Chapter 50: Hush Money

In the early morning mist, as the rooster crowed, a carriage slowly came to a halt in front of the medical clinic.

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

She scanned her surroundings but did not see that thin, sweeping figure.

Strange. At this same time yesterday, the person was clearly sweeping at the entrance. Why were they nowhere to be seen today?

Were they sleeping?

At that moment, Liang Mao'er also slowly hopped down from the carriage, carrying Liang Gou'er on her back, and walked toward the clinic.

Liang Gou'er was a large, imposing man, yet he felt as light as nothing on Liang Mao'er's back; in the past, he had carried her for over ten miles without even breaking a sweat.

Liang Mao'er gave a simple, honest smile and bid farewell to the Heir and Princess Bai Li: "Heir, Princess, thank you for the hospitality. I'll take my brother back to sleep first."

The Heir waved his hand with a smile: "Go on, go on."

When Liang Mao'er returned to the apprentice dormitory, Bai Li stood on her tiptoes to peek inside, but she still couldn't find Chen Ji's figure. "Strange, where did that black-hearted man go?"

Chen Ji was not at the clinic; he was walking along the bluestone path leading toward the East Market.

As he walked below, Wuyun leaped lightly along the eaves of the houses beside him.

Man and cat walked side by side, the black cat on the rooftops acting like a spirit silently guarding Chen Ji.

The East Market had already become bustling. Goods from the north and south converged here, and muscular workers carrying hemp sacks moved in a continuous stream.

Chen Ji found a breakfast stall and sat at a small wooden table outside. Wuyun leaped lightly into his arms and hid inside his clothes, peeking only its head out from the collar.

"Chen Ji, buns!"

Chen Ji smiled and beckoned to the waiter: "Waiter, two steamer baskets of braised meat buns and a bowl of hot soy milk!"

"Coming right up! Please wait a moment, guest, the buns will be out shortly!"

When the buns arrived, Chen Ji bit into a bun with his right hand while holding another bun to his chest with his left, letting Wuyun eat it bite by bite.

He ate very slowly, waiting in silence.

Just as he finished his second bun, a middle-aged customer arrived at the neighboring grocery stall: "Boss, how much for the saltpeter?"

The owner sat in the shop with his legs crossed: "Three hundred wen per dou. Within three miles, I can have a worker deliver it to your specified location... Guest, what do you need saltpeter for?"

The customer replied with a smile: "My family makes firecrackers; we can't do without saltpeter every day. We used to buy from Old Li's place every day, but for some reason, his shop didn't open this morning. Boss, three hundred wen per dou is a bit expensive. Can you make it cheaper?"

However, the owner, while cracking melon seeds, said: "Buy it or don't."

The customer's face darkened, and he turned to leave with a flick of his sleeve: "How do you do business? Do you even know how to speak? There are plenty of people selling saltpeter in the East Market; it's not like I have to buy from you!"

The owner continued cracking seeds with his legs crossed, completely indifferent: "Then go buy it elsewhere."

Chen Ji watched the customer depart. Immediately after, a young man dressed as a 'coolie' in the breakfast stall dropped his chopsticks without even finishing his meal and rose to follow the customer.

The two were separated by about ten paces, and the young coolie kept a death grip on the customer with his eyes from within the crowd.

As he passed by Chen Ji, he noticed a thick callus on the web of the young man's right hand—the kind of mark left only by years of gripping weapons.

Chen Ji understood instantly: Golden Pig had made his move.

This Golden Pig was even smarter and more low-profile than imagined. He had anticipated that the Jing Dynasty's greatest desire would be firearms, so since arriving in Luocheng, he had been quietly laying his groundwork—acquiring shops, planting spies disguised as merchants, and tracking down every single person who wanted to purchase saltpeter!

Golden Pig was hiding in the shadows of Luocheng like a spider, weaving a massive web while the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Bureau let its guard down.

The munitions surrendered by Consort Yun must have been stolen from the Bureau of Craftsmen's inventory through internal collusion.

If Golden Pig was clever enough, he had likely already begun auditing the inventory and recovering the stolen goods... One had to wonder if Consort Yun and the Liu family could withstand Golden Pig's investigation.

The Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Bureau and the Liu family had finally met their true rival.

Chen Ji lowered his head and ate his buns inconspicuously. He and Wuyun finished both steamer baskets before standing up to leave, both letting out a simultaneous, satisfied burp: "So satisfying!"

Chen Ji wandered aimlessly through the East Market. Passing a candy shop, he used his peripheral vision to quickly observe the surroundings: the owner was earnestly selling brown and white sugar, and while servants of high officials were buying brown and white sugar, no one was following or monitoring them.

After observing for a long time, he walked up to the stall and asked: "Boss, how much for the brown sugar and the white sugar respectively?"

The owner replied with a smile: "Guest, brown sugar is eighty wen per jin, and this white sugar frosting is ten taels of silver per jin."

Chen Ji was dumbfounded; this white sugar was outrageously expensive!

However, he quickly realized the reason: most families in this era still used brown sugar, and the method for making white sugar was a closely guarded secret passed down through families.

Nowadays, only the nobility could afford to eat the "elegant" white sugar frosting; it was a true luxury item.

Chen Ji wondered to himself: *Should I try making some white sugar myself?*

He couldn't.

*The Explanations of Wonderful Things* recorded a method of using yellow clay and water to decolorize, essentially pouring yellow clay water over brown sugar to produce white sugar.

But in reality, in the era Chen Ji lived in, no one had ever successfully replicated the "yellow clay decolorization method"; the technology had been lost to time.

Chen Ji pulled out a piece of broken silver: "Boss, I'll buy one jin of sugar frosting. Just one jin."

Carrying his kraft paper bag, he also bought a bamboo tube of *shaodao* liquor. With this, the materials for making gunpowder were complete.

Walking through the crowd, Chen Ji no longer looked like a stranger, but rather like a local youth out for the market.

...

...

Nightfall.

Perhaps the Heir and Princess Bai Li had grown tired of playing, as they did not climb over the walls again today.

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

However, the first step in making gunpowder was not simply mixing saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal in specific proportions; it was the purification of the materials.

This was also why Chen Ji was certain his gunpowder would be more powerful than that of the Ning Dynasty: the Ning Dynasty's chemical science was not advanced enough, and they likely had no idea how to purify these materials, relying instead on crude methods.

Chen Ji took a slightly large ceramic bowl and carefully placed it above an oil-lamp.

Wuyun crouched on the counter, tilting its head and letting out a curious meow: "Chen Ji, what are you doing?"

While preparing the materials, Chen Ji replied: "Before becoming a true practitioner, I need to prepare some means of self-defense... Wuyun, your hearing is good. If you hear anyone approaching the main hall, tell me immediately."

He knew that in this world, there likely existed powerful practitioners who weren't even afraid of gunpowder—such as the White Dragon, Heavenly Horse, and Sick Tiger mentioned by Golden Pig. As long as they were fast enough, they could dodge before his gunpowder even exploded.

But he didn't need to deal with those people; enough gunpowder would suffice.

However, just as he was about to pour the saltpeter from the bamboo tube into the ceramic bowl... a crow suddenly flew into the main hall of the clinic!

Chen Ji and Wuyun froze simultaneously, their eyes meeting in a long, silent exchange that yielded no understanding.

Wuyun meowed: "Will it tell your master about this?"

While silently closing the bamboo tube, Chen Ji's mind raced for a solution. He was currently making gunpowder, a secret that the Ning Dynasty's Bureau of Craftsmen guarded with two thousand elite soldiers.

Even if he were caught secretly collecting saltpeter, it would likely lead to massive trouble.

Wuyun looked at Chen Ji: "Should I catch it? Kill the bird to silence it!"

In the next moment, the crow pointed its wing at Wuyun and let out a mocking, cackling laugh.

Unwilling to back down, Wuyun leaped to catch it, but while Wuyun was fast, the crow was faster.

Two black blurs darted up and down in the main hall. Chen Ji had already lit sixteen lamps; Wuyun's silhouette flickered through the hall, almost becoming a blur.

Yet, even at that speed, it couldn't touch a single feather of the crow!

This crow must have been practicing with Old Man Yao for a long time; it had already become a spirit!

Just as Chen Ji was about to call Wuyun off, an aged voice rang out: "Enough! It's the middle of the night, why aren't you sleeping? What's all this racket?"

Chen Ji froze. He slowly turned to look at Old Man Yao: "Master..."

Old Man Yao glanced at Chen Ji, then walked slowly toward the counter, curiously inspecting the oil lamp, the bamboo tube, and the ceramic bowl, feeling that something was amiss.

But even with his vast experience, he couldn't figure out what Chen Ji was doing...

He frowned and asked: "Why did you bring a ceramic bowl from the kitchen here?"

Chen Ji said: "It's nothing, Master. I just used this bowl to drink water."

"Oh, is that so..."

Just as Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief, he saw Old Man Yao pull six copper coins from his sleeve and toss them onto the table.

With a *clatter*, the six coins settled.

Chen Ji's heart skipped a beat. Although Old Man Yao couldn't see what he was doing, the old man could perform divination!

As Old Man Yao muttered incantations to interpret the hexagram, Chen Ji felt anxious, as if waiting for a judgment, wondering what the old man would calculate.

A moment later, Old Man Yao shook his head: "Strange, why can't I see it?"

Having said that, he actually walked to the window, pushed it open, rested his hands on the frame, and peered out into the starry night, muttering: "Great is the Primordial Yang, the source of all things, the ruler of Heaven..."

In the next instant.

Old Man Yao spun around abruptly to face Chen Ji: "What manner of thing is so vigorous and domineering!"

Chen Ji: *Huh?*

*Wait, old man, do you actually have a cheat code?!*

Chen Ji didn't know how to interpret the hexagram, but when Old Man Yao said "vigorous and domineering," wasn't that exactly the characteristic of gunpowder?

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

Chen Ji hurriedly said: "No, no!"

But Old Man Yao continued: "Do you realize that if this gets out, you'll die without a place to be buried? Forget about me not being able to protect you; even the Ning Dynasty will not tolerate you."

Chen Ji fell silent. He wasn't sure of Old Man Yao's true stance. If the old man really intended to report him, he would have no choice but to flee.

Unfortunately, he had only just found his footing in this clinic, thinking he could make a life here.

Chen Ji looked up and said: "Master, I didn't intend..."

Old Man Yao interrupted: "Silence money: six taels."

Chen Ji: "?"

...

...

The main hall of the clinic was dim, with the cool autumn night wind swirling in through the window, causing the oil lamp flames to flicker, casting shifting shadows across Chen Ji's face.

"So, after all that talking, you were just looking for silence money?" Chen Ji said in a low voice.

"Not exactly," Old Man Yao said nonchalantly. "I'm not doing this for the money; I'm doing it to save your life."

Chen Ji said with mock heartache: "Do you realize how much many things six taels of silver can buy?"

Old Man Yao stroked his beard: "I know. It can buy the ladder you built for Princess Bai Li."

Chen Ji: "..."

So the man knew everything. No wonder the amount was exactly the same as the two previous tolls!

Old Man Yao sneered: "The clinic is my clinic. The Heir and the Princess passed through here; is there anything wrong with them paying the toll to me?"

Chen Ji argued: "But I put in labor too! I carried the ladder for them!"

Old Man Yao turned back to the main room and actually brought out a bamboo lounge chair, placing it in the corridor between the main hall and the backyard: "I'm standing guard here for you; I'm also putting in labor. Pay me six taels, and you can focus on what you need to do. With me watching, no one will find out."

The large bamboo lounge chair felt as light as a toy in the hands of the ninety-two-year-old man.

Chen Ji: "...That works too?!"

Old Man Yao didn't care; he simply extended his hand firmly: "Where is the silver?"

With a heavy heart, Chen Ji pulled the six silver peanuts from his sleeve and slapped them into Old Man Yao's hand.

Old Man Yao chuckled, tucked them into his sleeve, and lay down on the bamboo chair, humming a tune and closing his eyes to rest: "The law-abiding live in constant worry, while the lawless sing in joy every night..."

Chen Ji watched him in silence for a long time, utterly at a loss as to what to do with this old man.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and said: "Master, don't say I didn't warn you. Once you take the money, you're an accomplice!"

Old Man Yao gave a light scoff: "Threatening me? You're still green. I want to see what kind of thing you can actually make."

Chen Ji stopped talking. He added clear water to the ceramic bowl and placed it over the oil lamp to slowly raise the temperature until the water reached about seventy-five degrees Celsius.

There were no formal thermometers in this era; Chen Ji only knew that when water reached eighty degrees, bubbles would begin to rise from the bottom of the bowl. Once the bubbling started, he would move the lamp away and wait five minutes for the temperature to cool slightly—that was the temperature he wanted.

Chen Ji then took the saltpeter and wood ash, placing them in the bowl at an 8:1 ratio. He stirred them slowly with a bamboo stick for fifteen minutes, then filtered the mixture through Xuan paper.

At some point, Old Man Yao had stood up and was now watching with intense concentration.

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

He moved the lamp away and focused on waiting for the thick liquid in the bowl to cool down slowly.

Once the liquid in the ceramic bowl dropped below body temperature, Chen Ji took a drop of the liquid with a bamboo stick and gently tapped it onto the counter.

The moment the drop hit the cold counter, it instantly solidified into a transparent crystal, as if water had turned to ice at a touch!

Old Man Yao's eyes widened suddenly.

Chen Ji let out a long sigh of relief: *It worked!*