Chapter 71: The Imperial Court's Envoy

  The first month has passed in the blink of an eye, and Wang Wu's body has gradually recovered. Although he still needs to use crutches, he no longer needs someone to support him like before. However, Wang Kuang knows that for the rest of his life, he will have to rely on crutches. Although Wang Kuang offered to get a wheelchair for Wang Wu, it was refused, saying that sitting in a chair is like being a useless person who still needs others to help lift him over the threshold when going out, which is not as convenient as using crutches. When Wang Kuang tactfully mentioned that his legs might only recover to this extent, Wang Wu did not become disheartened, but instead felt very satisfied, saying that compared to being bedridden in the past, it's much better and he doesn't dare to hope for more.

  During the Chinese New Year, Huang Da didn't come back, and Wang Kuang was a bit puzzled, but he couldn't ask too much, maybe something happened to him.

  After the first month, Ya Ge prepared to return to the grasslands with his luggage. Wang Kuang had originally set aside money for him to buy sheepskin blankets, but he refused it, saying that carrying money was too heavy and not safe, especially since the war had just ended a few years ago and the roads were still not very peaceful. Moreover, the sheepskin blankets on the grasslands weren't worth much money anyway, they were all homemade, and Wang Kuang had already brought him such great wealth, how could he ask for more money?

  When it comes to Ya Yuegen, Wang Kuang can't help but admire his hard work and diligence. Wang Kuang only taught him how to cook red and white lamb soup and mentioned that he could soak hu bing (a type of flatbread) in the lamb soup to eat. Ya Yuegen spent several months pondering and finally came up with the idea of lamb soup with bread, which became a popular dish. Eating a bowl of lamb soup with bread was equivalent to having both vegetables and staple food, so it also sold well in Jian'an. Some people tried to imitate it, but the key to the dish was the authentic lamb soup, so they couldn't replicate it.

  Since Ya Yue has already returned to the grassland, Wang Wu's body has also recovered, and he has repeatedly asked Wang Kuang for things to do. After living in Jian'an for several months, he became increasingly restless, feeling like a freeloader. Wang Kuang decided to take Gao San and the others to find Shi Tou.

  Wang Kuang was looking for a type of stone called grey granite, which is very uniform in texture and suitable in hardness and softness, once considered one of the best decorative stones. The location of the stone was clearly known to Wang Kuang, and later generations even listed it as one of the key projects in Fujian Province's "Eight-Five" plan, but for some reason, it was abandoned without further mention. At that time, it was publicized that if calculated at an extraction rate of 10%, the output value would be several billion US dollars (in the 1980s). Wang Kuang's later home was just on the south mountain opposite the large stone mine. So to find the stone mine, one must first find the South Mountain.

  According to Wang Kuang's memory, Nanshan is about 200 miles away from Jian'an (now in Pucheng County), and it is the highest mountain in Jian'an. Even now, very few people can climb to the top of Nanshan, which is still a primeval forest. Following the Jian Creek upstream, Wang Kuang spent three days finding the Jiang Creek mouth he remembered. The Jiang Creek mouth was not hard to find, with a small river flowing into the Jian Creek. At that time, there were only two or three households of hunters living in the Jiang Creek mouth. Wang Kuang asked a hunter to guide him and mentioned Nanshan, but it took another day's effort to find the stone mine. The stone mine was an open-pit mine; otherwise, Wang Kuang wouldn't have been so sure about finding the stones.

  Gao San held a piece of stone in his hand, which he had picked up from the stone wall, and was puzzled: "Xiao Dongjia, why did you run all the way here to get this stone? There are plenty of stones on the mountain outside Jian'an City." He didn't dare ask another question, which was how Xiao Dongjia knew the location of this southern mountain. Within tens of miles around here, except for a few hunting households, there were almost no human settlements. However, these things were not important to him; what mattered was that as long as it was something Xiao Dongjia wanted, it must be a good thing.

  "Just carry a few back and you'll know." Since they were making billiard balls, the stones didn't have to be too big, so Wang and Gao San went together to pick out thirty or forty stones about the size of two fists that had no cracks and uniform color. Because the color of the slate was basically consistent, if they wanted to make different colors for the billiard balls, it would have to be done with paint.

  They rushed back to Jian'an before sunset, and as soon as they arrived at the city gate, a waiter from an inn was looking around anxiously. Seeing Wang Kuang and Gao San in the distance, he ran over hastily: "Young Dong, we've been worried sick about you! Hurry up and go back to change your clothes!"

  "What's going on?" Wang Kuang saw that although his partner's face was flushed with urgency, it wasn't a panicked look, so he knew nothing bad had happened and didn't rush over, not even in this urgent moment.

  "The angel arrived on the third day after you left, and is now waiting at the provincial government office. We take turns every day to wait for you at the city gate. Today happens to be my shift, hehe, Steward Sun owes me ten cents."

  Angel? Isn't that just Li Lao Er's errand boy? So, it seems that the reclining chair and folding stool Huang Liang rushed to deliver earlier have come in handy. Looks like I'll be making a trip to Chang'an myself.

  "What's the hurry? From Chang'an to Jian'an, the road is bumpy, and it takes a few more days or half a month, what's the difference? Besides, don't you see that the sky is getting dark? The heavenly envoys don't need rest either." Wang Kuang was not in a hurry, at this time Li Lao'er had no major villains around him, as long as he served people well, it would be easy to talk.

  "Hey, aren't we happy for Xiao Dong's family? Don't worry, we deliver food to the county government every day, and there are big and small masters in the county government who take care of us. It's said that the heavenly messenger only urged them on the first day they came, and afterwards, they never mentioned it again." The partner was naturally happy, firstly because he won 20 cents from Sun today, secondly because even the emperor knew about Xiao Dong's family, and thirdly because he was the first to inform Xiao Dong's family. What a glorious thing! From now on, he had something to brag about. When he got old, he would gather his children and grandchildren around him, bask in the sun, and tell them about these glorious things related to Xiao Dong's family. How delightful!"

  Back home, Wang Kuang showed the stones he brought back to Wang Wu. Wang Wu knew that Wang Kuang wanted to grind stone balls, so he took a stone and ground it on the bluestone slab on the ground for a few times, closed his eyes and rubbed it for a while: "Good stone! If this stone is used, the stone ball you want from Xiao Dong's house will definitely work."

  "This is quite good, the stone is abundant, it's just that mining is a bit more troublesome and the road is far away, making transportation difficult. Fortunately, not much is needed. Also, in the future, we might need to grind a large stone slab, which requires grinding to be extremely flat, but there are no specific requirements for the stone material, and it can be mined from the mountains outside Jian'an City.

  Wang Kuang was also not worried, after all, a set of billiard balls only had sixteen balls, and snooker only had twenty-two balls. Originally, the ball table could have been made with thick hardwood, but wood would inevitably change shape over time, even if that change was imperceptible to the naked eye, which would greatly affect the trajectory of the rolling balls.

  Billiards, due to its difficulty in production and high cost, is destined to be a noble game in this era. Who among ordinary people can afford to buy a billiard table?"

  After handing over the billiard ball, Wang Kuang didn't care about it anymore. The jade carver had his own way of doing things and didn't need him to worry. As for checking whether the stone balls were consistent and round enough, Wang Kuang also had his own method. It was just that the large stone slab might require some effort. If it were in a later era, grinding a flat surface with an error precision of one thread (one-tenth of a millimeter) would be easy for even a seventh- or eighth-grade craftsman to do without relying on mechanical equipment, purely by hand. Anyway, he knew the method himself, and if Wang Wu couldn't grind it out at that time, he could just remind him then. The billiard table didn't need such high precision, and he believed Wang Wu should be able to grasp it quickly. Now saying this was simply showing distrust in the other person's craftsmanship.

  Huang Liang and Lin Ming had already informed the inn that if Wang Kuang returned, they would notify him immediately. Therefore, just as Wang Kuang finished washing up and was about to eat, someone from Huang Fu arrived, saying that Wang Kuang was invited to drink wine. However, Wang Kuang understood that this was likely an informal gathering arranged by Huang Liang before the formal transmission of Li Lao Er's decree tomorrow. Since there were heavenly envoys present, he couldn't just go as casually as before. Fortunately, Fulu Inn had already learned Wang Kuang's three-boiled and three-steamed plus one-smoked braising technique, which they prepared every day in case of unexpected needs. If not needed, it would naturally end up in their own stomachs. Moreover, the two days prior, they had only sent ordinary braised dishes to the heavenly envoys, knowing that the best ones should be personally delivered by Wang Kuang when he arrived, making them more precious.

  So Wang Kuang didn't need to prepare much, just changed into a new robe, had someone carry a few jars of chili sauce, and carried his own food box to go. The other food had already been sent to the provincial government office. These past few days, Kuang Da and Wang Shifu were busy and happy, the food they sent over received praise from the heavens, this time it was even more exaggerated, and the number of people coming to Fugui Kezhan to drink wine increased. Sun Zhanggui had already begun planning whether or not to hire a few more chefs, while Sun Mingqian had already started sending people to nearby counties to find suitable places to prepare for opening branch stores.

  When he was about to leave, Wang suddenly remembered that he had seen golden tangerines (about the size of soybeans) at a hunter's house in Jiang Creek, which were effective for respiratory diseases. Afraid that he would forget after drinking wine in the evening, he instructed Gao San to ride a fast horse early the next morning to buy some back, no matter how many, as they had other uses too. After walking two steps, he thought again and also asked Sun Er to post an advertisement on the bulletin board at the entrance to purchase bee honey, as golden tangerines needed to be soaked in ice sugar and bee honey. Now that the first month has passed, new honey will not be available until summer, and the time for harvesting winter honey has already passed several months ago. Ordinary families may also have limited stock, so if they don't collect it early, they might not be able to get any later. After walking two more steps, he thought of preparing a jar, boiling it with water, and then putting it under the sun to dry for two days.

  Sun Er saw Wang Kuang walk two steps and then turn back to hand over things, then walked two steps and turned back to hand over again. He simply stood still and waited for Wang Kuang to think of everything at once and deal with it. Wang Kuang saw that after he had handed over, Sun Er was still standing there motionless, and laughed: "Alright, the important matters are just these."

  Division

  Chapter 2 is uploaded, just these two chapters for today, will continue to work hard and strive to fully adapt as soon as possible.

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