Chapter 53: Springtime Glow

It was still early afternoon. The small cart hadn't been pushed back yet; Hu Tao and Er Niu were likely still guarding it. Nie Yunzhu had returned first and was burning camphor wood into ash at home. She was genuinely surprised to see Ning Yi.

Preserving century eggs takes over twenty days. When they first planned this business, they had already prepared a batch in advance. However, because Nie Yunzhu wasn't confident, Ning Yi had to insist on adding most of the quantity. Now, it seemed even that wasn't enough.

She had briefly mentioned to Ning Yi that the century eggs might be in short supply. Ning Yi offered some common-sense advice: increase revenue and reduce expenditure. There was nothing groundbreaking about his solutions. For cutting costs, they could limit the number of eggs sent to each shop, which would require good coordination and persuasion with the various parties. For increasing supply, there was no room for laziness; they just had to produce them faster. Nie Yunzhu had been incredibly busy these past few days. Of course, she couldn't tell Ning Yi about all this busyness in the mornings; she simply reported their achievements with delight.

Ning Yi had previously instructed her to use camphor wood ash for preserving the eggs, so she brought back and burned camphor wood daily. Today, the wood was quite damp, and she accidentally filled the kitchen with smoke. Ning Yi joined her to deal with it, and it took them a while to disperse the smoke. They removed some of the wet wood from the stove and lit a small, slow-burning fire. As Ning Yi sat in front of the stove, watching the flames, Nie Yunzhu washed her face and hands nearby. Then, she handed Ning Yi a damp cloth for his face. When she offered the towel, her cheeks were slightly flushed, and her wrists trembled slightly, though no one but herself would have noticed.

They rarely had guests, so the only towels in the house belonged to her and Hu Tao. It wouldn't be appropriate to give Hu Tao's to Ning Yi, so she had no choice but to use her own. This gesture felt a bit too intimate. A small mouse seemed to scurry in her heart as she watched Ning Yi casually wipe his face and then reach out to take the towel back. She spoke some trivial words: "Li Heng... where did you come from just now?"

"I just came from Elder Qin's place," Ning Yi said, tossing a piece of wood into the fire. "It was originally a bet with Kang Xian, and I just wanted to show off a bit. Yes, it was very gratifying."

"That's wonderful," Nie Yunzhu replied, feeling a small surge of joy when Ning Yi mentioned it. She had initially worried the bet wouldn't be fulfilled, causing the other party to lose face, and never expected it to be achieved so quickly. "This morning, another shop needs century eggs delivered, so that makes six now..."

"That fast..." Ning Yi mused. "But in that street's vicinity, these are probably the only shops that can afford them. Maintaining this situation should be enough for the future..."

If they weren't considering expanding and were just doing it for fun, supplying these few restaurants was probably the limit for Nie Yunzhu and Hu Tao. Whether or not to expand was her decision, and Ning Yi didn't want to interfere. Nie Yunzhu thought for a moment, then squatted down beside him, smiling:

"It's too fast; Yunzhu can't quite grasp it all. Honestly, a few days ago, I was so worried about you losing your bet, Li Heng."

"Haha, the bet was just a small thing, a joke really. But... winning is certainly best, haha."

"That old gentleman is a Consort of the Princess! Last month, when I delivered the century eggs, his residence was enormous – a princess's mansion. When Li Heng mentioned him before the New Year, I wondered if it was him, but I never imagined it was true. Li Heng, you're truly amazing, to be able to converse and even joke and bet with someone of such standing."

Her words were not flattery. Regardless, someone of Kang Xian's status should be considered an elder to Li Heng. She had seen many such interactions before; with such an age gap, they would usually treat each other with the respect of a nephew or disciple. Even if the elder was kind, it was merely kindness toward a junior. But she had never seen anyone like Li Heng, who seemed at ease with everyone. In fact, thinking about it, wasn't she one of them too?

"We met playing chess, so perhaps there wasn't much self-interest involved," Ning Yi said, poking the flames. "They're also sensible old gentlemen. Respecting their knowledge and views is enough... Uh, you'd heard of him before?"

"Of course, I'd heard of him. Before Li Heng introduced him, I might have seen him once, maybe twice... perhaps twice. One year, during a performance at Egret Isle, Duke Ming must have been there. There were so many people, and I couldn't remember everyone..." She recalled those memories, then chuckled softly. "And at the time, many young talented scholars were present. Hu Tao and my other acquaintances were all busy looking at those scholars. There was also talk about the high-ranking officials at the main table, but even though Duke Ming was learned, he was a Consort, and old besides, so I didn't remember him clearly. I suppose Duke Ming wouldn't remember Yunzhu either..."

"Oh, really," Ning Yi teased with a sly smile. "So you were just busy remembering those scholars..."

If others had teased her about this, Nie Yunzhu might have felt uncomfortable, but at that moment, she had no such feeling. She simply smiled and said, "Yes, when a woman performed at the time, she naturally paid attention to the talented scholars. Hehe, Yunzhu preferred to remember the wealthy ones. Of course, if they also had impressive poetry and scholarship, that would be even better. I would diligently flatter them, calculating my redemption money every day..."

She paused there, then asked, "Li Heng, you know Li Pin, Li Dexin, right?"

"Yes, I know him. I think I mentioned it before. He's at the same academy now."

"What about Cao Guan?"

"I've heard of him."

"And... Gu Hong, Gu Yanzhen?"

She spoke the name, watching Ning Yi's expression. Ning Yi thought for a moment. "I haven't heard of that one... Who is he?"

"No one, just another scholar," she said, looking down and smiling. "An irrelevant person."

There were some things Nie Yunzhu hadn't told Ning Yi, and in fact, it wasn't appropriate for her to tell him.

Gu Yanzhen had been visiting her stall these past few days, striking up conversations. He seemed sincere, but his presence was a genuine bother to her. Particularly, small issues had started to arise. Gu Yanzhen had likely learned from Hu Tao that Nie Yunzhu was still unmarried, and in recent days, he had even helped her drum up business for the century eggs. The shop they secured this morning wasn't in the nearby area as Li Heng had assumed, but further away, arranged by Gu Yanzhen using his influence to ask a friend for assistance.

She naturally couldn't talk about these matters. The business was expanding, and she didn't know how to refuse his kind offers. Gu Yanzhen simply thought, "You want to sell century eggs, so I'll help you," unaware that she was already overwhelmed. Recalling Li Heng's perspective, who had only said, "These few shops are enough," she felt a warmth in her heart but also couldn't ask him how to manage this situation. She had originally speculated that the market expansion might be related to Li Heng, but now it seemed not. It certainly wouldn't be good to tell him that another man was helping her now, a man she had known from the courtesan house...

Caring about Li Heng's thoughts, she decided it was better not to mention it. After all, expanding the business was always a good thing. Though busy now, she would probably need to hire people soon; perhaps Er Niu's family could help... Oh, she had never imagined reaching this point. What she had originally longed for was perhaps just the simple, fulfilling life of earning a living by her small cart every day...

Since she didn't say anything, Ning Yi couldn't possibly know. In his view, the century egg business was already reaching saturation for Nie Yunzhu. He had even told Li Pin to advise his friends not to continue producing them. Two days prior, Li Pin had asked him, "What is your relationship with that century egg vendor, Li Heng?" Ning Yi had simply replied, "A friend," and Li Pin didn't inquire further, so Ning Yi didn't perceive anything amiss.

On the other hand, Gu Yanzhen had approached Li Pin about this a couple of days ago. At that time, Gu Yanzhen was in a frantic and aggressive state. After Li Pin presumably realized that the owner of the century egg stall was a woman Gu Yanzhen had previously admired, he did not mention Ning Yi's name. Li Pin was a meticulous person; Ning Yi was merely a live-in son-in-law of the Su family, so it was impossible for him to have any intimate relationship with Miss Yunzhu – whether true or not, it would be highly inappropriate for people to know, as both facts and rumors were major taboos. Therefore, Li Pin merely stated it was a playful endeavor by a friend and reminded Gu Yanzhen that Miss Yunzhu might not be married. Gu Yanzhen later confirmed this with Hu Tao and stopped pressing the matter.

For Ning Yi, Nie Yunzhu's century egg business was merely a minor concern. Chatting during his morning runs didn't take up much time. These matters were not the focus of his life.

He spent his mornings teaching the children. In the afternoons, he rented a house near Yushan Academy. If he wasn't visiting Elder Qin or Nie Yunzhu—which was rare—he would conduct chemical research there. He currently possessed ancient texts on chemistry, which documented many phenomena. Although these texts weren't related to modern chemical theories, they could at least provide an initial direction for his research.

Besides books like "Dream Pool Essays," he crafted some basic iron stands and used ceramic bottles as test tubes. His heating apparatus consisted of an oil lamp, supplemented by various metal, wooden, and ceramic bottles and jars. He also acquired all the chemical raw materials he could find. Frankly, there were already workshops of various sizes in the Wu Dynasty involved in chemical reactions, but his current setup looked more like alchemy than the study of workshop techniques.

His chemistry lessons from his previous life had long been forgotten. Because he had been involved in many industries back then, he could still recall some reaction relationships, but they were unsystematic, like a fragmented technology tree from a game. Some chemical records in the ancient texts could jog part of his memory, which was better than nothing. He needed a simple start, so for now, he could only randomly combine substances to observe reactions. For instance, if he heated rusty iron in strong acid and it removed the rust, he would note this phenomenon in his small notebook. Then, he might vaguely recall some trivial theories, like how iron rusts easily through oxidation—he knew that much. But what reversed the process, he had completely forgotten, along with chemical formulas. Now, he could only record a chemical concept in his notebook whenever he remembered one, and then slowly piece things together.

His chemical pursuits were primarily focused on strong acids like sulfuric acid and nitric acid, as their reactions were intense and easily observable. Most importantly, he needed to be cautious to avoid harming himself. He actually possessed knowledge of several advanced techniques; currently, he could formulate gunpowder if needed, and also produce industrial alcohol or high-proof liquor, as distillation was a simple process. He planned to create an alcohol lamp soon, though he couldn't quite recall why it was superior to an oil lamp, likely because it was smokeless. He had a general understanding of many large-scale chemical industries, but the supporting technologies were lacking. However, some less precise methods, like traditional steelmaking, were relatively simple. While rudimentary by modern standards, they were perfectly viable here. He vaguely recalled these and would revisit them if necessary in the future.

Initially, exploring these chemical reactions was quite tedious. Most of the time, he didn't even know what he was producing. Xiao Chan often followed him. While he experimented in the room, Xiao Chan would wander boredly under the eaves. Occasionally, she would ask Ning Yi, "Is Master trying to make elixirs?" Sometimes the little maid imagined her master would suddenly fly away. Sitting under the eaves with her chin in her hands, or swinging her legs on the railing, she would ponder this. Listening to her master casually tell stories like "Journey to the West" or "Investiture of the Gods" from inside, she felt a mix of worry and longing.

Of course, most of the time, her master seemed reliable and grounded to her, but for a young girl, romance was exactly this kind of thing. So, in her free time, listening to her master's voice, she would indulge in small fantasies. If her master suddenly flew away, she would surely cry and cry for a very long time. But what if her master were willing to take her with him? A small spark of happiness ignited in her heart. Then she thought, her master would have to take the young mistress too... She sat there, sometimes melancholic, sometimes smiling, secretly glancing at the room door, telling herself not to think about such things anymore. Then, she quietly walked in, appearing sweetly before her master: "Master, is there anything Xiao Chan can do?"

"Get out," the man replied, wearing a mask and weighing strange powders.

"Oh..."

Xiao Chan scurried out. The spring sun shone brightly, orioles flew, and grass grew tall. The little maid hugged her knees, leaning against the eaves, tilting her head back, lost in her own secret thoughts. Amidst the sparse wildflowers blooming in the courtyard, there was an ineffable sense of loneliness and desolation.

Inside the room, Ning Yi looked at the nearby window, frowning slightly. He had already warned her to be careful. Although his current chemical system wasn't pure, there were still corrosive or slightly toxic substances in the room. Even though the little maid was usually quick-witted, he couldn't let her touch these things. He then continued to tell some myths he remembered. Before long, the little maid brightened up: "Master, Master, Xiao Chan and the Young Mistress heard a story at the restaurant yesterday..."

And then she began chattering away. Soon after, Ning Yi emerged from the room, and Xiao Chan's mood became even more cheerful. They chatted as they walked home along the road, just like any other day. It was only when he was in that particular room that her master seemed somewhat distant. Occasionally, she would remember, and in the afterglow of the sunset, she would turn back and make a face at that detested house.

Aside from Xiao Chan, most of Ning Yi's social life revolved around Su Tan'er. In the context of their current era, their dynamic was actually quite peculiar...

Synopsis: He is the most powerful man on the continent. When it comes to women, he takes them and discards them. With his fierce way of doing things, and his life's principle of crushing anyone who provokes him, he has undeniably become China's top young master by the most votes!