Chapter 553: Transmigration into a Qing Dynasty Spirit Spring System (4)

At the time, she had saved the entire Shenyi Valley, and out of gratitude, the Valley Master gifted her many Immortal Grasses and seeds; the disciples of Shenyi Valley also often sent her self-made pills, and for some small pills they had devised themselves, they even gave her the formulas.

However, she did not receive those formulas for free; every time she went to deep mountains—rarely visited by people and infested with fierce beasts—to hunt for treasures, she would help the Shenyi Valley disciples bring back medicinal herbs that were uncommon on the periphery.

It could also be said that the Immortal Grasses, pills, and various formulas in her possession were things she had exchanged for with force and heavenly treasures.

With formulas and medicinal herbs, she let herself go and practiced medicine-making; if she accidentally refined too much and couldn't use it all for a while, she would sort and store them in small jade bottles, and by the time she left Shenyi Valley, they had already filled a corner of the Aircraft Cargo Hold.

Since ancient times, medicine and poison have been inseparable.

Besides medicine for strengthening the body and healing illnesses or injuries, the disciples of Shenyi Valley would also refine some poisons for self-protection.

There was the Finger Drunk that would cause one to fall into a deep coma after inhalation, and the Ten Fragrance Soft Bone Powder that made one's entire body's tendons and bones go weak and unable to exert force; these two were what the Shenyi Valley disciples carried most often when going out.

Of course, there were some even more poisonous ones, but unless special permission was obtained from the Valley Master, they were not allowed to be refined. Xie Yang had only heard the disciples mention some and had never refined them herself.

While organizing, Xie Yang took a set of paper and pen and registered the types of existing pills—whether for saving lives or self-rescue—using the library's indexing method. Next time she needed them, she wouldn't have to rummage through boxes and cabinets; she would know exactly where they were at a glance.

As for the health-preserving pills that were not in large quantities, she also took inventory of the existing medicinal herbs and seeds to see which could be planted directly in the small garden and which needed silver to buy; once gathered, she would refine some more, as the more the better.

After organizing, she put the paper and pen back into the Aircraft Cargo Hold.

As for those thread-bound medical books with yellowed pages that she had copied in Shenyi Valley, she carefully checked each one and found nothing out of the ordinary, so she did not put them back into the Aircraft Cargo Hold, but instead kept them in the pear wood carved box that the original owner specifically used to collect flower sachets.

The box also contained several ancient books about flowers and plants that the original owner had bought; besides the "Luoyang Peony Record," "Peony Manual," "Chrysanthemum Manual," and "Orchid Manual" that flower lovers must buy, there was also a book that could be called the "world's earliest botanical dictionary"—the "Complete Collection of Flowers."

Xie Yang flipped through her memories; some of these books were bought at bookstores, and some were copied versions sold as add-ons when buying flowers.

The maids and nannies around her were all illiterate and only knew that their Gege occasionally bought books back, but they did not know what these books were about. This provided room for maneuver. Xie Yang felt at ease putting the books about flowers and plants together with the medical books copied from Shenyi Valley.

Perhaps because she had made some noise, Haitang's voice came from outside the beaded curtain:

"Is Gege awake? Fujin had Lao Mama send over sour plum drink and an ice bowl; it's still emitting a chill. Would Gege like to have some?"

Hmm?

"Gege, when the sour plum drink and ice bowl were delivered, the ice cubes under the food box hadn't even melted! After Lao Mama left, this servant used deep well water to keep them chilled; it's very refreshing, Gege, please have a taste."

Upon receiving Xie Yang's permission, Haitang and the other maid moved nimbly to set the cold drinks sent by Fujin onto the tea table one by one.

Xie Yang took a sip of the sour plum drink and squinted comfortably.

Tasting carefully, besides dark plum, black jujube, and hawthorn, it seemed that auxiliary ingredients like licorice, cardamom, and dried osmanthus had also been added.

It was sweet and sour, and carried a chill from being iced; the taste was indeed quite good.

That's right! In a prince's mansion, what kind of master chef couldn't be hired? If they couldn't compare to an Imperial Chef, could they not compare to the head chefs of those restaurants and eateries outside?

Therefore, for those transmigrated women in novels, unless they were truly skilled in culinary arts, could they really rely solely on the delicacies they had eaten in later generations to recreate food that would make princes and kings—accustomed to delicacies from land and sea—so infatuated that they would fall in love with the heroine?

Thinking about it, it was somewhat unbelievable.

Xie Yang drank a cup of sour plum drink, ate a few bites of the melon and fresh water caltrop in the ice bowl, and also tasted a few bites of the tender almond tofu and fruit-flavored milk cake; she let the maids and nannies divide the rest.

Si Fujin had sent two summer cooling snacks, indicating that she remembered her credit for saving Honghui.

Don't look at it as just two snacks; these were delivered personally by the most capable wet nurse by Fujin's side, which was not much different from Fujin sending them herself, showing the importance Fujin placed on her.

Having gained the attention of the mistress, even if she was just an insignificant concubine's daughter, her life in the mansion in the future wouldn't be too bad.

Haitang said that Lao Mama also brought a few words, the gist being that Fujin had to take care of the eldest prince these two days, and would reward her properly after she was done.

Xie Yang had originally been indifferent about whether there was a reward or not, but... the original owner had almost no money in her hands.

Don't look at the fact that she could receive two taels of monthly allowance every month; every time she went out of the mansion, she would bring back some favorite flowers or books. Some ornamental flowers were quite expensive, and books were not cheap either; it was good if she could save a few taels after a year.

Xie Yang counted the savings in the box; it was less than three and a half taels. She looked up and sighed; it was truly tight.

Then she hoped Fujin would reward her with more Silver.

Because Fujin had spoken, the morning greetings were temporarily canceled for the next few days; among the concubines, Li Shi was probably the only one who felt relieved from the bottom of her heart, happy to stay in her own courtyard to take care of her son.

Song, Geng, and Niohuru were extremely stifled inside; not going for morning greetings meant they couldn't even see the Master, and would the Master still be able to think of them?

Xie Yang was glad that she had transmigrated into the daughter of Li Shi, who was timid and socially anxious; if she had transmigrated into a concubine's daughter whose biological mother used her children as tools to compete for favor and consolidate it all day long, who knows how miserable it would be.

"Gege, there's no need for morning greetings today, why not sleep a little longer? Were you woken up by the heat?"

The next morning, seeing Xie Yang up before five o'clock, Haitang, who was guarding the outer room, immediately stepped forward to serve.

Last night, Gege didn't let her serve nearby, and with no one to fan Gege, she must have been too hot to sleep well.

Xie Yang shook her head.

It wasn't that she couldn't sleep because of the heat; when sleeping at night, she didn't let the maid guard the room, so she lowered the mosquito net, took out a solar-powered handheld silent fan, and propped it by the pillow, which was quite cool.

In fact, a prince's mansion like the Beile Mansion had its own ice cellar; after the winter solstice, special personnel would harvest ice and transport it into the ice cellar, and around the summer solstice, the ice cellar would be opened, and ice would be distributed to each room according to the quota for cooling and heat relief.

It was just that there were many monks and little porridge; for an insignificant concubine's daughter like the original owner, the ice quota for the entire summer was only twenty ice buckets. The original owner couldn't bear to use it every day, and the hottest dog days of summer hadn't arrived yet; saving a little now would avoid running out later, so she hadn't sent anyone to the ice cellar to fetch ice these two days.

Fortunately, ancient buildings had great depth, blue brick floors, and double-eaved roofs, so the interior was quite cool, especially at night when there was air circulation, so it wasn't hot enough to keep her from sleeping.

She just went to sleep early and woke up early; since she was awake, she simply got up.