After Gan Mingli was arrested, Gan Li learned the whole story from him and had a question in her mind—
Why did Chen Danian already know that the key to making ice was saltpeter before she even gave him the recipe?
Could it be that a family member leaked the news?
Ganli thought about it carefully, but then felt something was wrong.
Because the method of making ice is too simple, in order to prevent the secret recipe from being leaked, she does everything herself every time she makes ice, with only Gan Tian present.
Gan Tian is sensible and well-behaved. Since setting up a stall at the dock, she has been helping out at home and has never gone out alone. Therefore, there is no possibility that she would accidentally let something slip while playing with others.
As for the brothers Gan Mingli and Gan Mingyi, apart from the two days they went to the county town, they also followed her to set up a stall.
Gan Mingyi accompanied her, and Gan Mingli had already been instructed by her. She had anticipated that Chen Danian and others would take the opportunity to cause trouble, and she would not leak the secret.
After thinking it over, Gan Li decided to go to the pharmacy to find out what was going on.
She thought that since Master Zhao was so eager to get the recipe, it was not impossible that he might have secretly sent someone to monitor her and discovered that she had purchased a large amount of saltpeter, thus deducing the method of making ice.
The oxcart stopped in front of the pharmacy, and as soon as Ganli got off, someone inside came to greet her.
She's become a regular at the pharmacy now, and the clerks are always very welcoming, asking her familiar questions:
"Fairy Maiden, are you here again to buy saltpeter for alchemy?"
After her previous rambling, the young man was now completely convinced that she could cultivate immortality.
Faced with the waiter's teasing, Gan Li grinned and quipped:
"Are you all just waiting for me to come? If I don't come, there won't be anywhere to sell this saltpeter, will there?"
"No, not at all. Saltpeter is in high demand lately; people have been asking about it for the past two days. Or should I ask if you came to buy saltpeter today? If so, there really isn't any left; Master Zhao and Scholar Chen bought them all."
The shop assistant at this pharmacy was a chatterbox, which Gan Li had already noticed, so she was certain that she could get some information here.
However, she originally thought she would have to use her words, but to her surprise, the young man spoke very quickly and said all the information she wanted.
Upon hearing that Master Zhao and Chen Danian had also come to buy saltpeter a couple of days ago, Gan Li thought to herself, "Just as I thought," but on the surface, she remained calm and showed a look of surprise.
"Oh? One of them is a student, and the other is a businessman, and now they've started practicing alchemy?"
"Who knows?"
The waiter was familiar with Gan Li and had no guard up at all. When she asked him that question, he blurted out:
"It's strange, actually. That day, Scholar Chen arrived first, bought a lot of saltpeter and left. Not long after, Master Zhao's men also arrived..."
As he spoke, his voice suddenly lowered, and he leaned close to Gan Li's ear mysteriously, whispering:
"The shop assistant from Master Zhao's house is asking us if there's a girl who often comes to buy saltpeter... Hmm, Fairy, are they asking about you?"
Faced with his questioning, Gan Li remained unfazed and said, "Oh? Perhaps you're just curious. I don't know them at all, why would you want to know about me?"
Having said that, she used the excuse of buying medicinal herbs to end the conversation. A short while later, she left the pharmacy carrying a bag of herbs, boarded an oxcart, and this time, had Gan Mingyi drive the cart directly back home.
Once they were out of town, Gan Mingli dared to ask her, "Little sister, did you find out what you wanted to know?"
Gan Li nodded and told everyone what she had just learned. The two Gan brothers were both roughnecks and didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Gan Tian, on the other hand, was perceptive and noticed something was amiss, but because she was too young, she couldn't put it into words; she just felt that something was wrong.
Seeing their anxious or bewildered expressions, Gan Li didn't keep them in suspense and said directly:
"The key to ice making is saltpeter, which was first discovered by Chen Danian."
Gan Mingyi was taken aback, wondering how she had come to this conclusion from just a few words.
He asked in confusion, "Little sister, how did you figure that out?"
"Think about it, if the secret of saltpeter was discovered by Master Zhao and his men, then it should have been Master Zhao's men who first went to the pharmacy to inquire about the information and buy saltpeter."
However, it was Chen Danian who went to the pharmacy to buy saltpeter first, and then Zhao's men arrived. This indicates that Chen Danian informed Zhao first, and only then did the latter send someone to verify the information's authenticity.
The Gan brothers finally understood the key to the matter, while Gan Tian nodded frantically—she knew something was wrong, and this was the problem!
Seeing the three of them suddenly realize what was happening, Gan Li slowly uttered a sentence.
"So here's the question: even Master Zhao, with his many informants, hasn't discovered this secret yet. So where did Chen Danian get this concrete information from?"
Everyone knows that although Chen Danian is supposed to be engaged to Zhao Juan and seems to be the future son-in-law of the Zhao family, he actually has no status in the Zhao family at all, let alone any power. He can't even order the Zhao family's servants to do things for him.
Even if they did manage to get someone to do it, and they found out such important information, why didn't they go to Master Zhao to claim the reward, but instead told Chen Danian, and then Chen Danian told Master Zhao?
Giving away the credit that was already in his hands—is this some kind of bodhisattva reincarnation?
These words were like a blow to the head!
The Gan brothers were straightforward, but not stupid. With a gentle nudge from Gan Li, they understood the key point, and their expressions immediately changed.
Chen Danian received definite information without relying on the Zhao family, so where did this information come from?
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