Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 93

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

Dongfang Wei slowly opened his eyes.

“Sixi, what time is it?”

“Your Majesty, it is already the hour of the snake. There is no morning court today, so this servant did not wake you.”

Dongfang Wei lay on his back and stared blankly for a moment. The hour of the snake…

“Does Your Majesty feel any discomfort?” Sixi asked nervously.

After His Majesty swallowed the pill Miss Xiao gave him the previous night, he had fallen asleep before long.

Sixi feared the Emperor might suffer nightmares midway through the night, as he did after taking the imperial physicians’ medicine, so he remained beside him and kept watch.

His Majesty had not awakened once all night.

Sixi, however, had not closed his eyes at all.

This was the first time in so many years that His Majesty had successfully fallen asleep.

Sixi had to guard him. He could not allow some blind fool to disturb the Emperor.

Only when he decided enough time had passed did he finally wake him.

Even then, Sixi had been terribly nervous. His Majesty was sleeping so deeply…

Dongfang Wei sat up and found that the stabbing pain in his head had eased considerably.

The chaotic thoughts that normally filled his mind seemed peaceful today.

Even the negative emotions that had been so difficult to control or soothe had mostly disappeared after a single good night’s sleep.

Dongfang Wei sat stunned for a moment, then gave a soft laugh.

“Yaqing said to take this medicine once every three or four days?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Miss Xiao said it must not be taken too often. Once every three to four days is enough.”

Seeing that his Emperor was finally awake and wore an unprecedentedly relaxed expression, Sixi also released a breath.

Then came wild joy.

Miss Xiao was a godsend!

His Emperor could finally sleep well. Even one good night every three or four days would be enough!

“Mm. Send someone to Yaqing with a message. Tell her the medicine works very well and that I will follow the physician’s instructions.”

Dongfang Wei took out the packet Xiao Yaqing gave him.

He opened it and examined the contents carefully. Was a hawthorn pill truly this effective?

When he applied a little pressure with his fingers, he could feel something wrapped inside the center of the pill.

Remembering Yaqing’s instructions from the previous day, Dongfang Wei returned it to the packet.

Since Yaqing had asked him to trust her, he would refrain from looking for now.

The day would come when she was willing to tell him.

“Sixi, bring me the memorials to the throne.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

* * *

“Miss Ah Heng, Miss Xiao sent this to you.”

Mo Bai handed Xia Heng an envelope, then pulled out a stack of papers.

“And these! The property deeds from Xia Mansion!”

“Huh? They gave them to you so quickly? Without a fight?”

Xia Heng accepted the deeds in surprise.

Would those men from the Xia family truly hand them over so readily? Surely there was some trick involved.

Mo Bai waved a hand.

“Of course not. Xia Yun probably never intended to give them up. He only said he needed to look for them and did not know where they had been placed.

“Then Mo Qing mentioned that Xia Lang’s interrogation would begin soon, and no one knew which kind it would be: a civil interrogation or a martial interrogation.

“Only then did he order someone to bring out the property deeds, his face completely green.”

“Oh. No wonder.”

Understanding dawned on Xia Heng.

“I must thank both of you for helping me recover my mother’s property!

“Now I have completely severed my ties with the Xia family. In a few days, I’ll treat you and Mo Qing to a meal!

“You can eat anything you want. I’m rich now!”

Xia Heng waved the property deeds.

Seeing how happy she was, Mo Bai agreed. Then he returned to report to his General.

Xia Heng went back to her room and opened Xiao Yaqing’s envelope. Inside was a sheet of paper bearing only a few words:

*Thank you, Ah Heng! This is payment for the medicine. You are not allowed to refuse it!*

There was also a banknote for ten thousand taels.

“Oh-ho!”

With this banknote, the silver from Xia Mansion, and more than a dozen shops, Xia Heng could not help thinking that in terms of wealth, she now ranked second in the General’s Mansion only to Cang Chuli!

Hahahahaha! Wait. Let her put her hands on her hips for a moment. She was incredible!

And so, the next day, Chuqing and Zhao Die watched Xia Heng return from outside laden with bags.

“You went out? What did you buy this time?” Chuqing asked, coming closer.

“Why did you buy river mussels? No one eats those. And why so much pork fat?”

Zhao Die found Xia Heng increasingly difficult to understand. What manner of random clutter had she purchased?

“Ah, I went to look at the shops.”

Xia Heng answered while unloading everything she carried.

“I had to speak with the shopkeepers.

“Besides, the aunties at the Washing Workshop are making hats for us and refuse to accept payment. I originally planned to buy them some hand cream.

“But after walking through the market, none of the hand creams seemed very good, and they were outrageously expensive.

“So I bought ingredients to make some myself!”

“You know how to make that?” Zhao Die asked in surprise.

“It’s simple. And if there’s lard left over after I render it, I can make soap too!

“Each auntie will receive one jar of hand cream and one bar of soap!” Xia Heng said as she continued unloading her purchases.

“Soap? That’s something only great households use!” Zhao Die exclaimed.

Each pig had only one pancreas, which showed how expensive traditional soap was.

But soap could be used to wash hair, bodies, and clothes. It also prevented hands from chapping in winter. Only young ladies from great households or wealthy gentry could bear to use it.

“Great household or not, we’re going to use it for once! When I’m finished, every person here can have some!” Xia Heng declared grandly.

“Chuqing, come with me later to ask Chef Xiang for some wood ash.”

“All right!”

The three women first burned the river-mussel shells to ash in the kitchen. They mixed it with wood-ash water and left the liquid to settle.

Then they began rendering the lard.

Xia Heng cut the pork leaf lard and pig pancreas into chunks. After thinking for a long moment, she prepared to place them directly into the pot.

Chef Xiang, watching from the side, could not bear it any longer.

“Good heavens, Xia girl! Step away from there. Were you planning to dry-fry all of that without a single drop of water?”

He grabbed an iron spatula, scooped out the pieces of fat Xia Heng had just placed in the pot, then poured in a ladleful of water.

Once the water boiled, they could add the fat.

“Hehe. You have to add water when rendering lard? I wasn’t quite sure.”

Chef Xiang looked at her evasive smile with deep mistrust.

“Lard rendered with water comes out white, and it won’t have black scraps in it! Can you actually do this? You don’t even know how to render lard. Don’t waste good ingredients!”

“Ah, listen to you! What I’m doing is skilled work too! It simply hasn’t reached the part where my skills are needed yet! Wait until I finish. You won’t be able to buy anything this good outside!”

Chef Xiang curled his lip.

“This pork fat wasn’t cheap. Just don’t turn it into something useless!”

Once the lard was ready, Xia Heng ladled out more than half.

Then she and Chuqing carefully poured the lye water into the remaining lard and began to stir.

At first, Xia Heng did the stirring. When she finally ran out of strength, Chuqing and Zhao Die took turns helping.

They continued until the lard turned white, resembling whipped egg whites.

Only then did they fill the bamboo tubes with it.

“This bamboo… It couldn’t be…” Zhao Die began, staring at the tubes.

“It came from the Purple Bamboo Grove! One stalk had already fallen over. I looked it over and cut off the sections that weren’t split,” Chuqing said proudly.

Zhao Die silently closed her mouth.