cement

When they woke up the next day, the townspeople knew nothing about what had happened the previous night. They were discussing the party last night enthusiastically, and the men with red noses were carrying hoes and staggering towards the farmland.

Only a few sensitive people noticed that there were a few familiar figures missing from the bloodline, but they didn't take it seriously and just thought that they were drunk and didn't come to work.

The bloodline members who knew the inside story looked at each other and walked away silently. Some things are better left unknown, for example, they really want to go back to the time before last night.

Mason arrived at the Chamber of Commerce early in the morning. Roland was too busy, so he was only responsible for opening and closing the doors of the Chamber of Commerce every day, and the specific buying and selling work was all done by the merchandise. As soon as the boy entered the door, he heard the chattering of the merchandise.

"Today's guests arrived really early. Did that idiot Roland oversleep?"

Mason replied naturally, "No, he's busy with other things. I'm here to clean up."

"That's the best. I'm tired of seeing Roland's face. Please help me clean up the dust on my body. It's too bad that no one has bought me!"

"Oh dear, he's going to cry when he hears that."

"I've changed my hammer three or four times. Why doesn't anyone buy my hammer? It's rare to find a hammer as good as mine."

"Come on, idiot! No one will like a fool like you!"

"......"

The merchandise was talking noisily, but who could blame a group of hardworking young men who even had to promote themselves? Mason shook his head helplessly, and cleaned the shelves, dusted them, and put new items in place according to the merchandise's requirements.

Although the profiteer was dead, the deal he had made was still valid. The ceiling covered with vines bore the fruit of light, and the goods on the shelves began to talk. As the boy moved, new goods made sounds as they were put on the shelves, and greeted his companions enthusiastically.

In order to speed up the process, Mason even used a mechanic. After wiping the tables and chairs, he found that the black coat was particularly dusty. Mason quickly asked the mechanic to take it off. It was really troublesome to wash a coat made of this material by hand.

The sun shines out obliquely from the window, casting neat fan-shaped rays on the ground, and tiny, glowing dust floats in the air. The woman wearing only a white shirt holds an unlit cigarette in her mouth, her eyebrows and eyes are hidden in the boundary between semi-light and semi-darkness, and she looks tired and lazy.

The flax-haired boy walked through the shelves, patiently answering questions about the items. The light shining on him was almost divine.

This scene was just like a scene from a legend. Roland, who came to visit, was lost in thought for a moment. The era of elves and fairies had long gone, but those stories had not been lost.

"What's up?"

Roland came back to his senses and handed over a piece of paper: "Master Mason, this is what needs to be dealt with today, please take a look. The pharmacists sent a letter, hoping that you can go to Ya'an as soon as possible."

Mason wiped his hands, took the document and scanned it: "I understand, get ready to go to the team in Ya'an City, it's a good opportunity to buy some materials."

"By the way, how's the wormwood?"

"She lives in a cabin south of Newtown. I arranged for her to live there after Mr. Abner brought her back. Would you like to go and see her?"

It was still early, so Mason nodded. Roland took him to the southern part of the new town. Wormwood lived in a house some distance away from the others, with different herbs planted at the door. The growers had carefully divided the area.

Mason knocked on the door, and Mai's voice came from inside: "Come in."

Mason pushed the door open and walked in. The interior was neatly decorated and had a faint smell of herbs. Wormwood stood in front of a table with various medicine bottles on it, seemingly counting the quantities.

Seeing Mason, the old woman stood up suddenly and almost overturned the table. The boy reached out and caught the falling glass bottle in time. Absinthe then reacted and apologized hurriedly: "I'm sorry..."

"be safe."

Mason put the glass bottle on the table and asked with a smile, "Are you used to living here?"

"It's great here. Mr. Roland came to see me. He said the machinist was drawing up a blueprint for the new town and asked for my opinion."

Wormwood raised his head and whispered, "Mr. Mason, can I have a potion-making room? As long as I have the tools, it doesn't matter how small it is."

"Of course, you can build it wherever you want. I'll tell the mechanic."

"Anywhere?"

"Of course, if you have something on your mind, you can tell me directly."

"I...I..."

Under Mason's encouraging gaze, Wormwood plucked up his courage: "I want to build a pharmacy in the forest..."

"In the forest?"

"Yeah. There are a lot of wild herbs in the forest, and I think they'll come in handy."

Speaking of his expertise, Wormwood became excited: "I asked the hunting team to take me into the forest before, and I found a lot of precious herbs. Although they can't be used to make potions to treat bloodline people, I want to build a potion room in the forest, so that it can be used. Oh, sorry, did I say too much..."

"You have a good idea. Can you identify those herbs?"

Absinthe hesitated for a moment before nodding, looking a little uneasy: "...Well! I couldn't enter the pharmacy before, so I often read related books. Although those herbs are not used to make bloodline potions, I know them all."

Mason made a prompt decision: "No problem, I'll get someone to do it right away."

Okay, okay, this is such a big treasure!

Medicines used to treat blood vessels and medicines used to treat ordinary people are two categories. The former are more effective and will pollute the user's body; the latter are less effective but safer.

Pharmacists usually value themselves, and their products are mainly sold to people of the bloodline, so they rarely make ordinary medicines. Ordinary people lack the perception of plants, so the effect of the medicines they make is somewhat worse.

The fact that Wormwood could make such a medicine was a godsend.

Seeing that Mason was genuinely happy, Kuai felt relieved. Her father always looked down on ordinary people, which made Kuai dare not say such words. Only when facing the boy did she dare to make such a request.

Looking at the wormwood, Mason thought of another thing: "It will take some time to build the pharmacy. Are you busy recently?"

Absinthe pricked up his ears: "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Mason nodded with a smile. "I need you to try to make a material. Grind the limestone and clay into powder, calcine them, add iron ore and grind them into powder, and finally mix them together. Add water and leave it for a while, and it will become hard. You need to figure out the specific proportions yourself, just treat it as researching a new drug."

Yes, what he asked the other party to try to make was cement!

Mason had never taken the initiative to learn about this in his life, but in modern society, as time-travel novels are popular, any infrastructure novel about traveling to another world will mention cement. Over time, even though he didn't know the principle, he remembered the simple production method.

The more Absinthe listened, the more confused he became: "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with making medicine..."

Mason said earnestly, "Why not? There is a formula for medicine, and there is a formula for cement. To put it in a nutshell, cement is the same as medicine. If you can figure out this formula, you will have made an outstanding contribution to New Town, and everyone will thank you."

Absinthe was dazed by the love potion and nodded without knowing why. Mason encouraged her and promised to let Roland deliver the necessary materials to Absinthe. Then he returned to his room.

Letting Absinthe engage in cement research is also a helpless act, as there are too few people who can be used in the territory now.

Number One was busy replicating the machinery, while the mechanics were studying how to instill the farm system. The townspeople were illiterate, and it was the busy farming season, so there was a shortage of manpower. Roland was too busy to handle everything, and after much deliberation, Mason decided to give this important task to Wormwood, who was considered a cultured person.

The process of making cement is not complicated. The key lies in the proportion. Once it is researched, it can be produced in large quantities. It can not only be used to build houses, but also to level the road.

Limestone, also known as marble, was a popular building material among the nobility. Clay could be dug from the river, and iron ore could be purchased.

The transformation that the mechanic wants to carry out requires a large amount of mechanical equipment and raw materials. Before the autumn harvest, the storage warehouse must be prepared, the bloodline people in the territory must be compensated, and the goods of the guild must be replenished...

The numbers in his mind kept adding up, and the result was a huge amount. Mason's expression became more and more serious.

Yes, he cheated the noble families... and made a lot of money, but no amount of money could fill the bottomless pit of infrastructure.

He sighed and said to the outside of the window: "Come in, I have a task for you to do."

Several dark figures flashed in from the window. They were the experts and intelligence dealers of the Black Forest Tavern, carefully selected by the □□ and loyal.

Mason didn't intend to let Roland know their identities. The latter was good, but too honest and not suitable for this kind of contact.

"Who among you is the most capable?"

The four people looked at each other, and three of them took a step back, making the first person on the left stand out.

"What is your name?"

"Jim."

"Jim, from today on you are the leader of this team. I will give you 5 million rupees as basic funds. You need to hide your identity and gain a foothold here."

"The first thing you need to do is to find out the distribution of all minerals in the Earl of Ya'an's territory, as well as the personalities and secrets of the nobles. I will give you two months."

The four of them said in unison: "As you command."

"You can follow the Chamber of Commerce into Ya'an City, and I will give you an identity. As for what to do next, it's up to you. I just want the results."

Mason waved his hand to signal them to leave. The four of them left quietly as they had come. Not far away, two people who were patrolling stopped. One of them looked in the direction of the cabin.

I asked stupidly, "What's wrong?"

Unhappily, he looked away, and took his companion's ignorance for granted: "Nothing, let's continue patrolling."

Several figures appeared behind the cabin, and one of the intelligence dealers said, "That person is quite powerful and has discovered our whereabouts."

Jim shook his head. "Since they are the master's subordinates, don't worry about it. The most urgent task is to develop trustworthy spies. Time is urgent, so let's take action."

After the brief exchange, the intelligence dealers disappeared, and peace returned to Newtown.