When the first rays of sunlight pierced through the attic's dormer window, Alice was already bustling about in the cramped kitchen.
She was wearing an apron left over from Aunt Sarah's old baking class.
The apron had "Kiss the Cook" printed on it, and the strings had to be wrapped around Alice's slender waist twice before they could be tied tight.
However, she wasn't frying bacon or toasting bread as usual.
Because at this moment, the kitchen looked more like a makeshift chemistry laboratory.
On the stove, a small stainless steel saucepan was steaming, with the water inside kept at a constant 60 degrees Celsius.
Alice held a glass thermometer in her hand, staring intently at a heat-resistant glass bowl being heated in a water bath inside the pot.
The bowl contained a glob of pale green gelatinous substance.
"Aloe polysaccharide extraction complete, 85% purity."
She gently stirred the gelatinous substance with a stainless steel spoon.
"Adding 2% salicylic acid solution to soften the stratum corneum and open the transdermal absorption channels."
She picked up a small measuring cup from the side—the clear liquid obtained by crushing, dissolving, and filtering aspirin tablets last night—and slowly poured it into the glass bowl.
"Next is the emulsifier."
Alice's gaze swept across the countertop.
There sat two eggs, the yolks already separated, leaving only the clear, viscous egg whites.
"Ovalbumin; although primitive, it is the best natural film-forming agent and stabilizer under these rudimentary conditions."
While muttering these chemical terms that would make Aunt Sarah faint if she heard them, she slowly added the egg whites, her stirring speed suddenly increasing.
The pale green colloid began to emulsify under the stirring, its color gradually turning into a pleasing milky white, and its texture becoming as smooth as cream.
Finally, she picked up a vitamin E capsule, pierced it with a needle tip, and dripped the golden oil from inside into it.
"Antioxidant added, reaction complete."
Alice turned off the stove, took out the glass bowl, and placed it into the prepared ice water to cool rapidly.
The previously somewhat thin liquid solidified rapidly at low temperature, eventually turning into a jar of snow-white paste that emitted a faint, fresh plant scent.
"Although limited by equipment and unable to extract the active ingredients to a molecular level, the activity of this stuff is at least ten times higher than those so-called big-name hand creams on the market."
Alice scooped a little with her pinky and applied it to the back of her hand.
Cool and moisturizing.
There was no greasy, fake-smooth feeling brought by mineral oil, because the paste truly penetrated into the skin texture to moisturize it.
Those cosmetic companies put things that cost a few cents into pretty bottles, slap some ethereal concept label on them, and can sell them for hundreds of times the price.
This is the real robbery; it's much more elegant and safer than holding a gun and going to a chop shop.
Just then, the bedroom door was pushed open.
Aunt Sarah walked out in her pajamas, her hair a mess.
Her complexion was poor, her eye bags puffy, and she radiated an aura called "I don't want to go to work."
"Good morning, Alice. What are you cooking? It smells weird."
Sarah yawned and walked to the refrigerator to find ice water, but as soon as her hand touched the refrigerator handle, she pulled it back abruptly as if scalded, letting out a suppressed cry of pain.
"Hiss—"
She looked at her hands.
Even after a night's rest, her hands were still red and swollen.
The skin at her knuckles was dry and cracked, and especially when touching cold, hard metal, that piercing, stinging pain was enough to drive someone crazy.
"Damn these hands, damn the disinfectant, damn the hospital."
Sarah leaned against the refrigerator door, eyes closed, cursing.
"If they make me wash that pile of vomit-covered sheets again today, I'll shove the head Nurse's head into the washing machine."
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