Spectrophotometer
She walked quickly, but he could still see the expression on her face, which was like a little white rabbit seeing a big grey wolf, frightened and flustered.
The day before yesterday she was still smiling and greeting him, but in just one day, she had changed beyond recognition.
He glanced at the gate of her residence in the morning and found Old Song was not there.
There were no other pedestrians on the road.
With a belly full of doubts, he slowly followed behind Zhang, walking for a while until they reached a fork in the road, where he turned towards the blacksmith's shop.
When I arrived at the blacksmith's shop, it hadn't opened yet.
He entered the shop through the back door of the blacksmith's shop, and the others in the blacksmith's shop were still asleep.
In the smelting room, the furnace fire was still slowly emitting a green flame, and next to the crucible was a pile of ore that Fei Long had found.
He walked up to the pile of ore, pulled out his phone, picked one up, opened it, opened the "Special Functions" folder, selected an app called "Spectroscopic Probe Meter", and clicked open.
A whirring sound of machinery rose, a beam of light that changed color constantly shot out from the camera on the back of the phone and scanned back and forth across the surface of the mineral.
Before long, a 3D image of the mineral shape was slowly built up on the mobile phone screen. As the scan went deeper, the 3D image gradually took on various colors.
Next to the screen, various colors representing elements and chemical substances are listed.
Red: corundum (34%); White: silicon dioxide (28%); Gray: manganese dioxide (30%); Black: tungsten trioxide (6%)...
After a while, a line of text popped up on the screen: "The remaining components account for about 3%, which is more complex. It may take a longer time to scan and analyze all of them. Do you want to continue analyzing?"
Zhenming bitterly clicked on the option to stop scanning.
At this time, Yu Zhong's voice sounded behind him: "Can you think of a way?"
Zhen Ming bitterly put the phone into his pocket, turned around and looked at Wei Chi Jing De standing by the door, smiling and said: "I was just thinking."
"Don't forget you've only got half a month left."
"I know."
Wei Chi Jing De's eyes stared at the small pile of black slag behind him, saying: "Zhu said you've been trying to smelt these fire-resistant minerals for days. Although this doesn't fall under the official jurisdiction, privately mining stones is a violation of criminal law."
"Could it be that you, Master Mo, want to report me to the authorities?"
Wei Chi Jing De lost his voice and laughed: "You are a member of my mining group, reporting you to the authorities will not benefit the mining group in any way. I just want to kindly remind you that you might end up unknowingly breaking the law and being imprisoned without knowing why. Actually, since my ancestors' generation, we have been searching for a method to smelt this fire-resistant ore, but unfortunately, we have never found the key. I don't believe anyone can find a way to smelt it within just one month. I advise you to look for another way."
Zhen Ming smiled bitterly and said, "If we don't try, how will we know that refining won't work? If one method doesn't work, maybe another one will. Right, I might have other things to attend to in the next few days, so I might not be able to come every day to report to you. I'd like to ask for a leave of absence."
Wei Chi Jing De said indifferently, "Whether you come to the blacksmith's shop or not is none of my business, but if you can't hand over what I want a month later, don't blame me for being ruthless."
……
When Zhen Ming came out of the Yuchi Ironwork Shop with a newly forged strange iron box in his arms, it was already past six o'clock in the afternoon.
The shops on both sides of Luoyang Street have closed one after another.
Zhen Ming had casually bought a few fragrant meat buns from a street stall and eaten them to fill his stomach, which had been empty all day. He then walked into a stationery store that was about to close.
"Boss, how much is this best paper?"
"Top-grade bamboo paper, one or two silver threads for three feet; ordinary mulberry bark paper, one or two silver threads for ten feet; inferior hemp paper, one or two silver threads for thirty feet. Which kind would you like, sir?"
Zhenming was so bitter that he almost suspected there was something wrong with his own ears, although he didn't know what this top-grade bamboo paper looked like, just looking at the price it was already close to catching up with a piece of silk.
"Why is this paper so expensive?"
"It's not expensive, our shop is a hundred-year-old store, my family has been making paper for generations, we value fairness in business, no cheating of the young or old, throughout Luoyang, our top-grade bamboo paper is unparalleled in quality and craftsmanship, unique to our family, there are no branches elsewhere, you won't find it anywhere else, consider yourself lucky to have come early, otherwise when those scholars arrive, I'm afraid you won't be able to buy any even if you want to."
The shopkeeper introduced while taking out what he called high-quality bamboo paper.
Compared with the smooth copperplate paper of the 21st century, this so-called high-quality bamboo paper is too coarse to even wipe one's buttocks.
Even the so-called high-quality paper is of this quality, let alone those low-quality papers. With no other choice, I had to buy two taels of silver for a few dozen sheets of top-grade bamboo paper, which was cut into sizes similar to that of a smartphone, and then packaged before leaving the store.
……
Out of the store, Zhenming reluctantly raised his head to look at the sky, it was almost time for Zhang's stall to close, carrying a pile of things, he walked towards the direction of Luoshui River in the south of the city.
By the Luo River, Zhang's tofu stall had already been packed up and was nowhere to be seen, nor was Zhang himself.
Looking at the empty stall, Zhenming felt inexplicably disheartened and a little lost. He sat on the riverbank, dazed for a while, then stood up, patted his butt, and headed home.
……
On the main street of Luoyang, people are walking hastily.
Every hundred meters on both sides of the street, there is an official notice board with some wanted and executed criminals' portraits. Except for gender, which is the only identifiable feature, even if the criminal himself stands in front of the portrait, no one can recognize him.
Apart from these pictures, the rest are all official notices praising the virtues of the emperor, embellishing the peace and prosperity of the world, and the abundance of food and clothing for the people.
Normally, I don't even have the interest to take a glance at these notices.
However, today when he passed by one of the billboards, he suddenly stopped, took a few steps back, returned to the billboard, and looked surprised.
On the bulletin board, a notice from the gang was posted on high-quality bamboo paper.
"Salt Guild Notice: A reward of 1,000 taels of silver to anyone who can provide information about the stolen silver chain that was robbed from the official two months ago."
One thousand two silver coins, at Luoyang's housing prices, this is the price of a large mansion, which is equivalent to winning the lottery.
He stared at this notice for a while, then reached out and tore it down, stuffing it into his bosom.
At this time, a notice board revealed an originally covered official announcement.
It was a painting of two people's portraits on inferior Xuan paper.
Under the portrait is written "Trafficking in women and children, a heinous crime, punishable by law", from the date signed above, it can be seen that these two were executed yesterday afternoon at 4 pm.
Zhen Ming swept a glance, didn't pay much attention, was about to turn around and leave, but stopped and looked towards the alley behind the notice board.
In the alley there is a row of food and rice shops, among which the largest "Wugongwang" shop has a big tree by its door, with a black little donkey tied to it.
He recognized the little donkey at a glance, and a hint of curiosity flashed in his eyes. He hesitated for a moment before turning around and walking towards the little donkey.
