CHAPTER 53: 50. HUSH MONEY_2

Chen Ji walked among the crowd, no longer seeming like a stranger, but more like a native of Luocheng City, coming to the fair like a young lad.

...

...

Nighttime.

The Princely Heir and Princess Bai Li, perhaps tired of their usual mischief, did not scale the walls to go out today.

Chen Ji waited until everyone was fast asleep before taking out the bamboo tube containing saltpetre and heading to the main hall.

However, the first step in making gunpowder was not simply mixing saltpetre, sulfur, and charcoal in proportion, but purifying the materials.

This was why Chen Ji firmly believed that his gunpowder would be more potent than that of the Ning Dynasty: the Ning Dynasty’s chemical engineering was underdeveloped, they probably didn’t know how to purify these materials, and could only rely on primitive methods.

Chen Ji took a slightly larger ceramic bowl and carefully placed it above the oil residue lamp.

Wu Yun perched on the counter, tilting his head curiously and meowed, "Chen Ji, what are you doing?"

While preparing the materials, Chen Ji responded, "Before becoming a real Executive Officer, I am creating some means of self-protection... Wu Yun, you have good hearing, immediately tell me if anyone approaches the main hall."

He knew that there might be Grand Officials in this world who wouldn’t fear gunpowder, such as the ones Jin Zhu mentioned like Bai Long, Heavenly Horse, and Binghu. If the opponent was fast enough, they could dodge before the gunpowder even exploded.

But he didn’t need to deal with these people; his gunpowder was sufficient.

Just as he was about to pour the saltpetre from the bamboo tube into the ceramic bowl... a crow suddenly flew into the Medical Hall’s main hall!

Chen Ji and Wu Yun both froze, exchanging looks for a long while without understanding each other.

Wu Yun meowed, "Could it tell your master about this?"

As Chen Ji silently closed the bamboo tube again, he quickly brainstormed a strategy. He was making gunpowder, which was a secret that required two thousand elite soldiers from the Craftsmanship Supervisor of the Ning Dynasty to guard.

Even if someone discovered he was secretly collecting saltpetre, it would cause a lot of trouble.

Wu Yun looked at Chen Ji, "Should I catch it? Kill the bird to keep it quiet!"

The next moment, the crow pointed its wing at Wu Yun and cawed loudly, full of mockery.

Wu Yun, not to be outdone, leapt to catch it, but Wu Yun was fast, the crow was faster.

The two dark figures moved up and down in the hall of the Medical Hall. Chen Ji had lit sixteen stove fires, and Wu Yun’s figure darted through the hall, almost impossible to see.

But even at such speeds, he couldn’t touch a single feather of the crow!

This crow, having trained with Old Yao for who knows how long, had become very cunning!

Just as Chen Ji was about to call Wu Yun back, an old voice rang out, "Enough, it’s the middle of the night and you’re not sleeping, what are you fussing about?"

Chen Ji stiffened and slowly looked towards Old Yao, "Master..."

Old Yao glanced at Chen Ji, then curiously examined the oil residue lamp, the bamboo tube, and the ceramic bowl beside the counter, sensing something odd.

But even with his vast experience, he couldn’t understand what Chen Ji was doing...

He frowned and asked, "Why did you bring the kitchen’s ceramic bowl here?"

Chen Ji replied, "Oh, nothing much, Master. I was just using it to drink some water."

"Oh, is that so..."

Just when Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief, he saw Old Yao take six copper coins from his sleeve and throw them on the table.

The clattering sound followed, and the six copper coins settled.

Chen Ji’s heart jolted, although Old Yao couldn’t see what he was doing, he could perform divinations!

Old Yao muttered as he interpreted the divination, and Chen Ji anxiously awaited the verdict, unsure what it would reveal.

After a moment, Old Yao shook his head, "Strange, how can I not see anything?"

Then, he went to the window, pushed it open, leaned on the sill, and looked out at the starry night sky, muttering, "Grand is the primal beginning, the source of all beings, it commands the heavens..."

The next moment.

Old Yao suddenly turned back to look at Chen Ji, "What is so powerful and domineering!"

Chen Ji: Ah?

Not exactly, old man, are you for real?

Chen Ji didn’t understand what this divination meant, but didn’t Old Yao describe it as "robust and domineering"? Were those not the very characteristics of gunpowder?

Old Yao stared intently at Chen Ji, "I never expected you to possess such skills to create such a thing. What are you planning to do with this, stage a rebellion?"

Chen Ji hurriedly replied, "Not at all, not at all!"

But then he heard Old Yao say, "Do you realize if this gets out, you’d be dead without a place to be buried? Don’t say I didn’t protect you, even the Ning Dynasty wouldn’t tolerate you."

Chen Ji fell silent; he was uncertain about Old Yao’s stance. If he indeed planned to report him, then escaping was his only option.

Sadly, he had just begun to find his footing in this Medical Hall, thinking he could settle down here.

Looking up, Chen Ji said, "Master, I didn’t mean to..."

Old Yao interrupted, "Hush money, six taels."

Chen Ji: "?"

...

...

The main hall of the Medical Hall was dim, autumn night breezes swirling through the windows stirred the flame of the oil residue lamp, casting fluctuating shadows on Chen Ji’s face.

"So, after all that, you just want hush money?" Chen Ji spoke with a heavy tone.

"Not exactly," Old Yao leisurely replied, "I’m not out to make money; I’m trying to save your life."

Chen Ji, deeply distressed, said, "Do you realize, six silver taels can buy a lot of things?"

Old Yao stroked his beard, "I know, it can buy you ladders for Commandery Princess Bai Li."

Chen Ji: "..."

So, he knows everything, no wonder the amount is exactly the same as the fees for passing twice!

Old Yao sneered, "The Medical Hall is mine; if the Princely Heir and the Commandery Princess pass through, what’s wrong with paying the toll to me?"

Chen Ji argued, "But I also labored, I moved ladders for them!"

Then he saw Old Yao turn back towards the main room, directly fetching a bamboo recliner and placing it on the corridor between the main hall and the backyard: "I’ll keep watch here for you; I’ve also exerted effort. Pay me six taels, and you can comfortably do what you need to do undetected."

The huge bamboo recliner, in the hands of the ninety-two-year-old elder, seemed as light as a toy.

Chen Ji: "...can it really work like this?!"

However, Old Yao didn’t care, he simply stretched out his hand firmly, "Where are the silver peanuts?"

Chen Ji, heartachingly, took out the six silver peanuts from his sleeve and slapped them into Old Yao’s hand.

Old Yao chuckled, pocketing them and humming a tune as he lay back in the bamboo recliner, closing his eyes to rest, "Obeys the law daily vexed, the strong beam nightly sings..."

Chen Ji watched him silently for a long while, utterly at a loss on how to handle the old man.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, "Master, don’t say I didn’t warn you, by accepting the money, you’re now an accomplice!"

Old Yao scoffed lightly, "Threatening me? You’re still too green. I want to see what you could possibly concoct."

Chen Ji said no more; he added clear water to a pottery bowl and placed it over the oil residue lamp, slowly heating it until the water reached about seventy-five degrees Celsius.

There were no formal ways to measure temperature in this era, Chen Ji only knew that when water boiled at eighty degrees, bubbles would start forming at the bottom of the bowl; once bubbling, he would remove the oil residue lamp and wait for the water to gradually cool down five minutes, which was the temperature he wanted.

Chen Ji then took saltpetre and wood ash, mixed them at a ratio of 8:1 in the pottery bowl, and slowly stirred with a bamboo stick for fifteen minutes before slowly filtering through Xuan paper.

Old Yao, who had arisen at some point, was standing by, watching intensely.

Chen Ji ignored him, boiled the saltpetre water again until only a third left in the bowl.

He moved away the oil residue lamp, concentrating as he waited for the thick liquid in the bowl to cool down slowly.

When the liquid in the pottery bowl dropped below human body temperature, Chen Ji used a bamboo stick to extract a drop of liquid from the bowl and gently touched it to the counter.

Upon encountering the cold counter, the liquid instantly solidified into a clear crystal, just like water turning into ice!

Old Yao’s eyes suddenly widened.

Chen Ji took a deep breath: It worked!

...

Today, one Chapter.