Quantum Leap - Vol. 6 Kingdom Building Garnering Wealth

C018 Many Uses Of The Humble Baking Powder

"How do you know its baking powder, Eko?" I asked as I wrapped the small paper package back.

"We herbalist would use baking powder to make herbal paste and pills. So in order to make the paste, we heat up the baking powder in a pan and then mixed the ingredients. Same goes for the pill, after we had made the pill in the mould, we let it sit for a few days to dry."

"Baking powder is water-soluble and does not contain any smell or colour," Eko explained and my eyes gleamed and grinned and Hiko-sama thought that he could sense a kind of dangerous aura emitting from me.

"Thank you...! Thank you...! Thank you...! Omagai...! You didn't know the answer that you gave me is the solution that I had been thinking all these while as I rubbed my sore knuckles on the washing board every time I do the laundry!"

"We don't quite catch what you mean, Senpai," asked Hanna. "It is OK, you will know it soon," I replied. Hiko-sama was looking at me and was wondering what does baking powder have to do with laundry. This kid is going nuts already.

"Can someone buy for me a packet of 1 kilogram of baking powder now, please?" I said as I placed 2 silver coins on the table. Izumi picked it up and said she will go and buy for me at the confectionery and return immediately. I thanked her and she soon took off.

"How much is the bar of laundry soap? Does anyone know?" I asked around and only Hiko-sama replied saying it costs 1 silver for a long bar of laundry soap. He said the laundry soap has no smell and of the clothes were not dried properly, there would be some kind of smell.

"That's when the clothes are folded. Now it's constantly air-dried by using Hangers." I explained and Riko exclaimed that she saw me taking in the laundry yesterday evening and all looked nice and straight with a hook at the top.

Izumi returned shortly with the packet of baking powder and she was almost out of breath as she ran back as soon as possible. Poor girl!

She returned the change and I placed it back into the coin pouch. I looked at it and said that I'm going to boil some water for tea and attend to something. "Go ahead and order dinner, leave a bowl of something for me," I said and passed the coin pouch for Hiko-sama to settle their dinner for me.

I went to boil some water and then I went to the Realm of Mind and visualised an oven for me on the soap production. I then baked the baking powder on 5 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius and stirred the contents so it won't burn.

I looked around and found a bit of soap that had coagulated and hardened inside the main mixer and I took some and blended it with a few drops of rose Essense. The baking powder that had been baked I set it on top of the oven to cool it and scooped some and mixed it in the blender.

The end product was what I had imagined to be. As the soap was blended into smooth grains and added with the baking powder and drops of rose Essense, I had finally made powder Detergent! Yes...! Another great product for Fasuto Japan KabushikiGaisha!

"Yeeeaaaahaaawwwww...!" I shouted and I took an onion skin paper and poured the contents from the blender into it and soon I logged off my meditative state and return to the real world.

From my room, I went straight to the kitchen to check the tea and brought 6 cups to the front. I passed the packet to Hiko-sama and he opened it up and the sweet smell of rose permeated to his nose. He held the rough powdery stuff in his hands and felt that it was quite warm.

After settling the drinks I turned to Hiko-sama and told him its for the Seiko Tumbler and also good for handwashing. Its powdered Detergent I said. Better than the laundry soap bar. Hiko-sama looked at me remarkably and simply said, "You are a wonder, kid!"

"Senpai, what's that? Can we see it too?" Riko asked as she peered at Hiko-sama's hands. "Be careful... Don't let it fall into your drinks." I cautioned Riko as everyone peered at it and saw that it was grainy but smelled wonderful.

"Senpai, what's this? And it smelled like the Karada Soap. Is this for our hair or something?" asked Eko as she pinched the Detergent and held it to her nose to smell.

"It is not for your hair, it's for washing clothes and this will arrive together with 2 new products they would make people happy when doing their laundry very very soon," I explained as the packet of Detergent was passed back to me.

"Oh... Can you tell us more about it?" Fei asked timidly.

"Wait till the product is here and then I will show everyone how to use so that you can help to market the product when the time comes, OK? Even if I tell you about the new products, you won't understand until you see it." I explained in hoping not to dampen their enthusiasm.

"Alright, Sensei... Promise to show us the new product when it comes ok? Said Riko as she clapped her hands in excitement. Her mention of soap for the hair sparked another idea but that would come at a later stage. Settle one matter first, and let it be ongoing to settle another.

It is difficult to think of hair shampoo right now because of several factors: plastic is still non-existent and having a glass bottle in the bathroom with shampoo in your hair and eyes can only spell disaster. And bottles are too time-consuming to manufacture.

=*=

"We are having Oden today!" I exclaimed aloud and I went to the kitchenette to get the bowls and chopsticks and place them on a tray and brought it to the front. The 3 young girls of nearly the same as age as Riko were discussing themselves on the Oden that was about to be ordered as they knew the name but doesn't know what it contains.

I handed the bowls to the seller and he counted the bowls and simply nodded and proceeded to prepare the Oden. I asked for more vegetables for all bowls and he acknowledged.

I joined the girls back and when the first two bowls arrived, the girls let us have them first. "New House, young master?" the seller asked and I replied that it belonged to the girls. The seller simply nodded and continued to serve the rest. Hiko-sama paid the seller using the coins from my coins pouch and the seller went about knocking his chopsticks on a bowl.

We graced the food and everyone started eating. It's an inexplicable feeling when one eats alone against one that eats in a company of friends or families. The girls were having a great time eating the dinner that was served hot and fresh before them. I looked at them and to my horror, we forgot to let them wash their hands before eating! Hahaha... Too late for me to edit so let's get on with the rest of the story, OK?

"So, how many of the people you met when you part your share of suppers with them? I asked as I thought that these poor people had nothing to eat and have to dumpster dive in order to survive.

"Oh, we met around 5 or 6 of them last night." Gin replied as she showed up 5 of her dainty fingers.

"Are they all men or women?"

"Three men and two women," Fei answered and she quickly swallowed her fishball and blew the heat from inside her mouth.

"Hmm, the welfare department should have looked into the state of this village. No one should stay hungry or even dumpster dive especially with the Gokiburi ninjas around." I said and looked at Hiko-sama and he just shook his head and said, "No such thing here as welfare department"

"Sensei, how much is a sack of grains?"

"It depends on the quality of grain whether its a new or old harvest. It ranges from 3 to 6 coppers per kilo, whether its whole grain or broken grain and whether its new or old harvest."

"So a broken grain old harvest would cost somewhere between 120 to 150 coppers, or 12 to 15 silvers for a 50 Kilogram sack of rice. Rounding it off as 1 gold coin per sack, if we buy in bulk, am I right, Sensei?"

"Yup, something like that. Why do you ask?" Hiko-sama asked and surely would think they something is definitely brewing in my head.

"Roughly how many households are there in the plebs' district, Sensei?" I asked and Hiko-sama told me he can check it out from the registrar on the number of people and the number of households that is in the plebs' district.

I thanked him for his great assistance and somehow he had a rough idea on what I was thinking. He smiled and he knew where I had come from and with the accumulated wealth, helping others in great misfortune was my next mission. I went back to the house and took out my sketchbook and Reed pen.

I decided to shelf the idea one side first. I had to think of the following order first and shared with Hiko-sama so that we won't miss a thing and wrote on a sketchpad as part of our 'To-Do List':

1. Clear the 600 pieces of [Refined Iron] plates and stack them on the pallet

2. Prepare the new 24 fragrances in the jar and label it.

3. Mix 400 cc of each of the fragrances into the mixing bowl that had been clearly marked.

4. Knock the 5 Scented Soap into their own groupings and place them on pallets totalling to 300 bars per scent.

5. Visualise 520 more moulds for a total of 300 bars of soap for every 24 scents.

6. Make 24 different stamps for each scent

7. Label and wrap 29 of the Scented Soap for the Patent and Trademark department

8. Collect orders from the cosmetics shop for all the 29 scents

9. Make Lemon Scented Detergent and present to the Patents and Trademark department. The name of the Detergent would be Kurin.

10. Bring 10 Hangers to the Patent and Trademark Department

11. Set aside the orders of 20 bar of soaps for each scent totalling 580 gold coins from Kayu-san

12. Recompile the orders for the cosmetics and confirm if they wanted to buy 100 bars of soap for every 29 scents at 1 gold piece each. Total is 2,900 bars of soap.

13. Buy some ledger books to mark these quantities and description first.

14. Discuss with Mesen-san to meet up for lunch with his nephew and write a simple contract to start building the Seiko Tumbler

15. Finalise the cost for the STM as we now call it for the Seiko Tumbler Machine

16.The first model to be sent here for now use and demonstration and marketing purposes.

17. Check if the banner is ready for the storage instead of the house.

18. Buy paper glue from the stationery to stick the wrapping paper together.

19. Statistics on plebs District on the number of residents and households.

20. Buy a basket of lemon and a 5 kilograms sack of baking powder from the confectionery.

21. Open a corporate savings account using the business trade name.

Anything else would be appended after this note.

"Phew... That's it for now. We keep this sketchbook close to us and once we are done, we strike it off." I said as I set the pen and book aside.

We were so engrossed in our discussion that we had left the food half-eaten and the girls were just staring at us in amazement especially for me, whom they knew that I had never gone to school and could write with such flourish!