Fushun, Liaoning, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Zhejiang!
These places all have amber and beeswax mines, with Zhejiang being the closest to Jiangzhou!
This discovery overjoyed Shen Qing, who lost all interest in inquiring about Gao Yuanqi and Gao Yuanxiang's case.
She went to find Lao Xu and asked him to prepare to go to Zhejiang early the next morning.
Upon hearing this, Qi Zhenheng frowned and said, "Going to Zhejiang alone might be dangerous for you."
“I’m not alone,” Shen Qing pointed to Lao Xu, “Lao Xu is coming with me!”
Qi Zhenheng glanced at Lao Xu, his brows furrowing even deeper.
Shen Qing didn't pay any attention and continued to discuss tomorrow's itinerary with Lao Xu.
Upon learning that she wanted to look at amber and beeswax, Old Xu hesitated and said, "These things are only played with by high-ranking officials and nobles. They are very valuable. If we just go and ask around, will we be able to find out anything?"
Shen Qing insisted: "If we go, we might find out; if we don't go, we definitely won't have a chance."
“I know where the amber mines are. I’ll go with you,” Qi Zhenheng suddenly said.
Shen Qing was delighted: "Where is it?"
Chun'an.
If you narrow it down to a county, it becomes much easier to find.
Ask around at the largest antique and jewelry market in the area; you're sure to find out.
Shen Qing clapped his hands: "Great!"
The following day, she and Qi Zhenheng went to Chun'an together.
Last night, Shen Qing spent the entire night calculating the cost and feasibility of using amber as a down-proof fabric, and didn't sleep much. As soon as she got in the car, she turned to her side and fell into a deep sleep.
During the short drive of two or three hours, she had a long dream.
She dreamt that the Cheng family's property was raided, and Cheng Zhiwen fled to Guangzhou. She cried and begged him to come with her, but he refused and was eventually beheaded.
The entire Cheng family, numbering over a hundred, perished at the hands of the knife.
She stood amidst the mountain of corpses, holding Cheng Zhiwen's body and weeping uncontrollably.
“Shen Qing… Shen Qing…”
Someone shook her body, and she opened her eyes with tears streaming down her face. Through her blurred vision, she saw Cheng Zhiwen looking at her anxiously.
He was in the carriage; he wanted to escape with himself!
Shen Qing immediately hugged him, crying, "Run! Run! Let's go together! Waaah..."
He stiffened for a moment, then slowly raised his hand and gently patted her back.
Did you have a nightmare?
His voice suddenly became loud and clear, full of righteousness, no longer the mocking tone he used to have.
It's not Cheng Zhiwen!
Shen Qing pushed the other person away.
Upon seeing Qi Zhenheng's face clearly, she was so shocked that she jumped back.
"Lord Qi..." She was so embarrassed that her face was practically bleeding, and she lowered her head helplessly. "I'm sorry, I had a nightmare."
He smiled, sat back down, and looked at her tenderly: "Did you dream that you were being arrested? I heard you keep shouting 'Run!'"
"Um."
"Who was arrested?"
Shen Qing didn't want outsiders to know about her relationship with Cheng Zhiwen, so she made up a lie: "I was the only one who got arrested... I told myself to run away quickly..."
Qi Zhenheng nodded and considerately stopped asking questions.
Outside the car door, Old Xu held the reins, sighed, and looked worried.
...
They finally arrived in Chun'an in the afternoon, and with Qi Zhenheng leading the way, they came to a place called Pailing.
Pailing is a sparsely populated area, but it has the only amber mine in Zhejiang Province.
Qi Zhenheng had a personal relationship with the person in charge of the mine, so he easily led Shen Qing into the place where amber was stored.
Large chunks of yellow resin were piled up in the warehouse. Shen Qing walked closer and took a look—
They were all clean and of good quality, and I knew they weren't cheap, so I didn't look any further and turned to ask, "Do you have any of the lowest quality material?"
The person in charge pointed to the pile in the corner.
Shen Qing stepped forward, squatted down, picked up a few pieces of orange-peel-colored fabric, and weighed them in his hand.
It's very light, extremely light, much lighter than a pebble.
It truly is the lightest organic matter.
This kind of stuff is cheap to buy by the ton, and you can get a lot of it.
She asked the person in charge, "How much does this material cost?"
The other person glanced at the dirty leather in her hand and laughed, "This kind of material is almost entirely leather, and it's full of black spots and lines. No matter how much you polish it, it's unusable."
Shen Qing knew that he thought she was going to buy it and process it into antique jewelry to sell, so she smiled and explained, "I don't want to make it into antique jewelry. I have other uses for it. I don't need the material to be completely clean. As long as it is resin, it will be fine."
The other party glanced at Qi Zhenheng and said, "I'm an old friend of Lord Qi. If you want them, you can have them all. Just have someone come and take them away! We were going to clear them out anyway."
Shen Qing was surprised: "Don't we need to pay?"
The man smiled and waved his hand, "No need, no need! If you take it away, we'll save on labor costs and hire someone else to do it!"
Shen Qing was overjoyed and immediately turned around to estimate how much waste material there was.
Most of the amber was cracked and rough, but in her eyes it instantly transformed into bolts of perfect anti-drilling velvet fabric.
She told Lao Xu to immediately go to the market to hire a cart so they could haul all the amber pieces back to Jiangzhou the next day.
After arranging these matters, it was already dark, so we had no choice but to rest for the night at an inn in Chun'an before setting off back to Jiangzhou.
After finishing dinner, Shen Qing went back to his room to study the leather he had brought back from the mine.
She used a hairpin to scrape off all the black substance from the leather, revealing a whole piece of pure amber leather.
The skin is orange, and the shape is irregular, crooked and twisted. Some are large and some are small, but without exception, they all have black lines and blemishes.
With such a quality, it really can't be used to make anything.
But things that are useless to others are treasures to her.
"Knock knock..." Someone knocked on the door.
Shen Qing put down the amber, reinserted the hairpin into her hair, and stood up to walk behind the door: "Who is it?"
"It's me."
It is Qi Zhenheng.
Shen Qing opened the door: "Lord Qi, come in and sit down."
Qi Zhenheng walked in with his hands behind his back and sat down at the round table.
Seeing the cleaned amber piece on the table, he smiled and asked, "What do you want this for?"
Shen Qing sat down, picked up the amber on the table, rubbed it with his hand, and then smelled his fingertip.
Amber handed it to Qi Zhenheng: "Like me, rub your fingertips together and then smell them."
Qi Zhenheng did as instructed.
Shen Qing looked at him expectantly: "How is it? Can you smell a faint pine scent?"
Qi Zhenheng looked up and nodded.
Shen Qing said smugly, "Don't be fooled by these ugly leathers. Once they're scraped clean, they're full of succinic acid."
Qi Zhenheng asked, puzzled: "What is succinic acid?"
"Succinic acid can also be used medicinally. When ground into powder and taken orally, it has the effects of calming the mind and promoting sleep, strengthening the body and enhancing physical fitness."
Qi Zhenheng exclaimed in surprise: "So miraculous?"
Shen Qing nodded with a smile.
Amber can be used medicinally, and succinic acid does have some health benefits, but the effects are minor and require long-term use to see results.
It's not as magical as she described.
But isn't that all there is to marketing?
Whoever dares to say that their product is attractive.
She wasn't exactly lying; she just emphasized the subtle effects of succinic acid.
Shen Qing played with the leather piece and sat down again.
Qi Zhenheng asked, "So you brought these leathers back to Jiangzhou to process them into medicine?"
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