"Let's call it the Xu Family Noble Braised Pork."
Thump.
Fatty Liu finally couldn't hold on anymore. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted completely.
What a sin!
The pigs in Jiangning City must have been cursed for eight lifetimes!
Meanwhile, Xu Zijin and Jenny Huang, who had suddenly appeared, exchanged a glance.
Xu Zijin picked up a piece of minced meat, sniffed it, and a flash of shock crossed her eyes.
"I once read in a book that heavy salt solidifies the texture and keeps evil spirits at bay, thick sugar boosts energy and aids in battle, and soaking it in strong liquor draws out toxins and allows for long-term storage..."
Xu Zijin's fingertips trembled slightly, her voice choking with emotion. "Isn't this... the absolute best provision for marching troops?! To think that County Princess Xu considered the difficulties of transporting rations over thousands of miles, sparing no expense to use salt, sugar, and strong liquor to preserve the meat..."
"And fearing that the soldiers might feel a psychological burden, she deliberately claimed it was cheap, discarded meat meant as an insult..."
Xu Zijin and Jenny Huang came to a unanimous conclusion:
County Princess Xu was truly too kind and loyal!
......
Late at night, the candlelight flickered in the Lingering Garden.
Xu Qinghuan sat cross-legged on the arhat bed, holding a thick copy of the Laws of the Great Qian Dynasty.
With her hair disheveled and a fanatical look in her eyes, a bizarre smile hung on the corners of her lips.
Oh no, the county magistrate probably couldn't handle this; it would have to be reported to the prefect.
Mwahaha.
The laughter echoed in the room, terrifying the night-watch maid so much that she shivered.
If an outsider saw this, they would definitely think the County Princess of Jiangning had suffered a qi deviation from practicing martial arts.
But only Xu Qinghuan herself knew how excited she was right now.
It turned out that in this damn feudal society, being a villain also required technical expertise.
Her previous operation of sending garbage meat bricks was definitely wicked, but at most, it was just a family dispute. The worst that could happen was her second brother coming back and flipping the table.
This was not enough. This was far from enough.
To achieve the system's goal of getting her entire family exiled to Lingnan to plant lychees, she had to cross the bottom line.
Xu Qinghuan's finger slid across the page and finally stopped at a line of small text.
She was pressing so hard that her nail almost pierced the paper.
Laws of the Great Qian, Ministry of War Volume, Article 108.
Anyone who privately transports military supplies and adulterates them with fakes, causing frontline soldiers to fall ill, suffer from vomiting and diarrhea, and thereby delay military operations...
Shall receive eighty strokes of the cane and be exiled three thousand miles.
If it causes death, they shall be executed immediately.
Xu Qinghuan's eyes instantly lit up.
Brilliant.
It was simply brilliant beyond words, absolutely perfect.
Dying was out of the question. After all, she had money now and needed to keep her life to eat lychees in Lingnan.
But this vomiting and diarrhea...
That left a lot of room for manipulation.
Her second brother was strong and sturdy, and a military general to boot. What was a few days of diarrhea to him?
As long as she could make the imperial court think that she, the County Princess, harbored unpredictable motives and deliberately sabotaged the war in the Northern Frontier, wouldn't the imperial edict for exile smack her right on the forehead in minutes?
Plus the Spinning Jenny, and the glass and cement from Taoyuan County, with these money-printing machines, the emperor and the noble families would surely keep her alive.
Xu Qinghuan tossed the book onto the bed and excitedly spun around on the floor twice.
She definitely had to add something extra.
But in this day and age, there weren't any laxatives that could be purchased in bulk without being noticed.
Croton? Too obvious. The pharmacy owner would definitely report it to the authorities.
Arsenic? That was murder, and she would lose her head. No way.
Xu Qinghuan paced back and forth on the floor with her hands behind her back, her brows tightly furrowed.
Suddenly, her gaze fell upon a bag of quicklime in the corner, used for absorbing moisture.
A flash of inspiration hit her.
That was it, quicklime.
This stuff generated heat when mixed with water. Although she didn't know if eating it would kill someone, mixing it into food would definitely turn a person's stomach upside down.
Most importantly, this stuff was everywhere. Buying it wouldn't raise any suspicions.
"Li Sheng!"
Xu Qinghuan violently pulled open the door and roared outside.
Li Sheng was dozing against a pillar in the corridor. Startled by the shout, he scrambled over, practically rolling and crawling.
"Miss, what's wrong? Did those old geezers from the Wang family come looking for trouble again?"
Li Sheng looked nervous, his hand already resting on the abacus at his waist.
Xu Qinghuan shook her head, a smile hanging on her face that made Li Sheng's hair stand on end.
"No, it's more important than that."
She lowered her voice.
"You go, go right now, and buy me a cartload of quicklime!"
Li Sheng was stunned.
He blinked, looked at the moon in the sky, and then looked at his miss.
"Quicklime? Miss, our Lingering Garden was just renovated. We don't need to build any walls."
Xu Qinghuan slapped him on the forehead.
"Who said anything about building walls? I'm going to use it for cooking."
"Cooking?"
Li Sheng felt like his brain wasn't quite keeping up.
He had followed his miss for so many years. He had seen people cook with rice, with flour, and even poor people cooking with tree bark, but cooking with stones...
Could this be some new culinary trend among the wealthy that he just didn't understand?
"Cut the nonsense!"
Xu Qinghuan's gaze sharpened, radiating a villainous aura.
"Just go when I tell you to. Remember, it has to be unslaked, the kind that smokes when it hits water."
"Once you buy it, send it straight to the back kitchen. I have a major use for it."
Although Li Sheng was full of questions, as a qualified lackey, his greatest strength was his execution.
"Yes, this lowly one will get it done right away. Even if I have to empty every lime kiln in Jiangning City, I'll buy it back for you, Miss."
Watching Li Sheng's retreating back, Xu Qinghuan covered her mouth and laughed.
Oh, Second Brother, Second Brother, you can't blame your little sister for being ruthless this time.
Your sister is doing this for the future of our entire family.
When you're having diarrhea until your legs turn to jelly, please remember, this is your sister's love for you.
......
Half an hour later.
In the large kitchen of the Lingering Garden, the atmosphere was oppressive.
Fatty Liu, leading over a dozen cooks, stared at the quicklime on the ground, his face turning green with fright.
It wasn't because the stuff was expensive, but because...
If someone ate this, it would burn a hole right through their intestines.
"Miss... you... what are you trying to do?"
Fatty Liu held a large ladle in his hand, his calves cramping up.
Xu Qinghuan stood next to the lime with her arms crossed, looking like an overseer.
"Do what?"
"Didn't I just say it? Adding extra ingredients!"
"Take the meat bricks you've prepared and pack them into clay pots."
"Then, stuff this in there."
Fatty Liu dropped to his knees with a thud.
"Miss! You can't!"
"Although the Second Young Master usually steals your chicken legs, he is your biological brother after all!"
"A handful of lime in there will kill someone!"
"Although our Xu family is rich, the crime of murdering one's brother..."
"Shut up!"
Xu Qinghuan kicked Fatty Liu in the butt.
"Who told you to mix it directly into the meat? Do I look like someone with no brains?"
"I'm telling you to..."
Xu Qinghuan was just about to say slightly mix a little bit in, when she suddenly realized that if she spoke too plainly, these fiercely loyal cooks definitely wouldn't dare to do it.
What if they secretly threw the lime away? Wouldn't her exile plan go up in smoke?
No, she had to phrase it differently.
Xu Qinghuan's eyes shifted, revealing an unfathomable expression.
