Chapter 8 Peacock Blue: What the hell is this chemistry? ...
Even under the bright moonlight, insects chirp. If this were a normal day, Zijing would have been slapped on the back and strangled long ago.
There are always exceptions. Times have changed, and the young man has found something even more interesting to do these days.
"Kill it?" He suddenly laughed, leisurely descending the steps, the jade pendant engraved with a qilin at his waist jingling softly, as he walked towards her, stepping on the shimmering light of the moon. The bluestone ground was silvery and clear, like a blanket of white frost: "Isn't it said that monks are compassionate? Little Taoist priest... are you about to commit murder?"
His face betrayed no emotion, and his tone and words were no different from asking a question that had nothing to do with him. With his demeanor, even if the falcon had been raised by him from a chick and bore his personal mark on its talons, who could tell?
"Can I?" she asked him instead.
Zi Jing slowed his pace, a barely perceptible shadow rising beneath his raven-feather eyelashes as he calmly looked at her.
Having been reborn, Yu Nie's mind was still not very meticulous. He couldn't see the murderous intent in the other party's eyes and just looked up to the sky and wailed, "See? No way! I don't even dare to touch a bird, so how can I talk about killing it?"
She couldn't think of a quick and easy way to solve the problem: "Damn it, where am I supposed to get animal blood?!"
Hearing her say that, Zijing moved his feet after a moment, and asked without revealing his expression, "Young Taoist priest, how much animal blood do you want?"
Stopping his howling, Yu Nie pointed to the bowls and jars on the ground: "Extract peacock blue."
"Peacock blue?" He sounded incredulous.
She nodded earnestly. During the day, Ah Hui had mentioned that the wealthy Rong family had missed supplying royal nobles because they couldn't gather enough peacock blue pigment, and their plea to the government had been rejected. She had remembered every word of this, pondering that this might be an opportunity to make money.
“Peacock blue is a rare and exotic item. It is not produced in Beiye and has always had to be purchased from Tokharistan, thousands of miles away.” He took her words as true for the time being, his gaze sweeping over the pile of crude utensils and the still slightly warm ashes: “Just these jars and pots, covered in dust and chaff?”
“What you say is absolutely right, sir.” She crossed her arms, her eyes brimming with pride: “Don’t underestimate these things just because they seem useless now. They can turn stone into gold.”
“Oh—” he lingered, “Could it be that the young Taoist priest knows those immortal arts?” Zi Jing looked as if he had just realized something, “It seems that praying to gods and Buddhas might really be beneficial. With divine power, everything can be left to those beyond the heavens.”
Yu Nie, always oblivious to the sarcasm in his tone, raised his index finger and shook it earnestly: "You are mistaken, sir. What I know is not magic," he said, looking at him with his bright and charming eyes, "but technique."
"Skill...?" He raised an eyebrow, glanced at the pile of bottles and jars on the ground, and after confirming that he hadn't misheard, nodded slightly with a hint of amusement: "I didn't know that the words 'skill' and 'technique' could be put together like this."
Yu Nie was taken aback upon hearing this, only then realizing that the ancients' use of "technology" had a very different meaning from its modern usage.
Her dark eyes darted around, and she immediately blurted out, "As the sage said, 'Technique is a method,' so technique is just one kind of method." As she spoke, she raised her hand and dusted off non-existent dust from her cuffs.
Anyway, he can't verify which sage said it. It's like writing an essay in school, making up a golden quote from who-knows-where, and then falsely attributing it to a non-existent author. The examiner can't tell if it's true or false.
This is what she, a humanities major who is terrible at, is best at.
"I didn't expect the young Taoist priest to be such a capable person." Zi Jing seemed to have no doubt about her words. He had no intention of chatting with her any longer, and said before leaving, "If the young Taoist priest can really refine peacock blue, you must show me how it works."
"Just you wait and see, Captain." She readily agreed: "I will definitely refine this peacock blue."
This was something crucial for her survival in this chaotic world. She absolutely had to give it her all.
Seeing that the boy had gone back to his room, Yu Nie squatted down and started fiddling with the earthenware pots, intending to move them inside.
While looking for something in the kitchen, she asked Ah Hui again for clarification.
In Beiye, northern ceramics have never been as renowned as those unearthed from kilns in the south. The Rong family's Wuxia kiln became the only imperial kiln in the northwest, partly due to that peacock blue porcelain ewer.
The Rong family's porcelain ewers are glazed with peacock blue glaze brought in by Tocharian merchants, and then fired for seven days using ancestral techniques. After coming out of the kiln, the porcelain ewers are radiant and colorful, like something used by celestial beings.
Right now, there's war going on in Tokharistan, and the pigments can't be transported over, leaving the Rong family extremely anxious.
She pondered that if she could extract the peacock blue and sell it to the Rong family, taking a small portion as a reward, her trip to Longdao to buy saltpeter would be a piece of cake, and might even be on the agenda by the middle of next month.
Even though she hadn't heard a word yet, and even though the raw materials were all covered in dust and dirt, she seemed to have already seen her success and even laughed out loud to herself.
Behind her, Cui Miaochang, who had entered from outside at some point, stood behind her, listening to her eerie, clattering laughter.
"What time is it now?" Cui Miaochang asked, holding a whisk in his hand and speaking in a low voice.
Yu Nie put the lid on the earthenware pot and said happily, "It's past 7 PM."
"Oh really? Did you make up for it after class last night?"
"Not yet, my martial aunt is meditating in her bedroom. I'll do it after I finish what I'm doing." She didn't recognize who was behind her at all.
"Are you still refining saltpeter?" Cui Miaochang continued to probe.
"Saltpeter?" Yu Nie suddenly became alert, stopped what she was doing, turned around, and exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle-Master?!"
Cui Miaochang kicked her in the butt, and she lost her balance and sat on the ground: "You little brat, you're slacking off here again and asking for punishment, and you even dare to fool your martial uncle."
The kick was quite powerful, and Yu Nie cried out "Ouch!" as he fell heavily to the ground.
She rubbed the spot where she had been kicked, her face changing rapidly as she spoke with a wronged tone, "This disciple didn't refine that saltpeter anymore, nor did I intend to trick Master Uncle into being lazy. This disciple just wanted to earn some money for the temple so that Master Uncle wouldn't be so overworked."
After she finished speaking, she looked like she was about to cry.
Cui Miaochang glanced at her, flicked her sleeves and turned her head away, then looked at her again out of the corner of her eye: "What way do you have to make money? You have neither skills nor connections. Don't cause me any trouble. Just stay in the temple peacefully."
She pouted, and her eyes seemed to be brimming with tears.
Seeing this, Cui Miaochang could only say, "Alright, you can get up now."
Upon hearing the news, Yu Nie rolled over, dusted off his robe, stood up, walked to Cui Miaochang, took her arm, and chuckled, "My aunt still cares about me the most."
Seeing that she was faking it, Cui Miaochang raised her hand and poked her forehead: "You're such a clever little devil."
"I was raised by my martial uncle." She covered the spot where she had been poked with her palm, rubbed it, and said, "But what I said about making money is true."
Cui Miaochang said I didn't believe her: "The world is not even stable these days, what can you do?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Nie's face lit up with joy, and he told her, without missing a single word, about his plan to exchange the blend of peacock blue for a reward.
Cui Miaochang found her words and the method for making peacock blue utterly absurd: "You said that wood ash, animal blood, and alum can really be mixed together to make that rare substance?"
"What I say is true, Master Uncle, just wait and see," she said confidently.
Seeing her like this, Cui Miaochang recalled that two years ago, Ahui had been feeling uneasy and suffered from unbearable pain in the middle of the night. Even the medicine she had prescribed did not help. Seeing this, Yu Nie quickly found many eggshells in the kitchen, burned them, dissolved them in water, and gave them to Ahui to drink.
Fifteen minutes later, Ah Hui was cured of her illness and the pain immediately subsided.
At the time, she thought that this young girl had read the medical books in the library and had learned something in private. Who knew that she said she used her knowledge of "chemistry," not medicine.
"Chemistry?" she thought at the time. What the hell is chemistry?
However, given her past record and the fact that she had already experienced some of it, it would be good if allowing her to do it could help the Rong family solve their immediate crisis.
"Fine, do as you please." Cui Miaochang tucked the whisk into his sleeve. "I've given you a chance. If you can't do it within five days, you'd better pack up and start reciting scriptures and meditating to cultivate your mind."
"This disciple will humbly follow your teachings, Uncle-Master." She clasped her hands in a respectful bow, then smiled playfully, "I will certainly not disappoint your expectations, Uncle-Master."
*
As dawn broke and the sky turned blue, mist rose behind the mountains, and wisps of smoke curled from the kitchen chimneys.
After cleaning the front and back yards and dusting the pavilion, Yu Nie went to the kitchen with her hands behind her back to find something to eat. As she pushed open the door, the aroma of firewood mixed with the fragrance of white porridge wafted towards her.
Lingbao Temple was a bit small, but their kitchen wasn't cramped. A long table made of willow wood was placed in the open space next to the entrance; the paint on the legs was peeling off, and it could accommodate eight people for meals.
Normally, the abbot, Cui Miaochang, would sit at the head of the table, with Aunt Liu and her three young disciples sitting around him on either side.
To find animal blood, Yu Nie got up exceptionally early today. When she went to clean the backyard, the dew on the vegetable racks had not yet dried.
Even now, the sun was still behind the mountain. Apart from Cui Miaochang, who was meditating, and Aunt Liu, who was busy outside the back door, Langxi and Ahui were resting, as were the two people in the east wing.
The white porridge in the pot was cooked until it was thick and soft, and eggs and pickled vegetables were placed on the steamer.
No one came, so Yu Nie ladled a bowl for herself, took only an egg instead of pickled vegetables, and sat down at the table to enjoy the food.
As she ate, she pulled out a small notebook from her bosom, on which were densely covered with chemical formulas written in calligraphy.
She was afraid of forgetting what she had learned, so she would occasionally take it out to review.
The chemistry taught in junior high and high school is not the same as what you learn in university. You can't just memorize it by rote, especially in her case, she needs to review it repeatedly.
She carefully examined the formulas while continuing to drink the porridge in her bowl.
The porridge in the bowl was too hot, so she held the bowl with both hands and blew on it gently. As she lowered her eyes, a dark figure sat down opposite her. The person took out a teacup and poured himself a bowl of tea.
Yu Nie looked surprised: "Captain, you're up so early."
Taking a small sip of the sweet tea, Zijing lifted his eyelids to look at her and replied, "So is the young Taoist priest."
In her view, this was no less than mutual flattery.
“The early bird catches the worm, so of course I have to get up early,” she smiled at him.
"But the early bird catches the worm." Zijing casually fiddled with the tea lid, glanced at her dismissively, then lowered his gaze to the notebook beside her.
She gritted her teeth and held back her words, feeling annoyed by her presence so early in the morning.
Suddenly, the young man stretched out his long arm, took a teacup, filled it with tea, and pushed it toward her.
A note from the author:
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While writing this, I had some key points I wanted to share with you all, but after finishing and revising it, I forgot them. [laughing and crying emojis]
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