CHAPTER 1556: CHAPTER 1531: ENDURANCE

Perhaps considering the emperor’s health, the political affairs discussed today were relatively peaceful, even Wei Zhi rarely smiled at the emperor.

Seeing this, the emperor became greedy and let the Crown Prince handle most of the affairs, while he secretly went to see the parrot in the corridor, teaching it to speak for half an hour before leaving contentedly.

He did not hide his actions from Wei Zhi.

Wei Zhi silently endured after knowing, which made the emperor quite happy, but then he suffered the consequences of overjoy.

At lunch, the emperor felt his throat ache more, and after eating a piece of meat, he found it difficult to swallow, and his head began to feel dizzy.

The Empress noticed something was wrong, quickly reached out to feel his forehead, finding it even hotter than in the morning, and hurriedly sent for Director Xiao.

Director Xiao didn’t expect the emperor’s condition to worsen while on medication and quickly administered medicine to lower his temperature.

The emperor was unable to handle state affairs in the afternoon. The Crown Prince wandered over, seeing his father furrowed his brows while sleeping, could only return to the front hall to work for him silently.

Manbao knew nothing about all these. Don’t be fooled by how well-informed the ministers are; it’s because the palace insiders want them to know the news that they learn so quickly.

And not wanting Mingda and Changyu to worry, the Empress didn’t let the palace people inform them about the emperor having another high fever.

That morning, when they separated, the Empress did not allow them to go to the main hall again, she said, "Mingda is already frail, Changyu is also quite young. Don’t catch the illness; for these two days, study with your teacher, stay with your sisters-in-law, and wait until your father recovers before paying respects."

Because the emperor was in good spirits during breakfast, and even joked with them, they did not think it was a serious illness; soon, they forgot about it and focused on making ointments instead.

The Crown Princess’s position made it even more inappropriate to mention.

So while the main hall worriedly brewed medicine, the side hall was happily brewing ointments.

Manbao added honey and mutton tallow to the two ointments, and after cooling, they were done.

They took out the ointments, uncovered them, and Manbao applied a bit on her hand, happily saying to the others, "I think we did it right, the fragrance of the ointment is quite pleasant. Next time, we could try adding some strongly scented flower juices; it might even have floral scents."

Mingda said, "That’s a great idea. Aren’t you quite fond of those flowers and grasses in the garden? I think the smell of fresh grass is nice too, maybe you could add grass juice?"

Changyu thought about it, shivered and refused, "Wouldn’t that be greenish? What about applying it on the face? No, thank you."

The Crown Princess also refused.

Because of the Empress’s instructions, they made more of this time’s ointment, equivalent to twice the previous amount.

After looking at it, Manbao said, "I want to dig up three jars."

Mingda and Changyu had also scraped off some to apply on their faces these two days, and both felt they looked better, so they said, "I want a jar too."

Manbao took out six small wooden jars from her medical box, while Mingda and others took out their porcelain jars, placing them next to Manbao’s wooden jars, waiting for her to scoop.

Manbao scooped for them first, and after filling the porcelain jars, said, "Use it sparingly, be careful of pimples."

Mingda and Changyu cheerfully agreed, saying, "We’ll make more next time."

They found it quite fun to do this.

The palace maids, with a whiff of smoke on them, thought, isn’t it fun?

The princesses only had to occasionally pound the herbs a little and add some firewood; most of the work was done by them, and the stove was watched by them too.

Manbao also thought it was fun, mainly because this time making the ointment was not like making it with Shopkeeper Zheng, where she had to watch continually; she only had to do some key steps, not very time-consuming.

The Crown Princess did not know the ointment would be ready at this time, not having experience, she was sending someone to fetch porcelain jars, and turning around saw Manbao scooping ointment into her wooden jars. She couldn’t help but ask, "Why do you need so much?"

Manbao said, "These are for my Second Sister-in-law and Third Sister-in-law, this is for my Sixth Brother, this one is for Grandma Liu and Auntie Zheng, and I plan to try this one myself."

The Crown Princess finally understood why she was so willing to teach Mingda and Changyu how to make ointment.

The palace maid soon brought the porcelain jars, and the Crown Princess handed them to Manbao.

Manbao scooped a portion of the nourishing ointment for her, leaving only about one-fifth of the big jar.

Manbao thought it left the jar too empty, so she asked Mingda, "Do you have a larger, prettier porcelain jar?"

Mingda had a maid go find one, and it was soon found.

Manbao scraped all the ointment with a wooden stick, covered it, and handed it to Mingda with a smile: "Please give it to the Empress on my behalf."

After all, making this nourishing ointment this time was at the Empress’s behest, wasn’t it?

Mingda happily took it, then looked at another jar with about two-thirds acne ointment left, and asked, "What about this?"

Manbao curiously asked, "Don’t you want this ointment?"

Changyu said, "We don’t have acne on our faces."

"Actually, it’s not only for acne. Like the nourishing ointment, it also has moisturizing effects, although the nourishing ointment can also whiten the skin, the acne ointment fades acne marks and tightens the skin."

Mingda and Changyu weren’t very interested.

Manbao was slightly disappointed.

This formula she had painstakingly improved; why did no one like it?

Seeing Manbao’s disappointed face, Mingda whispered, "Why don’t you leave me a jar?"

Manbao immediately brightened up, nodding eagerly, "Yes, yes."

So she scooped a large portion for Mingda.

With no one else wanting the remaining ointment, and herself having decided to make it, Manbao thought for a while, then hugged the whole jar, "I’ll take the rest."

The medicinal herbs used in this are pretty precious. She intended to seal it up and store it in the cellar when she returned, letting her Sixth Brother use it slowly, hopefully, her Sixth Brother’s face hadn’t healed yet.

Zhou Liulang didn’t know his sister was thinking about the pimples on his face. He was standing in the warehouse with Zhou Wulang, inspecting the provision rice they got.

He rubbed the rice in his hands and said, "Not bad, with this, our family doesn’t need to buy rice, we can even supply the restaurant."

"True," Zhou Wulang’s eyes sparkled, "I thought seeing that money yesterday was hardly anything. Manbao can earn five liang of silver at Jishi Hall, which exchanges to six thousand copper coins. But her holding two positions being only six thousand coins; seeing the rice, I realized the court is really generous with the provision rice."

Zhou Liulang was also happy. With this, their restaurant almost didn’t need to buy rice, and there might even be leftovers.

He started planning, "If there are surplus rice grains, we should make rice wine, it’s delicious too; now it’s midsummer, the perfect time for rice wine."

Zhou Wulang was skeptical, "Do you know how to make it?"