encouraged, "Eat it all."

Shi Chenxing took a bite of the hawthorn coated with syrup and chewed it in his mouth, his eyes already bright as stars.

Just as the lady said, it was sour and sweet and really delicious.

When everyone saw it, they also took a careful bite.

Immediately, smiles appeared on everyone's faces.

"It's delicious." Shi Chenyu was eating, not wanting to stop.

The other children nodded as well.

They had never eaten anything so delicious.

"From now on, we will sell this candied haws in town." Lu Ke'er said to Qiuyu with a smile, "Qiuyu, this is our unique craft, you can't tell your son about it."

Qiu Yu smiled and said, "When the Master asked me to follow the Young Lady, I obeyed her in everything. If the Young Lady said to keep it a secret, I will keep it a secret."

In fact, this candied haws is very easy to imitate. Lu Ke'er certainly didn't expect Qiu Yu to keep it secret to prevent imitation. She just wanted Qiu Yu to show an attitude of support for them.

Shi Chenxing looked worried, "Miss, one pound of Yitang can make about twenty strings of Tanghulu. But now one pound of Yitang sells for about three hundred coins at the market. According to this calculation, the cost alone is about fifteen coins for a string of Tanghulu, and this does not include the cost of hawthorn and our labor. If all the material costs and labor costs are included, we have to sell a string of Tanghulu for twenty coins to break even."

When everyone heard that the string of candied haws they had just eaten was worth twenty cents, their faces turned pale.

My God, if we calculate the price of a vegetable bun per penny, they finished twenty of them in just a few bites.

This... this is their food for seven or eight days.

Not to mention that a few days ago, they couldn't even get a vegetable bun to eat the whole day.

Lu Ke'er looked at Shi Chenxing with approval, praising him generously: "Very good, you are thoughtful, and your analysis is correct."

"But, will anyone buy such expensive candied haws?" Qiuyu finally figured it out.

At Pinxianlou, Miss Lu's snail sauce is sold for 30 wen a can, which is not cheap, but at least one can last for several days. But this candied haws can be finished in a cup of tea, so in comparison, it seems that the price of this candied haws is really ridiculously expensive.

"There has never been a shortage of rich people in this world." Seeing Shi Chenxing's face full of troubles, Lu Ke'er smiled faintly.

Shi Chenxing thought about it for a moment and suddenly he understood.

"I understand. The people we want to sell to are not ordinary people, but those wealthy families in town. For them, twenty cents is not cheap, but it is not too expensive."

"Yes, that's the truth." Lu Ke'er nodded with satisfaction. "Any product has its target audience. For example, luxury goods such as jewelry are sold to the rich and powerful. Ordinary people will hardly buy them and cannot afford them. Ordinary people buy more coarse grains, and refined grains are naturally bought more by the rich. Our candied haws are priced high, so naturally we have to target the rich as our customers."

"But even if it's twenty cents a string, we don't make much." Shi Chenxing did a quick calculation in his mind and came to the conclusion.

"The profit is not much because our costs are relatively high," Lu Ke'er reminded him.

Shi Chenxing's eyes suddenly lit up: "Miss, do you mean you have a way to reduce costs?"

Lu Keer sighed secretly, it’s easier to talk to smart people.

"Well, I can extract white sugar, and its quality and taste are several times better than that maltose."