Chapter 108 Invention (Second Update)

Gu Jiao went to the clinic.

Today is the day of my scheduled follow-up appointment with that mysterious VIP, who is already waiting for me at Huichuntang.

This time, he did not have the clinic cleared out.

Gu Jiao arrived a little late because she had seen Xiao Liulang off, which made him wait quite a while.

The young guard beside him had turned completely black-faced: "Hmph, you're the first person to dare keep my master waiting!"

Gu Jiao shrugged: "Oh, what an honor."

The young guard turned his face away.

Gu Jiao entered the side room.

The man wore a bamboo hat with a veil covering his face, but his noble and dignified demeanor was undeniable.

He was still accompanied by two effeminate servants.

After seeing this a few times, the servants had long been used to Gu Jiao's rudeness. They saw that Gu Jiao didn't even bow to their master before sitting down. They could only grumble inwardly, but dared not utter a single sarcastic remark.

The reason is simple: this little girl really cured my master's illness!

Gu Jiao gave him three injections of benzathine penicillin, one injection every seven days. The last injection was given last month, and he came today for a follow-up examination.

Gu Jiao took his pulse and performed an examination.

"Am I fully recovered?" The man's voice was filled with undisguised joy.

Gu Jiao took off her gloves and said to him, "It seems that the recovery is going well so far, but it can only be considered completely cured if there is no recurrence for two years. Follow-up is necessary if needed."

“Uh…” The man remained silent.

Gu Jiao noticed that his mood was different from the past few days: "What's wrong? Can't we do the follow-up visit?"

The man smiled and said, "To be honest, I'm leaving."

"Oh." Gu Jiao wasn't surprised. Judging from his accent, he didn't sound like a local, and he might not even be from Youzhou. He came from a more distant place, but Gu Jiao couldn't guess exactly where.

The man said in a friendly tone, "However, I believe I have been cured by you, young lady. May I ask if you are so kind as to ask, with your superb medical skills, may I know who your teacher is?"

Gu Jiao replied, "I have many teachers."

This is the truth. In her previous life, she studied medicine at university and graduate school, and later went to a research institute. She had quite a few teachers who taught her.

The man wasn't oblivious; since Gu Jiao didn't want to discuss the topic further, he didn't press the matter. He said, "Thank you for curing my illness, young lady. I have another matter to discuss with you today, which is to express my sincere gratitude."

"You've already paid the consultation fee, so there's no need for thanks..." Gu Jiao said, but then saw the man take a brocade box from a servant and place it on the table.

That brocade box was clearly no ordinary item.

Gu Jiao seamlessly switched gears: "As for a thank-you gift, if you really want to give it, I can only reluctantly accept it."

The servants couldn't bear to watch any longer. "You, you have to have some backbone! Keep saying you don't want it!"

The man smiled tolerantly and pushed the brocade box to Gu Jiao's side.

When Gu Jiao opened it, she found it to be an exquisite jade folding fan. Holding the fan in her hand, she felt its cool touch and its jade-like texture was clear and pure; it was truly a fine fan.

"Do you like it?" the man asked.

Gu Jiao looked hesitant.

The servants were dumbfounded. No way, a fan made of thousand-year-old jade? They don't like this?

"If you don't like it, you can choose something else," the man said gently.

"Hmm, do you have any fans made of gold?" Gu Jiao asked.

The servants couldn't help but sway slightly. You really don't know how to be polite, coming right up to exchange for gold. But is gold worth more than this? Country folk just don't know anything!

The man smiled and said, "I don't have a gold fan, but I do have other gold items here."

Having said that, he summoned one of his servants and whispered a few words in his ear. The servant's eyes widened: "Master, isn't this inappropriate? That's..."

The man didn't treat his servants with the same kindness he showed Gu Jiao: "Just take it when I tell you to. Why all the nonsense? After your trip to Jiangnan, I've discovered you have other talents, but you've become quite talkative."

"Yes." The servant dared not delay, gave Gu Jiao a resentful glare, and went to the carriage to fetch a new small box.

It's actually a Huarong Road puzzle made of pure gold.

Huarong Road is an old-fashioned puzzle toy that many shops sell, but most of them are made of wood. Gu Jiao had never seen one made of gold before.

It's fun and sparkly, Xiao Jingkong will definitely love it.

Gu Jiao nodded in satisfaction.

Seeing a slight expression finally appear on her usually serious face, the man couldn't help but chuckle and asked, "Does the young lady prefer gold or Huarong Road?"

Gu Jiao said, "It's not that I like it, it's that my younger brother likes it."

The man smiled slightly: "You have a younger brother, young lady?"

Gu Jiao held up three fingers: "Not one, but three."

Man: It doesn't seem right to only send one!

The man gave Gu Jiao two more gifts, and the servants nearby could feel their master's heartache. Why did he have to ask such a terrible question? Did he kill the conversation? Did he dig his own grave?

There's still no one to confide in about my suffering.

It's because you're too concerned about saving face.

When Gu Jiao left the clinic, there were three extra luxury gift packages in her little basket!

The man cupped his hands in greeting to Gu Jiao at the entrance of Huichuntang and said, "Miss, until we meet again."

Gu Jiao glanced at him: "See you later, doctor. What's wrong with you?"

After saying that, she carried her small basket on her back and disappeared into the crowd without looking back.

The servant was furious and gritted his teeth, saying, "Master, look at her..."

The man was somewhat taken aback, after all, it had been many years since anyone had dared to speak to him like that, but after realizing what he meant, he smiled happily: "Yes, what's wrong with me? Why do I want to see a doctor? Isn't it good to be healthy?"

"Master..."

"It's time to go back to Beijing. Let's go."

After leaving Huichuntang, Gu Jiao went to the only blacksmith shop in town.

This blacksmith shop has been open for over twenty years, so it can be considered an old shop.

As soon as Gu Jiao reached the door, she heard the clanging of metal striking metal. The blacksmith shop was doing very well, and the blacksmiths were so busy they barely had time to breathe.

There was no counter in the shop, so Gu Jiao called over a shop assistant and asked, "I ordered some ironware here last month, and today is the delivery day."

The shop assistant, carrying a heavy basket of iron ore, shouted into the lobby, "Old Wang! Someone's here to pick up the goods!"

"Coming, coming!" A blacksmith, sweating profusely, rushed out. He had a towel around his neck, and as he wiped the sweat from his face with it, he looked at Gu Jiao and asked, "Who wants to pick up goods? You?"

The last time, it was the driver from Huichuntang who placed the order, so the old blacksmith didn't recognize her.

Gu Jiao hummed in agreement and handed him the pair of cards.

In ancient times, there were few scholars, and even fewer blacksmiths who could read. Therefore, they used matching tags, each with a corresponding number, which indicated which batch of goods it belonged to.

"You haven't finished this yet," the old blacksmith said, frowning.

Gu Jiao said, "But last time you said you'd pick up the goods today."

The old blacksmith wiped his sweat with a towel and said, "But it's really not finished, there's nothing we can do."

"How much longer?" Gu Jiao asked.

"Well..." the old blacksmith thought for a moment, "one or two months, I guess."

Gu Jiao asked in confusion, "So long? I didn't need that many farm tools, did I?"

The old blacksmith sighed, "It's not yours. Last month, the shop took on a job before yours. It needed a thousand pieces of iron tools for mining iron ore. How could a small blacksmith shop like ours possibly keep up? We're still short more than half! We don't have enough manpower or enough furnaces..."

"Old Wang! Time to forge iron!" a blacksmith inside shouted.

"Hey! They're here!" the old blacksmith shouted into the shop, then turned to Gu Jiao and said, "Miss, why don't you come back next month?"

Gu Jiao didn't want to wait that long.

After the old blacksmith went in, she also went into the blacksmith shop. The shop assistants and blacksmiths were so busy that no one paid any attention to the little girl.

To be fair, the blacksmith shop has a considerable number of workers; with that number of people, they should be able to easily produce a thousand pieces of ironware per month.

So the problem shouldn't be a shortage of manpower.

Gu Jiao looked at their blast furnace again and immediately discovered the problem.

Iron smelting requires extremely high temperatures, and blast furnaces typically use blast furnaces to achieve these temperatures. Gu Jiao had assumed that ironworks in this dynasty would at least be using water-powered blast furnaces, but to her surprise, they were using the most primitive form of manual blasting.

The biggest drawback of the manual bellows, commonly known as the human bellows, is that there is only one bag (tuò, a bag made of horsehide) at each joint, and the bag closes once every time the bellows is blown by hand.

A blast furnace typically has four to six inlets, meaning that a blast furnace can blow air up to six times at the same time.

This is much less efficient than water drainage.

The waterwheel uses water power to drive the bellows. Each time the waterwheel turns, the bellows can close several times, which not only saves a lot of time but also saves manpower.

Gu Jiao shared her thoughts with the old blacksmith.

The old blacksmith was extremely surprised. How could a little girl dressed in plain clothes know these things?

After his initial surprise, he said, "I've seen what you're talking about; only the imperial ironworks have it."

No craftsman in the countryside knew how to make a water-powered bellows.

“I can do it,” Gu Jiao said.

The old blacksmith was greatly startled.

Gu Jiao thought for a moment: "However, what I'm going to do next is not the water duct."

Gu Jiao used a form of address.

"What box?" The old blacksmith said he had never heard of it before!

"Do you have any paper?" Gu Jiao asked.

"Huh?" The old blacksmith was stunned by Gu Jiao and didn't react for a long time.

Gu Jiao simply found a bluestone slab on the ground, took out a charcoal pencil from her purse, and began to draw intently.

Other blacksmiths were drawn to her, but the old blacksmith scolded them, "What are you looking at! Get back to work!"

The blacksmiths, restrained by the master craftsman's authority, suppressed their curiosity and went to work, but they still occasionally glanced at Gu Jiao.

What is this little girl drawing on the floor of their blacksmith shop?

The old blacksmith finally couldn't help but ask, "Young lady, what are you doing?"

"Painting," Gu Jiao said succinctly.

Why did you draw on my floor? I'll have to find someone to clean it up later, what a hassle!

Gu Jiao smiled and said, "Don't you want me to finish the remaining thousand-plus iron tools within ten days?"

"Ten...ten days?" The old blacksmith straightened up, hands on his hips. "Don't joke around!"

He's a blacksmith, how could he not know? Even if everyone in the blacksmith shop worked day and night without rest, it would still take at least a month!

Unless the imperial court's water-powered drainage technology is used, but that would still take twenty days.

"I'm not joking."

The old blacksmith didn't believe it.

"What if I do it?"

The old blacksmith crossed his arms and looked down at her: "If you do it, I'll make all your iron tools for free, without charging you a single copper coin! Not only that, I'll buy all your iron tools from now on! I absolutely won't take a single penny from you!"

Gu Jiao thought about it carefully and decided that the deal was feasible: "Okay, I agree."

The old blacksmith pursed his lips. "What? You agreed to that? You've been bragging to the heavens!"

Gu Jiao finished drawing quickly and nodded in satisfaction: "That should be it. Go find a carpenter to come over in a bit."

The old blacksmith opened his mouth wide: "What?"

Gu Jiao rolled up her sleeves: "Stop spacing out, or you'll never finish making your iron tools."

After saying that, Gu Jiao stood up, wrapped the charcoal pencil in kraft paper and put it back in her purse. She then washed her hands and turned to leave.

The old blacksmith was completely bewildered. This...this can't be! Was the little girl playing a trick on him? How could she possibly know these things?

However, for some reason, the old blacksmith, recalling the image of the other man kneeling on one knee, calmly drawing, went next door and called the carpenter over.

The carpenter was knowledgeable; his eyes immediately changed after looking at the drawings on the bluestone slab: "Who...who drew this?"

"What's wrong?" the old blacksmith asked curiously.

The carpenter didn't answer him. He knelt down and, as if looking at a precious treasure, reverently touched the design drawing on the ground with both hands. However, he was afraid of knocking it over even slightly, so he didn't dare to actually touch it.

This cautious demeanor left the old blacksmith completely baffled.

A glint of hope appeared in the carpenter's eyes. Without a word, he returned to his shop, grabbed paper and pen, and knelt down to begin devoutly copying the blueprint.

He had a vague premonition that this might be the most remarkable thing he had ever done in his life!

The old blacksmith was completely bewildered, staring at the pattern on the bluestone slab from left to right: "What's going on? Can it really be made into something?"

(End of this chapter)