The Idle Man of Zhenguan Intercepts Wu Zetian at the Start

Changsun Dan smiled but remained silent. He had expected the Cui family's impeachment. Li Er seemed to be receptive to advice, but he was actually quite stubborn. As long as he had his own principles, he would love for someone to stir up trouble among the powerful families.

Chun Chan could naturally understand the situation, so she didn't take it to heart. His Majesty was the chess player, and someone always had to be sent up as a pawn. Looking at these moldy oranges, she was still a little curious:

"Young master, rotten food is poisonous. Can it really cure the Empress's illness if used as medicine?"

Changsun Dan raised an eyebrow, a hint of smugness in his expression. "Penicillium can be considered one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century; countless people have survived because of it," he said, smiling as he picked up an orange.

"If you look at these molds under a magnifying glass, they are countless tiny fungi, just like wild mushrooms on the mountain. Although most of them are poisonous, some are non-poisonous and are a delicacy."

She sighed softly again:

"But even with my eyes, I can't tell which ones are poisonous and which ones aren't. So I have to separate them, cultivate more, extract them into medicine, and then test them one by one. If they're mixed bacteria, they'll poison people to death..."

Chun Chan's face paled slightly after hearing this. The young man was always laughing and joking, but the pressure he carried was unimaginable. She sat down beside him, gently resting her head on his shoulder, and said softly:

"Young master, since you have the ability to foresee the future, what are you still worried about...?"

Changsun Dan inhaled the faint fragrance emanating from Chun Chan and closed his eyes slightly. Chun and Dong were different from others; their fates were already intertwined with his. At the very least, if something happened to him, they would truly have nowhere to go, and the paper mill and winery would likely fall into their hands. He smiled, feigning ease.

"There's no such prophet in this world. Even if Yuan Tiangang were here, he couldn't predict who Chun Chan would marry in the future."

Chun Chan pouted slightly, lifted her head away from Changsun Dan's shoulder, and asked with her head turned to the side:

"Does the young master really want me to get married? If you can't foresee the future, how do you know that Duke Lu will live to be seventy-seven?"

Changsun Dan was taken aback for a moment, then realized that she might have heard him talking to himself. This was a difficult question to answer, but if he gave a casual reply, Chun Chan wouldn't believe him, and it might even create distance between them. He sighed softly.

"People like His Majesty and the founding dukes are figures worthy of establishing their own sects and temples. Only such people are recorded by the Heavenly Dao. As for me, I am but a drop in the ocean, and whether I live or die is unknown..."

Chun Chan stared intently into Changsun Dan's eyes:

"What about Wu Xu? Was she also recorded by Heaven? So, young master, you're still hiding something from us..."

Changsun Dan smiled wryly. Chun Chan seemed cheerful, but she was actually very meticulous and not as easily fooled as Dong Yao. He replied seriously:

"Only those who have influenced the course of history are recorded by the Heavenly Dao, and those who can glimpse the Heavenly Dao are extremely rare. At least so far, I know that the Heavenly Dao has recorded one thing: the Empress can only live for another four months! So I will defy fate and change destiny. When that time comes, if you still want to know anything, I promise I will tell you everything without missing a single word! As for Wu Zetian, her fate has already changed... Otherwise, she would have become the number one female... strongman of China!"

Chun Chan's face showed a hint of shock, but she didn't ask any further questions. Seeing Changsun Dan picking at the orange with a bamboo skewer, she asked curiously:

Do poisonous and non-poisonous bacteria all look the same?

Changsun Dan's eyes were practically glued to the oranges:

"Of course they're different. Besides Penicillium, there are also black mold, gray mold, and white mold on these oranges, but they're too small. Even if you can tell them apart, you can't separate them. So I can only try to select Penicillium, because Penicillium is what's used to treat the Empress's illness. If we're lucky, we'll be able to successfully culture one batch of Penicillium."

Chun Chan nodded as if she understood, thinking that since the young master could explain it, they should make as many as possible. So she picked up an orange and examined it carefully. She found that the mold spots on the orange were not only green, but also mixed with many black, white and gray mold spots. So she imitated Changsun Dan and used a small bamboo skewer to pick out the green and gray mold spots from the orange little by little.

The project was enormous, and after the two of them had been working on it for most of the day, they had only managed to produce a small amount of green ash. Just then, Dongyao came in after cooking the porridge, and Changsun Dan stood up with a smile:

"Come on, you two, come help me."

Changsun Dan had prepared the gauze and other things in advance, but still steamed them again with the copper pot. Then he scooped the porridge onto the gauze, filtered it, and collected the porridge liquid in a sterilized small copper pot. He collected about thirty pots in total, which should be about enough. The main purpose of the second culture of Penicillium was to reduce the content of miscellaneous bacteria as much as possible.

Once the porridge liquid had cooled down considerably, Changsun Dan sprinkled a little of the collected Penicillium mold into each copper pot, then covered them with gauze and tied them up. By the time he finished, it was getting dark.

Changsun Dan clapped his hands and laughed:

"Alright, the temperature in this greenhouse is just right. In two more days, these copper pots will be full of Penicillium mold of higher purity. At that time, all we need to do is purify and crystallize it."

Dongyao asked innocently:

What is crystallization?

Changsun Dan chuckled:

"When we boil seawater in a pot, it turns into a white powder, which is called crystallization. This medicine works on the same principle, except that it needs to be filtered multiple times."

Chun Chan and Dong Yao both wore expressions of admiration. The young master knew so much! He taught them terms like filtration, purification, and distillation while purifying bitter coarse salt and distilling high-proof liquor. Thinking of salt, Chun Chan casually remarked:

"Young master, the salt we use in Plum Garden, if sold on the market, would probably be even more popular than the salt from the winery!"

Changsun Dan smiled and pinched Chun Chan's chubby little oval face:

"Salt is essential for people's livelihood and should not become a special commodity enjoyed by the privileged class. My method of refining coarse salt can produce edible refined salt even if it is currently a toxic salt mine. When treating the Empress, I will need to use special brine made from refined salt. I will give this salt refining formula to His Majesty. As long as he promises that all the people of the Tang Dynasty can eat refined salt at a low price, we will not make money from it."

In reality, Changsun Dan knew very well that even if he could obtain the market license to sell salt, the refined salt business would not last long. It would be better to hand it over to Li Er. There were poisonous salt mines everywhere, and once the salt could be detoxified and consumed, the cost of refined salt would actually drop significantly. Li Er valued his reputation among the people, and he could not refuse such a generous gift. He would certainly accept Changsun Dan's proposal.

But the two girls felt very differently when they heard this. Chun Chan looked ashamed. She had only thought about making money and had forgotten that she had also suffered. She buried her head in the young man's arms with her face red and gently hit his shoulder with her little fist.

Dongyao was the same, her eyes brimming with tears, and for the first time, she boldly leaned against Changsun Dan's shoulder.

Changsun Dan hadn't expected these two girls to suddenly attack him, and chuckled as he gently patted their shoulders and backs:

"Alright, alright, your young master has always been a wonderful person. You can't be too touched. I'm hungry. Tonight, let's drink and eat meat!"