Chapter 431 - Seen Through (1/2)
‘Why didn’t you say so earlier?!’ Yu Xiaocao rolled her eyes in her heart and once again commanded the eunuch, who was standing far away, to bring over a pot of clear water. She took off the multi-colored stone from her wrist and let it soak in the water for a short period of time before she finally placed the Yixing clay teapot [1] on the small clay stove.
“Is that stone of yours clean or not? Will I get a stomach ache from drinking water from it?” Zhu Junfan was making a fuss over nothing. He watched Xiaocao’s movements and naturally assumed that putting the multi-colored stone in the water was necessary to release spiritual energy in it.
Before Xiaocao could open her mouth to retort, a golden light flew out of the multi-colored stone. It shaped itself into a small golden kitten about the size of a person’s palm and stood on the table. The little divine stone tended to prefer to take this kitten shape versus the fat and chubby baby shape.
“Stupid humans! This divine stone’s bathing water has always had good effects on your bodies. How could you possibly end up with diarrhea? If you don’t want to drink it, there are plenty of people who would rather drink it instead and will line up to do so!” The golden kitten lazily stretched forward and its mouth opened and closed. Only Xiaocao and Zhu Junfan could hear it speaking.
Zhu Junfan looked at the Yixing clay teapot that was warming up on the clay stove and had an expression on his face that was full of disgust, as if he had just stepped into dog poo, “What? You say that is your bathwater? Isn’t that a bit too disgusting ah? How long has it been since you last bathed?”
“Do you think I, this divine stone, am like you dirty humans? That unsanitary ah? This divine stone bathes every day and sometimes I bathe several times in one day!” The little divine stone naturally liked water and often ran to nearby sources of water or wells to soak in. It currently had a good control over its spiritual energy and wouldn’t leak any out inadvertently. Without its master’s command, it wouldn’t let any energy out.
However, Zhu Junfan understood this explanation in a different manner. In his mind, Xiaocao had the little divine stone create mystic-stone water every day in order to keep the crops growing well. This tiny little rock was probably working very hard in order to make enough mystic-stone water. It looked like the little divine stone wasn’t omnipotent. Since the multi-colored stone’s abilities were nowhere near what he thought it was, he naturally lost the desire to keep this treasure all to himself.
As he was lost in his thoughts, the water in the teapot was finally heated to a boil. After waiting for the water to cool down, the process of brewing tea started. Before the tea could be tasted, a delicate and alluring fragrance spread into the air. The tea leaves used were the highest quality oolong, Da Hong Pao. It was said that the leaves for this tea were picked off an ancient tea plant that was over a thousand years old and grew on a high cliff. After undergoing a complicated process to stir fry and oxidize these tea leaves, they only got around two catties of finished tea leaves per year.
Da Hong Pao that had been brewed a second time seemed to have a more mellow and rich flavor, and its aroma became a bit more elegant. Zhu Junfan had long forgotten the fact that the water being used for this tea was technically the bathing water of the little divine stone. He gently sniffed at the fragrance of the tea and then delicately tasted a sip. It had a pure flavor that seemed to tell the person to keep drinking without stopping.
“Mmm! This is the right taste!” After he finished this cup of tea, Zhu Junfan personally poured himself a second cup. Tea that was brewed from the third wash of leaves seemed to have an even more full and round flavor than the second.
The emperor seemed to be engrossed in drinking tea and had apparently forgotten that Xiaocao was still on the side, waiting for his command. Xiaocao finally opened her mouth after she saw that he finished his third cup of tea, “Your Imperial Majesty, your purpose in summoning this official wasn’t for the sole sake of brewing this pot of tea, right?”
“Of course it’s not!” He drank another cup before he finally reluctantly set down the porcelain cup and said, “I’ve already read the reports that Junyang sent up! Were you the one who asked him to send them up?”
“Hee hee, I only saw that the Imperial Plantations has some hills nearby that are completely vacant. I thought that it was a waste of resources and wanted to do something good! That being said, if the fruits grown on these mountains are good, would I not give you a portion?” Yu Xiaocao cajoled with a sickly flattering smile on her face.
Zhu Junfan didn’t seem to need to think much about this as he simply nodded his head, “This world doesn’t have enough variety of fruits and they don’t taste very good either. The apples sent from Yantai prefecture are not as large nor as delicious as the Fuji apples from my previous life. The pears here have coarse meat and not enough juice. They’re also not sweet enough. The grapes here are more sour than sweet...and the watermelons. Although they are sweet, there is something wrong with the melon flesh. Only the ones that you grow are similar to the ones in our previous lives. They are large, the flesh is red, and the flavor is juicy and sweet! This means that you are quite good at cultivating and planting fruits! Alright, all of the hills near the Imperial Plantation are yours to use to plant fruit trees. However, all of the fruit for the palace must be provided for free by you in the future!”
“For the fruit for the palace, does that exclude the regular eunuchs and palace maidservants ah?” Yu Xiaocao frowned and started to haggle over the conditions.
Zhu Junfan pointed a finger at her and said in amusement and exasperation, “If all of the hills near the Imperial Plantation are planted with fruit trees, you’d have more than enough fruit to supply the whole capital let alone the palace alone. Just how stingy are you? You’re not even willing to lose even this little bit?”
“If you add up all of the eunuchs and palace maids together, there must be at least a few hundred if not a thousand. If I had to provide fruit for every single person in the palace, just how much would it be ah? I’m only doing a small business and can’t handle giving out that much for free!” Yu Xiaocao’s frugalness was being pushed to the extreme.
“Alright then! Then you’ll only provide enough fruit to supply the masters and the higher ranked eunuchs and maids then. Altogether, that’s not more than thirty to forty people. Is that alright then? You won’t be losing out, right?” Zhu Junfan agreed irritably.
He suddenly thought of something else and brought the topic up, “As for using a greenhouse to grow vegetables, if you use glass to construct these facilities, then it would cost too much to expand it, so you can’t do it on a large scale. A few years ago, when I was figuring out how to manufacture rubber tires, I also came up with a method to make some thick plastic membrane. However, the strength, flexibility, and transparency of this plastic is only so-so. At that time, it wasn’t considered an urgent item and making it also pollutes the surroundings, so I didn't pursue it further. If you plan on growing vegetables on a large scale in greenhouses, I can send down an imperial decree to have some people in the Ministry of Works to work overtime and help you come up with more. Does that work?”