Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 453 Begging

However, this move by Old Marquis Pei was like a loud slap in the face, hitting their entire family, from their father-in-law to their husband, to herself, and even their son.

She had no power to fight back, and she had no chance to even refute a word. She could only swallow her anger and for the time being, she no longer dared to deliberately act like a mother-in-law to Pearl.

After returning from Pingyang Marquis's Mansion, Hualei continued to slack off at the Silin Bureau. By the way, she made a kind of wormwood mosquito coil in her own farm.

Although the moxa sticks and moxa incense pills made above have a certain effect in repelling mosquitoes, the smell of moxa smoke when the moxa sticks are burning is too strong, so it is not suitable to use them in the room.

Therefore, in order to have a better sleep at night, Hualei decided to make a less smoke-prone wormwood mosquito coil.

Now is the season when mugwort grows most vigorously. Although this is the first year that I have planted mugwort on the barren hill, the yield is not very high, but I still harvested a batch.

In addition to the fresh mugwort exchanged from Yuanying Manor, Uncle Fu took people to the barren mountain to pick a lot of mugwort for free in order to make mosquito coils.

Pull the leaves of mugwort directly off the stems, place them in a bamboo plate, and expose them to the sun for three days so that they completely lose moisture and turn yellow. Then use a stone mortar to pound them into mugwort wool and set aside for later use.

I went to the warehouse in Huaying Manor and got some charcoal. I used a stone mortar to pound it into fine powder, and then mixed it with moxa in a certain proportion.

Then, I pounded the dried elm bark into powder, sifted it with a sieve, and mixed it with moxa. I also went to the pharmacy to get some realgar powder and put it in. I mixed the ingredients evenly with my hands.

Then pour in an appropriate amount of water, stir the mixture into a paste, and then knead it into a pagoda shape of appropriate size. Put it outside to dry for a day. After it is completely dry, the pagoda-shaped mosquito coil is ready.

At night, you can light it up. It is very effective in repelling mosquitoes. It is most suitable to be placed in the study, and it also has a pleasant fragrance.

Of course, it can also be made into a cylinder of suitable size. In this way, the mosquito coil will burn longer and it will be better to use it when sleeping at night. You don’t have to worry about mosquito bites all night long.

However, during use, the room needs to be ventilated by opening windows to prevent realgar powder from emitting harmful gases and harming the body.

After the wormwood mosquito coils were made, the flower buds were tried and the effect was very good. So, taking advantage of the peak season of wormwood growth, a large number of production began. After all, mosquito coils are seasonal products and can only be used in summer. Therefore, it is important to seize the opportunity and must be put on the shelves before summer.

After getting the inventory, Hualei first sent a batch to Lord Pei and Madam Pei of the Zhenbei Marquisate. Then, these mosquito coils were sold in several small shops such as Huaxianzi. Because of the reasonable price and good effect, the wormwood mosquito coils were in short supply as soon as they were put on the shelves.

What Hualei didn't expect was that in Shangjing City, the pagoda-shaped mosquito coils sold better than the cylindrical ones. Hualei didn't understand the reason at first, but she went to Songheyuan and asked Mrs. Pei, and then she understood.

It turns out that in today's wealthy families, thin gauze curtains are hung over the beds in the summer, so there is no need to light mosquito coils at night.

Those who need to use mosquito coils are the people who cannot afford the thin gauze tents. However, the people are reluctant to buy these mosquito coils, so cylindrical mosquito coils are not easy to sell.

However, the pagoda-shaped mosquito coil is just right for wealthy families to use in their study rooms. Moreover, it can be used during the day to repel insects and also emits a faint scent of mugwort. It can be placed in the corner of the room as incense.

After listening to Madam Pei's explanation, Hualei immediately adjusted the shape of the mosquito coils and made more pagoda-shaped mosquito coils to sell in Shangjing City.

Soon, Liang Xiangyi took another batch of mosquito coils and sent them to Jiangnan. In Xijiang, Hualei made a large number of cylindrical mosquito coils. After all, there were no mosquito nets in the military camp, so a lot of money was made.

Of course, Hualei was not stingy with her colleagues in the Forestry Bureau, and gave each of them a small box to build relationships. Of course, in addition to giving wormwood mosquito coils, Hualei also gave each colleague a lot of mosquito-repellent pills.

This was also something Hualei had recently made. Ever since she was transferred to the Forestry Bureau, she had been working in groups, whether in the office or out inspecting the barren mountains, and Hualei had never been alone.

However, I don’t know if it’s because the weather is hot or these colleagues don’t pay attention to hygiene, but when Hua Lei communicates with them, she can smell each other’s breath from time to time.

This made Hualei a little bit intolerable. In summer, it is easy to sweat, and smelling the sweat odor every day is already a very uncomfortable thing. But, there is also bad breath.

But what to do? Although I tactfully reminded Gao Tiedan, Xiao Yuanzi and the others to pay attention to personal hygiene and brush their teeth every day, for some reason, there was still a smell, and it was quite strong.

So, in addition to using some mint ointment herself, Hualei also started to think about making mint pills.

Pick the ripe cantaloupe from your farm, wash it, cut it with a knife, dig out the seeds, and remove the pulp between the seeds. Wash it with clean water and dry it in the sun.

Then fry the cantaloupe seeds in an iron pan until they are browned, and grind them into fine powder using a roller. Dry the mint leaves, pound them into powder, and mix them evenly with the cantaloupe seed powder.

Add an appropriate amount of honey, mix the two powders evenly, knead them into balls slightly larger than soybeans, put them in a cool and ventilated place to dry, and the simple fragrant pills are ready. Then put them in a small bamboo tube, plug it with a wooden stopper, and you can carry it with you.

Hua Lei tried it and found it tasted good, so he took the finished fragrant pills to the Silin Bureau and gave each of his colleagues a small tube.

After trying it, my colleagues were very surprised. After eating it, their mouths felt cool and refreshing, which was very comfortable. Their breath also improved unknowingly. Hualei's working environment has finally improved a lot.

After Rong Jin found out, he would come to Hua Lei from time to time to ask for the fragrant pills. The reason he gave was that he had many opportunities to see the emperor, but he didn't want his dirty aura to displease the emperor.

Hua Lei thought about it and realized that it was true, so she filled a large jar for him. However, the polite Rong Jin did not want so much and said that he was sorry. He insisted on asking Hua Lei for the ones packed in small bamboo tubes, and usually only needed enough for two or three days.

At the beginning, the simple Hua Lei couldn't think of so many things, so she just followed his instructions and always prepared things for him in a small bamboo tube so that he could take them at any time.

Therefore, Rong Jin had an excuse to come to Hua's house every two or three days to chat with Hua Lei and keep in touch with her.