Chapter 252 - 254: You Reap What You Sow

Chapter 252: Chapter 254: You Reap What You Sow

"As it happens, we also have a skilled Salt Maker. You can have a competition. After we have a winner, we’ll talk about what comes next."

"Compete right now?"

"The City Lord has certainly played his hand well. If I compete, won’t you learn my salt purification technique for free?" Su Luoluo countered, pointing out his intentions.

’This City Lord may look young, but he’s quite cunning. He’s going to be difficult.’

Dongfang Luanhe chuckled, his tone laced with scrutiny. "But if you don’t provide a demonstration, how am I to know if your salt purification technique is genuine?"

"To avoid any arguments, how about we sign a contract before I give my demonstration?"

"If my purified salt is the finest, then the City Lord must agree to cooperate with us on salt purification and promise us thirty percent of the Beast Crystal profits in return," Su Luoluo continued.

’Get it for free? Not a chance.’

’It’s best to get everything down in black and white.’

’We’re all from the Wolf Clan, so it’s not like he won’t be able to read the Wolf Text.’

Dongfang Luanhe was somewhat surprised. ’For such a young female to have the audacity to challenge him...’

’And she’s even proposing a contract?’

’Interesting.’

However, when it came to his interests, Dongfang Luanhe didn’t back down. He continued, "Thirty percent of the Beast Crystals right off the bat? Isn’t that a bit much? How do I even know if your purified salt is valuable?"

Su Luoluo looked at Dongfang Luanhe and smiled slightly. "Our refined salt will be the finest on the continent. It won’t recrystallize easily during transport. You could market it as premium salt and sell it for twenty purple Beast Crystals a bag. Furthermore, our tribe has a Salt Well Cave that we can exploit together. When you factor all that in, you won’t be losing out, City Lord."

Su Luoluo had already done her research. Although the city-state’s salt sold for five purple Beast Crystals, it would always recrystallize halfway through its transport journey, and the method she proposed could solve exactly this problem.

Dongfang Luanhe grew thoughtful upon hearing her proposal. After a moment, he stroked his chin and said to Lu Ming, "Go get the Beast Skin Paper."

Luan Ting wrote out the terms, dipping a feather pen into ink. Dongfang Luanhe was very interested in the feather pen, and found the black characters it produced novel as well. "This is quite nice. What’s it called?"

’He, a City Lord, was still using a charcoal stick to write, yet these people were using a feather dipped in black water. It was light, clean, and the script was elegant—much more beautiful than his own charcoal writing.’

"It’s called a feather pen and ink. If you cooperate with us, City Lord, I can give you a set," Su Luoluo said generously, seeing his interest.

’He was always the one giving gifts to others. This was the first time someone offered to give him something.’ Dongfang Luanhe raised an eyebrow. ’How novel.’

When Luan Ting finished writing, he presented it to Dongfang Luanhe. "The contract is ready. City Lord, please take a look and see if any changes are needed."

’The female is audacious, and her Beastman has good handwriting.’ For the first time, Dongfang Luanhe found himself reassessing these tribal folk.

’I never expected a minor wolf clan to have so many skilled individuals.’

He glanced over it and, confirming there were no issues, picked up the stone seal from the table and pressed it onto the paper.

On the Wolf Clan’s side, Su Yang’s seal was applied.

With that done, Dongfang Luanhe snapped his fingers. Soon after, Su Nuannuan emerged from a side hall.

Su Nuannuan had been pushed aside by a Beastman Servant before she could even finish speaking. The servant had told her the Young Master had guests and that she needed to make herself scarce for a moment.

She had been inexplicably dragged into the side hall. By the time she re-emerged, Lu Ming was there to inform her that Dongfang Luanhe wanted her to compete against someone in refining fine salt.

Before Su Nuannuan could even process what was happening, she was pushed out into the main hall. In front of her sat two enormous baskets of salt.

Su Luoluo saw the city-state’s Salt Maker come out and was about to greet them, but then she saw it was a familiar figure. She exclaimed in surprise, "Su Nuannuan?"

’I can’t believe she’s so hard to kill. The heavens didn’t even take her.’

’And her hands and feet look healed, too. No wonder the city-state managed to produce salt as fine as mine in such a short amount of time. So she’s the one behind all this.’

The others were also a bit startled to see Su Nuannuan come out. Mo Xuan even cursed under his breath, "I knew it. We shouldn’t have let that wicked female go. She does nothing but stir up trouble."

Seeing Su Luoluo speak up, Dongfang Luanhe asked doubtfully, "You know each other?"

Su Nuannuan also hadn’t expected to meet Su Luoluo so soon.

She didn’t want Su Luoluo to speak ill of her, so she preemptively shook her head and denied it, "I don’t know her."

Seeing Su Nuannuan’s denial, Su Luoluo didn’t say anything.

’Su Nuannuan lost her memory last time, so it’s normal she doesn’t recognize me.’

’I just can’t believe that even with amnesia, she still remembers how to purify salt.’

’And her stomach looks so flat. Hasn’t her pregnancy started to show?’

After both sides inspected their salt-making tools, the competition was declared to have begun.

Once Su Luoluo began the salt-making process, she cleared her mind of everything else and focused on the task at hand.

The main reason her new salt was even finer than before was that she had added a layer of filter mesh.

This filter mesh was gauze she had recently made herself. She had Fu Feng and the others cut down ramie, soak it for three days, remove the fibers to spin thread, and then use a bone shuttle to weave it into linen cloth.

The entire salt-making process was not much different from before, just with the added step of filtering through a layer of gauze.

Even so, Su Luoluo worked in an orderly and methodical manner.

In contrast, Su Nuannuan was a bit flustered.

First, Su Luoluo’s sudden appearance had caught her off guard. Then, her panic intensified when she saw Luoluo take out a yellowish-white object she had never seen before and begin to filter with it.

’Su Luoluo never used that thing before. Where did she get it?’

Her hands began to tremble at the sight, and she spilled the water she had just painstakingly filtered through coarse sand, fine sand, and charcoal.

Dongfang Luanhe watched as Su Luoluo worked meticulously. She placed an unknown object under her brine, and in a moment, he saw the liquid become significantly clearer. He was quite surprised.

Meanwhile, Su Nuannuan was spilling brine everywhere. ’However, some of her steps look very similar to the newcomer female’s,’ Dongfang Luanhe thought, his eyes narrowing.

After a while, Su Luoluo gathered the purified salt into a Beast Skin Bag and handed it to a nearby Lu Ming with a confident look on her face.

But Su Nuannuan, in her panic, had forgotten some of the filtration steps. The salt she produced was even worse than the last batch, full of coarse, yellow grains. Dongfang Luanhe took one look and didn’t bother watching any longer.

His eyes shot a sharp glare at Su Nuannuan. "This is the salt-making technique you bragged so much about? It’s nothing special."

Su Nuannuan’s face went pale with anxiety.

’Dongfang Luanhe’s words meant she had failed her mission to present him with salt. Her beautiful hair...’

She anxiously wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what.

’Their procedures are similar, yet her technique is so clumsy. It’s impossible that they’re unrelated.’

Thinking of this, Dongfang Luanhe pointed at Su Nuannuan and asked Su Luoluo, "Do you know this female?"

Su Luoluo nodded. "She used to be a member of our tribe, but she was driven out because she secretly poisoned our tribe’s salt."

Hearing this, Dongfang Luanhe, who already had a bad impression of Su Nuannuan, immediately frowned and waved his hand. "

Since you love to steal from others so much, lock this plagiarist in the Parrot House! Make her clean parrot droppings every day. After all, she likes eating bird crap!"

The moment Su Nuannuan heard she’d be confined with the birds, her world collapsed. The terrible memory from before flashed through her mind, and she frantically shook her head, refusing.

However, Lu Ming simply began to drag her away. In the struggle, Su Nuannuan’s hair came off, revealing the bald back of her head.

"A wig!"

"She’s actually wearing a wig!"

"AHHHH! My hair!"

Her beautiful hair was gone.

Everyone present burst into laughter upon seeing the back of Su Nuannuan’s bald head.

"She’s bald! A bald-y!"

"Hahaha, that’s hilarious!"

Just then, Golden Feather flew over and landed on Su Nuannuan’s shiny scalp. It then relieved itself, and instantly, a white splotch covered a patch of her head. Though not a huge mess, the sight made everyone present want to vomit.

Su Luoluo was stunned by the scene. ’This is just too tragic for Su Nuannuan!’

Su Nuannuan felt something cool on her head. Reaching up to touch it, she saw the bird droppings on her hand and lost control. She clutched her head and bolted, but she lost her footing and fell flat on her face, breaking her hand again. In the end, she had to be carried out by a couple of Beastmen.

Su Luoluo shook her head at the sight. ’You really do reap what you sow.’

’Still, this ending is pretty satisfying! I like it!’

’Letting Su Nuannuan go last time was an act of mercy. I won’t let her off so easily this time.’

’Making the same mistake once is enough!’