Chapter 126: Poisoning (6)
Translator: bjgoofy
When I walked out of the Guest Hall where Wisdom Dragon was staying and headed toward my quarters, Hwa-eun fell into step behind me and asked.
"What are you going to make for them, Soryong?"
I had said I would make something they needed, but back inside, I hadn't told everyone exactly what it was.
Part of me wanted it to be a surprise gift, and part of me just couldn't bring myself to announce outright that I was making lipstick so they could kiss to their hearts' content.
With this sort of thing, the best approach was always to slip it over quietly with a little wink.
'You know what this is, right? It's from the heart. Take care of yourselves, relax, and enjoy... until your front teeth fall out.'
That was the sentiment I wanted to put into it.
I had considered keeping it secret from Hwa-eun until it was finished, but I needed her help, so I decided to tell her what I was making.
It felt a bit wrong to keep secrets between us anyway.
"Ah, I'm going to make a rouge that's non-toxic and good for the lips. When it comes to a man and a woman together.... well, restraint isn't exactly something you can will into existence."
"I, I see. That, that would certainly be something the two of them need."
Hwa-eun rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand, her face burning.
Still rubbing her cheek as she followed me, Hwa-eun asked again in a cautious voice.
"But Soryong, did you actually know how to make something like that?"
"Ah, you mean rouge?"
"Yes."
As if I really knew how to make it. The ingredients were rattling around in my head, so I was just going to wing it.
We would have to depart tomorrow or the day after, so I decided to get moving right away.
"Yes, well, I know roughly how. But I'll need to get the ingredients. Is there anywhere to buy medicinal materials?"
"If it's medicinal materials, you could get them from the Medical Hall inside the Murim Alliance. If you ask Strategist Zhuge Hu, I'm sure he'd provide them, wouldn't he?
I mean, it, it's for the two of them, after all. It's a way of preventing further poisoning, too...."
Right. It wasn't exactly a cure, but it was a kind of preventive measure.
It was a little late in the evening, but I decided to go see Elder Zhuge Hu, the Strategist, right away and ask for permission.
As Hwa-eun said, since it was medicine for his nephew, I figured he would probably let us have the ingredients.
"You want to use some medicinal materials?"
"Yes, how should I put this? Anyway, I'm trying to make some medicine for the two of them...."
The sun was setting, but Elder Zhuge Hu was still planted in his office chair, wrestling with a mountain of paperwork.
When I asked him for the ingredients, explaining it was medicine for his nephew, the Strategist readily agreed to write me a letter.
"Medicine? Then of course you must make it! I'll write you a letter. Take it to the Medical Hall. Show them the letter and ask, and they'll give you what you need."
"Thank you, Elder."
"Don't thank me. You're looking after my nephew, so I'm the one who should be grateful. Now, come here."
Carrying the letter he had written, Hwa-eun and I entered the Medical Hall, where a familiar face greeted us.
It was Wongyu, the medical officer dispatched from the Tang Family.
"My lady? What brings you here?"
"Ah, Soryong is making some rou... I mean, some medicine."
"Soryong is?"
Wongyu tilted his head at the notion that I was making medicine.
When I showed him the letter from the Strategist, his skeptically tilted head shifted to a nod.
"Ah, so it's medicine that Wisdom Dragon needs? If there's anything you require, just say the word. I'll prepare it."
'Let me see, what goes into lipstick again.... The first thing that comes to mind is.... Ah! Right, pearls!'
As I racked my brain, the very first ingredient that surfaced was pearl.
"Do you happen to have any pearls?"
"Pearls, you say?"
"You're using pearls? Soryong?"
"Yes, I need some of those...."
'Pearls are the best thing you can put in lipstick. Shimmering lips. What's not to love?'
In my previous life, pearl was an ingredient in all kinds of cosmetics.
From foundation to lipstick to BB cream, pearl was added to an incredibly wide range of products.
When you put pearl in, it gave everything a subtle shimmer, and they called that Pearl Bright.
And if something contained pearl, it felt luxurious by default; the mere fact that pearl was an ingredient made people go for it.
If a gift had pearl in it, there was no finer gift to be found.
"We do have some. Just a moment, please."
I had heard that pearls were once used as a medicinal ingredient, so when I asked if they had any, Wongyu looked slightly surprised before nodding.
The medical officer named Wongyu went to the back, exchanged a few words with someone, and returned carrying an elegant medicine chest.
-Click.
When the chest opened, inside lay natural pearls of various colors.
I scooped out a generous handful of the lighter-colored ones, and Wongyu's eyes went wide.
"Th-that many?"
"Is that a problem?"
"N-no, not at all."
"Ah, and could I trouble you for a mortar and pestle as well?"
"Of course, Soryong."
'The most important ingredient, the pearls, is secured. Next.... ah, that's the one.'
With the base ingredient ready, there was one more thing I needed as an additive.
"Do you happen to have any earthworm?"
"Earthworm?"
"Earthworm?"
"Yes, I need the oil and powder from it."
The earthworm I was asking for wasn't Wisdom Dragon lying bedridden, but actual earthworms. Earthworm oil and extract made an excellent moisturizer, which was why I wanted to include it. [TL Note: "Earthworm" (地龍, jirong) and "Wisdom Dragon" (智龍, jirong) are homophones in Korean, both pronounced "jirong."]
Even in my previous life, they said earthworm was used as a lipstick ingredient.
'Since I'm making this for Wisdom Dragon, it's only natural that earthworm goes in.'
"Of course we have some. One moment."
A large medicine chest packed with dried earthworms was produced immediately, and the next things I requested were honey and aromatic herbs.
"I need some bee honey and some fragrant herbs, the kind used in fragrance sachets. What scent do people in the Central Plains like most?"
"Hmm.... cinnamon tree, Soryong. It's the most common ingredient women put in their fragrance sachets. Cinnamon tree."
'Is that Hwa-eun's preference?'
Hwa-eun chimed in with her opinion in response to my muttering.
Having received basic training in fragrances at the Tang Family, I could identify several scents, and now that I thought about it, the subtle fragrance that always lingered around Hwa-eun was cinnamon tree as well.
I decided to go with Hwa-eun's preference.
I would be making plenty, so I planned to share some with Hwa-eun too.
'I also, well, ahem... want to live a long life, you know.'
"Then I'll ask for some dried cinnamon tree, please."
"Bee honey and cinnamon tree. I can't even begin to guess what kind of medicine this is."
A short while later, all the ingredients were prepared, and I decided to entrust the mixing to Wongyu.
I could do it myself, but I needed to go find the most important ingredient.
And frankly, he would probably do a better job than me anyway.
"I'll explain the general method for making the medicine, so could you help me with it? I've actually never made it myself before."
"Pardon? What on earth kind of medicine is this?"
"How should I put it? Ah! That's it! A salve!"
Now that I thought about it, the closest thing to lipstick was a salve.
At my words, Wongyu bobbed his head thoughtfully.
"Ah.... if it's a salve, then the combination does make some sense. Earthworm is good for jaundice, promotes blood circulation, and detoxifies. And then pearl powder on top of that. Pearl treats boils and skin ailments.
And honey gives the skin a healthy glow, so if it's a salve for the skin, that tracks. Cinnamon tree is also effective at dispersing blood stasis....
So it must be a medicine that works well on bruises, I take it?
But come to think of it, Wisdom Dragon didn't seem to have any bruises. Perhaps the salve is meant to draw out toxins from the body?"
Wongyu nodded to himself, finding it all rather plausible.
He had been off on his own flight of fancy when something suddenly occurred to him, and he asked with a curious expression.
"By the way, Soryong, didn't you say this medicine was for Wisdom Dragon?"
"Yes, what about it?"
"There's one thing that concerns me slightly...."
'What is it? I just told him to throw things together off the top of my head. Is there some kind of toxicity?'
I was no medical professional, and I had just told him to mix things as they came to mind. But through the eyes of a trained physician, something evidently gave him pause.
I looked at him as if to say "go on," and Wongyu scratched his head.
"Honey has the property of invigorating the body and, well, enhancing virility.... Ahem.... Since the gentleman has not yet had his wedding ceremony.... And considering that the two of them have already had that kind of... incident.... Ahem...."
'Honey has that kind of effect?!'
Hearing him out, it did sound a bit risky. But Wisdom Dragon was the kind of man who was practically a lizard, the very creature used to make chastity marks.
I decided to trust him on this one.
There was nothing else I could substitute for the honey anyway.
Honey had excellent moisturizing properties and prevented spoilage, making it the finest cosmetic ingredient there was.
At worst, the side effect of eating too much lipstick would merely be that Strategist Zhuge Hu's grandnephew arrived a little sooner than expected.
"We'll just have to trust that Wisdom Dragon is a man of virtue. Ahem."
"I, I suppose so. Anyway, what's the method?"
"Ah, right. The method is roughly as follows. First, grind the pearls into a fine powder, then add the earthworm powder. Eight parts pearl, two parts earthworm.
Then add the rendered oil from the earthworms, the honey, and the ground cinnamon tree, and mix it all together.
Three parts earthworm oil to seven parts honey. The herb powder is to mask any unpleasant odor and give it a pleasant scent, so just enough for a subtle fragrance.
Everything must be ground truly fine, until no grains are visible. I'll be going to find the last ingredient, so I'll leave this in your hands.
Once you have it ready, I just need to mix in the final ingredient I bring back."
"Understood. Leave it to me! I'll stay up all night if I have to and have it finished!"
I left the eager Wongyu behind and stepped outside, where Hwa-eun asked me.
"There's still another ingredient you need?"
"Yes, the most important ingredient is still missing."
"The most important?"
"The ingredient to give the rouge its color."
"Ah, of course. The pearl grinding made me forget for a moment."
I couldn't say I knew the exact ingredients of modern lipstick, but I could safely guess it would contain fragrance, moisturizer, and dye.
Wongyu would mix and prepare all the other ingredients, so what we needed now was the dye.
"Red isn't exactly a common color. Do you already have something in mind? Safflower isn't in season, and I assume you won't be using cinnabar, so you must have something else?"
Of course, just as Hwa-eun guessed, I had an ingredient in mind.
Whatever else I might not know, that was the very first thing that had come to me.
That was precisely why I had offered to make rouge in the first place.
"Yes, of course."
"What is it?"
I smiled at Hwa-eun as she asked cautiously.
"Cochineal insects."
"?"
'I'm Fabre, after all, so naturally the main ingredient is bugs!'
***
One thing I realized through this whole affair was that people here didn't know about cochineal insects.
The history of cochineal use ran deep, so they probably knew about the insects themselves, but it seemed they weren't using them to make rouge.
Honestly, when you could extract red dye in bulk from cinnabar or safflower, going around hunting cochineal bugs was a lot of effort for little return.
"There's a bug called a cochineal insect?"
"Here, it might go by a different name."
The cochineal insect originally referred to the female of a scale insect species that parasitized cacti in South America, much like aphids.
These bugs, with shells somewhat like a turtle's, produced something called carminic acid to avoid being eaten by other insects, and that substance was red.
The pigment extracted from it was called cochineal.
If you pictured the color of a cactus flower or dragon fruit, you'd get the idea. That was the color of cochineal.
A bright, vivid red.
In my previous life, cochineal had been used for an enormous range of purposes.
Ham, lipstick, lip balm, candy, jelly, and more. But the most common product we encountered it in was the red color of strawberry milk.
Strawberry milk, honestly, contained no strawberry whatsoever. It was just milk mixed with strawberry flavoring and cochineal to give it a red hue.
To put it precisely, strawberry milk was milk tinted with red dye extracted from bugs.
'We were literally drinking bug-dyed milk!'
Now, one might wonder how I planned to find a South American species here, but there was one species native to Southeast Asia as well.
The South American species was called Dactylopius coccus Costa.
The Asian species was called Kerria lacca or Coccus lacca, and both had females that produced red pigment.
So I took Hwa-eun with me and headed to the rear gardens of the Murim Alliance in the dead of night to search for scale insects. By the time dawn was breaking, we found a tree on the roadside outside the Murim Alliance whose stems had turned white and were dying, as if covered in fur.
I rushed over to check, and there they were: lumps dotting the trunk.
The Asian cochineal, Kerria lacca, lived in colonies, and when they gathered in large numbers on a tree trunk, they produced blood-red resin lumps called Blood Red Lac.
I peeled off a piece of the lac and pressed it firmly. Red dye oozed out in a stream.
All the lipstick ingredients were now gathered. I shouted with excitement.
"Found it!"
***
The next day, before we departed, I visited the Guest Hall where Wisdom Dragon was staying.
I had spent the whole night making the gift, and Hwa-eun had even tried applying it herself. The lipstick had turned out beautifully.
Hwa-eun seemed pleased with it too, following along with the rouge still on her lips.
I presented a visiting card, and when we entered, Wisdom Dragon and Sound Phoenix happened to be the only ones in the quarters.
After a quick greeting, I got straight to business.
"Here."
"What's this?"
"Why don't you open it and see?"
The container, admittedly, was nothing to look at.
They said it was the kind of case martial artists typically carried wound salve in.
But the moment the lid came off, Sound Phoenix's eyes went wide.
She stared at me with a startled expression.
"Is this rouge?"
She seemed quite taken aback at the sudden gift of rouge. Looking between her and Wisdom Dragon, I explained.
"You agreed to grant my request as well, and I couldn't just stand by and ignore the two of you in such a pitiful situation."
"Pardon? A pitiful situation?"
"This rouge contains absolutely no toxins, is good for the body, and is even sweet and delicious."
"...."
"...."
In the silence that fell over the room after my explanation, only the nape of Sound Phoenix's neck flushed a deep red.
I held up two fingers at the two of them and spoke.
"I've saved each of you twice now, so you'd better help me out when the time comes."
Not being able to kiss for lack of lipstick was hardly the end of the world, but a gift like this for a pair of lovesick sweethearts?
It was practically the same as saving a life.
'Well then, shall I go get started on hatching the Heavenly Silkworms?'
I had wrapped up everything at the Murim Alliance, and now it was time to hatch our adorable little critters.
*****
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