Zhang Shixun walked over and lifted his head, looking left and right, and said, "Old Wang, I already knew you were a bit of a lecher that night at Fanlou, but I didn't expect you to be this lecherous."
"Food and sex are human nature, as Confucius said. It's also necessary for reproduction. There's nothing to be ashamed of... Let's stop talking about trivial matters. While we have some free time, let's talk about what happened last night."
Wang Dong thought about what happened at the dinner table yesterday and started to settle old scores.
"What happened last night?" Zhang Shixun began to interrupt. "We tricked Gao Yanei last night and got this house. It's something worth celebrating. How about we go out for a drink to celebrate?"
"Don't talk about other things. In order to sell the bracelet, you didn't hesitate to tarnish my reputation and speak so badly of me."
Wang Dong pointed at Zhang Shixun's nose and said, "What are you talking about, graceful and elegant, having an affair, a stray dog? You are so mean when you treat people badly, you don't care about my face at all. Do you know that those waiters at that time..."
"That's not called a waiter, that's called a waitress."
"Well, waitress... When they heard you talking nonsense, they all glanced at me secretly. That look of contempt made me want to stick my head in my crotch... Oh! This is the first time I've noticed you're so eloquent. Sitting there talking nonstop, that smug look is so disgusting..."
"Oh! I almost forgot. When you told me that story full of loopholes, you also put a hat of half crazy and half stupid on my head. It was really vicious. After putting this hat on me, how can I survive in the Song Dynasty?"
Zhang Shixun said with a smile, "Old Wang, please don't misunderstand me. My intentions were good. I wanted to sell the bracelet for a good price. Otherwise, if I didn't make the story sound good, how could I have fooled Gao Yanei? And if I hadn't fooled him, how could I have tricked... Oh no! How could I have exchanged it for this house? Seriously speaking, the fact that we have a place to live now is all thanks to me."
"Bah! The bracelet is mine, you are just trying to get something for nothing."
"While I was racking my brains to trick Gao Yanei, you were sitting there eating and drinking. Not only did you not help me, but you even pulled out the valve core at the critical moment. What a pig teammate!"
"Stop confusing the public here. I'm not Gao Yanei. The methods you use to deal with him won't work on me. You portray me as a hooligan who seduces women and a mentally ill person. Why don't you portray yourself like that?" Wang Dong became more and more angry as he spoke.
"You are totally unreasonable. I won't talk to you anymore. The water should boil. I'll go check it out."
Zhang Shixun stood up and walked towards the kitchen to stay away from the lunatic.
Looking at Zhang Shixun's back, Wang Dong's angry expression suddenly disappeared and he grinned.
He doesn't care about reputation. It's useless to him.
After the water was boiled, Zhang Shixun filled the bathtub and consciously let Wang Dong wash first. After he finished, he changed another bucket of hot water, then took off his clothes and soaked in the bathtub. At that moment, he felt relaxed and happy all over.
I returned to the front yard refreshed and saw Wang Dong sitting on a stone bench fiddling with his notebook. I didn't disturb him and went straight to the kitchen to wash the rice, then put it in the steamer and made scrambled eggs with chopped green onions on another stove.
The two of them had a meal together.
"Shixun, I need these things. Please hurry up and find them for me. They are very important." Wang Dong handed over a piece of paper.
"What is so important?" Zhang Shixun took it in surprise. It was written on it: alum, saltpeter, lime, and alkaline flour.
"So urgent?" Zhang Shixun saw the purpose of these things at a glance.
"We have to be impatient. Counting on our fingers, we only have a few years left before the Jin invades the Song. If we don't develop the three acids and one base, we won't be able to make usable gunpowder. Without gunpowder, how can we fight those savages?"
"There's no need to make it so complicated. Ordinary black gunpowder will do. Isn't it a bit too strong for you to use these strong ones?" Zhang Shixun shook the note in his hand.
"Black powder is something kids play with. I'm too lazy to bother with it." Wang Dong glared at him and said, "That stuff isn't exciting. You know me, I either don't play with it or I'll play big... Stop talking nonsense and just do what I say."
"Okay! I'll find a way to get these things." Zhang Shixun was of course happy to do it. Since Wang Dong was willing to do it, then let's do it. With high-efficiency explosives, it would be more fun to play with. Why not do it?
"These things aren't hard to find. Qingfan, also known as green vitriol, is a traditional Chinese medicine and should be available in pharmacies. Saltpeter isn't hard to find either, though it might have different names depending on where it's produced, like Sichuan saltpeter and Glauber's salt. Alkali flour can be made from wood ash, but it's a bit of a hassle. It would be best if you could find natural alkali. Qinghai has the most of it, but that's now part of Tubo, so it's too far away. From what I recall, natural alkali was also produced in the Central Plains, but I can't remember the exact location. You should find a way to find out. As for lime, I don't need to explain that, do I?"
"Can the time-space shuttle fly? It would save a lot of trouble if it could fly directly to the ore deposit and mine." Zhang Shixun asked tentatively.
Wang Dong glanced at him and said after a long while, "You don't have to try to trick me. I won't hide anything I need to tell you... The energy on the shuttle is limited, so let's conserve it."
Zhang Shixun was secretly delighted to hear that he was willing to answer, and then asked, "What kind of energy does the shuttle use?"
"nuclear energy."
"sharp!"
"Nuclear fusion."
"This one is even more powerful." Zhang Shixun is now more certain that Wang Dong and he are not from the same generation.
In the 21st century, controlled nuclear fusion is still in the theoretical stage.
In other words, Wang Dong comes from a different time and space, or from the future.
"The energy in the space shuttle is almost exhausted. The nuclear materials needed need to be extracted from seawater or mined on the moon. With the productivity of this era, it's impossible."
"What a shame." Zhang Shixun was unwilling to accept it and asked again: "Can other energy sources be used as substitutes?"
“Solar energy can be used, but it’s too slow to collect.”
“How slow?”
"Let me put it this way. If you want to travel to another time and space, you need to accumulate at least five thousand years of solar energy."
"What if we fly in the atmosphere?"
"It's okay to fly once or twice occasionally, but don't fly too far... What? Where do you want to fly to?"
"Africa."
"Africa?" Wang Dong rolled his eyes and immediately understood what Zhang Shixun meant. "I see. You want to get food seeds."
Zhang Shixun gave a thumbs up: "Smart."
Wang Dong smiled, his smile like a thousand-year-old fox, "Don't bother with that. I have the grain seeds."
"Do you have any?" Zhang Shixun's eyes lit up. "Do you have any corn seeds?"
"Of course we have corn seeds, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and so on. We have all the grain seeds you can think of."
Zhang Shixun was so excited that he hugged him and patted his back, praising him repeatedly: "Wang Dong, you are so capable, so great, so..."
He didn't know how to praise him. It was simply because these seeds were so important. With them, there would be no more worries about famine in China.
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