Chapter 6 : 发现硝石

The Discovery of Nitre

Ji Wu Jue is currently at his desk, writing with his pen, working on a ‘memorial to the emperor’ (folded in accordion form) when a shadowy shadow appears behind Ji Wu Jue. 

Ji Wu Jue glanced from the corner of his eye, “How is the investigation going?”

“This subordinate followed her to Xue Hua Palace yet I never saw her come out again, but early this morning, this servant checked all the lists of Xue Hua Palace and there was no such woman at all.”

“There is no?” Ji Wu Jue’s eyes shrank slightly. Those pair of sparkling starry eyes from last night appeared again in front of him. He did not believe that a woman with such a stunning and unique appearance would be unknown in the palace.

“Continue the investigation!”

“Yes!” The black shadow moved away quickly. 

Ji Wu Jue thought about it and called Cao Zhong Quan to come over again.

“Order it down, say that yesterday ‘I, the sovereign’ (Zhen) bumped into a palace maid while I was in Li Xia Palace yesterday. Have all the palace maids in the palace called in for questioning!”

He didn’t believe that he still could not find her after digging into the ground.

“Aye!” Cao Zhong Quan took orders.

When Lu Yunluo woke up, it was almost noon, so she got up and exercised a bit, and after eating, she started tending the fruits and vegetables in the yard.

The grapes that had been transplanted from space had all ripened, with bunches of purple grapes hanging like pearls on the dark green vines, and the watermelons were almost all ripe, with seven or eight large watermelons ready to eat.

The vegetables and fruits transplanted from the space are extraordinarily sweet and refreshing every time you eat them.

“Niang Niang, I didn’t expect that although this Cold Palace is remote, the watermelons and fruits grown in the soil here are particularly tasty.” Yin Shuang was holding half a watermelon and eating it to her heart’s content. 

She had felt this way when she had eaten the vegetables here before, but she didn’t expect the fruits grown here to smell and taste sweet too.

Moreover, the things in this palace were really rare, many of them were food she had never even heard of outside.

The watermelon in her hand, for example, was something she had never heard of in the seven or eight years she had followed her young lady in the Prime Minister’s residence.

Lu Yunluo watched with a gentle smile on her face as Yin Shuang finished eating the melon, “Are you full?”

“I’m full.” Yin Shuang burped loudly.

“If you’re full then let’s get to work ba.”

A pair of white, homemade cotton gloves and a straw hat were thrown over, “Niang Niang, where are we going?”

“Go to pull weeds!”

As Yinshuang stood on the hillside behind the Cold Palace bedchamber, looking at the meter-high weeds that filled the area in front of her, only then did she finally realize. Niang Niang, what’s that gentle look mean?

There were so many weeds, how long would the two of them have to pull it all?! 

As Lu Yunluo looked at this huge expanse of weeds over a meter high, she was also inwardly resisting. Two days ago, she had inadvertently found some herbs on a corner of this hillside. Now that she wanted to grow herbs to make pills to earn money, she had to get rid of these weeds, otherwise, there was no way to confirm whether there were any other herbs or not. 

It was a physical job, as it turned out that two people’s inefficiency was too low, under the circumstances without the help of any tools.

By the time the sun went down, the two of them had only pulled a small area.

When they got up the next day, neither of them could lift up their arms.

For several days in a row, the two of them avoided the afternoon heat, going in the morning and returning at noon, going in the afternoon and returning in the evening.

It was not until the fifth day that the two of them finally cleared the weeds to the depth part. 

During this time, Lu Yunluo did not find any single herb.

When she was thinking about whether she should continue clearing, her eyes were suddenly drawn to a few stones on the ground.

“This is …”

Lu Yunluo frowned, why did this stone look so familiar?

This stone looks like the one that her chemistry class teacher, in her previous life, let them do the ice experiments… Nitre?