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"That's wonderful!"

Chemistry experiments took materials and time. She had been planning to gather what she needed in secret, but now that the head of the household had given his approval, she could do it openly!

After several gloomy days, Shen Lantang's spirits finally lifted. A rare smile appeared on her face.

"Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"If you can truly expose Xuanxin as a fraud, I'll decide how and when to do it. I'll tell you in advance."

"All right."

Xie Heng paused. "There is one more thing. This matter involves the imperial heirs. I have no choice but to be caught up in it, but I don't want you entangled in it. So your name will be kept out of this, and you won't appear publicly. Do you mind?"

Oh, was that all?

Shen Lantang waved a hand. "Far from minding, I'd find it troublesome too. If one of them held a grudge against me, my good days would be over. I don't care about the glory. I just can't stand watching that charlatan fool people with a few petty tricks."

Seeing how readily she took it, Xie Heng nodded to himself.

"I'm glad you see it that way."

"A daughter of the Xie Family should be broad-minded, not hung up on every gain or loss."

Shen Lantang accepted the praise for the time being.

"By the way, Father, why do you have such faith in me?"

Xie Heng gave her a meaningful look. "That depends on what you can show me."

Shen Lantang thought about it and had to agree. If all she did was talk, how would she be any different from Xuanxin?

She cupped her fist in salute. "I won't let you down, Father!"

Xie Heng nodded. "I believe you."

When Shen Lantang returned to her courtyard, she eagerly rolled up her sleeves. She had been downcast for days, so Lan Xin and Baozhu were glad to see her spirits restored. Smiling, they asked:

"Miss, did something good happen?"

"It did! It did!"

Shen Lantang took Lan Xin by the shoulder and spun in a graceful, confident circle around her. "I told Father about it. He said he supports me and will help me expose Xuanxin for what he really is!"

Lan Xin smiled too. "Congratulations, Miss!"

Given Xie Heng's standing, his help meant she could do practically as she pleased across half of Zhaojing.

Shen Lantang took a breath and reined in her excitement.

"Bring me brush and ink!"

A servant brought them, and Lan Xin ground the ink beside her. With a flourish of her brush, Shen Lantang wrote down everything she needed. When she looked up from the paper, another servant had arrived and was waiting respectfully in the courtyard.

"Young Madam, the master has assigned me to assist you for the next few days. Please tell me whatever you need."

"Good."

Her father-in-law certainly got things done.

"Here." Shen Lantang handed him the paper. "Prepare these as quickly as you can."

"Yes, Young Madam."

The servant took the paper and soon withdrew.

In the main courtyard, Xie Heng frowned at the items listed on it, then handed it back to the servant. "Get them as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Master."

Some of the items were easy to obtain, while others were difficult. But with Xie Heng's influence, everything was ready two days later. He even gave Shen Lantang a courtyard normally used for storing odds and ends, so she could "conduct experiments" there.

Shen Lantang spent every day in her "laboratory," thinking of little else but her experiments. Strange noises and smells drifted from the courtyard now and then. Fortunately, Xie Heng was overseeing the matter. Several of his trusted men stood at the gate, and even the second master of the Xie Family would have to announce himself before entering. So although the household knew something was going on in the back courtyard, no one knew exactly what.

She tested and tested. Three days later, she finally had a result.

Shen Lantang traced a half circle through the air with her finger. With a flick, a string of flames sprang from her fingertip. Baozhu clapped hard.

"Miss, you're amazing!"

What was so amazing about a flame? I could make blue, purple, yellow, and green ones too. Those would be the advanced versions.

"Did it work?" Xie Heng asked as he came through the courtyard gate.

Shen Lantang turned, quickly extinguished the flame on her hand, and smiled. "Yes, Father."

"I'll show you again."

The trick to producing fire at her fingertips was to coat her fingers beforehand with powdered camphor, sulfur, and phosphorus. Camphor absorbed heat as it evaporated, while sulfur and phosphorus were flammable and would ignite quickly under high heat. Shen Lantang's long, fair fingers swept through the air in a series of gestures that looked like a Taoist ritual. The movements flowed smoothly, and when she finished the last one, a golden flame sprang from her fingertip.

Shen Lantang smiled. "I made up those gestures myself. They look convincing, don't they?"

As the saying went, if you wanted to fool someone, you had to put on a good show. When making your way through the world, presence was everything.

Xie Heng smiled. "They certainly look convincing."

"If we had metals like copper and potassium, I could make blue and purple flames too."

"How?"

"Most metals produce their own colors when they burn."

"That does sound beautiful."

"It is. But we have limited time. Matching the techniques we need to the materials we already have is hard enough." Besides, the fact that they had gathered so many materials so quickly was itself a display of the resources only a powerful family possessed.

After that, Shen Lantang demonstrated the Lotus-Birth Technique and Retrieving Objects from a Boiling Oil Pot for him.

For the Lotus-Birth Technique, she first took a large lotus seed and hollowed it out, leaving only a thin layer beneath its outer shell. Then she made a small lotus flower and leaf from pith soaked in dye, using thick green thread as the stem. She bound them tightly together, attached a small lead pellet to the other end of the thread inside the seed, and glued the two halves of the seed back together.