RPAGF Chapter 144 Barbecue
Chapter 144 Barbecue
"Brother, why are you here?" Gu Fengyue wiped his mouth hurriedly, looked at his brother's dark face, and carefully handed him a roasted corn cob.
Gu Fengyun looked at the corn in his hand. Well, it was okay, not burnt.
Gu Fengyue's hands were tired from holding the corn, and Gu Fengyun didn't show any intention of taking it. He thought Gu Fengyun didn't want to eat it, and was about to take it back, but Gu Fengyun reached out and took the skewer. Well, the temperature was just right.
Gu Fengyue: “…” So he’s waiting for the corn to cool?
It was not the first time for Gu Fengyun to eat corn, but it was his first time to eat grilled corn. Song Chunlin sprinkled barbecue seasoning on the corn. The taste was a bit strange at the first bite, but the sweetness of the corn neutralized the slight spiciness of the barbecue seasoning, making it very enjoyable to eat.
Gu Fengyun nodded repeatedly: "Yeah, not bad, no wonder I can smell this fragrance from so far away. I didn't believe it when the guards in the mansion told me. You two are eating well hiding here."
The two of them laughed awkwardly. Song Chunlin avoided Gu Fengyun's gaze guiltily and muttered to himself, "Don't ask me how I got here, don't ask me how I got here, don't ask me how I got here!"
Important things should be said three times, but many things are useless even if they are said ten times.
Gu Fengyun elegantly took out a silk handkerchief from his bosom, slowly wiped his mouth, and then spoke slowly:
"Spring is coming~"
"To!"
Gu Fengyun: "When did Chunlin come? Why didn't you ask the housekeeper to open the door for you?"
Song Chunlin was so upset that his head was filled with black lines. "Ancestor, you almost said clearly that I cheated on you." Of course, it was impossible to get him to admit it. He would never admit it even if you beat him to death.
So Song Chunlin put on an innocent expression and said, "I'm just afraid of disturbing the housekeeper. It would be embarrassing in the middle of the night."
Gu Fengyue couldn't help but chuckle, but under Song Chunlin's glare, she immediately turned her head away, and it took her a long time to calm her expression.
Gu Fengyun: "...You didn't dare to wake others up in the middle of the night, so you two were grilling food in this yard? I could smell the smell right at the door. Now, let alone the housekeeper, I guess the servants in the neighboring yards were woken up by the smell."
The two little ones immediately touched their noses in embarrassment. Gu Fengyun walked leisurely to the chair and sat down, picking up a corn that was not yet roasted.
The corn was not as big as those in later generations, probably about as long as an adult man's palm, but it tasted very good. It was not as sweet as fruit corn, but more like glutinous corn. Because it was constantly watered with spiritual spring water, the corn grown had a hint of sweetness in its taste, which was better than glutinous corn.
Gu Fengyun had bought beads made of corn for Gu Fengyue before. At that time, Gu Fengyue was still little, a cute white girl. He imitated the young ladies from wealthy families in the capital and selected several strings of excellent corn for his brother to play with. He also had some knowledge about corn.
But at that time, no one thought that corn could be eaten. If they knew it could be eaten, how could it have been treated as a toy for so many years?
Speaking of corn, Song Chunlin was also very curious. In the previous life, corn was introduced to this land around the Ming Dynasty, but the route of transmission was not clear. Some said it was by land, and some said it was by sea. Now it seems that corn may have been introduced to this land at an earlier time, but the variety introduced at that time was the most primitive variety, not the variety that was widely planted in Mexico later.
"Chunlin, how did you find out that corn can be eaten?" Gu Fengyun asked the question in his mind. In his opinion, no one would try to eat an object that can only be played with.
Song Chunlin answered him as a matter of course: "When you are hungry, you can eat anything."
After these words were spoken, the two brothers of the Gu family fell silent.
They were born into aristocratic families and had never lacked food and clothing since childhood, so naturally they had never experienced the embarrassment of hunger.
Song Chunlin: "You also know that my family fled here because of famine. It was hard to find food on the road, not to mention water, so we ate anything on the road as long as it was not poisonous. Some things tasted terrible, but starving to death was more terrible than tasting terrible."
This is half true and half false. Before Song Chunlin came through, the Song family really lived like this. They cooked the wild vegetables and tree roots they dug up with their own dry food into a paste, and the Song family had been filling their stomachs in this way until not long after Song Chunlin came through. It can be said that that period of time was even harder than Song Chunlin's life at the end of the world. At least in the end of the world he still had supplies in a space to use, and eating a piece of bread while traveling was considered a difficult life. Moreover, he still had water. The water source in his space was inexhaustible, so he was not afraid of not finding water at all.
But the Song family was not like this in the early days. When Song Chunlin thinks back to the past days now, they seem even more distant than in his previous life.
It turns out that only three years have passed since we had to share a small bowl of water with each other, and break a piece of bread into two halves, which would make our throat sore when we swallowed it.
Gu Fengyun and Gu Fengyue both knew that their family had suffered a lot when they fled the famine, but they didn't expect it to be so hard. Gu Fengyue wanted to ask, if Song Chunlin had eaten corn at that time, why was he so surprised when he saw corn for the first time?
However, Gu Fengyue did not really ask. If Song Chunlin didn't want to say it, he had plenty of excuses to fool her.
So, Gu Fengyun was fooled. He subconsciously thought that Song Chunlin had found wild corn at that time, and after trying it, he found that it tasted good, so he continued to improve it later.
Song Chunlin kept smiling and let Gu Fengyun misunderstand.
"Just by selecting the best seeds, you can grow a corn cob this big in three years. Chunlin, you are quite capable."
Song Chunlin said modestly: "No, no, it's just luck." And there is also the golden finger cheat of Lingquan Water. Otherwise, it would take more than ten years of research to improve the primitive corn into high-yield corn.
"This corn cob is so big, the yield per mu of corn this year should be about 500 to 600 kilograms, right?"
When talking about this, Song Chunlin puffed out his chest and said, "More than 600 kilograms, one acre can produce more than 800 kilograms!"
"Eight hundred?" Gu Fengyun's eyes lit up. Eight hundred kilograms per mu was a higher yield than wheat. Moreover, Song Chunlin said that corn was drought-resistant and could be planted even in arid areas. This meant that Dajing had a new food crop. If it could be spread like potatoes and sweet potatoes, the people of Dajing would have no worries about filling their stomachs!
"Okay, this thing is good. Chunlin, your family is really lucky. In just three years, you have produced three kinds of high-yield grains. On behalf of the people of Dajing, I would like to thank you!" Gu Fengyun stood up and saluted towards Song Chunlin. Song Chunlin slightly turned sideways to avoid the salute.
"My Lord, please don't be so confident. We still have to rely on the court to spread their seeds. I hope that there won't be another incident like the Zhao family. Otherwise, no matter how much wealth our family has, it won't be able to withstand such a thing."
Speaking of the Zhao family, Gu Fengyun's face turned cold. Some time ago, they got rid of several young people of the Zhao family in the court. Now there is no official in the Zhao family.
Even so, Zhao Fei still refused to repent and repeatedly challenged the emperor's bottom line. This time he secretly joined forces with those old guys to impeach his father. He couldn't help but vent his anger.
Therefore, he told Song Chunlin to hide the corn first and ignore anyone who asked.
Song Chunlin naturally knew that since ancient times, those aristocratic families liked to hold resources in their own hands, which also led to many lower-class people being oppressed by these nobles for generations, because they had no resources and no ways to obtain these resources.
But the potatoes and sweet potatoes that Song Chunlin brought out changed this situation. The Song family did not sell these things to them, but sold them directly to the court. They were distributed to various counties through decrees issued by the emperor, and priority was given to the poor families to plant them. Such high-yield things could only be looked at but not eaten. The aristocratic families were very upset.
The same goes for the corn this time. This is not the first time that the Song family has planted corn. Their corn is getting better year by year. This year, each corn cob is as thick as a wrist. Even though the Song family has never said that corn is edible, there are always some curious people who gather around their cornfield to look around.
"The corn in the field has been harvested. If we want to make seeds, we need to process them. If we only want corn seeds, it will be more convenient than transporting corn cobs directly. As for the corn planting method, I have asked my father and brother to sort it out, but it shouldn't be soon. When the time comes, can I give you the corn seeds and the planting method together?"
Gu Fengyun thought about it and felt that it was an okay option, but he repeatedly told Song Chunlin to take good care of the corn.
"This year, it is estimated that half of the land in the country will be able to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes like yours. Even if the yield per mu is poor, it can reach 700 to 800 kilograms. I believe that soon, the people of Dajing will no longer have to worry about going hungry."
Speaking of potatoes and sweet potatoes, Song Chunlin thought of his own workshop and mentioned it to Gu Fengyun.
"Workshop?"
Gu Fengyue also remembered that there was indeed a simple workshop next to the Song family’s newly built house.
"Yes, workshop, don't you think the ways to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes are too monotonous? Not only can they be eaten directly, but they can also be dried and ground into powder to make vermicelli. The processed sweet potato powder and potato powder are more durable in storage and taste better. Moreover, if these two things are planted all over the country in the future, there will definitely be people who have excess production and can't eat them all. These can be recycled and made into vermicelli. Hehe, it's another source of income."
Song Chunlin seemed to have seen the near future, eating modern hot and sour noodles and casserole potato noodles on the ancient streets. The thought of it made him happy.
The Gu brothers were amused by his little expression. Although they had never seen or tasted the potato flour or sweet potato flour he mentioned, anything produced by the Song family must taste delicious... right?
After eating the corn, Gu Fengyun packed up the remaining unroasted ones. Gu Fengyue felt sad when he saw that, because those were specially left for him by Song Chunlin, and they were all taken away by his brother.
Perhaps sensing his brother's resentful gaze, Gu Fengyun deliberately asked him, "Why, are you feeling sad?"
Song Chunlin looked at him curiously, thinking that Gu Fengyue was really worried about the corn, and couldn't help but whispered close to his ear and told him: "Don't be sad, I still have a lot."
Gu Fengyue immediately stopped feeling sad.
"I don't feel bad. How could I feel bad? My brother is working hard to ensure the people's food and clothing. How can a younger brother be so stingy?" Hehe, Chunlin said there's more, hehe.
Looking at his brother's silly smile, Gu Fengyun rolled his eyes. It was obvious that Song Chunlin had not gotten his mind. He guessed that his brother's heart would be thrown away to waste.
Holding seven or eight corn cobs, Gu Fengyun left contentedly. Seeing that it was almost dawn, Song Chunlin also patted his butt and left.
Gu Fengyun returned to his room, feeling a little tired after not sleeping for a night. He regained his energy after drinking a cup of spiritual spring water. He first wrote a memorial, then he called the secret guards, sent all the remaining corn to the palace, and asked the imperial chef to cook it for the emperor to eat.
Then, just as the emperor woke up, his servants came in with a basket full of freshly cooked corn cobs.
The emperor was so shocked by the basket of steaming corn that he lost his sleep. He pointed at it and asked the people around him, "Is it sent by Marquis Yongyi?"
The eunuch replied, "Your Majesty, this corn was indeed sent by the Yongyi Marquis's Mansion. The person who sent it said that it was a new food from the Yongyi Marquis's Mansion and that it tasted pretty good. So I sent it here specially for Your Majesty to try."
The eunuch himself was actually not quite sure when he spoke, because the corn in front of him was completely different from the corns he saw every day. He still had a few strings of top-quality corn bracelets in his room. Who would have thought that an object that could only be played with on weekdays could one day change its appearance and become food on the table.
The emperor also became interested. He picked up a corn. The corn had been cooked for a while and was still a little hot in his hand. He touched it and found that it was thicker than the corn he ate last year. He peeled off the corn husk and found that the corn kernels inside were fuller and neater, and there were more of them than last year.
The emperor had eaten corn before. Now, when he smelled the aroma of the corn, he felt even more hungry and just opened his mouth and took a big bite.
"Hmm, not bad, not bad. It's much more delicious than last year's. Besides these, does Marquis Yongyi have anything else?"
The eunuch looked at the emperor's face and saw that there was nothing wrong with him. After confirming that he was not angry, he took out the memorial from his sleeve.
"Your Majesty, this is the memorial from Marquis Yongyi. Because Marquis Yongyi is still under house arrest, I did not present it at the beginning. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
The emperor was in a good mood and did not care about his hidden intentions. He took the memorial and read it carefully. When he saw the per-acre yield of corn, his eyes widened slightly and then he burst into laughter.