Divine Tang Era

"Young master, we're out of salt."

"I'll go buy it after I finish eating," Xu Dan replied.

"I want to go too," Little Magpie said in her childish voice.

"Where are you going? Young master has important things to do. What are you doing causing trouble?" Yun Niang scolded irritably.

"It's okay, it's just ahead anyway."

Little Magpie was overjoyed upon hearing this. Xu Dan rinsed his mouth with water after finishing his meal before taking her out. The black bear followed behind, trotting and marking its territory as it went. In a nearby alley, several free-roaming dogs glared at them with hostility.

The black bear paid them no heed, puffing out its chest and following closely behind its master with an imposing air.

The salt shop was nearby, not far from the inn; it was a general store.

Xu Dan's former acquaintance, He Rong, had a shop that, while also a general store, was more like an antique shop he had seen before, except that it collected more than just antiques.

The grocery store wasn't big, but it sold a lot of things, filling the entire store to the brim.

The shop assistant standing outside saw them coming and greeted them warmly, "Young master, what would you like to buy?"

"Do you have salt?"

"Of course we have it." The shopkeeper pointed to a sack of salt blocks outside the shop and said, "Look, this is salt. It's very cheap, one coin for two catties. The powdered kind inside is two coins a catty. The kind further inside is refined and purified snow salt, which costs one tael of silver a catty. We also have even better spiritual salt in the shop. It can nourish the body and warm the blood, but it's more expensive, costing five spirit stones a catty."

Xu Dan looked up and glanced at him after hearing his words.

It seems this guy knew about the previous sale of the flower-tailed snake, otherwise he wouldn't have tried to sell him spirit salt.

That's true. Jingning County is such a small place. If anything happens, it spreads from one person to another, and in the blink of an eye, everyone who needs to know knows.

He picked up a salt block from the sack and examined it; it was the kind of mineral salt that wasn't very pure. The inn used the same kind, which tasted salty with a hint of sourness. He hadn't bothered to change it before when he was alone, but now that he was with Yun Niang and her daughter, he couldn't eat this kind of thing anymore. However, snow salt costing one tael of silver per pound was a bit too expensive.

One tael of silver in the Divine Tang Dynasty could be exchanged for one thousand copper coins, equivalent to one thousand yuan in the previous life. Its purchasing power was astonishing, comparable to that of the 1990s.

Even now, a thousand yuan for a pound of salt is shockingly expensive.

Xu Dan thought for a moment, then bought ten catties of ground mineral salt and had his assistant divide it into two bags, intending to take it back and purify it himself.

In Longxi area of ​​Fujian province, villages near the sea and river sometimes have a strange taste in their well water. To make it easier to drink, the locals built water towers, lined with fine sand, then placed charcoal on top of the sand, and finally covered with a thick layer of coarse sand.

After being filtered through these multiple layers, you get pure, tasteless well water that is safe to drink.

In some hotels and restaurants, filtration systems are used to clean the pond water in order to keep the fish alive.

Generally, a sponge or sterilized cotton ball is placed on top to filter out debris, followed by coral or coarse sand sterilized at high temperatures, and then activated carbon. This method can effectively prevent water pollution and the resulting bacterial infection and death of the fish.

The survival videos also teach people simple ways to filter water to obtain clean drinking water; these are all very common things and common sense.

However, these common-sense facts were held by a few people in the Divine Tang Empire and were not known to the general public, making them all the more precious.

Xu Dan bought some more candy and sugar cubes, tooth powder, toothbrushes, towels and other daily necessities before walking back with Xiao Que'er while eating candy.

There are many different kinds of sugar here. The most expensive one, snow sugar, was too pricey, so he didn't buy it. The remaining granulated sugar and brown sugar were cheaper. Granulated sugar is made by boiling sugarcane juice until it turns a thick yellow color, and then caramelizing it a bit more. Brown sugar is considered very nourishing and can cause internal heat, making it suitable for postpartum women and winter tonics. Granulated sugar isn't as overly sweet as white sugar, nor is it as likely to cause internal heat, so people in Guangdong and Fujian like to use it in cooking, desserts, and soups.

As for the sugar cubes, in Shen Tang, they are made by adding cooked flour, and the taste is acceptable.

Xu Dan used to live alone and didn't pay much attention to personal hygiene; he just drifted along.

Since arriving in this world, I've become quite diligent. I brush my teeth every morning and evening, and rinse my mouth after meals. There's no other way; this world doesn't have the machines of the past, and if my teeth get damaged, I wouldn't know how to fix them. If I were to bleed badly, I'd definitely die, so I have no choice but to do this.

Years ago, while brushing his teeth, he had a sudden thought: I wonder what people did in ancient times without toothpaste and toothbrushes?

Only after arriving here did I realize how superficial I had been.

It turns out that toothbrushes exist in this world, but there is no toothpaste, only tooth powder.

In the Shentang region, poor people brushed their teeth with willow wood or soft twigs, or with their fingers dipped in wood ash; those with a little money used salt; and the wealthy bought tooth powder and toothbrushes. Tooth powder, made from traditional Chinese medicine, could stop bleeding, disinfect, sterilize, and whiten teeth—its many functions naturally made it expensive, beyond the reach of ordinary people. Toothbrushes, on the other hand, were made from stiff animal bristles such as pig bristles, and were not expensive.

Back at the inn, Little Magpie ran to her mother and proudly showed off a half-melted piece of candy.

"Mother, look."

"Why are you eating the young master's food again?" Yun Niang asked, tapping her forehead.

"It's okay, I'm going to eat anyway."

Xu Dan placed the things he bought on the table and pushed the tooth powder, toothbrush, towel, and other daily necessities in front of her. "These are the toiletries I bought for you, and there are also candies. You can have some too. Little Magpie, don't eat too much, and remember to rinse your mouth afterward to avoid cavities and tooth decay."

"Young master, we have no need for these things. You should return them quickly," said Yun Niang.

"This is a benefit offered by our store, so you can use it without worry."

"Benefits?" Yun Niang had no idea what he was talking about.

Xu Dan didn't explain, but took out ten taels of silver from his pocket and gave it to her, saying, "If the family needs anything in the future, you can buy it yourself to save trouble."

Yun Niang hesitated for a moment, then finally accepted the silver, but said, "I will keep accounts."

"No need for that." Xu Dan waved his hand.

"Absolutely," Yun Niang said firmly.

Seeing her determination, Xu Dan didn't say anything. He took out a bag of salt he had bought and gave it to her, while he took the other bag and walked to the back, intending to experiment with purifying the salt powder he had bought. He first found a clean wooden basin, poured in five catties of mineral salt powder, and added water to dissolve it.

Since there were no clean cloths in the inn, they bought a meter of cotton cloth and a new wooden basin to filter out the impurities from the salt water.

The coarsely filtered brine is yellowish-red and needs further filtration.

At this point, they needed fine sand, charcoal, and coarse sand. The inn only had charcoal, so Xu Dan went to find coarse and fine sand. But they couldn't use them immediately; they had to be washed clean and boiled in hot water to disinfect them. Looking at the wooden barrels in the inn, none met their requirements, so they had one made and bought some cotton cloth along the way.

Then he placed the cotton cloth in a wooden bucket about two feet high, poured in sand, added charcoal, and then covered it with a thick layer of coarse sand.

After layering them in this way, begin pouring in the mineral brine.

The little magpie and the black bear had no idea what he was going to do, so they squatted down beside him and watched curiously.