Chapter 46: Boiling Brown Sugar

After Ye Lin left, Qin Tian went to the kitchen and cut three sections of bamboo.

He tied two of them together.

The remaining section, Qin Tian split in half, then hollowed out both ends.

He took one half of the bamboo and fitted it over the gap between the two tied bamboo sections, securing everything with hemp rope.

This was the simple platform he would use for pressing juice.

After finishing the platform, Qin Tian searched the woodpile and found a fairly straight stick.

He washed it with water and left it out to dry, then started processing the sugarcane.

Before extracting the juice, the sugarcane needed to be peeled.

The Survival Knife was too short and lacked leverage, and the Stone Axe was too dull, so it was even less useful.

With no better option, Qin Tian could only bite into the sugarcane himself.

He had his own technique for dealing with this wild sugarcane.

As soon as he bit down, he gripped the peel with his teeth and pulled hard, stripping the cane from end to end.

It took him barely a minute to process each piece of sugarcane.

But using this method really wore down his teeth.

Half an hour later, after he’d finished peeling all the sugarcane, his mouth was red and sore.

***

But that wasn’t all—Qin Tian then chopped the sugarcane into small segments and placed them on a stone slab, gently pounding them with a stick to flatten and loosen them.

Next, Qin Tian dug a pit in the ground and placed the Earthen Jar inside.

He set up the crude juice press platform on the side, and used the remaining half-bamboo as a connecting Distillation Pipe, linking the platform to the Earthen Jar.

All of this prep work was exhausting physical labor.

By the time he reached this point, Qin Tian’s arms were so sore he couldn’t go on.

He rested for half an hour on the spot before he could continue.

Qin Tian placed the sugarcane in the bamboo tube’s gap, and used the stick to roll and press, much like kneading dough.

The sugarcane juice flowed through the cracks, down to the half bamboo piece below, and finally into the Earthen Jar.

The pressed juice was generally transparent with a yellow tint and looked a bit cloudy.

There was quite a bit of sugarcane pulp in it, making it look rather unclean, but that was just its appearance.

Extracting juice like this was exhausting and didn’t yield much—at most, he could get fifty percent of the juice out.

But right now, this was the only method Qin Tian could use.

Fortunately, Qin Tian had brought back quite a lot of sugarcane.

Even if each piece didn’t produce much juice, in the end, Qin Tian still managed to fill a whole jar.

“Ye Lin should be back soon.”

Glancing at the Sun, Qin Tian stood up, shaking his arms, which now felt light as feathers after a whole morning of hard work.

He couldn’t muster any more strength in his hands.

Just as he was speaking, Qin Tian heard movement behind him, followed by Ye Lin’s voice, “Did you finish pressing all the sugarcane?”

Turning around, Qin Tian saw Ye Lin and Han Pi walking out from the woods.

Notably, Han Pi had both Bamboo Baskets full to the brim, a sign of a fruitful harvest.

“Just finished,” Qin Tian replied with a smile. “Looks like you found a lot of good stuff.”

***

At those words, Ye Lin immediately took two things from Han Pi’s Bamboo Basket and hurried over to Qin Tian, her face unable to hide her smile.

“Look, what’s this?”

“Pineapple!” When Qin Tian saw what Ye Lin was holding, he couldn’t help but shout.

“Surprised?” Ye Lin was visibly proud.

“Surprised! Very surprised!” Qin Tian nodded repeatedly.

To find pineapple on this Deserted Island was an absolute stroke of luck.

Ye Lin had truly made a big haul today—not only a basket of pineapples, but also a basket of mushrooms.

There were all kinds of mushrooms.

Ye Lin must have picked any she came across, regardless of type, edibility, or toxicity.

To ensure their safety, after bringing the two baskets back to the Cave, Qin Tian started sorting through the mushrooms.

“Death Cap: Also known as Amanita muscaria, a basidiomycete fungus with neurotoxic properties, surface bright red or orange-red…”

“These mushrooms are so bright red, it’s obvious they’re poisonous and inedible. This one’s called Poison Parasol Mushroom.”

“Psilocybe Ovoideocystidiata: Also known as ‘Magic Mushroom,’ named for its hallucinogenic toxins that cause hallucinations in humans after consumption…”

“This is called Psilocybe Ovoideocystidiata. It looks like a large enoki, but it’s a hallucinogenic mushroom.”

“Chanterelle: From the fungal order Cantharellales. Trumpet-shaped, apricot-yellow to egg-yellow, rich in carotene and vitamin C, sweet and cool in nature…”

“This yellow mushroom is called Chanterelle. It’s edible—next time you see them, pick more.”

While classifying the mushrooms, Qin Tian also instructed Ye Lin to prevent her from picking poisonous mushrooms again next time.

Ye Lin had picked quite a few toxic ones—only about a third of the basket was edible.

But a third was still plenty—enough for two or three meals.

After sorting, it was time for a break.

Qin Tian peeled and cored the pineapples Ye Lin brought back.

He and Ye Lin sat at the mouth of the Cave and ate, juice running down their chins.

All along, their diet had been mostly meat, with bamboo shoots as their only vegetable.

To eat pineapple on this Deserted Island was truly a blessing.

“Come to think of it, the resources on this Deserted Island are really abundant—not just sugarcane, but even pineapples,” Qin Tian mused as he ate.

Generally speaking, islands like this are isolated from the outside world, and the variety of resources tends to be limited—sometimes an entire island might have only one type of tree.

“Maybe there are other fruits as well,” Ye Lin fantasized from the side.

“Let’s hope so,” Qin Tian said with a smile.

***

After eating and resting, Qin Tian and Ye Lin began making Red Sugar.

Before making Red Sugar, Qin Tian took the Bamboo Basket he’d previously used to make Paper, using it as a strainer to filter the pulp out of the sugarcane juice before setting it on the clay stove to boil.

In industry, this step requires the addition of a clarifying agent like lime to precipitate out chlorophyll and non-sugar impurities.

But since Qin Tian had peeled the sugarcane before extracting the juice, those things weren’t present, so he could skip this step.

While boiling, Qin Tian stirred constantly with a stick.

As the water in the juice turned to steam and evaporated, the liquid in the Earthen Jar reduced by half and was no longer clear but became a thick, dark red syrup.

“So making Red Sugar is really this simple,” Ye Lin remarked, standing by the clay stove and watching the changes in the sugarcane juice.

“It’s simple, but very exhausting,” Qin Tian replied as he pulled the stick from the syrup and stepped aside.

Once the syrup reached this level of thickness, every stir took real effort.

Over high heat, the syrup became even thicker.

When it was about right, Qin Tian called out, and Ye Lin set out the clay bowls while he took the Earthen Jar off the stove and poured the syrup into the bowls.

There wasn’t much syrup, just enough for three clay bowls.

The real reason for making Red Sugar was for Ye Lin’s time of the month—on regular days, they rarely needed it.

These three bowls of Red Sugar would last them a long while.

“All that’s left is to wait for the syrup to solidify,” Qin Tian set the jar aside.

***

“Thank you.” At that moment, Ye Lin was sincerely grateful.

Qin Tian grinned and waved his hand, “No need for thanks. I just wanted to eat some. It’s not like I made it just for you.”

Hearing this, Ye Lin laughed as well.

It couldn’t be clearer which half of that was true and which was a lie.

Thinking of something, Ye Lin looked at Qin Tian with a sly expression, “Now we have soap for bathing, and Shampoo will be ready in a few days. For toiletries, all we’re missing is toothpaste.”

“If you want toothpaste, you’ll have to do some work.” Qin Tian understood Ye Lin’s meaning immediately, and pointed at the Mint growing nearby. “Go pick some Mint.”

“How much do you need?” Ye Lin asked, knowing full well that if Qin Tian could make soap and Shampoo, toothpaste would be no problem.

“Around a jin. The leaves need to be big, green, and tender,” Qin Tian reminded her. “Wash them clean and bring them to me.”

“Okay,” Ye Lin replied cheerfully, and hurried off to collect Mint.

Qin Tian didn’t stay idle either.

While Ye Lin gathered Mint, he got up and cut a few stalks of bamboo, then set them up over an Earthen Jar filled with water.

Ye Lin quickly brought back a jin of Mint.

Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked Qin Tian, “How are you going to use Mint to make toothpaste?”

“By distilling Mint Essential Oil from the Mint, then mixing it with Baking Soda and coconut oil made from cooked coconut meat. Stir it together and let it solidify—that’s all.” It wasn’t a secret recipe, so Qin Tian didn’t mind explaining.

“Baking Soda? Isn’t that the stuff used to ferment bread?” Ye Lin had some knowledge about Baking Soda. “Where are we going to get that?”

“Over there,” Qin Tian pointed at the reagent bottle in the corner.

“Sodium Bicarbonate!” Ye Lin realized suddenly—if Qin Tian hadn’t said it, she almost would have forgotten that Sodium Bicarbonate is just the scientific name for Baking Soda.

“Exactly,” Qin Tian said, and placed the Mint into the Earthen Jar on the stove.

He started the fire to boil water.

With the bamboo lying across the top, the Mint wouldn’t sink into the water.

Next, Qin Tian brought out the previously used Distillation Pipe and inserted one end into the Earthen Jar, with the other end extending into a clay bowl to collect the liquid.

Once the water boiled, the steam would carry the plant oils from the Mint, which would then condense in the Distillation Pipe and drip into the reagent bottle.

The water quickly came to a boil, and droplets began to fall into the reagent bottle.

Half an hour later, the clay bowl was already half full of clear liquid.

On closer inspection, one could see two distinct layers—the upper layer was a very pale yellow liquid, which was the extracted Mint Essential Oil; the lower layer was colorless and transparent, simply water.

“What a refreshing scent,” Ye Lin said, catching the aroma of Mint from the essential oil.

“Of course it’s refreshing—it’s Mint Essential Oil,” Qin Tian replied, bringing over the prepared bamboo sticks and reagent bottle.

The bamboo was about the thickness of a chopstick, with two nodes removed.

Qin Tian dipped the bamboo stick into the essential oil, used his finger to plug the end, and the oil was drawn into the stick.

Then, with a quick release, the oil dripped into the reagent bottle.

This method of separating essential oil was slow, and the two of them worked until five in the afternoon before all the Mint Essential Oil and water were separated.

During this time, the syrup, after cooling for a long while, had solidified into sugar blocks.

Qin Tian and Ye Lin tasted a piece—the flavor was rich and sweet, even better than the Red Sugar they used to buy.