Hush Money

In the thin mist of early morning, a rooster crowed as a carriage slowly pulled to a stop outside the medical hall.

Bai Li lifted the curtain, jumped down from the carriage, and stretched.

She looked around, but the slender figure who swept the ground was nowhere to be seen.

How strange. He had been sweeping outside at this very hour yesterday, so why was he gone today?

Was he asleep?

At that moment, Liang Mao'er also slowly hopped down from the carriage with Liang Gou'er on his back and headed into the medical hall.

Liang Gou'er was a large man, yet he weighed practically nothing on Liang Mao'er's back. In the past, Liang Mao'er could carry him for over ten li and act as though nothing were amiss.

Liang Mao'er smiled with honest simplicity and bid the heir and Commandery Princess Bai Li farewell. "Heir, Your Highness, thank you for your hospitality. I'll take my brother back to sleep."

The heir smiled and waved. "Go on, go on."

As Liang Mao'er returned to the apprentices' sleeping quarters, Bai Li stood on tiptoe and glanced inside, but still saw no sign of Chen Ji. "Strange, where did that black-hearted man go?"

Chen Ji was not at the medical hall. He was walking along the flagstone road to the East Market.

He walked below while Dark Cloud leaped lightly across the eaves beside him.

Man and cat traveled side by side, the black cat on the rooftops like a spirit silently watching over Chen Ji.

The East Market was already bustling. Goods from north and south were gathered and distributed here, and a steady stream of muscular workers carried burlap sacks back and forth.

Chen Ji found a breakfast shop and sat down at a small wooden table outside. Dark Cloud leaped lightly into his arms and hid inside his clothes, poking only her head out through his collar.

"Chen Ji, buns!"

Chen Ji smiled and waved to the server. "Two steamers of savory meat buns and a bowl of hot soy milk!"

"Coming right up! Please wait a moment, sir. Your buns will be out shortly!"

When the buns arrived, Chen Ji picked one up in his right hand and took a big bite. With his left, he held another to his chest and let Dark Cloud eat it one bite at a time.

He ate slowly, waiting in silence.

Just as he finished his second bun, a middle-aged customer arrived at the general store next door. "Shopkeeper, how much for crude saltpeter?"

The shopkeeper sat inside with his legs crossed. "Three hundred wen a dou. Within three li, I can have a worker deliver it wherever you like... What are you buying crude saltpeter for, sir?"

The customer smiled. "My family makes fire-starting sticks. We need crude saltpeter every day. I usually bought it from Old Li's place, but for some reason, he didn't open this morning. Three hundred wen a dou is a little steep, shopkeeper. Could you lower the price?"

But the shopkeeper cracked melon seeds as he replied, "Buy it or don't."

The customer's face darkened. He flicked his sleeve and left. "What kind of way is that to do business? Don't you know how to speak to people? Plenty of shops in the East Market sell crude saltpeter. I don't have to buy it from you!"

The shopkeeper sat with his legs crossed, cracking melon seeds without a care. "Then buy it somewhere else."

Chen Ji watched the customer leave. Immediately afterward, a young man dressed as a boat tracker in the breakfast shop put down his chopsticks, abandoning his meal, and got up to follow the customer.

The two were more than ten paces apart. Amid the crowd, the young tracker kept his eyes fixed on the customer.

As the young man passed Chen Ji, Chen Ji saw thick calluses on the web between his right thumb and forefinger, marks left by years of gripping weapons.

Chen Ji understood: Jinzhu had made his move.

Jinzhu was smarter and more discreet than he had imagined. He had anticipated that firearms were what the Jing Dynasty wanted most, so after arriving in Luo City, he had quietly made his preparations, acquired shops, planted spies disguised as merchants, and tracked down everyone who tried to buy crude saltpeter!

Jinzhu lay hidden in the shadows of Luo City like a spider, weaving a great web while the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate had its guard down.

The weapons Consort Yun handed over had probably been stolen from the Directorate of Works' stores by people working together from inside and out.

If Jinzhu was smart enough, he had probably already begun taking stock and recovering the stolen goods... Could Consort Yun and the Liu Family withstand Jinzhu's investigation?

The Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate and the Liu Family had finally met a true opponent.

Chen Ji lowered his head and continued eating his buns without betraying a thing. Only after he and Dark Cloud had finished both steamers did they get up to leave. Man and cat burped at the same time. "That was satisfying!"

Chen Ji wandered through the East Market. As he passed a sugar shop, he quickly studied his surroundings out of the corner of his eye: the shopkeeper was genuinely selling brown and white sugar, and when servants of wealthy and powerful households bought some, no one followed or watched them.

After observing for a long while, he walked up to the stall and asked, "Shopkeeper, how much are the brown and white sugar?"

The shopkeeper smiled. "Sir, brown sugar is eighty wen a jin. As for this white refined sugar, that's ten taels of silver a jin."

Chen Ji stared in astonishment. The price of white sugar was outrageous!

But he soon understood. In this era, most households still used brown sugar, while the method for making white sugar was a closely guarded secret, never shared with outsiders.

Only the rich and powerful could now afford the white, "elegant" refined sugar. It was a true luxury.

Chen Ji wondered to himself whether he should make some white sugar.

He couldn't.

The Exploitation of the Works of Nature recorded a method of decolorization using yellow clay and water: pouring yellow clay slurry over brown sugar to produce white sugar.

But in fact, no one in the era Chen Ji came from had ever successfully replicated the "yellow clay and water decolorization method." The technique had been lost.

Chen Ji took out a piece of silver. "Shopkeeper, I'd like one liang of refined sugar. Just one liang."

Carrying the packet wrapped in brown paper, he also bought a bamboo tube of Shaodaozi liquor. Now he had all the materials needed to make gunpowder.

Chen Ji walked through the crowd. He no longer looked like an outsider, but more like a Luo City native out visiting the market.

Night fell.

The heir and Commandery Princess Bai Li had perhaps grown tired of playing around, for they did not climb over the wall again that day.

Chen Ji waited until everyone was fast asleep before taking the bamboo tube of crude saltpeter to the main hall.

The first step in making gunpowder, however, was not simply mixing crude saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal in the right proportions, but purifying the ingredients.

That was also why Chen Ji firmly believed his gunpowder would be more powerful than the Ning Dynasty's: chemical science in the Ning Dynasty was not sufficiently advanced. They probably had no idea how to purify these materials and could only rely on crude methods.

Chen Ji fetched a slightly larger earthenware bowl and carefully set it above the oil-dreg lamp.

Dark Cloud crouched on the counter, tilted her head, and gave a curious meow. "Chen Ji, what are you doing?"

As Chen Ji prepared the materials, he replied, "Making something to protect myself with before I become a true Xingguan... Dark Cloud, your hearing is good. Tell me immediately if you hear anyone approaching the main hall."

He knew that there were probably Great Xingguan in this world who did not fear even gunpowder, such as Bai Long, Heavenly Horse, and Sick Tiger, whom Jinzhu had mentioned. If they were fast enough, they could dodge long before the gunpowder exploded.

But he did not need to deal with such people. Gunpowder would be enough.

Just as he was about to pour the crude saltpeter from the bamboo tube into the earthenware bowl, however... a crow suddenly flew into the medical hall's main hall!

Chen Ji and Dark Cloud both froze. Man and cat exchanged looks for a long time, but neither understood the other.

Dark Cloud meowed. "Will it tell your master about this?"

Chen Ji silently closed the bamboo tube again, rapidly considering what to do. He was making gunpowder, a secret the Ning Dynasty's Directorate of Works needed two thousand elite soldiers to guard.

Even if someone merely discovered that he was secretly collecting crude saltpeter, it would probably bring him serious trouble.

Dark Cloud looked at Chen Ji. "Should I catch it? Kill the bird to silence it!"

The next moment, the crow pointed a wing at Dark Cloud and burst into raucous caws, full of mockery.

Dark Cloud indignantly jumped at it, but fast as she was, the crow was faster.

Two black shapes darted up and down through the main hall. Chen Ji had already lit sixteen furnace fires, and Dark Cloud flashed through the hall so quickly that her form was almost impossible to make out.

Yet even at that speed, she could not touch a single one of the crow's feathers!

Who knew how long this crow had cultivated with Old Yao? It had become a spirit!

Just as Chen Ji was about to call Dark Cloud off, an aged voice rang out. "Enough. Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? What are you making such a racket for?"

Chen Ji froze and slowly turned toward Old Yao. "Master..."

Old Yao glanced at Chen Ji, then slowly walked over to the counter and curiously examined the oil-dreg lamp, bamboo tube, and earthenware bowl. He felt that something was odd.

But for all his knowledge and experience, even he could not tell what Chen Ji was doing...

He frowned. "Why did you bring the kitchen's earthenware bowl here?"

Chen Ji said, "I'm not doing anything, Master. I just used the bowl to drink some water."

"Oh, is that so..."

Just as Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief, Old Yao took six copper coins from his sleeve and tossed them onto the table.

With a clatter, the six coins came to rest.

Chen Ji's heart jumped. Old Yao might not be able to tell what he was doing, but he could divine it!

Old Yao muttered as he interpreted the divination. Chen Ji waited anxiously, as though awaiting judgment, not knowing what the old man might uncover.

A moment later, Old Yao shook his head. "Strange. Why can't I see it?"

With that, he went to the window, pushed it open, and leaned on the frame, looking out at the stars in the night sky. He muttered, "Great indeed is the primal power of Qian; all things owe their beginning to it, and it governs heaven..."

The next moment.

Old Yao abruptly turned back to Chen Ji. "What thing is so forceful and overbearing?!"

Chen Ji: Huh?

Wait, old man, you really have a cheat?!

Chen Ji did not know how to interpret the divination, but weren't "forceful and overbearing" precisely the qualities of gunpowder?

Old Yao stared straight at Chen Ji. "I didn't expect you to have a skill like this, to be able to make such a thing. What are you making it for? Are you plotting a rebellion?!"

Chen Ji hurriedly said, "No, no!"

But Old Yao continued, "Do you know that if word of this gets out, you'll die without a burial place? Never mind whether I protect you-the whole of the Ning Dynasty won't tolerate you."

Chen Ji fell silent. He was unsure where Old Yao stood. If the old man really intended to report him, he could only flee.

Unfortunately, he had only just established himself at the medical hall and had thought he could settle down here.

Chen Ji looked up. "Master, I wasn't trying to..."

Old Yao interrupted him. "Hush money. Six taels."

Chen Ji: "?"

The medical hall's main hall was dim. A cool autumn night breeze swept in through the window, making the oil-dreg lamp's flame flicker and casting shifting light and shadows across Chen Ji's face.

"So after everything you said, all you wanted was hush money?" Chen Ji said gravely.

"Not quite," Old Yao said unhurriedly. "I'm not doing it for the money. I'm saving your life."

Chen Ji was grief-stricken. "Do you know how many things six taels of silver can buy?"

Old Yao stroked his beard. "I do. It can buy you putting up a ladder for Commandery Princess Bai Li."

Chen Ji: "..."

So the old man knew everything! No wonder the amount was exactly the same as the two tolls combined!

Old Yao sneered. "The medical hall is mine. The heir and the commandery princess pass through my place. What's wrong with them paying me the toll?"

Chen Ji said, "But I put in work too! I carried the ladder for them!"

Old Yao turned and went back into his room. He then carried out a bamboo reclining chair and set it in the corridor between the main hall and the rear courtyard. "I'll keep watch for you here. I'll be putting in work too. Pay me six taels and you can do what you need to without worrying. With me standing guard, no one will find out."

In the hands of the ninety-two-year-old man, the enormous bamboo reclining chair was as light as a toy.

Chen Ji: "...You can do that?!"

Old Yao paid no mind to any of that and simply held out his hand. "Where are the silver peanuts?"

Heart aching, Chen Ji took the six silver peanuts from his sleeve and slapped them into Old Yao's hand.

Old Yao happily tucked them into his sleeve, then lay down in the bamboo chair and closed his eyes to rest, humming a little tune. "The law-abiding fret from dawn to dawn, while bullies sing with joy from dusk till dawn..."

Chen Ji looked at him in silence for a long while, at a complete loss as to what to do with the old man.

At last, he gritted his teeth. "Master, don't say I didn't warn you. Now that you've taken the money, you'll be an accomplice from here on out!"

Old Yao gave a soft scoff. "Threatening me? You're still too green. I'd like to see what you can make."

Chen Ji said no more. He poured plain water into the earthenware bowl and set it over the oil-dreg lamp to heat slowly, until the water reached about seventy-five degrees.

There was no formal way to measure temperature in this era. Chen Ji only knew that bubbles would start rising from the bottom of the bowl when the water reached eighty degrees. Once they appeared, he would move the oil-dreg lamp away and wait five minutes for the water to cool slowly to the temperature he wanted.

Chen Ji then fetched crude saltpeter and plant ash, put them into the earthenware bowl at a ratio of eight to one, and slowly stirred them with a bamboo skewer for a quarter of an hour before slowly filtering the mixture through xuan paper.

At some point, Old Yao had gotten up and was standing to one side, watching intently.

Chen Ji ignored him and boiled the saltpeter water again until only a third remained in the bowl.

He moved the oil-dreg lamp away and waited intently for the thick liquid in the bowl to cool.

Once the liquid in the earthenware bowl had cooled below the temperature of a human armpit, Chen Ji used a bamboo skewer to take a drop and gently dabbed it onto the counter.

The instant the drop touched the cold counter, it condensed into a transparent crystal, as though a touch had turned water to ice!

Old Yao's eyes widened.

Chen Ji let out a long breath. It worked!

One chapter today.