Chapter 59: The Golden Culinary Deity Boy and Printer's Ink

Su Ze was somewhat surprised. Although he was not a professional in finance and accounting, he knew that the Song Dynasty's accounting system was notoriously complex.

Su Ze was well aware that the progress of social management level was the progress of administrative technology, and the implementation of administrative technology boiled down to the progress of the fiscal and taxation system.

The reason why the Qin legal system was able to exert such strict control over land and population was precisely because of its rigorous land and tax systems. By enabling the state to extract taxes directly from the common people, it established a rigorous administrative apparatus.

Back in the day when Liu Bang entered Xianyang, Xiao He seized the archival documents of the Great Qin, and what he seized was precisely this very set of the "Qin administrative system."

From the Han to the Tang dynasty, the financial system had been constantly advancing, and correspondingly, the bookkeeping system had become increasingly complex.

In the official offices of the Song Dynasty, there emerged specialized local scribes, who were professional accountants dedicated to handling government documents and ledgers.

However, for a box of account books like this, even the most seasoned local scribe would need to count the time in years just to read through them, let alone clarify the accounting logic within and pinpoint the critical data among the entries.

The purple-tier spiritual essence sprite was truly extraordinary!

Su Ze was extremely satisfied. After handing all the account books over to Ah Zhang, he unfurled the long scroll once again. Taking advantage of the good luck from drawing the purple-tier spiritual essence sprite, Su Ze prepared to construct the [Neighborhood Snack Shop] (Blue).

According to the system's description, the [Neighborhood Snack Shop] could produce food, and the quality of the food was determined by the tier of the spiritual essence sprite acting as the chef.

If he could recruit a high-tier spiritual essence sprite, Su Ze would be able to enjoy truly delicious food.

There was no help for it. Although the culinary skills of the chefs in Zhang Yaozuo's household were not bad, Zhang Yaozuo was fond of eating raw fish slices, and since it was currently spring, Zhang Yaozuo insisted on having raw fish at every single meal.

These fish slices, known in ancient times as *kuai*, were what modern people would call sashimi.

Every year in the balmy month of March, Jinmingchi, the imperial garden in the western outskirts of Bianjing, would be open for a few days to allow the common people to fish.

At that time, ordinary folk would carry fishing rods, shoulder cutting boards, and tuck sharp knives into their belts as they arrived at the banks of Jinmingchi. As soon as they caught a fish, they would scale and gut it right there on the riverbank, slice it paper-thin, and devour it by dipping it in seasonings.

This spectacle was known in the Song Dynasty as "cutting fish slices by the water's edge," and it was one of the grand sights of Tokyo Bianjing.

Zhang Yaozuo had also dug a pond in his courtyard, raising quite a number of fish and covering the pond with wooden planks. Every time guests came over, he would have a fish caught, and then order the chef to prepare it into sashimi to entertain them.

For a modern person, these freshwater fish slices, which harbored a vast number of parasites, were completely unacceptable.

Su Ze had refused to join Zhang Yaozuo in eating raw fish, only to be told by Zhang Yaozuo that he simply didn't understand the exquisite delicacy of fish sashimi.

Just wait until you contract a parasitic disease, you'll understand then.

As his current patron and protector, Su Ze didn't want Zhang Yaozuo to eat himself to death either, so he had once advised him to consume less raw fish.

However, Zhang Yaozuo brushed it off indifferently, merely saying that as long as one's eyes weren't bloodshot, eating sashimi was perfectly fine. In the end, Su Ze could only let the matter drop.

Unable to eat raw fish, while restaurants offering even moderately decent food were prohibitively expensive, and with Su Ze himself unable to cook, building this [Neighborhood Snack Shop] had become an absolute necessity.

Su Ze chose an open space beside Peach Blossom Cove to construct the [Neighborhood Snack Shop], and then returned to the cove to hang the recruitment wooden plaque upon it.

Right at that moment, Peach Blossom Cove suddenly became shrouded in a layer of mist, followed by a rich, savory aroma. Upon witnessing this wondrous phenomenon, could it be that a golden-tier reward had dropped?

A small boat emerged from within the mist, and an exceptionally plump, radish-like little sprite wearing a chef's short jacket and wielding a shovel and an iron wok appeared at the edge of the dock.

Su Ze hurriedly unfurled the long scroll, and sure enough, a golden-tier reward had appeared!

Then Su Ze grew puzzled. Last time when he recruited the traveling sprite Ah Yuan, it was also golden-tier, so why hadn't such a wondrous phenomenon occurred then?

Could it be that because they were recruited together last time, special effects only triggered on single draws?

Su Ze inspected this newly recruited golden-tier spiritual essence sprite.

[Culinary Essence Sprite of the Fastidious Chef], Orange-tier (Note: displayed as a golden aura upon summoning).

[Fastidious]: Extremely particular about ingredients; requires ingredients that satisfy his standards to be provided before he will cook. Satisfaction does not depend on the rarity of the ingredient, but on whether it fulfills his specific culinary requirements.

[Culinary God]: Able to turn the decay into the miraculous, capable of producing marvelous flavors even from the simplest ingredients.

"What are you standing there daydreaming for! Hurry up and help me up!"

The culinary essence sprite let out a roar, and Su Ze hastily reached out his hand to pull him up from the boat, only to hear the other party say:

"My cooking utensils are still on the boat, bring them up quickly!"

Su Ze rubbed his nose; true to form, people with genuine ability always had a temper. After Su Ze brought up the pots, bowls, and ladles from the cabin, the culinary essence sprite declared:

"Master of Peach Blossom Spring, I shall make three pacts with you: I will only ever cook ingredients produced right here within Peach Blossom Spring!"

So this was what [Fastidious] meant! This condition was actually quite easy to handle, since everything in Peach Blossom Spring was self-sufficient anyway.

Su Ze nodded and agreed, whereupon the culinary essence sprite finally cupped his hands and bowed to Su Ze.

Su Ze said:

"You can just be called Chef God. Once the [Neighborhood Snack Shop] is completed, you can open for business."

The Chef God nodded with satisfaction and moved his pots, bowls, and ladles over to the side of the [Neighborhood Snack Shop].

Leaving him to his own devices, Su Ze strolled around Peach Blossom Spring.

He came to Ah Zhi's printing workshop and saw that Ah Zhi was currently busy working inside.

Seeing Su Ze walk in, Ah Zhi merely raised her head slightly before burying it back into carving the printing blocks.

Su Ze walked over to the shelves and looked at the newly printed pages, a satisfied expression dawning on his face.

A few days ago, acting on Su Ze's suggestion, Ah Zhi had altered the formula of the ink, adding turpentine and sesame oil to the original ink-wash base to synthesize an oil-based printing ink.

Turpentine was gathered by the firewood-gathering sprite from the pine forests on the mountain, while the sesame oil was taken by Su Ze from Zhang Yaozuo's kitchen. Stir-frying, which began to emerge in the Song Dynasty, primarily used sesame oil for cooking.

Su Ze wasn't particularly fond of the taste of sesame oil, but it was just right for making printing ink.

Although the ingredients were known, the real difficulty in making printing ink lay in the precise proportions of the mixture.

Turpentine acted as a diluent; after the diluting action underwent evaporation, the turpentine components would dissipate, serving a function similar to water in traditional ink-wash painting.

Sesame oil served as a binder, fixing the ink in place and ultimately forming a protective film that prevented the ink from easily flaking off.

Turpentine and sesame oil played completely opposite roles in the ink. Figuring out how to allow the ink to dry rapidly while ensuring the ink powder remained clear and crisp upon the paper required repeated experimentation.

Fortunately, Ah Zhi possessed the skill [Ingenuity] and ultimately managed to develop a viable formula.

"Master of Peach Blossom Spring, mind the ink stains."

Only then did Su Ze realize that the ink had not yet dried completely, and his hands were already stained with ink.

Ah Zhi said with a troubled expression:
"The ink still dries too slowly; it's so easy to accidentally dirty one's hands."

Su Ze suddenly recalled a British television series he had watched before, in which nineteenth-century British newspapers were also printed using oil-based ink. To prevent the ink from soiling the noble gentlemen's hands, valets would use irons early every morning to press the newspapers, drying out the ink upon them.

Su Ze suggested:
"Can we use an iron to press them dry?"

Ah Zhi raised her head and asked:
"What is an iron?"

Su Ze described it:
"It's a heated piece of metal that can be used to smooth and press things flat."

Ah Zhi clapped her hands together and exclaimed:
"That's a method!"

Then, pulling out a blueprint, Ah Zhi said earnestly:
"Master of Peach Blossom Spring, many of the tools in the workshop are not convenient to use. Might I ask if you could build a blacksmith's forge?"