He was referring to the incident where Chunju accidentally lit a candle on the table where chemical reagents were being extracted, causing an explosion.
That time, Shen Qing was hit in the chest by a shard of broken porcelain. While recovering from his injury, he was captured by Gao Laosan and thrown into a pig cage, which severely damaged his health.
Thinking of this, Cheng Zhiwen refused directly: "This concentration is too dangerous, I can't buy it for you."
Shen Qing sighed, "But without concentrated hydrochloric acid, I can't make chlorine, and I can't make bleach. The bases of those duck and goose feathers still have blood on them, and they'll stink if I don't use bleach."
Cheng Zhiwen also knew that she wouldn't let her buy useless things; she had a use for all the reagents.
He was initially adamant, but eventually gave in to Shen Qing's repeated pleas and had no choice but to agree for the time being.
...
Since Shen Qing couldn't get concentrated hydrochloric acid, he decided to skip the chemical disinfection step and go straight to the secondary disinfection step—steaming and boiling.
High-temperature steaming can kill most harmful bacteria and viruses, but it's uncertain whether it can remove odors.
So Shen Qing divided the cleaned down into two halves, steaming one half and leaving the other half to be disinfected and bleached with bleach.
Then they will verify whether, as she speculated, bleaching and disinfection are necessary to remove the odor.
The down was quickly steamed and boiled, and Shen Qing prepared a well-ventilated room in the side room for drying the down.
However, trouble broke out on the very first day of sunbathing.
To prevent the downy feathers from flying around in the wind, Shen Qing built a sealed room to dry the feathers.
To dry the lint, you need to let light into the room, and the best choice is naturally glass.
However, glass is expensive; a piece of glass less than two feet in size would cost more than three hundred taels of silver, so Shen Qing had no choice but to give up on using glass to seal the windows and let in light.
She found extremely fine mesh to seal the windows, preventing fluff from getting through and flying outside, but allowing some sunlight to filter through and refract into the room.
But some wind still managed to get in through the gaps in the mesh, so when Shen Qing opened the room the next day, she saw white fluff flying all over the place.
She immediately closed the door tightly, then crawled into the swirling fluff, grabbing at the fluff with her bare hands, trying to gather it together.
Fine white downy hairs clung to her face, neck, and hands, and some even got into her nostrils. She couldn't help but sneeze several times.
Finally, the downy hair was almost collected, but she also developed a rash all over her body, which was incredibly itchy.
Sitting in the accounting office, I kept fidgeting, scratching here and there, feeling restless and uneasy.
Seeing this, Chunju asked, "Young Madam, what's wrong? Why are you scratching?"
"Achoo!" Shen Qing sneezed again, sniffed, "It must be a fuzzy allergy."
"You never used to be like this!"
Shen Qing sneezed again and muttered to herself, "Yeah, I never had any allergies before I transmigrated here. I even used a goose down comforter back then."
Chunju asked in confusion, "What should I wear?"
Shen Qing coughed lightly: "It's nothing."
It's itchy again, this time on my forehead.
Shen Qing raised his hand to scratch, quickly making his forehead red and swollen, with a slight oozing of blood.
Chunju said urgently, "I'll go buy you some medicine!"
As soon as I stepped out of the courtyard, I saw Cheng Zhiwen getting off the carriage.
Seeing her flustered appearance, Cheng Zhiwen quickly stepped forward and asked, "What happened?"
"Young mistress...Young mistress..." The more anxious she became, the less she could speak clearly.
Cheng Zhiwen strode towards the factory, crossed the covered bridge in a few steps, and rushed into the accounting room.
Shen Qing unbuttoned two buttons and was scratching his back. His hand slipped inside, pushing open his jacket to reveal one of his slender, fair shoulders.
She was startled when Cheng Zhiwen rushed in, but her back was so itchy that she couldn't stop scratching it a few more times before she could finally close her clothes.
He straightened his collar, quickly fastened the buttons, and glanced at Cheng Zhiwen: "Why are you in such a hurry?"
Cheng Zhiwen coughed lightly, suppressing the urge rising within him, and slowly walked to the armchair and sat down: "Why are you arresting people in broad daylight?"
Shen Qing was irritable from the allergy and said in a slightly harsh tone, "What else could it be but itching?"
"I got the bleach."
Shen Qing was startled. Forgetting about the itch, she immediately got up to go downstairs to check on the bleach.
Cheng Zhiwen then noticed that her entire face was covered in patches of red rashes.
What happened to your face?
"It's probably an allergic reaction."
After Shen Qing finished speaking, he walked out of the accounting room and went straight downstairs.
Old Xu happened to be carrying a sack of things in. She went over to him and asked, "Is it bleaching powder?"
Old Xu chuckled and said, "Yes, Boss Shen."
Shen Qing reached out to take it, but Cheng Zhiwen pulled her away the moment her hand touched the sack.
He pulled her outside: "Let's go see a doctor first!"
She was reluctant to part with the bleach she had been waiting for so many days, and kept turning back to look at it: "Let me see if that bleach is usable first... I'll go see the doctor later..."
Before she could finish speaking, Cheng Zhiwen pulled her to the carriage.
She didn't want to get in, so he lifted her up, pushed her buttocks with his hand, and forced her into the carriage.
"Old Xu! Let's go!"
After shouting that, he got into the carriage.
The curtain was drawn, and he looked at Shen Qing with a serious expression: "Are you out of your mind? You're already having such an allergic reaction, and you still dare to touch bleach?"
Shen Qing stammered, "The allergy isn't because of the bleach..."
"If you're sick, you need to get treatment!"
Shen Qing: "..."
The carriage started moving and turned around.
Cheng Zhiwen sat down by the door, lifted the curtain, and asked Old Xu, "Are there any doctors in Jiangzhou who are good at treating skin conditions?"
Old Xu thought for a moment and said, "There's a legendary doctor in Huai County who can cure anything."
Huai County is the county next to Jiangzhou.
Cheng Zhiwen simply said, "Then let's go to Huai County!"
"Alright!" Old Xu cracked his whip and started the carriage.
Cheng Zhiwen forcefully slammed the curtain shut and sat down opposite Shen Qing.
Shen Qing's back itched again, but she endured it, not wanting to unbutton her clothes in front of him.
She sat upright, arms crossed, back straight: "What time is it? It will be dark by the time we get to Huai County."
"We have to keep looking even when it gets dark, otherwise you'll have to keep searching all night?"
"I'm not itchy anymore, really!"
She now wants to go back to the factory to see the bleaching powder.
Allergies and itching are nothing compared to business.
She'd even disfigure herself for business!
Shen Qing hoped Cheng Zhiwen could tell Lao Xu to stop the car, so she turned back to the factory and insisted again, "I'm not itchy anymore, really! Let's see the doctor tomorrow! I'll go back now..."
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt an intense itch on the outside of his thigh.
Shen Qing bent her back, unable to maintain a straight posture any longer, and resumed her casual sitting posture from when she was in the ***, her hands gripping the thick fabric of her gown.
It's completely useless!
Now she finally understood what it meant to scratch an itch through a boot.
I scratched for a while, and it got itchier and itchier.
The itch seeped from the skin into the flesh and blood, eventually reaching the bones, causing intense, agonizing pain, much like a drug withdrawal.
Shen Qing couldn't stand it anymore. Ignoring Cheng Zhiwen who was still sitting in front of her, she reached into her jacket and first scratched through her underpants.
It had no effect and was making the itchiness worse.
His hand slowly moved to the waistband of his underwear, wanting to slip inside and grab directly against his skin.
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