Chen Xianqiao

  In the New Year, it was actually very boring, but Chen Zhaoniang didn't think so. Taking advantage of her son having nowhere to go, she continuously entertained the wives and daughters of high-ranking officials for four or five days in a row, with the same goal as before: to choose a wife from among the daughters of several powerful families who could assist Zheng Kechang in the future.

  Chen Zhaoniang did this, of course, because her own identity had caused Zheng Kechang a lot of trouble, and Zheng Kechang, who understood his mother's intentions, would naturally not cooperate in this matter. So these days were hard for Zheng Kechang, who had to put on a show of being a refined and elegant young man every day.

  "Qin Shu, come and meet the wife and daughter of Chen Zongzheng." Finally, one day, Zheng Kechang saw Chen Xianqiao, the girl who had died for him in his past life. At this time, Chen Xianqiao was only thirteen years old, with snow-white skin, big eyes, and a charming long braid, giving off a somewhat cute impression at first glance.

  Although it was not their first meeting, Zheng Kezang still couldn't stare at Chen Yonghua's wife, so he cupped his hands and bowed to her. As for the young man's mature demeanor, Mrs. Chen had heard her husband mention it many times before, so every time she looked at him, there was a hint of curiosity, making Zheng Kezang feel like he couldn't stand or sit still.

  As if seeing her son's unease, Chen Zhaoniang and Madam Chen exchanged a few words in hushed tones, smiling, before instructing: "Qin She, take your sister Xian to the garden, don't forget to come back for lunch on time."

  Zheng Kezang wiped the sweat from his brow, could it be that he would actually spend too much time chatting with this 13-year-old little loli? He really didn't know what Chen Zhaoniang was thinking, to actually say such an obvious hint out loud. It seemed that their marriage had already been pretty much decided.

  "Alright!" Zheng Kezang responded and took the little loli out of the yard, but when he came out, he was stunned. To say that this kind of poetry singing and games, so-called women's entertainment, he wasn't proficient in it at all. As for the games played by young people in this era, how could a person from two lifetimes possibly pretend to be interested?

  But looking at Chen Xianqiao, who was quietly following behind him like a little wife, Zheng Kechang felt somewhat helpless. After much thought, he finally came up with an idea: "Xianqiao, let's make and fly a kite."

  "Fly a kite?" Chen Xian thought for a moment, nodded slightly, the 13-year-old girl already knew many things and naturally did not want to disobey this man who might become her husband in the future. "Okay, but I won't do it!"

  "Leave the kite to me." Zheng Kezang said with a big smile, but when he saw the look in the girl's eyes, his heart skipped a beat. "However, there is one task that I would like to entrust to you, Xiaoqiao sister." Chen Xiaoqiao opened her eyes wide and stared at Zheng Kezang, who chuckled. "I'm not good at painting, Mr. Chen's family teachings are very strict, but I'm sure your embroidery skills are excellent, right? Would you mind drawing a picture for me?"

  Chen Xian nodded hesitantly, but unexpectedly Zheng Kezang suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her up to run. She was shocked for a moment, just wanting to shout out loud, but her body had already been dragged by Zheng Kezang, so she had no choice but to stumble after him.

  The two of them quickly ran into Zheng Kezang's study: "Sister, you rest for a while first, I'll have someone bring you some drawing paper right away."

  Zheng Kezang was speaking while putting away the pen and ink on his desk, but his words seemed to have fallen into a deep sea, with no response from Chen Xianqiao for half a day. Zheng Kezang finally looked up to see Chen Xianqiao sitting on a stool, pouting, rubbing her foot with one hand and covering her heart with the other, clearly still not recovered from her recent run.

  "What's wrong, twisted your foot?" Zheng Kezang walked over and looked at the girl's angry appearance. He suddenly felt a thrill, of course he wouldn't take advantage of a 13-year-old little girl, but just wanted to play a trick on her. So he squatted down and reached out to touch the girl's leg. "Does it hurt? Let me rub it for you."

  "Ah!" Chen Xianqiao saw Zheng Kechang's hand about to touch her leg, and suddenly burst into tears. "You're bullying me!"

  "How can you cry just like that?" Zheng Kezang was still a bit dazed at first, but after careful thought, he remembered that in this era, the teachings of Confucius emphasized the importance of men and women not being too familiar with each other. If he had really put his hand on her, it wouldn't have been just a prank, but harassment. "Alright, alright, stop crying, or else the water will overflow from the Golden Mountain." Zheng Kezang hastily made a joke and apologized. "Sister, good sister, spare me this time, okay?"

  "Ah, ah, you've grabbed Yu's hand." The little girl looked like she was about to cry, but Zheng Kezang, who was busy comforting her, inadvertently caught the glint of cunning triumph in her eyes. "If others were to find out, Yu, how would he be able to show his face, how would he be able to see people?"

  "Sly little hoof." Zheng Kezang sighed inwardly, but he still had to say it. "Who dares to wag their tongue, who dares, I'll kill him!" The menacing words suddenly scared Chen Xianqiao stiff, and the girl didn't know how to continue acting. To avoid an awkward silence, Zheng Kezang immediately changed his expression again. "However, hands have been held, if it gets out, then... or else, little sister will marry me." Zheng Kezang took a step closer, almost sticking his face against the little girl's. "Now there won't be any gossip, right?"

  "Ah!" Chen Xianqiao was completely frightened, seeing her like this, Zheng Kechang knew he couldn't tease her anymore. He winked at her, which made Chen Xianqiao calm down, but as soon as she calmed down, the little girl immediately became angry. "Hmph! Bullying people again, Father said it's true, Big Master is not a good person."

  "What? Mr. Chen said I'm not a good person, I don't believe it." Zheng Kezang shook his head and looked at the little girl who was about to speak again, he hastily interrupted her. "Don't say so much," Zheng Kezang picked up his brush. "The ink is ready for you, Yu go out and find a few bamboo slips, and have someone deliver the painting paper to you, let's see who finishes their homework first."

  "Really?!" Chen Xianqiao scrunched up her nose in discontent. "I don't believe it, you can draw a skeleton faster than I can paint?!"

  It must be said that Chen Xianqiao's family education is good, and the picture of the dragonfly is exactly like a model. It is far more successful than Zheng Kechang's half-hearted bamboo craftsmanship. However, looking at Zheng Kechang who was frowning and doing handicrafts, Chen Xianqiao did not boast about her own success, but instead focused on watching him.

  After the Lantern Festival, Zheng Kezang hastily left Anping City in a flurry - although the Tongzi Camp had not yet been rebuilt, the workshops in his hands had already started to resume work. Knowing that the time left for himself was getting tighter and tighter, Zheng Kezang really had no choice but to seize every available gap.

  Zheng Kezang's first destination was a drying kiln next to the cement kiln.

  Zheng Kezang vaguely remembers that the description of wood drying on Du Niang's website is as follows: "Put the wood in a drying kiln, heat it under anaerobic conditions to decompose; the volatile substances that escape and cannot be condensed are wood gas, those that can be condensed are wood tar and pyroligneous acid; the remaining solid is charcoal."

  But it was the four words "isolated air" that gave Zheng Kecang a lot of trouble. In several experiments, either the preheating was not sufficient or the pressure in the sealed container became too great, causing the furnace body to burst. After several failed attempts, Zheng Kecang had no choice but to abandon his idea of a fully enclosed system and boldly try installing ventilation pipes inside the inner tank to vent out the hot gases, then condense them with water in the return circuit, separate the wood tar, and finally feed the wood gas back into the combustion chamber. However, this experiment was interrupted due to the New Year's holiday, and now is the time to pick it up again.

  "This time it seems to have succeeded." Through the observation window, looking at the furnace fire suddenly turned blue and white, Zheng Kezang's face showed a late smile. "Stop, don't add any more fuel." There was no fuel left, but the furnace fire was still burning fiercely, Zheng Kezang understood that the wood gas had been ignited. "You all carefully watch the fire."

  Facing the bizarre scene with a look of astonishment, Zheng Kezang didn't offer any explanation and just watched. He then quickly walked to the condenser pipe, personally breaking the clay seal on the ceramic pipe, and a shallow black oily substance emitting a smoky smell slowly flowed out from the pipe.

  Zheng Kezang hastily ordered someone to bring a ceramic jar to store it, while explaining: "This thing is toxic and cannot be eaten, nor can it be smelled too much. When receiving it, you must cover your mouth and nose. After filling one jar, remember to seal it with mud immediately, and absolutely do not let it volatilize."

  "This thing is both smelly and poisonous, what can it be used for?"

  A craftsman surnamed Xu, who was watching the condenser pipe on the side, asked inexplicably. In his opinion, since it's a toxic substance, why bother to extract it with great effort? Could Zheng Kechang be planning to use it for witchcraft or apply it to arrowheads to kill enemies?

  "With this stuff, it can be used to prevent wood and bamboo from rotting, and it can also be ignited as a smoke bomb." In fact, the real use of wood tar is to extract high organic compounds such as alkanes, acids, and phenols, but Zheng Kezang didn't have the conditions or ability to further process them. "Alright, prepare more of this stuff and send it to the Ministry of Works, they'll use it to dry bamboo strips, oh yeah, remind them to be careful when handling it."

  Xu Zhang nodded, and at this time Zheng Kezang returned to the furnace: "Everyone has seen it. If the fire in the furnace goes out and the tar on that side stops flowing out, it means that the wood in the pot has been dried into charcoal. But don't rush to open the furnace, let it simmer for another day or two before saying anything."

  "Don't worry, young master. We've been burning charcoal for so many years, we know the basics." The master in charge of controlling the fire guaranteed, but he couldn't help but ask, "However, young master, apart from adding a bit more of that smelly oil, isn't it a waste to burn so much firewood just to dry out this batch of charcoal when you could just directly burn it?"

  "It's worth it!" Zheng Kezang smiled and began to explain, but for these Ming people who didn't even know what chemistry was, he couldn't elaborate too much. He could only use an example to illustrate his point. "Next time, find some pine wood to dry distill, the resulting product is turpentine oil, which is a great medicinal material. Not only can it disinfect and kill bacteria, but also drive out insects and treat rheumatic pain."

  The master still thought that disinfection was detoxification, let alone what antibacterial meant, which was beyond his comprehension. However, he could understand deworming and treating rheumatism, after all, in this era, due to living conditions, rheumatism was a common stubborn disease among the lower-class citizens.

  "That's a great virtue, however, the young master didn't say it, but it really can't be seen, this smelly thing can actually be used as medicine, no wonder he is the young master of the king, he knows a lot"

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