XH 275 - We need more water

"Yes, yes! I love it!" Xiao Hua exclaimed like a happy buyer while the seller Heise was happy at her obvious delight on her face.

"So this is the place you choose?" Heise confirmed, but very sure that this transaction will be in his bag.

"Absolutely! This is it!" Xiao Hua eyed the flowing water filling the large bathing pool. Only when it will be used will the servants let the water flow in.

No one in Guilin would claim they have the largest bathing pool because the title was reserved for the Emperor. Heise had only used it once but found it to be boring, so he left it to gather dust.

"Good, good!" Heise nodded happily. "I will have a servant bring more tea leaves for you! Start brewing! The faster we purify the contaminated area, the lesser damage there will be!"

The Minister of Work and Minister of Revenue were already feeling the urge to faint from the amount of rework needed to be done and money to make it happen. Especially when the damage was ongoing!

"Got it!" Xiao Hua had Duan XiYing help her to roll her sleeves up and pining it up with clips that were used to hang clothes up to dry.

Fortunately, those injured in the palace were all cured by her tea, and she will only need to brew for the injured commoners and purify the contaminated areas. Just like the black mist could spread around a person's injury, it was the same for the contaminated buildings and lands.

It needs a lot of tea to purify non-living things that do not have any immune system or self-healing.

"We will also need to make some for the Bai Hu Kingdom," Heise added.

"Oh." Xiao Hua looked distracted. "More work for me then."

She had learned that the other three kingdoms were similarly attacked by demons. She silently decided that the words uttered by her husband must not be known to anyone, or he will be cursed as one with a crow mouth.

Qiang Laohu knew who this audacious girl was, with her still in her wedding attire. Although he, Feng Jiu, and Wugui Mingzhi have a good relationship with Long Zhu, they choose not to attend his wedding. It was to avoid their relationship being dissected by the public that had not known they were close friends.

In other people's eyes, it was just a wedding of a mere Guilin Prince, not the Emperor himself. It was not worth it for their kingdom's celestial beast's vassals to waste their time and risk their safety to attend the wedding of another Kingdom.

If Qiang Laohu and the others were asked if they regret not attending Long Zhu's wedding, they will answer they do not. Their absence was actually a good decision, for it allowed them to be in their Kingdom and deal with the attack in a timely manner.

"Thank you, Emperor of Guilin. After this matter is settled, we will discuss the compensation."

"You are right. It is still too early to discuss compensation." Heise subtly hinted that the danger had not completely passed, and they might need help from the Bai Hu Kingdom.

Qiang Laohu grinned. "I like the way you think."

"You should prepare buckets from your Kingdom," Heise reminded. "The buckets here are only for Guilin to use."

The grin evolved into loud laughter that revealed his strong looking teeth. "My Kingdom has plenty of large and sturdy buckets! Don't complain if my buckets took most of the medicine!"

"Oh?" Xiao Hua's ear twitched and her head turned to Qiang Laohu's direction. "You got big, large, and tough buckets? Show me one!"

"If it's as sturdy as you claim, we want fifty of it! The payment can be deducted from the price of the medicine!" Heise sounded just like a rich CEO. Not only that, but the slight tilt of his chin was also full of easy-going confidence of his own worth was very much a trait of a CEO.

"Those are easily made and cheap, not worth much money. I can give you fifty of them for free! I will get them now!" Qiang Laohu quickly used his teleportation skill and disappeared into thin air.

"...Wow, he's surprisingly a rather nice guy," Xiao Hua strangely felt a little guilty and her first impression of Qiang Laohu bullying Long Zhu was wiped clean from her memory storage.

"Hey, he offered it for free himself after hearing my offer. We did nothing wrong!" Heise quickly retorted like a scumbag rich kid.

"Don't your conscience hurt for cheating a good kid's money?"

"... Shut up! Stop talking and work harder!"

"Work harder, my ass! The water flow is too slow!" Xiao Hua snapped and flung a fistful of tea leaves into the pool. "Make the hole bigger if you can!"

"F*ck!" Heise turned to a male servant nearby. "Summon the Minister of Work over!"

"Did you not ask the Minister to quickly build the safe camp for the injured?" Xiao Hua had known of it thanks to Prince Heng, who was supposed to deliver the planning documents outlining what needed to be done by the Minister of Works department.

Prince Heng had gone to help out the Minister of Works with the building after sending Xiao Hua to Heise.

The male servant that was called by the Emperor trembled and lowered his head even more. Should he go now or should he not?

The other servants moved their hands and feet quicker, fear of getting involved in their masters' argument. In their heart, they were even more amazed by the Third Princess Consort for having this much guts to talk to the Emperor that way.

Perhaps the rumour of their Emperor treating Madam Bai Hua as his sister was true.

"That is not as important as creating medicine! Call the minister over immediately!" Heise roared and the male servant quickly ran to do as he commanded.

Xiao Hua frowned as she looked at the fleeing servant. "Why do you scold people..."

"Shut up!"

"Why do you scold me!"

"Why can't I scold you!"

"A person that only knows how to order people have no right to scold hardworking people!" Xiao Hua retorted self-righteously.

"Shut up! Someone, call two fire elementalist to come here! Have them drop everything and come immediately!" Heise ordered a nearby female servant.

The female servant bowed and similarly ran out quickly.

"What do you want from the fire department?" Xiao Hua stared at Heise, puzzled.

"To boil the water! Who knows how many bacteria are in it! It's pardonable to have people die from the black mist or severe injury, but it's idiocy to die from bacteria when their wounds were healed!"

Xiao Hua's hand that was tossing tea leaves into the bathing pool jerked. She had not boiled the water used to brew tea...

Boiling water was an action completely forgotten by Xiao Hua, whose mind had started thinking of brewing tea medicine as a means to purify the black mist instead of being a clean, drinkable tea.

F*ck! (；⌣̀_⌣́)

Hiding the guilt in her eyes from being seen, she lowered her head and focused on brewing more tea, a picture of a hardworking person.

The more water was added into the pool, the more diluted the tea would be. She does not know if the effects would be diluted as well, but just in case, she keeps on adding tea leaves. She has plenty of cheap tea leaves she had plucked from the Bai land, whose original purposes were for her training.

Instead of the Minister of Works that arrived first, it was the two fire elementalist that arrived first.

"... Empress Dowager? Princess?"

Towards the baffled Xiao Hua, Duan XiYing explained, "The Empress Dowager is the better fire elementalist than most fire elementalist we could gather now~ And Princess is an apt student of King of Munzhu~"

...Please pardon this young lady's defenceless mind from slipping down the dirty slope for two seconds.

"Empress Dowager, this matter should be left to others. You have pushed yourself hard without resting," Heise voiced his concern like a filial son.

"How can I rest when I could help. Say no more and let me help. Heating up water does not strain my body." The Empress Dowager strode towards the bathing pool, not waiting for Heise to come up with more reason to stop her.

Long Lian helped her mother by holding onto her arm as they walked. The princess offered Xiao Hua a small, comforting smile, with Xiao Hua similarly offered back.

Heise sighed since he understood they would be a great help. "If you are tired, do not hesitate to have others take over while you have a break."

Boiling water helps in killing the bacteria and also to extract the full benefit from the tea leaves, which will help quicken the brewing process. However, one would usually be more careful when lifting hot water and it makes the transportation process slower.

Thankfully, Da Bei was able to cool down the boiling water with his chilly spiritual energy after they were moved into buckets, and the transporters would no longer need to be afraid of scalding themselves.

Duan Xi Ying, just like Xiao Hua, does not have mastery over any element, so she focused on helping random tasks, but within reach around Xiao Hua to keep an eye on her safety.

"Your Majesty!" The Minister of Works hurried into the bathing room, sweating from his running. "This official deserves to be punished for being late!"

Heise bit his mouth to stop himself from scolding the loyal minister for being a fool to ask for punishment at this time. "I want you to have someone, possibly an earth user, to make the water hole to be bigger! Add in a few more holes too! We need more water!"