Ask Sword

"Master, is it windy here?"

"Wait, wait a little longer."

In the Jinchengfang house, Li Ang and Chai Cuiqiao sat at the table, staring at the talisman on the screen window.

Hoo hoo

A weak breeze blew up around the yellow paper talisman, blowing into the room through the screen window, slightly reducing the heat of summer.

"Cough, isn't this useful. Well, let's eat melons."

Li Ang clapped his palms without changing his face. After studying in the academy for a month, the talisman paper he wrote can barely function normally. symbol】.

"Well"

Chai Cuiqiao looked suspiciously away from the crumbling talisman and picked up the spoon.

The most indispensable thing in the late summer season is iced watermelon. The master and servant are blowing the breeze, and each of them eats half of the melon.

Watermelon was brought to Yu State by Hu merchants along the Silk Road. The original watermelon is small in size, has many seeds, white flesh, thick skin, hollow inside, and is not tasty at all.

After more than 200 years of improvement in the Academy, it gradually becomes larger, the skin becomes thinner, the flesh is plump, and the flesh is red and sweet.

"It's an exaggeration for such a melon to sell for 300 Wen. It's enough to buy four kumquat trees full of fruits. The Pingjiang Mansion Dongting Tangerine that is specially paid for as a tribute is only Yiguan."

Chai Cuiqiao, who was in charge of the family's money, dug up the watermelon with a spoon, and couldn't help muttering.

These are all melons grown in greenhouses. If you think it’s too expensive, I don’t think it’s too expensive.

This sentence subconsciously popped up in Li Ang's mind. He shook his head and said, "After all, it is the holy melon of Manichaeism. Every year, as soon as the fruit growers plant it, it will be bought by those Manichae temples in Chang'an City at a higher price."

"The Mani Temple is the Dayun Guangming Temple?"

Chai Cuiqiao thought for a while, "Why do they like eating melons so much?"

"Because of doctrine."

Li Ang said casually: "The Manichaeism, like the Jacko Sect, is a sect that originated from Persia. Its teachings believe that there are two forces of light and darkness in the world under the sky, and they compete with each other. If the light disappears, the darkness will grow, and if the darkness Long will disappear.

The present world is dark and bright,

And there are light factors in plants. As long as believers eat more vegetables and less meat, they can absorb the light factors and pass them to the kingdom of light through their own will, which can help the king of light return to the world, seal the darkness, and balance light and darkness.

And because melons have the most light factors, in the view of Manichaeism, the more melons you eat, the faster you can help the balance of light and darkness.

Eating melons is about saving the world.

The watermelon with the largest volume and the best taste has become their holy melon. "

Chai Cuiqiao opened her mouth in surprise and said, "Isn't this too tortuous?"

"Who said it wasn't?"

Li Ang ate a mouthful of watermelon, and said vaguely: "The Haotian Temple is the same. A long time ago, the Haotian Temple did not allow people to spread such things, and severely eliminated any beliefs that were not Haotian. Later, for some reason, the restrictions were relaxed.

As long as Haotian is recognized as supreme, some sects are allowed to exist.

That's why there are all kinds of strange teachings and world views.

Well, logically speaking, the Manichaeism should also award a saint honor to the agronomy professors in the academy, thanking them for improving such delicious holy melons. "

State of Yu is tolerant and open, but the status of the Academy is too high and too powerful, making it difficult for various sects to show aggressiveness in Chang'an.

Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Manichaeism and other barbarian religions all stayed in their respective squares honestly and dutifully. During the holidays, I will come out to give some eggs and vegetables to the neighbors.

Li Ang said casually: "Dayun Guangming Temple will hold a holy festival in autumn, and invite the citizens of Chang'an to eat melons for free. Those who eat the most melons will be rewarded with 100 coins."

"Eh?"

Chai Cuiqiao's face immediately showed eager expression.

"Forget it,"

Li Ang knew what she was thinking just by looking at her expression, and said casually: "The last champion was their saint, and she ate ten watermelons in one go.

To eat so much without being stuffed to death is probably a very talented practitioner.

It belongs to the champion of the melon-eating crowd. "

"That's it."

Chai Cuiqiao curled her lips in disbelief and said, "Practitioners still come to participate in the competition, isn't this bullying ordinary people.

How did you eat ten melons?"

After the two chatted and finished eating the watermelon, Chai Cuiqiao chopped up the skin of the watermelon and threw it into the garden.

Li Ang got up and went back to the study, took out the last silver ingot at home from the drawer, and put it two inches above the palm of his hand.

rustle--

Mosi stabbed out automatically, and was about to consume the silver ingot, but stopped suddenly in mid-air.

"call."

Li Ang took a deep breath, circulated his spiritual veins, and forced Moss to stop.

Mosi swayed on the palm of her hand for a while, unable to touch the silver ingot for a long time, and finally shrank slowly, retreating under the skin.

It worked.

Li Ang let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

After trying for more than a month, he gradually felt that Mosi would change slightly according to the direction of the spiritual energy in the spiritual vein.

"Think of my aura as an electric current, myself as a generator, and Mosi as a superconductor.

I can control Mosi to a certain extent by adjusting the trend of aura.

For example, it is attached to the bone and wraps the bone like a tempered mesh to increase the strength of the bone.

Or attach to muscles to strengthen strength and body.

Instead of relying entirely on instinct as before. "

Li Ang thought silently: "This process will continue to consume spiritual power, maybe in the future, the moss can be manipulated to pierce out of the body surface and evolve into various shapes.

Such as gloves, blades, chain hammers and so on.

But what can be done at the moment is to prevent Mosi from stabbing her palms and devouring the silver ingots.

If it is replaced with fine gold, I am afraid it will not work.

Mosi's desire to devour will be beyond the control of the spiritual energy. It is necessary to expand the sea of ​​​​qi and increase the total amount of spiritual energy. "

The kendo class using pure gold will be next month.

Running out of time.

Li Ang had tried to pull out the moss a long time ago, but this thing has been deeply parasitic in the skeletal muscles, and it is impossible to take it out with the current conditions.

Unless he stood in a giant mine full of pure gold, and let all the moss in his body crawl out of his own accord.

But in that case, can the skeletal muscles eroded by the moth still support him to live?

"In a sense, Moss is more vicious than parasites such as Guinea worm."

Li Ang shook his head, threw the silver ingot in his palm, and watched Mosi devour it.

The money in the family was running out. Aunt Song sent 1,500 guan from Weizhou, and Yu Miaoshui got 1,500 guan from a seller. It took 1,000 guan to buy gold and silver, and there were 500 guan left.

I don't know when the remaining 3,000 strings will be sent again.

"You can't sit and eat, you have to find a way to make money."

Li Ang was talking to himself, and took out a blank piece of paper from the drawer.

There are many ways to make money after entering the academy. Apart from the most basic drawing of talismans, the most direct and efficient way is to register a patent.

The Academy has always encouraged doctors, professors, disciples, and even ordinary Yu people to study things, delve into the principles of heaven and earth, and apply them to the world.

At the same time, the Academy also knew that research had no real benefits, and would only make Neo Confucianism the private property of a few wealthy and leisurely scholar-bureaucrats.

To this end, the Academy has set up a publication office and a patent office, and any inventions with special value can be registered for patents, and the Academy will negotiate with the big companies to fight for the interests of the inventors.

For example, Gongyang Deming, a doctor of engineering that Cheng Juxiu is currently studying with, has registered patents for drawings of dozens of ships, and can get 30,000 patent fees every year.

His disciples who assisted in the research also received considerable money.

"Patent theft is unavoidable, and there will always be small workshops secretly producing. But those companies that want to become bigger and stronger must pay the same amount of patent fees to the Academy every year, otherwise they will face lawsuits.

But in Yu State, if you want to go to court with Xuegong, it is purely to go to the toilet with a lantern - courting death. "

Li Ang silently thanked him for his status in the academy, and began to write and draw on the drawings.

"Master, what are you drawing?"

Chai Cuiqiao, who knocked on the door and came in, saw that Li Ang was writing furiously. She approached and stood beside the desk, tilting her head to look at the drawings, and asked curiously.

Li Ang replied casually: "Soap."

"what is that?"

"It's what our family uses for bathing every day."

Li Ang smiled slightly. There are many ways for the folks in the Yu country to clean their skin, such as rice washing water, saponins, and plant ash.

Wealthy people, in order to pursue the cleaning effect, will use bath beans—that is, what the scholar who married the prime minister's daughter ate by mistake.

Bath beans have different recipes. The most luxurious bath beans use white bean crumbs as the main ingredient, adding green wood, white sandalwood, rosin, musk, cloves and other spices to make it fragrant and pleasant.

Egg whites and pig pancreas that can moisturize the skin are also added.

It's expensive, cleans pretty well and smells so good it's no wonder it's mistaken for something edible.

And Xuegong, in fact, has made considerable improvements to Bath Bean,

Ingredients such as sugar, lard, pig pancreas, and spices are blended and ground in proportion, and heated and pressed to form a shape called "pancreas".

Its ingredients are fatty acid soaps, which are just one step away from full soap.

When Li Ang was still in Weizhou, he had already made some simple soap with plant ashes, and high-grade soap made of tallow and sheep oil, which was convenient for washing clothes and bathing at home, which made Chai Cuiqiao full of praise.

What he has to do now is to draw a complete technical drawing, register with Xuegong Patent Office, and earn a fortune.

"There is another reason, one of the products of soap technology, but glycerin..."