Li Wencheng felt like he wanted to die.
One moment ago, he had been fantasizing about having the Xu family executed to the last member. Now, looking at those pairs of eyes gleaming with a greenish light, eyes that seemed ready to devour the black soil whole, he felt as if a block of ice had been shoved into his spine.
It's over. All is lost.
This was no poisonous gas. This was clearly a bewitching potion Xu Qinghuan had fed to these mud-legged commoners.
Taking advantage of the moment when the local militia also threw down their weapons and pressed towards the dirt mounds, Li Wencheng hunched his shoulders, shrinking his neck into his collar like a sick chicken with its tail between its legs, and began to slink towards the outer edge of the crowd. He couldn't stay here any longer. If he did, he wouldn't need Xu Qinghuan to lift a finger; these frenzied commoners would tear him apart themselves.
Just get to the horse. That was an imperial courier horse, fast. He could gallop back to the yamen in one breath, shut the gates, and then no one could touch him. As for the memorial to the throne... that was a matter for future arguments.
Li Wencheng had just put one foot into the stirrup, his hand not yet firmly grasping the reins.
"Li Wencheng, where do you think you're going?"
This shout wasn't particularly loud, but it carried the authoritative pressure of someone long accustomed to command, like a magistrate's gavel slamming down on the crown of Li Wencheng's head.
Li Wencheng's body stiffened, his foot stuck in mid-air, neither up nor down.
The speaker was the Education Commissioner, who had been mostly silent until now. Unlucky fellow, passing through Taoyuan County only to be dragged here by Li Wencheng's desperate pleading to act as a "witness," and now he had witnessed an earth-shattering reversal.
The Education Commissioner wasn't holding a folding fan. Instead, he clutched a handful of black soil freshly dug from the ground. The soil was glossy and even had bits of plant ash clinging to it, but he didn't seem to mind the dirt at all. He held it as if it were the Imperial Seal.
"Y-your subordinate..." Li Wencheng forced himself to turn around, the flesh on his face trembling. "Your subordinate was returning to the yamen... to f-fetch some sealing strips..."
"You worthless scoundrel!"
The Education Commissioner hurled the handful of black soil to the ground with force, sending dust flying.
"Sealing strips? What do you intend to seal? This heaven-sent auspicious sign? Or the livelihood of tens of thousands of people?"
The Education Commissioner pointed a finger at Li Wencheng's nose, spraying him with spittle. "What did you write in your memorial? 'Not a blade of grass grows'? 'Poisonous gas slaughtering the city'? Open your dog eyes and look! Is this poisonous gas? This is clearly a treasure that can save countless lives!"
Li Wencheng shrank under the tirade, but his cunning nature wasn't completely dead yet.
Pointing at the several mounds of earth that, though no longer emitting white smoke, still gave off an eerie heat, the veins on his neck bulging, he tried to argue stubbornly, "My lord! That is sorcery! You saw the white smoke yourself just now, shooting into the sky, stinging the eyes and nose! If that's not poison, what is it? This black soil is just a trick to fool the eye! Who knows... who knows if its toxicity won't manifest in a few days!"
"Nonsense!"
This time, the curse didn't come from the Education Commissioner, but from Old Man Wu beside him.
The old man, now with the Xu family as his backing, stood ramrod straight. Stroking his beard, he looked at Li Wencheng with utter disdain. "Magistrate Li, it's one thing to be ignorant and unlearned, but do not come out and make a spectacle of yourself. That white smoke is the 'fire refinement' vapor! Miss Xu used the fierce properties of plant ash to force out the yin toxins from the filth. This is called 'applying alchemical principles to agriculture'! Without that burst of white smoke, how could we obtain this pure, rich, mature fertilizer?"
"That's right! That's exactly how it is!"
The surrounding commoners might not have understood the part about alchemical principles, but they understood "good stuff."
"Magistrate Li, you just can't bear to see us common folks live a good life, can you?"
"Exactly! The crops in our fields are starving to death. Finally, Miss Xu has made some food for them, and you insist it's poison and want to bury it? Is your heart black?"
The court of public opinion had completely turned.
A moment ago, they still regarded him with the awe due an official. Now, they saw him only as a demon blocking their path to prosperity.
Looking at those pairs of eyes now burning crimson, Li Wencheng's heart sank. He felt less like an official and more like a thief who had stolen the village's prized hen.
"You... what are you going to do? I am an official appointed by the court! I am the Sub-prefect!" Li Wencheng brandished his horsewhip, trying to disperse the crowd pressing in.
No one laid a hand on him. The laws of Daqian were severe; assaulting a court-appointed official meant execution.
But these men, who had spent their lives digging in the dirt, had plenty of other methods.
"Make way! Make way! Freshly bought fertilizer here! Can't afford to spill it!"
A dark-faced man shouted, carrying two buckets of steaming black liquid. His foot "slipped," and his whole body lurched toward Li Wencheng.
The contents, though mature fertilizer and not foul-smelling, had a color and viscosity that were utterly nauseating to behold.
Li Wencheng yelped in terror and scrambled backward.
But behind him was another man with a carrying pole, two brimming wooden buckets blocking his retreat. The black slurry inside sloshed with the movement, threatening several times to splash onto Li Wencheng's brand-new official boots.
"Oh, careful there, my lord! This is precious stuff, very valuable! Gets on you, it won't wash off!"
Front, back, left, right—nothing but buckets.
Hundreds of people carrying hundreds of manure buckets had silently trapped Li Wencheng and his pitiful courier horse in the middle. It was a suffocating "biochemical encirclement."
Li Wencheng felt he was going mad. The fear of being surrounded by that black liquid was more terrifying than facing swords and spears.
"Get away! All of you, get away!"
Li Wencheng scrambled onto the horse's back using both hands and feet, a picture of utter embarrassment. He forgot all about official dignity, lashing out wildly with his whip.
The courier horse, already agitated by the strong smells and frightened by the crowd, now in pain from the blows, let out a shrill whinny and suddenly reared up on its hind legs.
Li Wencheng, caught off balance, lost his grip. His official cap tumbled down and rolled right into a puddle of black mud.
"Hyah! Hyah!"
Disheveled and desperate, clinging to the horse's neck like a stray dog, he charged out of the crowd. In his frantic haste, one of his official boots got caught in the stirrup and came off. His bare foot waved frantically in the air, pale and glaringly conspicuous.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
A tidal wave of raucous laughter erupted behind him.
"Magistrate Li, your shoe! Aren't you taking your shoe?"
"Leave it! Let Miss Xu use it as fertilizer!"
A hundred paces away.
That inconspicuous blue-canopied carriage remained quietly parked in the shade of the trees, as if the clamorous world had nothing to do with it.
The carriage curtain was lifted slightly at one corner.
Xiao Jingyan watched Li Wencheng's humiliated, fleeing figure. His deep eyes betrayed no ripple of emotion, as if he were merely watching a clumsy monkey show.
His gaze shifted, passing through the flying dust and the frenzied crowd, finally settling on the figure standing atop the red carriage.
Clad in red as bright as fire, she fanned herself with a round fan, seemingly "troubled" by the copper coins scattered all over the ground.
"Your Highness," Su Ruoxu beside him murmured with a tone of incredulity. "This Xu girl's luck is truly at its peak. Originally intending to cause disgust, she accidentally stumbled upon creating such a divine substance. This is probably what we mean by 'fools have fortune'?"
"Fools have fortune?"
Xiao Jingyan slowly lowered the carriage curtain, cutting off the outside clamor. He leaned back against the soft cushion, his slender fingers tapping lightly on his knee, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"Ruoxu, after all these years by my side, how have you also become so shallow?"
Su Ruoxu was taken aback. "Your Highness, you mean..."
"Look at this scheme." Xiao Jingyan's voice was soft, yet each word carried the weight of iron. "Starting with sealing the privies. On the surface, it's about amassing wealth, but in reality, it's to 'gather the source.' If they didn't enforce a fee, why would the commoners concentrate their waste? Without concentration, where would these tens of thousands of pounds of raw material come from?"
"Then there's the oilcloth. You think she wanted to trap the foul air? No, she was aiming for 'heat cultivation.' It's midsummer now, and with the oilcloth sealing it, the temperature inside those mounds could heat stones. That is the key to creating fertilizer."
"As for that final move with the plant ash..."
A glint of sharp admiration flashed in Xiao Jingyan's eyes, the kind reserved for a worthy opponent. "That was truly a masterstroke. Using the pretext of 'toxic fumes' to have the authorities seal the site not only prevented ignorant people from disrupting the fermentation but also secured herself free guards. Step by step, link by link—which part of this was mere coincidence?"
Su Ruoxu listened, cold sweat trickling down his back.
According to His Highness's analysis, that girl in red was no spoiled, wicked heiress. She was clearly a calculating genius, a demon who played with both human psychology and natural principles as if they were chess pieces!
"Transforming the entire city's waste from a nuisance into a treasure, solving both the sanitation crisis and the urgent needs of agriculture." Xiao Jingyan closed his eyes, his mind filled with Xu Qinghuan's face that "seemed greedy." "The most brilliant part is, she made a profit. Using commerce to support governance, solving a problem that has plagued the Great Qian Dynasty for a century without spending a single coin from the national treasury."
"The breadth of her vision, the sharpness of her methods—even a top-ranking court official would be hard-pressed to match her."
"She is a strategist of state caliber."
Xiao Jingyan's evaluation carried immense weight.
Meanwhile, atop that red carriage roof.
The very person the Third Prince had just deemed a "strategist of state caliber," Xu Qinghuan, was watching in despair as that blockhead Li Sheng loaded basket after basket of copper coins onto the cart.
"Stop collecting..." Xu Qinghuan waved her fan weakly. "Tell them we're sold out... tell them to scram..."
"Miss, what are you saying!" Li Sheng's face was flushed with excitement as he stuffed a piece of broken silver someone had tossed up into his robe. "Physician Wu said those mounds are just the first batch! As long as we keep collecting, keep covering, Taoyuan County will be our family's goldmine! Our family will become the number one fertilizer merchant in Great Qian!"
Xu Qinghuan's vision darkened.
She looked at the city-wide celebration, listened to the slogans about inscribing her name into clan records for worship, and suddenly found the sunlight unbearably harsh.
I want to go home.
I want air conditioning.
I don't want to be the number one fertilizer merchant in Great Qian!
"Li Sheng." Xu Qinghuan suddenly sat up straight, a glint of desperate ruthlessness in her eyes. "Since we have the money, we shouldn't stay idle."
"How much did we make from the fertilizer?"
"A rough estimate... about five thousand taels!"
"Good." Xu Qinghuan gritted her teeth. "Go find out for me. What business around here is the hardest to run? Where is the biggest money pit? I'm going to take these five thousand taels, along with our family's previous savings, and pour it all in!"
I refuse to believe it.
Is there really not a single project in this world that can let me go quietly and peacefully bankrupt?
"Huh?" Li Sheng was stunned for a moment, then his face lit up with understanding. "Miss, are you planning another grand scheme? This servant will go arrange it at once!"
Watching Li Sheng scurry away eagerly, Xu Qinghuan felt a chill run down her spine.
She had a very, very bad feeling about this.
