bookrandom Chapter 300 Towards the Golden Palace (4)
Chapter 300 Towards the Golden Palace (4)
After spending a day cleaning, Yan Zhen moved into her new home with just her bags.
She was prepared for the house to be "unclean" before moving in, but she never expected to encounter paranormal events at night.
Around the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), when all was quiet, Yan Zhen was awakened by the intermittent cries of a baby.
She sat up in bed and listened intently.
It wasn't an illusion, nor was it the sound of the wind; it was definitely the cry of a baby, and the crying was very mournful.
Yan Zhen threw off the covers, got out of bed, lit a candle, and walked out of the room, following the direction from which the crying was coming.
The crying, sometimes loud and sometimes soft, always echoed in the courtyard.
Yan Zhen held the candle and searched for a while before finally stopping in front of the well in the courtyard.
The crying was coming from down the well.
Yan Zhen leaned closer to the well opening, wanting to see what was inside.
Unfortunately, the well was quite deep and pitch black at the bottom. The candle's illumination had limited range, and she didn't have night vision. With the help of the moonlight shining down from above, she could only vaguely see something moving at the bottom of the well, stirring the water.
Yan Zhen thought for a moment, then went back into the house, found a hemp rope, lit one end of the rope, and slowly lowered it into the well.
As the lit rope descended, Yan Zhen saw the true form of the thing at the bottom of the well—a giant salamander the size of an adult's arm.
No wonder!
This creature must have swum here along the underground river. Because its cries sound like a baby's and it only comes out at night, it adds a layer of terror to this haunted house where a murder has already occurred.
Yan Zhen threw a bamboo basket into the well, caught the thing, kept it in a wooden tub in the kitchen, and then went back to sleep.
The next day, Yan Zhen put a bamboo basket over the wooden tub, carried the salamander out, and found a secluded mountain stream to release it.
After doing all this, she returned to the pawnshop in the city and pawned the jewelry she had taken from Cheng Qingshuang.
Cheng Qingshuang was usually frugal with food and drink, but she was willing to spend lavishly on clothes and accessories. She pawned seven or eight pieces of jewelry, some gold and some silver, for forty taels of silver.
With money in hand, Yan Zhen spent several more days searching around and conducting market research.
After completing the market research, she had a better understanding of the situation.
Many crafts in this era were very crude, such as sugar making and winemaking.
Due to the climate, there are not many crops that can be grown.
The food was simple and rough.
She has the skills; as long as she can find the right opportunities, becoming rich is not a dream.
Yan Zhen quickly took action, and her first pot of gold was soap.
It's often said that soap making is an essential skill for time travelers to get rich, and this isn't just a joke.
In this era, people used soap pods or rice water for daily cleaning and bathing, while the rich used bath beans.
Soap pods and rice water have limited cleaning power, while bath beans are expensive and consumed quickly.
Yan Zhen recognized the potential of this market and immediately began procuring raw materials.
The raw materials for making soap are pork fat, wood ash, and coarse salt.
Render pork fat into oil over high heat, filter it through cheesecloth, add lye made from wood ash, sprinkle with coarse salt and stir for two hours, then pour it into bamboo tubes, let it stand for half a month, and then dry it in the sun for another half month.
Soap making is not complicated, but it is hard physical labor. Even with Yan Zhen's current strong physique, the stirring process alone left him with a sore back.
The first batch of soap produced more than a hundred bars, which were poured into bamboo tubes to stand. Yan Zhen tidied up a room to store them.
She had just moved all the bamboo tubes into the house when she heard a loud noise of something breaking coming from the direction of the kitchen, followed by the sound of someone running out.
My house was burgled!!!
Realizing this, Yan Zhen took off running towards the kitchen.
Instead of running towards the kitchen door, she went to the back of the kitchen and caught the thief red-handed as he climbed out of the window.
The thief was pinned to the back by her foot. He struggled a few times but could not escape, so he had no choice but to look up at her.
He was a seven or eight-year-old child, filthy and skinny, with grease on his lips and hands. From Yan Zhen's perspective, you could even see the bits of pork fat hidden in his shirt.
The pork cracklings were left over after rendering lard; I guess the smell attracted the child.
Yan Zhen loosened his grip, bent down, and picked the child up: "Whose child are you?"
The child was clearly a repeat offender; he wasn't worried at all when he was caught. He pursed his lips and didn't say a word, acting like a dead pig that wasn't afraid of boiling water.
Yan Zhen sneered: "You won't talk, huh? Come on, let's go see the officials."
The child panicked at the mention of seeing the officials, backing away and looking pitifully at Yan Zhen: "B-Big brother, I won't do it again, please forgive me this time, I will never dare to do it again."
He begged for forgiveness, but his eyes darted around, clearly showing he wasn't genuinely repentant.
Yan Zhen didn't really intend to send him to see the authorities, so he kicked him in the butt and said, "Put the stolen things back."
Under Yan Zhen's watchful eye, the child went back into the kitchen and put all the pork cracklings hidden in his shirt back on the stove.
A broken porcelain bowl lay on the kitchen floor. The child looked at the bowl guiltily, then at Yan Zhen.
Yan Zhen deliberately put on a fierce face and said, "Pay up! Or I'll beat you up!"
The child pouted and said pitifully, "I...I have no money."
"What should we do? You've broken my things."
The child whispered, "Can I work for you to pay off my debt?"
Yan Zhen remembered that there was still a large patch of weeds in the backyard that hadn't been cleared, and raised an eyebrow: "Okay, go and pull out the weeds in the backyard, make sure they're clean, and then we'll call it even."
The child responded and quickly ran towards the backyard.
Yan Zhen didn't go over to supervise; her intention was to intimidate the child and make him not dare to come again next time.
She didn't care whether he would climb over the wall and escape.
Yan Zhen fetched water, started a fire, and washed and scrubbed, cleaning all the pots, pans, and utensils used for making soap. It was getting dark outside.
Given that his cooking skills were not very good, Yan Zhen decided to go out for dinner.
There was a wonton shop at the entrance of the alley. Yan Zhen ordered a bowl of wontons, and after eating, he strolled home.
When Yan Zhen arrived at his doorstep, he unlocked the door and immediately saw a child sitting under the eaves in the yard.
She was stunned.
Is that kid still here?
Upon seeing her, the child immediately stood up: "Big brother, now that the weeds are pulled, can I go?"
Yan Zhen was surprised, but when acting, one must go all the way.
She went for a walk in the backyard and found that not only were all the weeds pulled, but they were pulled very cleanly, even the small weeds in the corners and crevices were cleaned up.
She returned to the front yard, where the child was still standing, looking at her longingly and then stealing a glance at the kitchen.
Yan Zhen immediately understood—
This little thing is good at reading people. It probably saw that she didn't seem like a bad person, and since it had already been caught, it might as well do its job diligently.
If I can win her over, I might be able to gain her sympathy and get some pork lard before she leaves.
Yan Zhen saw through his thoughts, sneered, and pointed to the door, saying, "Get out! If I see you again, I'll break your legs!"