Li Mai and Zhou Quan exchanged a glance. "Speak, what happened?"
Chu Yan and Zhong Hui exchanged a glance and pointed at Zhu Zhu together.
Zhuzhu looked up and grinned at Limai, "Mom, my senior brothers were teaching me light-body skills. Then, I lost control and fell into a ravine. They were afraid I would get hurt, so they jumped down to save me. Then, they saw this and said it was a good thing."
Zhuzhu happily handed the sachet she was holding to Limai.
Li Mai glanced curiously at the three mysterious people again, took the sachet, and squeezed it; it felt like soil.
She sat down at a table, opened the sachet, and after confirming that it was soil, she asked Zhou Quan to bring over a tea tray and poured the soil into it.
At first she didn’t notice anything, but when she poured out all the soil, tiny specks of golden light flashed in Li Mai’s eyes.
Li Mai's scalp began to tingle. The soil clearly contained sand particles, meaning that the mountain where the pearl fell might appear to be soil and rocks on the surface, but the bottom of the mountain was likely mostly sand and gravel, and that the sand contained gold.
My own pearls, have they discovered a gold mine?
Zhou Quan was a little confused for a moment and just looked at Li Mai quietly, but Li Mai was also obviously excited and looked at Chu Yan and Zhong Hui.
The two nodded to Li Mai. "Master, after we returned to the capital last time, we found jobs and started working in the Ministry of Works. Although our positions are currently very low, we have both been assigned a master to learn from."
“Our master is in charge of mining in our country. Once, he sighed to us, saying that our country has the fewest mining resources among the surrounding small countries. We only have three gold mines and three silver mines in the whole country. If we had more, we would be rich and the people would be better off.”
Zhou Quan understood, looked down at the tea tray for a while, pointed to the pile of sand and said, "So, you mean to say that this soil contains gold?"
Li Mai, Chu Yan, and Zhong Hui nodded in agreement. "Yes, but this is just gold powder. It still needs to be refined through sand sifting to become the gold ingots and jewelry we usually see."
Zhou Quan understood, and naturally he was no longer calm, looking at his daughter with utter shock.
He remembered what Li Mai had told him that day: ever since Zhu Zhu had Xiao Piao Liang, it seemed that her good luck had never worked again.
We just sent that pretty girl away today, and this good luck has already come?
The more he thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed.
Li Mai heard Chu Yan and Zhong Hui say, "You two have both joined the Ministry of Works?"
“Well, my mother said that we should work together first so we can help each other and make some achievements. Then, we can gradually ask my uncle to help us arrange suitable positions,” Zhong Hui said to Li Mai.
Li Mai laughed, glanced at the two of them, and said, "You really should thank your junior sister properly. This great achievement has come about right now."
The two were clearly very excited. "Yes, Master, Junior Sister is a great hero. We will definitely tell the Emperor the truth and ask him to reward her well."
To everyone's surprise, Li Mai shook his head. "It's your junior sister who discovered this gold mine. It's fine for the two of you to know, but there's no need to mention it to the Emperor. Zhuzhu is still young. If we let her be enveloped by those vain things now, while our family is just a small merchant, such a difference will harm her sooner or later."
"It's Zhuzhu's great fortune to have two senior brothers like you in this life. I believe that if you two are well for the rest of your lives, you will definitely do your best to protect her. So, you can take the credit for yourselves. Just know in your hearts that your junior sister is fortunate enough to be able to help you."
After Li Mai finished speaking, she looked at Zhu Zhu and asked, "What does Zhu Zhu think?"
Zhuzhu nodded, "Yes, Mother is right. I don't want to deal with those troublesome things. Right now, I just want to focus on learning medicine, stay by my parents' side, and wait for my younger brother and sister to arrive."
Actually, after they discovered this, the two senior brothers, after their initial excitement, told Zhuzhu what it was, how important it was, and what kind of favor she would receive if the Emperor knew that it was Zhuzhu who discovered it.
Zhu Zhu doesn't understand these things, but they do. Having grown up in the center of power, they understand these things very well.
After hearing this, Zhuzhu felt it was troublesome. She had already told her fellow disciples on the way back that they had found out, but they wouldn't allow it. They said that their master was so smart that if they lied, their master would find out immediately, and it would be bad if their master disliked them.
After hearing what they said, Zhuzhu thought about it and agreed, so she decided to tell the truth.
After hearing what Zhuzhu said, Li Mai smiled, patted her head, and said to Chu Yan and Zhong Hui, "However, we can't be too happy yet. After all, we haven't started mining yet, and we don't know how much gold sand is underground. If it's just a little bit on the surface, then it's not worth being happy about."
“Master, it should be more than just the surface. We have both studied it and observed it carefully today. The soil in that area was brought out by rats from their holes, so there must be some underground. As for how much, we are not sure. We need to ask our master to come and take a look.”
"Alright, then you two should return to the capital as soon as possible to report this matter. If a gold mine can be found behind Qing Shi Town, then many people around here who have nothing to do can also become miners and earn a wage."
"It might even allow us to mine for a few more years, which could boost the economic development and commerce of Qingshi Town. But remember, we absolutely cannot allow anyone who is greedy, ruthless, or has selfish motives to come and mine. Otherwise, the people around here will suffer, and we will have done something wrong."
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