Chapter 693: The Proprietor of Immortal Sea Building 3

And there were fruits all over the mountains. The year of the first big harvest, everyone’s pockets were full.

Now everyone despised Boss Gu, calling him a profiteer...

It really was quite heartless, when you thought about it.

"Thank you for telling me all this." Ye Qianning stood up and stretched lazily.

"Miss, you’re too kind. I should be the one thanking you for the water." Jiang Chenyi also stood.

"You have a lot of people on your ship, so that little bit of water won’t be enough to last until you reach shore. I’ll teach you a way to get fresh water."

"A way to get fresh water?" Jiang Chenyi was astonished. ’A method for fresh water?’

"Sister, how can we get fresh water without going ashore?" Jiang Yue was very curious.

"Distillation."

"What’s distillation?"

"It’s about water vapor."

Jiang Chenyi frowned, not quite understanding.

Seeing their confusion, Ye Qianning decided to see it through to the end. She took out pots, bowls, and basins, walked out of the cabin, and set up a simple rack on the deck.

She took out a brazier and placed it under a pot.

"Young Master Jiang, could you please fetch some seawater?"

Jiang Chenyi nodded, picked up a container, and used a rope to draw a bucket of seawater.

Ye Qianning poured the seawater into the pot and lit the fire below. Soon, the seawater was BUBBLING as it came to a boil, and steam rose to hit the apparatus placed above it.

The steam condensed into water droplets, which trickled out, drop by drop, through a bamboo tube.

DRIP, DRIP. Before long, a layer of water had collected in the container beneath the bamboo tube.

Ye Qianning poured the water into a cup, waited for it to cool, and handed it to Jiang Chenyi. "Have a taste."

Jiang Chenyi looked at the clear water, hesitated for a moment before taking the cup, and drank a few sips. There was none of the expected saltiness. Shock and amazement filled his eyes. "This... this is... fresh water?"

Ye Qianning nodded.

"Let me try." Jiang Yue took the cup and drank it all in one go, her eyes widening in astonishment. "It really is fresh water! Sister, you’re incredible!"

"Miss..." Jiang Chenyi was so excited he didn’t know what to say.

’Making fresh water with such simple tools... a miracle. A true miracle.’

"This is called distilled water."

"Distilled water?"

"Right. You boil seawater until the fresh water evaporates into steam. When the steam cools and condenses, it becomes distilled water, which is fresh water. After all the water in the pot has boiled off, what’s left behind is sea salt."

Jiang Chenyi’s gaze fell upon the apparatus. ’So it’s this easy to get fresh water.’ With this method, people lost at sea would no longer die from a lack of it.

"Thank you, Miss." Jiang Chenyi bowed deeply to Ye Qianning.

"It’s nothing. It’s just a very simple principle."

"No, Miss, for you to be willing to share something so important with us... I will surely remember this. If you run into any trouble after we get ashore, you can go to the Jiang family in Qingzhou for help." As Jiang Chenyi spoke, he took a jade tablet from his robes and offered it to her.

"That’s not necessary."

’How could I take something so important from them for a little bit of common knowledge?’

"Sister, just take it." Jiang Yue snatched the jade tablet and shoved it into Ye Qianning’s hand. "Sister, you saved our lives."

Seeing that she couldn’t refuse, Ye Qianning said, "Alright then."

Jiang Yue giggled, trying to familiarly link arms with Ye Qianning.

Ye Qianning instinctively dodged.

Jiang Yue’s arms embraced empty air. "Sister?"

"I don’t really like being touched," Ye Qianning said.

Jiang Yue wasn’t the least bit embarrassed. She scratched her head. "Heh, my apologies. That was presumptuous of me."

—

「Two days passed.」

With the distillation method, the people on the large ship had solved their freshwater problem. The members of the Jiang family were all full of admiration for the young girl on the small boat.

Although Huo Tu was still displeased with Ye Qianning, with the water and food issues resolved, he didn’t cause her any more trouble.

Huo Feng was fascinated by the distillation method and studied it over and over. ’How had they never thought of something so simple?’

For the past two days, Jiang Yue had been on Ye Qianning’s boat every day, constantly calling her "Sister this" and "Sister that." Huo Liran watched them, huffing in disdain. ’She’s just some ugly fisherwoman. Is there any need to fawn over her like that?’

Ye Qianning stayed for two days. Besides Jiang Yue, Jiang Chenyi would also come over to her boat for a while, and from him, she learned a lot about the Four Nations.

Beili’s commerce was currently quite extensive, but a few years ago, private trade had been banned. All business had to go through royal merchants.

The private merchants of Beili who were unwilling to work through the state gradually found other ways to make a living.

Beili’s state-run commerce was profitable, and the national treasury was growing ever fuller. However, the common people didn’t seem as prosperous as before. They mostly relied on farming, living at the mercy of the heavens. If a natural disaster were to strike...

...the people would suffer immensely.

Ye Qianning thought Beili’s methods were truly ruthless. Having monopolized the nation’s commerce and tasted its sweet profits, they had probably set their sights on Nanyuan and Gu Shuo long ago.

Beili had approached Gu Shuo many times, demanding he abide by Beili’s royal merchant regulations and turn over Nanyuan’s seafood trade and the Immortal Sea Building to become Beili state assets. Gu Shuo refused every time, claiming that the Nanyuan cooperative business and the Immortal Sea Building did not belong to the Gu family. He said he had a boss above him.

This boss was not from Beili and ran a massive enterprise, so Beili naturally had no jurisdiction over them.

To this day, no one knew who this boss Gu Shuo spoke of was.

The greedier the Beili Emperor became, the better it was in her eyes. She had plenty of ways to crush Beili’s royal merchants.

’Just thinking about it makes me eager to get started.’

"Miss Ye, you’re not traveling with us anymore?" Jiang Chenyi asked in surprise.

"I have other matters to attend to, so I won’t be accompanying you all."

Hearing this, Jiang Yue’s little face immediately scrunched up.

"What is it? Do you need our help?"

"No need. This is for you." Ye Qianning took out a homemade compass from her storage space.

"What’s this?"

"A compass. It will keep you from losing your way on the ship."

"A compass? Does it always point south?"

"Yes. No matter which way you turn, it will always point south. Your ship is heading north, so if you travel in the opposite direction of the needle, you won’t go off course. If you’re fast, you should reach the coast in about twenty-odd days." Ye Qianning thought the Jiang siblings were decent people.

"Thank you, Miss." Jiang Chenyi did not refuse it.

Over the past two days, he had come to truly admire this young girl. She knew so much, and her boat was a marvel—it didn’t need anyone to steer, being entirely constructed of mechanisms. He had never seen anything like it.

"Sister, are you really not coming with us?" Jiang Yue pouted, her eyes fixed on her pleadingly.

"Mhm."

"Sister, then you have to come find me in Qingzhou when you get ashore."

"If I have time, I will."

"You have to come."

Ye Qianning smiled and nodded.

Jiang Chenyi led Jiang Yue back to the large ship.

Ye Qianning’s boat slowly began to change course.

"Jiang Chenyi, why did her boat leave?" Huo Liran leaned over the deck railing, watching as the boat sailed into the distance.

"Miss Ye has other business," Jiang Chenyi said dismissively.

"What business? There’s clearly something suspicious about her! How could you just let her go?"

Jiang Chenyi frowned. "Miss Ye is a free person. She can leave if she wants to. Miss Huo, watch your words."

"Exactly! If it weren’t for Sister Ye, would you have any fresh water to drink? Your tone stinks," Jiang Yue retorted, unable to stand Huo Liran.

"You two... What kind of bewitching potion did she give you siblings? You just let her go! What if she pointed us in the wrong direction? Even with fresh water, it would be useless."

Jiang Chenyi’s expression darkened slightly.

"Second Brother, let’s go. Don’t pay any attention to her." Jiang Yue tugged Jiang Chenyi into the cabin.