"Ah Che, what are you up to?" Mu Fengqie asked as soon as she returned from outside and saw Jing Xunche instructing his men to look for something.
"Qie'er, you're back. I'm looking for Mu Nan. I need to talk to him about something." It wasn't really a big deal. He was just used to relying on Mu Nan in daily matters.
"Oh, I'm back late. I was just about to tell you that Mu Nan and Lü Yun have returned to the village. Lü Yun learned about the situation of Tule Hao Jia, but she needs to go back to the village to inquire." Mu Fengqie explained to Jing Xunche. She couldn't let Mu Nan get punished because of this.
"I see." No wonder he had sent people to look for Mu Nan for a long time but couldn't find him. Truly, once a subordinate gets married, they're like spilled water and don't even bother to tell him when they leave.
"By the way, has the King of the Grasslands shown any signs of activity recently?" Lü Yun had said that there was a mother worm among those poisonous insects, so they couldn't just sit back and wait. They had to find the mother worm as soon as possible.
"That's what puzzles me too. The King of the Grasslands has been extremely quiet these days and hasn't done anything." He suspected that this was the calm before the storm.
"Keep an eye on him. Maybe we'll discover something new." Mu Fengqie also thought this was the calm before the storm. She just didn't know what big move the King of the Grasslands was planning.
"By the way, Ah Che, are you busy these days?" Mu Fengqie looked at Jing Xunche and asked.
"No, I'm not. Why do you ask?" The King of the Grasslands hadn't caused any trouble recently, and Yuan Yuhan was keeping things in check in the court, so he had been quite idle.
"Come on. I'll teach you how to make explosives." In case he was in danger in the future, he could use them to protect himself.
Jing Xunche was very interested in the explosives Mu Fengqie had mentioned, but he hadn't expected her to share the method of making them with him. Such a powerful weapon was usually better kept secret, as the more people who knew about it, the faster the secret recipe would be leaked.
"Qie'er, you..." Jing Xunche wanted to stop her at first, but when Mu Fengqie gave him a look, he obediently shut up.
"I know what you're going to say. This kind of thing isn't very useful to me, but if there's a war in the future and I'm not around, you can find someone to make it. However, it's best to find several people and have each of them be responsible for only one part. This way, you can prevent the secret recipe from being stolen."
Jing Xunche felt warm inside as he watched Mu Fengqie chattering away and thinking about him. To have a wife like this, what more could a man ask for?
"Okay, I understand."
Mu Fengqie led Jing Xunche to the room where she usually stored sundries. Although it was called a storage room, it was just a disguise. The things inside were all valuable items. Mu Fengqie regarded this place as a restricted area and didn't allow anyone to enter.
"These here are the leftovers from the last time I made something. They're still quite useful and can be used to make firecrackers. They won't hurt anyone. And these over here..." Mu Fengqie showed Jing Xunche around the room and explained everything one by one.
Finally, she got back to the main point. "Last time, due to time constraints, I asked you to buy ready - made materials. But the purity of those materials was not high, so the explosives had very little killing power. If you want to make more powerful explosives, you have to grind the materials by hand."
Mu Fengqie led Jing Xunche to a large stone mill. Pointing at the debris on the mill, she said, "This is the unprocessed explosive residue. Now you need to grind these debris into a very fine powder."
By "very fine powder," she meant something even finer than fine sand. Otherwise, it would affect the power of the explosive.
Jing Xunche listened to Mu Fengqie's instructions, looked at the stone mill, and without a word, took off his outer robe, rolled up the sleeves of his inner clothes, and started to push the mill.
Qie'er must have pushed this mill before. How did such a thin person manage to do it?
Mu Fengqie watched Jing Xunche pushing the mill in circles without showing the slightest bit of impatience. This made her very happy. It seemed that Jing Xunche was quite patient.
Finally, after Jing Xunche had pushed the mill dozens of times, Mu Fengqie stopped him. She looked at the debris on the mill. It was almost fine enough. Mu Fengqie led Jing Xunche to sift the debris through an hourglass and threw the larger residues aside.
"These debris have been dried in the sun. When you make explosives in the future, you must dry them in advance, preferably under direct sunlight. This way, the debris will dry out." Mu Fengqie touched the dry debris and said.
"Okay, I'll remember." Jing Xunche remembered every word Mu Fengqie said and never forgot them.
Mu Fengqie scooped up a basin of debris and led Jing Xunche to a large cauldron in the yard.
"Pour everything in. Don't add any water. Just stir - fry it over the fire." Mu Fengqie said as she started the fire and directed Jing Xunche. Fortunately, Jing Xunche was quick at his work and soon completed all the tasks Mu Fengqie had assigned.
"I'll tell you what to do next. You do it." The following steps were the most important part, so Jing Xunche had to do them himself to master the skills more quickly.
"Okay." Jing Xunche knew that the most crucial part was coming, so he mustered up all his energy.
Mu Fengqie explained the steps one by one, and Jing Xunche's hands moved very quickly. When it came to the last step, Mu Fengqie suddenly moved away from Jing Xunche, her eyes full of caution.
Jing Xunche was confused by Mu Fengqie's action. "Qie'er, what's wrong?" Did he make a mistake in the steps? No way. He had clearly followed what Qie'er had said. There couldn't be a mistake.
"It's nothing. Now it's the last step, which is to open the cauldron. You can lift the lid." Mu Fengqie estimated the distance between them and thought it was a safe area, so she felt relieved.
Jing Xunche looked at Mu Fengqie, not understanding why she had moved so far away from him, but he didn't think much about it. He excitedly and slowly lifted the lid of the cauldron. Before he could even look inside, he was choked by the black fumes from the cauldron.
"Cough... Qie'er, what's going on?" It seemed that he had failed.
Mu Fengqie couldn't help but burst out laughing at Jing Xunche's embarrassed appearance. Jing Xunche knew from Mu Fengqie's reaction that she had known he would fail but didn't tell him just to watch him make a fool of himself.
What could Jing Xunche do when he saw Mu Fengqie laughing so happily? He could only spoil his own wife.
"Qie'er, you're still laughing at me." Jing Xunche looked at the black stuff on his hands and didn't give Mu Fengqie a chance to react. He directly smeared it on her face.
Just now, her face had turned pink from laughing so hard, but now it was completely black because of Jing Xunche.
"Jing Xunche, you're dead meat!" Mu Fengqie glared at Jing Xunche, then ran to the cauldron and touched the debris inside.