Super System in the Early Tang Dynasty

"On such a joyous day of harvest, why are you so worried, old man?" Li Xingzhi walked over and asked.

"Sigh—I'm all alone, what use do I have for so many clods of earth? The rich people in the city are giving these away for free, but I can't sell them!" The old man with muddy legs looked at the large pile of sweet potatoes in front of him with a worried expression and sighed.

Upon hearing this, Li Xingzhi was taken aback, then said, "Uncle, why don't you make these sweet potatoes into something else? Like sweet potato chunks, sweet potato flour, or something like that?"

The old man in the mud looked at Li Xingzhi with a blank expression!

A thought flashed through Li Xingzhi's mind, and he suddenly understood. He then smiled and said, "Uncle, I do know how to make this into other dishes. Would you like to learn?"

The old man looked at Li Xingzhi with some hesitation, unable to believe it! Craftsmanship is something that can be passed down from generation to generation, benefiting future generations. How could he just take it out like this? This honest man hesitated for a moment.

"But……"

Li Xingzhi interrupted the old man's hesitant words, saying, "If you want to learn, come closer and I'll explain it to you, and you'll understand..."

Meanwhile, in Chang'an, households planted with sweet potatoes were beginning to look worried. Corn was easy to manage; its yield was relatively low, and it was sweet and delicious after just steaming or boiling. But sweet potatoes were plentiful, and even after steaming or boiling, they were hard. Unless there was absolutely nothing else to eat, most people would just eat them fresh! They simply couldn't be used up! Throwing them away seemed wasteful; they were truly a chicken rib—tasteless to eat but with some meat to throw away!

Although the powerful figures in Chang'an City had made a fortune from corn and sweet potatoes, they were now facing a headache once again!

After all, this was no longer the time two years ago when the people were suffering from famine. The curtain had been raised on the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and the people had begun to have higher and higher demands for life.

Ten days later, as the harvest season came to an end, piles of sweet potatoes were dug up, and more and more people were worried. Fortunately, sweet potatoes keep well and are still edible, so they did not cause too much trouble!

On this day, in the food market of Chang'an City, an old man with a sallow complexion pushed a wooden cart and called out on the street: "Selling sweet potatoes! Steamed, roasted, fried, fragrant and crispy sweet potato chips! And sweet potato flour and sweet potato peel that you've never seen before!"

As the car continued to move forward, a wonderful aroma wafted through the streets along with the fragrant oil seeping from the roasted sweet potatoes, causing the busy crowd to stop in their tracks.

"sweet potato?"

Upon hearing this word, everyone's appetite returned.

"Oh my! It smells so good!" The aroma of sweet potatoes wafted into everyone's noses, instantly reigniting their enthusiasm and appetite, which had been dampened!

"Oh dear—I can't take it anymore! Old man, give me a roasted sweet potato!" Finally, someone couldn't resist and took a few copper coins, shouting as he went up to him.

"How is it?" Before the person who bought the sweet potatoes even took a bite, someone next to them couldn't wait to ask.

Those who bought sweet potatoes ignored the people around them, peeled off the skin of the sweet potatoes that were full of rendered oil, and couldn't wait to take a bite.

"Hoho, hoho..." The hot sweet potato burned the man's mouth, but he couldn't bear to let go. With great effort, he swallowed the small bite of golden sweet potato flesh, ignoring the people watching him expectantly, and continued his struggle.

"Oh dear, I can't take it anymore! Sir, have one!"

"One more, one more..."

As the old man watched the ever-flowing crowd, his pale, sallow face shone with a radiant beauty, like an autumn chrysanthemum.

"Wow, this sweet potato, this sweet potato, it's so different from the ones I've had before! So golden and so sweet and soft, it's really, really delicious!" "Yes, yes, is it because these sweet potatoes are roasted that they taste so good?"...

The crowd was making a ruckus, and some savvy business owners even opened shops inside to stock up on sweet potatoes at low prices after eating them!

"Hey? Old man, what's this?" The first person to buy sweet potatoes had recovered from the shock of their deliciousness and looked at the translucent, glistening, and pleasingly green objects on the wooden cart, exclaiming curiously.

"These are sweet potato peels!" the old man said with a smile as he took the money and turned around.

"Sweet potato peel? I've never seen this before. How do you eat it?" As he spoke, the foodie's hand had already secretly reached out to the pile of sweet potato peels. He quickly withdrew his hand, grabbed a hard piece of sweet potato peel, and put it in his mouth.

"It's so hard! It's poking my teeth!"

The old man watched from the side, chuckled, and then said, "These sweet potato skins need to be soaked in broth and cooked before they can be eaten!"

"Oh dear, old man, why didn't you say so sooner? You've made me, made me—" As he was speaking, he noticed that the people next to him had noticed them, and he quickly pointed to the things on the car and said, "This, this, this, wrap some of everything up for me! Hey—don't push, there's always a first-come, first-served rule..."

Before long, the sweet potatoes were sold out, and the old man happily walked back home. Suddenly, several people dressed in rather impressive clothes blocked his way. The ghostly figures following behind him disappeared as soon as they saw these people.

"Old man, my master summons you. Come with us!" The newcomer's voice was slightly shrill; he was beardless and had a pale complexion. As he spoke, the men beside him pushed the old man's cart and began to walk away...

The old man followed the group cautiously, and after walking a short distance, they stopped in front of an elegant restaurant.

In a private room on the second floor of the restaurant, a middle-aged man held a golden, fragrant roasted sweet potato in his hands, his eyes filled with affection, carefully feeding a cute little child next to him.

"Squeak-"

The door opened!

Upon hearing the sound, the middle-aged man immediately sat up straight, picked up the child, and his loving expression instantly turned into a stern one!

"Are you the old man who sells roasted sweet potatoes?" the middle-aged man asked in a deep voice.

"Yes, yes, yes, the old man sells roasted sweet potatoes?"

"Did you come up with this method for roasting sweet potatoes yourself? Why aren't other people's roasted sweet potatoes as fragrant, sweet, and soft as this?" The middle-aged man picked up another sweet potato next to him, but that sweet potato didn't splatter with fragrant oil, nor did it have the tempting aroma of roasting!

The child sitting in the middle-aged man's lap slapped the sweet potato hard, knocking it off, and then pinched the golden, tender flesh that the middle-aged man hadn't completely removed from his beard and put it in his mouth.

"Eat, eat—yay, eat!" The child, seeing the strange looks from the crowd, put the yellow sweet potato in his hand in front of the middle-aged man's mouth.

“Yeye won’t eat, Anu will.” A tenderness that no one else could see shone in the middle-aged man’s eyes.

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That's all for today! I haven't been updating much lately, looks like I need to work harder starting tomorrow!!