acquaintance
The experimental field still retains the same appearance as it did after the last test.
Fuling, another maid who was standing by the field waiting for Jiang Nian, saw Xu Bo and her young lady coming together, and hurried towards where Jiang Nian was.
Fuling took over the bag that Jiang Nian was carrying on his arm. Uncle Xu walked to the side of the rice field and put the hay he had been carrying on his shoulders on the aisle.
"Miss, the pharmacy is very busy. I need to go ahead. I hope you will forgive me."
Jiang Nian had just taken the hemp paper from Fuling, on which he had written down the data he had obtained through observation at home last night. After hearing what Xu Bo said, he turned around and nodded at him.
"Okay, Uncle Xu, go ahead and do your work. I'll take care of this."
Uncle Xu responded repeatedly, said goodbye to Jiang Nian, and hurried back to the drugstore to look after the store.
Seeing Xu Bo walking away, Jiang Nian withdrew his gaze and turned his attention back to the hemp paper with the data written on it.
It records the data she obtained through observation in the experimental fields over the past few days.
Jiang Nian paused at the last bit of data for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze slightly towards Fuling.
"Has this piece of paper come into the hands of others?"
Fuling was standing beside Jiang Nian, waiting for her instructions. After hearing her words, she shook her head and said, "No, Fuling has always kept it well."
Jiang Nian nodded, lowered his eyes and put the hemp paper back into the bag in Fuling's hand, then asked what she was most concerned about today.
"It seems that several high-ranking officials have arrived at the court. Have you heard when they will arrive?"
Fuling tilted her head and thought about it.
"Yesterday, when Fuling went out to buy fruits and vegetables, she heard people at the teahouse say that it would be around noon today."
With his mind full of thoughts, Jiang Nian came to a conclusion and nodded.
"Okay, then go back and prepare the equipment in the warehouse. I'll go back and make the recipe later."
The day agreed by Jiang's father to see the results was getting closer and closer. Jiang Nian didn't want to make any mistakes, so after seeing Fuling's agreement, he prepared to go to the rice field to observe the several pieces of land that had been selected for sampling before.
But before she had taken a few steps, she heard a strange voice behind her.
"I've heard that the daughter of a wealthy pharmacy owner in Liangdu, Pingzhou, would personally farm the land. Seeing is believing."
When Jiang Nian heard the light voice, he paused for a moment, then calmly turned around and looked towards the direction where the voice came from.
The experimental rice field allocated to her by Jiang's father was located in a slightly remote area, and usually only Jiang's servants or residents from neighboring areas passed by.
She never thought that someone else would appear.
These two ordinary sentences came out of his mouth, but they sounded like he was nitpicking, with a slightly rising tone at the end, carrying a hint of gentleness and cruelty.
The visitor, dressed in a red brocade robe with fine black stripes, caught her eye. The Hetian jade pendant on the black cloud-patterned belt around his waist was as white and smooth as porcelain. The ring on his finger and the black fan he held seemed to reflect the visitor's different identity.
The corners of his eyes were slightly raised, and there was a smile between his eyebrows, but the meaning was not reflected in his eyes. After meeting his gaze, Jiang Nian suddenly felt that he had the indifference and coldness of a person of high position and power who looked upon the world without emotion.
It was summer, and there was still a scorching sun hanging in the sky above.
But his appearance seemed to bring a bit of coolness out of nowhere.
Jiang Nian's heart moved slightly, then he lowered his eyes and saluted the other party gently.
"May I ask the purpose of your visit, my humble daughter Jiang Nian?"
Judging from his attire, he looks like a person in power, but if he is a court official, he should also come together.
Fuling just said that he would fall down at noon. If the young man in front of her was not an official, why would he appear in a rice field as remote as hers?
It was really weird everywhere. Facing the landlord in front of him who looked like a moody landlord, Jiang Nian looked at the position of the sun in the sky calmly.
It's not noon yet.
The person opposite seemed to see Jiang Nian's confusion, but he had no intention of explaining. He just curled his lips and pointed casually at the rice field behind Jiang Nian with a fan in one hand.
The sharp tip of the knife hidden on the fan flashed in Jiang Nian's eyes. She held her breath and heard the other party speak.
"The growth of this field is different from that of the other fields. I am very curious. Could you tell me, Miss Jiang?"
As soon as the other party finished speaking, a sense of crisis filled the silent and remote air.
Although he expressed curiosity, his expression and tone were frivolous and casual. He spoke slowly and even lowered his voice slightly when he finished the last sentence, as if he was going straight to the point of answering a single question and didn't pay any attention to anything else.
Jiang Nian met his playful and interested eyes and the frivolous and slightly raised corners of his lips mixed with a bit of ruthlessness, and clearly felt the other party's cynical and moody temperament.
After just a few words, Jiang Nian's current situation became difficult to back down. He just stood there nonchalantly, waiting, but he seemed a little impatient, as if he would take someone's life without blinking an eye if he heard an unsatisfactory answer.
There was a moment of silence between the two of them. The obedient and gentle look on Jiang Nian's face did not seem to fade, as if she was not afraid of the other party's extremely aggressive and dangerous aura. She paused and began to explain calmly.
"I have recently studied alchemy and developed a new recipe to repel pests. I am currently testing it on this rice field to see if it works."
The other party closed the fan in his hand in an instant, then shook it casually, and raised the corner of his mouth meaningfully.
"Then please tell me in detail, Miss Jiang."
The other party's purposeful aura seemed to be completely unconcealed, and Jiang Nian could feel the indifference and bone-chilling coldness in his eyes that was not even a smile.
She paused for a moment, watching the red pendant on the handle of the fan in his hand sway slightly due to his previous movement. Finally, she lowered her eyes slightly and took a step back.
Seeing Jiang Nian make way for him to observe the rice fields more easily, he seemed not to care about the muddy land beside the road and walked straight forward.
Such a concise style of action, but it seems to reveal an unintentionally hidden sharpness, laying a dense net for the prey to be captured, and finally striking directly at the eyebrow in an extremely unintentional way, killing the prey with one blow.
This was clearly his first time in Liangdu City, but he seemed to be extremely knowledgeable about the surrounding rice growing conditions. He even found such a remote place to ask questions, and he chose a time when she was the only one there...
When did this person appear and when did he set his sights on his prey?
And if the prey is her, what will he plan to do?
Jiang Nian stepped aside with a calm and composed look on her face, lowering her eyes slightly to hide the thoughts in her mind, and the other person passed by her.
She smelled a very faint hint of ambergris on the other person's brocade clothes.
The fingers hanging by his side curled up slightly. Seeing that the other party had already walked forward, Jiang Nian raised his eyes, his gaze fell on the other party very indifferently, and then followed.
He walked slowly toward the rice fields. Although he was wearing brocade clothes, he didn't seem to be stained by the mud on the ground at all, as he cleverly avoided it.
Jiang Nian followed quietly behind him until he stopped in front of a row of rice that she had chosen to observe specifically.
He turned around and looked at Jiang Nian with a smile, but his eyes were cold.
"What is the recipe Miss Jiang just mentioned? And can I take a look at the paper you were looking at earlier?"
His gaze fell on the shoulder bag that Jiang Nian was carrying, and there was a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
Jiang Nian paused subconsciously, raised his eyes to look at his nonchalant and slightly playful face, and sweat seeped out of his palms.
When did he come?
Then does he know about the conversation he just had with her and Fuling?
The other party's intuition was too sharp, and Jiang Nian felt a chill in her heart, but she did not show any fear on her face. She lowered her eyes meekly, took out the hemp paper with pest observation data written on it from her bag, and handed it to the other party.
The other person took the hemp paper in his hand. He lowered his eyelids and looked at the numbers on the paper, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"What does this mean?"
Jiang Nian walked forward and answered the numbers on the hemp paper one by one in a gentle and calm voice.
"The numbers I wrote on the hemp paper are the same as the numbers one, two, and three written on paper, but they are more convenient to remember."
"From the time the rice was planted to the current harvest, the women selected several representative plots of land and counted the pests they contained according to patterns."
He listened with his eyelashes lowered, then raised his eyes and looked forward.
The rice growing in this experimental field is full of vigor, forming a sharp contrast with the sickly rice in other households.
Jiang Nian was paying attention to his movements while looking at the hemp paper in his hand.
"And then press ..."
Suddenly feeling the other person's cold and dark gaze on his face, Jiang Nian subtly paused at the word "data" at the end, and said calmly: "Write down the number of pests you counted on hemp paper, and see if there are any changes, and then prescribe the right medicine."
Because of the explanation, Jiang Nian was standing a little closer than before. One of them was dressed in elegant clothes while the other in bright colors. If someone who didn't know the situation stood at a distance and looked at them, they could actually appreciate the perfect match between the colors.
After listening to the explanation, he looked at Jiang Nian with a sharp and aggressive look.
"What did Miss Jiang originally want to say just now?"
“…”
Glancing at the hidden weapon in his hand, Jiang Nian obediently said what he wanted to say.
"data."
After hearing Jiang Nian's answer, the corners of his mouth curled up nonchalantly, as if he had discovered something new, and his slender fingers slowly tapped the black fan handle.
"What do you call it?"
Jiang Nian met his knowing and cunning gaze and smiled sweetly.
"Observation method."
She has no intention of changing the method's original name.
The other party chuckled, as if his mood suddenly became very good, and there was a hint of indiscernible inquiry in his eyes when he looked at Jiang Nian.
"What about the recipe?"
Jiang Nian took the hemp paper from him and looked up to meet his dark pupils. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Fuling's voice in the distance.
"Miss, I'll prepare the equipment in the warehouse according to your request..."
Fuling stopped talking suddenly, and when she saw the person standing next to Jiang Nian, her expression softened a little.
Jiang Nian glanced at Fuling soothingly, then turned to look at the person next to him whose expression was unpredictable and whose personality was extremely difficult to guess. A gentle smile appeared on his innocent face, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, as if he was inviting a tiger to keep him company.
"If you are interested in my recipe, why not come with me to the warehouse to take a look?"
He seemed to have heard something new, and a deep meaning flashed in his eyes. He curled his lips without saying anything, and walked behind Jiang Nian in an instant.
Seeing that the man was a little further away from her, Fuling came to her senses and moved closer to Jiang Nian.
When she met the gaze of the person next to the young lady just now, she felt a bone-chilling chill in her heart as if she was being stared at, so cold that it made her heart tremble. Now that the person was a little further away from the young lady, Fuling realized that it was almost noon, the summer sun was scorching overhead, and the coldness she had felt on her body just now had faded away.
Jiang Nian turned to look at Fuling. Seeing that Fuling seemed to have something to say, and the person in front of him was a little far away, he asked softly, "What's the matter?"
Fuling glanced forward and said hesitantly, "Miss, the court officials are visiting and are coming this way."
Liangdu City also suffered from pests and diseases last year, but because of the "arsenic-mixed seeds" sold by the Xu family, the extent of the disaster was not as serious as other places in Pingzhou.
Now that the court officials have come to visit, they must have come to carefully explore the miraculous effects of the "arsenic seed mixing" used last year.
But Jiang Nian wants to seize this opportunity to prove that the new recipe he has is more effective than mixing seeds with arsenic.
After all, from the perspective of later generations, although arsenic mixed with seeds is extremely lethal to bad insects, it will, firstly, cause environmental pollution, and secondly, it is harmful to the human body. Its high toxicity may cause serious health effects even if accidentally ingested.
Jiang Nian's thoughts turned a thousand times, and his gaze fell on the person in front of him again.
His tied-up black hair was slightly scattered on the crimson brocade robe, forming a striking contrast under the warm orange sunlight.
Jiang Nian's gaze paused for a moment, and his hand on the strap of his shoulder bag clenched slightly.
If the bet was correct, then the move she made this time was completed in a different way.
And then...
Jiang Nian turned his gaze to the court officials who were walking towards him from a distance. A dark light flashed in his eyes and he let out a breath.
It's time to verify your ideas.
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