"Time is too tight. The queen has already issued three letters in succession. I'm afraid that your majesty's time is running out. The court needs the prince to return to take charge of the overall situation as soon as possible. We can rescue the prince and then find a way to take her out of the city. By then, we are just a We're just women, we can do things cheaply, we don't have to be as timid as we are now."
Qin Laowu nodded, "Well... Brother is right. The most important thing for us now is to send the prince out of the city as soon as possible... Hey, I don't know if Uncle Liu has taken care of it."
When Fu Tingye heard this, his eyes became wandering and he looked out the window -
The scenery outside was gray and white, with layers of snow and chill.
"The Liao soldiers first occupied the three prefectures of Xi, He, and Mo. From the prefecture to the prefecture, city, town, and village... Whether it is judicial institutions or miscellaneous procedures, they all need to be connected one by one. This layer is layered... It is naturally time-consuming to manage. It takes a lot of effort…”
Once he thought about what was changing silently on the land beneath his feet, Qin Laowu couldn't help but fall silent.
"I hope this trip will go smoothly..." Qin Laowu said.
…
When the sky was slightly bright, Hua Qingxue got up.
Li Jingnan rubbed his eyes and watched Hua Qingxue climb out of the warm bed in disbelief.
OMG…
The sun comes out in the west
Why don't they get up at midnight
There is no way, it is too cold, even if I wake up, I have to huddle in the bed and stare, and then wait until the sun is shining on my buttocks, then I can climb out to bask in the sun.
Hua Qingxue timidly put on her clothes one by one.
She had never been able to tell the difference between the inner and outer garments of ancient clothes. Li Jingnan gave him guidance several times, but she never got distracted every time. In the end, she just remembered that wearing light colors on the inside and dark colors on the outside would never go wrong.
It was too cold, and the clothes were cold. Only a single piece of clothing that had been covered under the quilt in advance was warm.
"There are leftover buns from yesterday. You can bake them on the stove and eat them later. The pot has been requisitioned by me." After Hua Qingxue got dressed, she said to the naked Li Jingnan while braiding her own hair.
There was only one person left in the quilt, and it seemed that it was not as warm as before. Li Jingnan tilted his head on the kang and asked her: "What are you doing?"
Hua Qingxue was in a good mood and smiled, "I'm going to make soap. Didn't I say that yesterday?"
Li Jingnan's eyes widened instantly and he looked at Hua Qingxue like a madman, "You mean Xiangyizi? Do you know how to make Yizi?"
Although Li Jingnan doesn't distinguish between grains and grains, he also knows that things like Xiangjizi are not affordable for ordinary people, just like not everyone can afford white rice.
Hua Qingxue smiled and shook her head, "I can't make something fragrant. I don't have any spices on hand, so I can only make something ordinary, but it will definitely be better than what you used before. And I bought sulfur, so we can make it." Come out and use the sulfur soap, eh! I’ll make more and sell it, so I won’t be afraid of going hungry in the future!”
After Hua Qingxue finished speaking, she picked up the pot behind the door and some things she purchased yesterday, and happily went to the yard.
Li Jingnan naturally didn't sleep anymore, and he was very curious. He got up quickly, put on his clothes and shoes, and ran to the yard.
Hua Qingxue was pouring quicklime into the pot. When she saw Li Jingnan running out to join in the fun, she smiled sheepishly, "I don't know if it can succeed... In principle, it shouldn't be a big problem, but I don't have a measuring cup or measuring tool on hand. What's the weight? It can only be estimated."
Li Jingnan looked at the contents of the pot and asked, "Are we going to start making pancakes now?"
"Not yet, I need to get out the sodium hydroxide first..."
"Ah? What is that?"
"The ingredients of soap are sodium hydroxide and oil. As long as you get the sodium hydroxide, the rest will be easy."
After hearing this, Li Jingnan only seemed to understand, and urged: "Hurry up, I want to see!"
Hua Qingxue was unusually patient. She explained while operating: "We first need to calcine quicklime, and then add water... You see, this becomes lime slurry. The chemical composition of lime slurry is... Forget it, you can't remember it either. Live, in short, add Glauber's salt at this time, well... so much lime slurry probably requires this amount of Glauber's salt... "
"Ah! It's foaming! It's foaming!" Li Jingnan shouted when he saw the reaction in the pot!
"Don't get so close!"
Hua Qingxue pulled Li Jingnan to the side. He still stretched his head to look into the pot and muttered: "Hua Qingxue, are you refining alchemy..."
Hua Qingxue: "..."
Well, actually after thinking about it, she found that ancient chemistry did begin with those Taoist priests who made alchemy...
"This is a metathesis reaction of two things, and together they produce calcium carbonate precipitate and sodium hydroxide."
"Where is it? Where is it?"
"Well, the sediment in this pot now is calcium carbonate, and the rest is sodium hydroxide. It's easy to separate, so there's no need for secondary filtration."
Li Jingnan looked at the unknown object in the pot suspiciously, and then at Hua Qingxue, with a puzzled expression on his face, "Can this make pancake?"
Hua Qingxue nodded affirmatively, "Yeah! I'll clean it up. You go to the house and get the oil first."
"Okay!" Li Jingnan went into the house excitedly, and after a while, he came out holding the oil can.
Hua Qingxue carefully separated the sodium hydroxide from the sediment in the pot, poured the sodium hydroxide back into the pot, scooped a spoonful of water from the bucket, and slowly poured it into the pot.
A violent reaction immediately occurred in the pot, and layers of smoke came out of the pot!
Hua Qingxue was well prepared and immediately covered her mouth and nose. Li Jingnan also followed suit and covered half of her face. After all, it was hard to get rid of the child's sexual desire. She secretly opened her mouth to take a breath in the middle, and was immediately choked and had a runny nose. Tears!
Hua Qingxue couldn't care about him at this time. She wrapped a thick cloth in each hand, held her breath and grabbed both sides of the pot, lifted it up and put it into the prepared basin, half of the bottom of the pot was submerged.
"Sodium hydroxide will produce high temperature and smoke when it meets water, but it only lasts for about a minute. Now we cool it down."
"Then you can make a pancreas?" Li Jingnan asked her, wiping his nose.
Hua Qingxue shook her head. She waited quietly for a while, then reached out and carefully touched the outer edge of the pot. In winter, the temperature dropped quickly, and after soaking in cold water, the pot was no longer so hot.
When it is around 40 degrees Celsius, you can add oil when it is warm.
"Huh? Where's the oil I asked you to get?"
Li Jingnan then pointed to the oil pot next to him.
When Hua Qingxue saw it, she immediately slapped him on the butt!
"This is the oil we eat ourselves! What I asked you to take is the waste oil given to us by Aunt Yan!"
There is always a lot of waste oil left in restaurants every day. After countless times of frying, this oil is mixed with the residue of many ingredients and turns brown to black, making it no longer suitable for consumption.
Waste oil doesn’t cost a penny and is perfect for making soap.
Li Jingnan took a moment, frowned and muttered "I am the prince", then trotted back to the house with his shoulders shrugged, and took out the waste oil Hua Qingxue mentioned.
Hua Qingxue added oil to the completely dissolved sodium hydroxide and stirred it with long chopsticks while adding it. When she got tired of stirring, she switched to Li Jingnan.
"Don't change directions, always follow one direction."
The two of you alternated between the two of you for a while, and I for a while. After about a quarter of an hour of continuous stirring, the contents in the pot had become like milk tea, with no traces of oil visible on the surface.
Hua Qingxue took out several large bowls, arranged them in a row beside the pot, and poured the contents of the pot into the bowls one by one. After doing all this, Hua Qingxue clapped her hands and said, "Okay! Put it under the eaves out of the sun. It will dry tomorrow, and then it can be cut into small pieces."
Li Jingnan looked forward to it, "Will you be able to turn into a pancreas tomorrow?"
Hua Qingxue smiled, "Yes! But you have to wait a month before you can use it. The longer it is left, the harder it will be and the better it will be."
Li Jingnan was shocked! "What are you doing! How can those Liao soldiers wait for you for a month? !!"
Hua Qingxue turned to look at him with a dumb look on her face, "I never planned to use soap to wash those military uniforms..."
Soap needs to be stored longer to be better. One month is already the shortest time according to Hua Qingxue's estimation. Even in the era of modern large-scale industry, the best time to sell handmade soap is three to six months after it is made.
Of course, if the soap products are mass-produced by machines, there is no need to wait for such a long time, and the price will therefore be much lower than handmade soap.
The price of a product is always closely related to two things, one is whether its materials are scarce, and the other is how long it takes to make.
Li Jingnan sometimes really feels a headache because of Hua Qingxue's slow brain circuit!
He said anxiously and angry: "Since these things are not used for washing clothes... then why are you working so hard?! Aren't you afraid that if you can't wash the clothes clean, they will give you a knife?!"
He wanted to say more: When is this happening now? How come you still have time to make pancakes? ah? !
Hua Qingxue is not slow. She is very smart and always has countless inexhaustible scientific knowledge in her mind. But the problem is-her thinking and cognition are different from Li Jingnan.
She must find a way to settle down here as soon as possible, so that she can live well after escaping with Li Jingnan.
Renqiu is too chaotic here, and nothing has happened to her so far. Apart from being very careful, it's mostly due to good luck.
The chaotic public security, the erratic prices, and the tense and depressing atmosphere that is always permeating the city all make her want to go out of town every moment...
Hua Qingxue started to pack away the pots and prepared to make another pot of soap mixed with sulfur. She replied to Li Jingnan: "Their clothes don't need this. They only need to use potato starch dipped in vinegar and apply it directly on the blood-stained areas. Wait until the potatoes are soaked." Once the flour is dry, rub it gently and the blood stains will be rubbed away together with the potato starch... If it's still not clean, just rinse it with boiled rotten radish in water and it's enough."
Li Jingnan stared, "Is it that simple?"
Hua Qingxue spread her hands helplessly, "Otherwise, how difficult do you think it would be?"