Chapter 13 It's pretty stupid. I'm a Taoist priest, not a coroner.
"This is outrageous... How could this be..."
"It's all destroyed...it's all destroyed..."
When Zijing arrived at the sound, he immediately saw Yu Nie pacing back and forth, holding a ceramic bowl in both hands. She looked as if someone had replaced the luminous pearl in her bowl with a clod of earth.
Cui Miaochang was giving instructions about things at Langxi Temple when she heard the shouting in the courtyard. She walked to the door, lifted the curtain, and shouted, "Did the pot explode? There are guests here. How can you shout like this?"
Yu Nie suddenly fell silent, and pitifully apologized, "I'm sorry, Uncle-Master... I forgot we had guests."
Seeing that she was about to cry, Cui Miaochang sighed and lowered her voice considerably: "What happened that has upset you so much?"
As she spoke, she stepped over the threshold and walked toward the people in the courtyard.
“This is it.” When Cui Miaochang came in front of him, Yu Nie handed over the ceramic bowl in his hand: “The peacock blue has turned into peacock gray.”
Even though she didn't expect to succeed overnight, she was mentally prepared to go through at least dozens of rework sessions.
But now, facing this lump of dust, so gray it has absolutely nothing to do with blue, even the Three Pure Ones would be powerless against it, anyone who sees it would feel despair. Even if the King of Hell came to claim your life, you wouldn't want to struggle, you'd just let him take your life.
Faced with this "disastrous situation", Cui Miaochang glanced down, but there was no disappointment on her face. She said, "As the saying goes, if you don't have the skills, don't take on the job. Since you insist on doing this peacock blue, you should be prepared to fail."
"This is nothing! Don't tell your uncle that you've only ridden your donkey out of your house and you're already planning to turn back?"
Yu Nie had always been most afraid of her martial uncle, Cui Miaochang. She expected a scolding for her arrogance after what she'd done, but this time, the expected reprimand didn't come.
She shook her head repeatedly in denial: "This disciple never intended to give up halfway. It's just that the result of the first attempt was far from what this disciple had expected, and it was far from satisfactory." Her eyes narrowed, and her expression became resolute: "But this disciple will not give up easily. I must achieve a result and strive for success."
“It’s good that you think that way.” Cui Miaochang rarely said anything else that would hurt her feelings: “If you really intend to quit and break your promise to the Rong family, I don’t have the extra time to apologize to the Rong family.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Nie asked, "Which house is Uncle going to perform the ritual for this time? Is it the butcher Zhang's house where the ceremony wasn't completed last time?"
When Cui Miaochang was usually extremely busy, it was mainly because of religious ceremonies, so she asked about it based on that characteristic.
Cui Miaochang opened her mouth and said, "Your senior brother Zhang's master is seriously ill and probably doesn't have much time left. I have to rush to Lingnan to visit her."
"When did Uncle Huang become so ill?" Yu Nie knew that her Uncle Huang had been frail for many years. But when she saw him three years ago, he looked healthy and strong.
Unexpectedly, the three-year-old man was already terminally ill.
If she remembered correctly, Fang Cai was in his early thirties, thirty-three years old.
It took her a while to calm herself down before she could find her voice again from her shock: "When are you and Senior Brother Zhang planning to set off?"
"We need to leave before dawn tomorrow, we're in a hurry."
It was already late when the candlelight was dim, and she understood why the two of them had set off so soon.
At such a critical juncture, we dare not delay even a moment; it is a time to race against time.
Cui Miaochang continued, "I have entrusted all matters in the temple to Langxi." She looked at Yu Nie and said, "I am not worried about Ahui and Aunt Liu. You should listen to your junior sister, cooperate with her, and do not make her angry."
"Don't worry, Uncle-Master, how could I possibly argue with Junior Sister?" she assured him.
"That's good. My trip will take a month." Cui Miaochang still seemed worried about them. "If there's anything you can't solve, go find Rong Dajia first. If he still can't solve it, tell him to wait for me to come back."
Lang Xi, standing behind her, and Yu Nie, standing in front of her, both nodded solemnly.
"What about Master's travel permit? Without it, we might not even be able to enter the city on our journey south," Langxi asked carefully.
Cui Miaochang had already prepared a plan. He didn't care that Zijing and Xie Cheng, these two officials, were there. He said briskly, "It's not too late yet. We can only hurry into the city and give the county government some benefits so that they can do us a favor."
Yu Nie was somewhat hesitant, unlike Cui Miaochang who was so open-minded, but her worries were not unfounded: "What if the county officials make exorbitant demands? They always make things difficult and obstructive when we ask for a travel permit, refusing to give it to us immediately. Besides, we've cut in line now, so they'll definitely ask for even more."
What she said made perfect sense. The people in the county government were greedy as gluttons, and taking advantage of the chaos was in line with their style.
Upon hearing this, Zijing said, "Abbot, just send someone. Tell them it's my order to have them prepare the travel permit and hand it over to you as soon as possible."
Everyone looked at him. Since someone was willing to step forward, Cui Miaochang didn't stand on ceremony: "That's very good. Then thank you for your help, Captain."
"You're too kind, Master. I'm staying at your temple, so it's only right that I help you out."
After saying that, he turned his head and ordered Lu Jinshi: "In a little while, you will go with the people from the Taoist temple."
"Yes, ma'am."
The travel permit issue was easily resolved, and Cui Miaochang and the others no longer worried about anything else, so they turned around and went back into the house to pack their things.
Ahui accompanied Lu Jinshi into the city, while Langxi kept watch in the main hall to prevent pilgrims from arriving to find the temple deserted.
Aunt Liu carried the decocted medicine to the pharmacy, and Xie Cheng, unable to take over the work, could only follow behind.
The medicine was decocted for him to drink; he had to drink it.
In the blink of an eye, only a smirking boy and a pouting girl remained in the backyard.
The two were, one holding a ceramic bowl filled with gray powder, the other gazing at the contents of the bowl with keen interest in his dark eyes.
The meaning behind those eyes goes without saying; everything is understood without words.
Seeing that she didn't look happy at all, he teased, "Little Taoist priest, are you planning to give up after such a setback?"
"Who said I was planning to quit? This is only the first time. It's not my style to back down easily." Yu Nie turned around and poured the grayish blob into the oil paper on the makeshift table, intending to use it as a comparison sample.
Zijing stood to the side, watching her use the tip of her chopsticks to stir the powder, as if she were thinking about something, and continued, "I believe that each time will definitely be better than the last."
Upon hearing this, Zi Jing raised his long eyebrows slightly: "Young Taoist priest, you have such a broad mind."
"There's a saying that anger harms the body, so of course you have to be more open-minded. If you can't be open-minded, you'll only suffer in the end." She rattled off a string of words, flipping through the important notes in her hand, muttering "potassium aluminum sulfate, potassium aluminum sulfate" as if she were chanting a spell.
In plant ash, chicken blood, and alum, the main component of alum is potassium aluminum sulfate.
Alum was widely used in ancient pigments, as was wood ash.
Of these three things, only chicken blood, after the Tang Dynasty, was completely replaced by plant-based dyes. Compared to animal blood, plant-based dyes produce better results.
However, the ancient pigment book she was reading didn't mention which plant could be used to replace the chicken blood needed to make peacock blue.
Or did she miss it?
She didn't have time to think about that problem at the moment.
With her keen ability to deduce, she glanced at the alum and then at the wood ash that had been cleaned of impurities.
If plant ash and alum were to continue to be used in later generations, then chicken blood would be nowhere to be found.
It is obvious where the problem lies.
Thinking of this, Yu Nie turned his gaze to the dried chicken blood powder and stared at it for a long time.
Seeing her deep in thought, Zi Jing followed her gaze and said, "That pile of dark brown stuff of yours, is that the chicken blood you went to so much trouble to bring back yesterday?"
She hummed in a nasal tone, "Mmm..."
"The blood is dark, it's not fresh blood, can it still be used?" He glanced at her.
“Not-so-fresh blood…” she casually repeated his words, then her eyes suddenly lit up as if she had caught something crucial. She stood up abruptly: “That’s right, how could I forget such a basic theory? Hemoglobin is easily oxidized and denatured. Oxidized blood will have a darker or blacker hue. This is an unavoidable result. No wonder the peacock blue she mixed was gray.”
She pondered, "No wonder later generations used plants instead of animal blood as pigments. It's fine in winter, but when the weather gets hot, and after baking and steaming, the color changes many times over."
“Something that is difficult to preserve is really unsuitable for glazing porcelain; its properties are too unstable,” she said in a low voice.
Upon hearing her words, Zi Jing lowered his gaze slightly, stared at her for a moment, and echoed, "Has the young Taoist priest never observed a dead person before?"
Yu Nie shook his head: "I am a Taoist priest, not a coroner. What's the point of observing anyone?"
“That makes sense.” He chuckled softly. “Actually, whether it’s fresh blood or overnight blood, it’s best not to use it for making dyes.”
"How did you know this, Captain? Do you also know how to mix dyes?" she asked him curiously.
“I don’t understand.” Zi Jing walked to the table she had set up, picked up a pinch of gray powder, and said casually, “But I know very well the characteristics of blood. No matter whose blood it is, no matter the circumstances, once the blood dries, it will burst open without exception.”
He unintentionally gave her a new idea: "Besides, blood is so easy to turn dark and black, so it's more suitable to use it to make colors like raven blue and deep black than to make pigments for bright colors."
This sentence reminded her.
Looking at the brown chicken blood powder on the table, she couldn't help but think of a very important point: the main coloring component of chicken blood is hemoglobin, and when red things are mixed with alkaline substances like wood ash... can they really produce a cool blue hue?
Based on her common sense in chemistry, she knew the answer was no.
But could the things in the book be wrong? If they are not wrong, either the "chicken blood" refers to some other item and is not real chicken blood, or it is an omission or an error in the record.
But she didn't have time to think about all that right now. Solving the problem was the key.
Chicken blood, even if it can dye other colors, definitely won't turn blue. She needs to quickly find another substance to replace chicken blood.
Since later generations have chosen to use plants instead of animal blood, perhaps she could also use plants instead of chicken blood.
Chicken blood is red, so to make peacock blue, she only needs to find a plant containing blue pigment and then mix it. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
The boy watched her mutter to herself, biting her thumbnail as she paced back and forth, looking just like a little deer in the mountains, wanting to drink water but unable to find it.
That's pretty stupid.
A note from the author:
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It is true that blood proteins are easily oxidized.
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