In her previous life, Princess Shengping had invented refined salt and presented it to the emperor. The emperor had permitted Princess Shengping to open a refined saltworks in the capital, where she sold the salt to high-ranking officials and wealthy nobles, earning a great deal of money.
But in her previous life, Princess Shengping had not begun making refined salt until several years later. Why had she started now?
Back then, Princess Shengping had said she wanted to develop refined salt, and it had taken her more than half a year to make it.
She had wanted salt that was neither bitter nor astringent, and especially fine—fine as grains of sand…
But Princess Shengping had not known exactly how to make it, so she had ordered people to experiment. When coarse cloth proved unsuitable, she switched to fine cloth…
She had gathered all kinds of stones and shells, seaweed, iron pots, wooden buckets…
Princess Shengping had also been afraid that too many people would learn what she was doing, so she had allowed only one or two maids to work on it.
She had been one of them.
Princess Shengping had thought she was stupid. For more than half a year, she had been beaten and cursed for more than half a year.
Even now, thinking about it made her bones ache.
“Princess, what is it? Is something wrong?”
Rongyao rose and walked to the desk. Picking up a brush, she began writing on a sheet of paper.
“Coarse salt, straw, shells, seaweed, fine cloth, charcoal, fine sand, small stones…”
She had made it herself in her previous life. Back then, she had been foolish and had forgotten everything as soon as she finished it. But now she was clever—she remembered it all!
What to do first, what to do next, and what to do at the end…
As long as she recalled it, she could remember everything.
She absolutely would not let Princess Shengping have her moment of triumph.
As long as Princess Shengping was unhappy, she would be happy.
She would make refined salt too, then present the recipe to the emperor!
She would make sure that everyone in Great Zhou could eat refined salt!
Rongyao wrote down everything they needed, then handed the list to Daoxiang and Chu Mingyi.
“Help me find all these things.”
Daoxiang and Chu Mingyi looked at the writing on the paper in bewilderment.
Chu Mingyi asked, “Princess, are you going to make salt?”
Rongyao lifted her head. “Yes. Princess Shengping is going to make salt, so I’m going to make it too!”
Daoxiang and Chu Mingyi exchanged a smile but said nothing more. They went outside to gather the supplies.
Today was the princess’s birthday. Whatever the princess wanted, whatever she wished to take, she could have it. As long as she was happy, that was all that mattered.
The supplies were soon ready.
The gates of Changle Palace were shut, and a large earthenware vat was set up.
Rongyao poured the coarse salt into the vat and added water, stirring with a wooden stick until the salt dissolved completely. She then waited half an hour for the larger grains of dirt and sand to settle. After that, she used two layers of fine cloth to pour the water from the top into another earthenware jar, filtering it as it passed through…
Rongyao kept herself busy, stirring constantly and then pouring the water over the fine cloth again and again…
Cui Huaiyin came outside as well and watched her daughter busily fiddling with something.
When she heard that her daughter was making salt, she hurried over curiously. Seeing her daughter working so hard that sweat had appeared on her forehead, she picked up a handkerchief and wiped it away.
“Did you read about a method for making salt in a book and decide to try it yourself?”
Rongyao smiled at her mother. “You’ll know tomorrow, Mother.”
The process would take until tomorrow at the earliest.
“Tomorrow?” Cui Huaiyin smiled. She was truly looking forward to it.
Rongyao continued according to her memories, cutting the seaweed into pieces and placing them in a jar…
Then she sealed the jar.
She clapped her little hands.
Daoxiang asked, “Is that all?”
Rongyao nodded. “That’s all we can do today. We have to wait until tomorrow.”
Daoxiang stared at the jar, genuinely curious about what would happen the next day.
It was not only Daoxiang who was curious. Everyone in Changle Palace was.
They all wondered whether the princess could truly make salt.
Chenxiang, Daoxiang, and the others were afraid that something might happen to the jars left outside, so whenever they woke during the night, they made a special trip to check on them…
The next day.
All the palace maids of Changle Palace gathered in the courtyard.
They watched as the princess ordered someone to burn kelp into ash, then sprinkle the kelp ash into the brine they had prepared the day before.
Afterward, she poured the entire jar of brine into a pot and stirred it constantly over high heat.
After a long while, fine grains began to appear in the pot, as tiny as sand!
They were white!
Those must be the salt the princess had spoken of!
Why was this salt so fine?
Rongyao grew tired from stirring, so she ordered Chenxiang, Daoxiang, and the others to take over.
When she saw that salt had begun to appear, she told them to lower the heat…
At last, all the water boiled away.
The bottom of the pot was covered with a full pot of fine salt!
Rongyao glanced up at the noonday sun and ordered the newly made salt to be spread out on cloth to dry.
Chenxiang and the others quickly spread out the cloth and placed the hard-won salt upon it.
Every person in Changle Palace was thrilled. They were so excited that they nearly jumped for joy.
Rongyao tasted the salt. It was very salty, but not bitter!
She put her hands on her hips and said to Daoxiang, “Aunt Daoxiang! Go invite Father over! Yaoyao wants to treat Father to some salt!”
“Yes!”
Daoxiang left Changle Palace, bursting with excitement.
Rongyao also had her mother taste the salt.
Cui Huaiyin cautiously took a taste, then froze where she stood.
The senior palace maid of Changle Palace went personally to invite the emperor.
Naturally, she was able to summon him.
With Noble Consort Cui nearing the time of her delivery, no one dared offend anyone from Changle Palace if they encountered them.
A short while earlier, when a palace maid from Changle Palace had run toward the Academy of Literary Profundity, quite a few people had seen her and assumed that Consort Cui was about to give birth.
Even Eunuch Wang Zhong, who was guarding the entrance to the Academy of Literary Profundity, had been startled when he saw Daoxiang running toward him. He had thought Consort Cui was going into labor and had nearly rushed inside to report the news—incorrectly.
“Not that? Then why has Miss Daoxiang come looking for His Majesty?” Eunuch Wang Zhong asked.
Daoxiang smiled. “My princess has made something wonderful and wishes to invite His Majesty to see it with his own eyes. Please inform him, Eunuch.”
Eunuch Wang Zhong smiled. “Very well. I’ll go right away.”
…
Rongyao took her father by the hand as soon as he entered Changle Palace and pulled him toward the salt drying nearby.
“Father, hurry and taste this salt!”
Dantai Ji stared in astonishment at the white, fine sand spread across the cloth.
“This is salt?”
Cui Huaiyin came over and handed Dantai Ji a jar of dried salt. “Try it. The salt Yaoyao made is different from ordinary salt.”
Dantai Ji dipped his finger into it and tasted it. His eyes widened at once.
“It really is salt! Why doesn’t it taste bitter?”
Then Dantai Ji anxiously looked toward everyone in Changle Palace.
“Was this truly made by the princess?”
Daoxiang and the others knelt.
“We saw it with our own eyes, Your Majesty. It was indeed the princess who came up with the idea.”
Dantai Ji looked at Rongyao, then crouched down and placed his hands on his daughter’s shoulders.
“Was this Yaoyao’s idea?”
Rongyao shook her head. “Although Yaoyao made the salt, the idea was not Yaoyao’s.”
Dantai Ji asked, “Then what extraordinary person thought of it?”
Rongyao scratched her head, hesitating.
In her previous life, she had heard Princess Shengping say that making refined salt was a method from the modern era. That method must have come from the modern era—but what exactly was the modern era? She had always felt that when Princess Shengping spoke of “the modern era,” it did not sound like a person, and it did not seem to exist in this world either.
Dantai Ji asked, “What is it?”
“Yaoyao doesn’t know. Perhaps it was a method thought up in the modern era.” Rongyao lowered her head as she spoke.
Dantai Ji said, “The modern era? Was that some extraordinary person? Where is he?”
Rongyao blinked at her father in confusion.
“Yaoyao has never seen him. Anyway, that’s what the modern era told me in my dreams.”
Dantai Ji: “…”
Everyone else: “…”
