#126. Addiction 6
As he walked out of the reception hall where Ji-ryong was staying and headed towards his quarters, Hwa-eun followed him from behind and asked him a question.
“What do you want to make for me? A dragon?”
They said they would make what was needed, but they didn’t tell anyone what they were going to make inside.
I wanted to give her a surprise gift, but I also felt a bit awkward saying that I was going to make her a lipstick so she could kiss as much as she wanted.
The best way to do something like this is to give it to them secretly and wink.
‘You know? It’s my heart. Take care of your health and take it easy. Until your front teeth fall out.’
I say this with this in mind.
I thought about keeping it a secret from Hwa-eun until it was finished, but I also needed her help, so I decided to tell her what I was going to make.
It’s a bit weird to keep it a secret between us.
“Oh, it’s to make a non-toxic and good lotion for your lips. The thing about relationships between men and women… It’s not something you can endure just by trying to endure it.”
“Oh, I see. Huh, that’s definitely something you two need.”
Hwa-eun rubs her own fire with the back of her hand to see if her cheek is burning.
Hwa-eun, who had been following me while rubbing her cheek, asked again in a cautious voice.
“But Little Dragon. Did you know you could make something like that?”
“Oh, you mean Yeonji?”
“yes.”
Do you know what I can make? I just know the ingredients so I can make something roughly.
Since we had to leave tomorrow or the day after, we decided to take action right away.
“Yes, I have a general idea. But I need to get some ingredients. Is there a place to buy medicine and such?”
“If it’s medicinal herbs, you can get them from the herbal medicine shop within the Murim Alliance. If you ask the military leader, Elder Zhuge Hu, wouldn’t he give them to you?
Well, it’s for two, you know. It’s also to prevent addiction···.”
Yeah, it’s not a cure, but it’s a kind of preventative.
Even though it was a little late in the evening, I decided to go straight to the military leader, Zhuge Liang, and ask for permission.
As Hwa-eun said, I thought that since it was medicine for my nephew, he might give me some.
“You want to use some herbs?”
“Yes, what should I call this? Anyway, I’m trying to make some medicine for the two of you···.”
The sun was setting, but Zhuge Hu was still sitting in his office chair, wrestling with a pile of paperwork.
When I asked him for some medicine, he was a soldier who cheerfully wrote a letter saying that it was for his nephew.
“Medicine? Then you should make it! I’ll write a letter for you, so go to the pharmacy. When you go to the pharmacy and show them the letter, they’ll give you some medicine.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I’m grateful that you’re taking care of my nephew, but I’m the one who should be grateful. Come here and take a look.”
As we entered Hwaeun and Uiyakdang with the letter he had written, a familiar face greeted us.
This is what Assemblyman Won-gyu said, who was dispatched from the party.
“Miss? What brings you here?”
“Ah, the little dragon said… No, he said he was making some medicine.”
“Are you talking about Little Dragon?”
Won-gyu tilts his head at the mention of making medicine.
When I showed him the letter I received from the military, his head, which had been tilted in confusion, nodded.
“Oh, so that’s the medicine you needed, Ji-ryong? If you need anything else, just let me know. I’ll prepare it.”
‘Let’s see, what’s in the lipstick… The first thing that comes to mind is… Ah! That’s right, pearls!’
If you think about it carefully, the first material that comes to mind is pearl.
“Do you have any pearls?”
“Is it a pearl?”
“You’re using pearls? Little Dragon?”
“Yes, I kind of need that…”
‘Pearl is the best for original lipstick. Shiny lips. Isn’t it nice?’
In my previous life, there were a lot of cosmetics containing pearls.
Pearls are added to a wide variety of products, from foundation to lipstick and BB cream.
When pearls are added, it has a slightly shiny feel, which is why it is called Pearl Bright.
And if it has pearls in it, it is luxurious, so people eat it just for the fact that it has pearls in it.
If a gift contains pearls, there is no better gift than that.
“There is, but please wait a moment.”
Won-gyu nodded after looking slightly surprised when asked if there were any pearls, as he had heard that pearls were used as a medicinal herb in the past.
A member of the National Assembly named Won-gyu came out with a luxurious weakness after talking to someone inside.
-Click.
When the weakness was opened, what was revealed inside were natural pearls of various colors.
Won-gyu’s eyes widened as he took out a handful of the brightly colored ones.
“That, that much?”
“Can’t I?”
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, please give me the medicine too.”
“Yes, Little Dragon.”
‘The most important ingredient, pearls, is ready, and next is… Ah, that’s it.’
Now that the base ingredients are ready, I asked for just one additional ingredient.
“Do you have a dragon?”
“A dragon?”
“Jiryong?”
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“Yes, it needs its oil and powder.”
The Earth Dragon I asked for is not the Wisdom Dragon who is currently lying in bed, but the talking earthworm. Earthworm oil and extract are excellent moisturizers, so I am going to put in earthworms.
That’s why I said I put earthworms in lipstick ingredients in my previous life.
‘It is made for the wisdom dragon, so it is natural that the earth dragon is included.’
“Of course I do. Just a moment.”
A large bowl of dried earthworms was immediately prepared, and the next thing I asked for was honey and incense.
“I need honey and fragrant incense for my scented sachets. What are the most popular scents among the Central Plains people?”
“Um… Cinnamon and dragon. It’s often used in scented bags for women. Cinnamon.”
‘Is this Hwa-eun’s taste?’
Hwa-eun giving her opinion on my monologue.
Since I also received basic training in the incense industry, I can identify several scents, but thinking about it, the faint scent coming from Hwaeun is also a factor.
We decided to reflect Hwa-eun’s tastes.
I’ll make a lot and share some with Hwa-eun too.
‘Me too, ahem. I want to live a long life.’
“Then please give me the dried fish coefficient.”
“Honey and ginkgo. I have no idea what kind of medicine it is.”
After a while, all the materials were ready and I decided to ask Wonkyu to make it for me.
I can make it, but I have to go find the most important ingredient now.
And it was because I thought he would be able to do it better than me.
“Could you help me with the rough outline of how to make the potion? I’ve never made it myself before.”
“Huh? What kind of medicine is it?”
“What should I call this? Oh! Yes! A plaster!”
Come to think of it, anything similar to lipstick is annoying.
Won-gyu nodded at my words.
“Ah… If it’s a remedy, then it’s a combination that makes sense. The earthenware is good for jaundice and helps with blood loss and detoxification, and there’s also the pearl powder. The pearl treats skin boils.
And honey makes your face glow, so it makes sense if it’s a salve for your skin. And cinnamon is also effective in removing blood stasis…
Maybe it’s a medicine that works well on yoke?
By the way, Prince Ji-ryong doesn’t seem to have any bruises. Is he applying ointment to remove the poison from his body?”
Won-gyu nods his head, saying that something seems plausible.
Won-gyu, who had been letting his imagination run wild by himself, suddenly asked with an expression on his face as if something had come to mind.
“But Little Dragon, didn’t you say that this medicine was for Prince Ji-ryong?”
“Yes, but?”
“I have a slight concern···.”
‘What? I just mixed whatever came to mind, so is it toxic or something?’
I told him to just mix whatever came to mind, even though I’m not a member of the National Assembly, but it seemed like there was something bothering him as a member of the National Assembly.
So, Won-gyu scratches his head as he looks at him as if asking him to explain.
“Honey strengthens your stamina and vitality… Ahem… Maybe it’s because you haven’t even gotten married yet… Maybe the two of you had something like that happen… Ahem….”
‘So honey has such properties!?’
Listening to it, it seemed a bit dangerous, but Ji-ryong is a lizard-like person who is the material for the Water Palace Master.
I decided to trust him for once.
Because there was nothing else to put in besides honey.
Honey is the best cosmetic ingredient because it has excellent moisturizing properties and prevents spoilage.
Well, if you say that it is a side effect of wearing too much lipstick, it would only be that the eldest grandson of the military leader Zhuge Liang is born a little earlier.
“We have no choice but to believe that Ji-ryong is a gentleman. Ahem.”
“Oh, I see. By the way, how do you make it?”
“Oh, right. The method of making it is roughly as follows. First, grind the pearls finely and add the powder of the earthen dragon to them. Eight parts of the pearl, two parts of the powder of the earthen dragon.
Then, add the oil from the well-seasoned earthenware pot, honey, and cinnamon powder and mix.
The amount of earthenware and honey is 30/70. The amount of incense powder is to remove any bad smells and to create a pleasant scent, so the scent should be faint.
Everything should be ground really finely so that you can’t see any powder. I’ll go get the last ingredient, so please do me a favor.
If you prepare it, I just have to mix the last ingredients that I get.”
“Okay, just leave it to me! I’ll make it even if I have to stay up all night!”
As I was leaving Won-gyu, full of enthusiasm, Hwa-eun asked me.
“Do you still need any more ingredients?”
“Yes, the most important ingredient is missing.”
“The most important?”
“The material that gives the color of the lotus flower.”
“Oh, I see. I forgot for a moment that you were grinding pearls.”
I don’t know the exact ingredients of the current lipstick, but I would guess it contains fragrance, moisturizer, and dye.
All we needed was the dye, as Wonkyu would mix and prepare all the other ingredients.
“Red is not that common, do you have something in mind? It is not the season for safflower and you probably won’t use the injection, so I guess you have something else in mind?”
Oh, of course, as Hwa-eun said, I had some ingredients in mind.
I don’t know about anything else, but that was the first thing that came to mind.
That’s why I said I would make Yeonji in the first place.
“Yes, of course.”
“which?”
He smiled and answered Hwa-eun, who asked cautiously.
“Chinese scorpion.”
“?”
‘As expected from Fabre, the main ingredient is bugs!’
***
What I realized through this incident is that people here don’t know about cochineal insects.
The history of the use of Yeonjichung is deep, so you probably know about it, but it seems that Yeonji is not using it.
To be honest, you can extract red dye in large quantities from sedums or safflowers, but it’s hard work to go around catching cochineal bugs.
“There’s a bug called the lotus bug?”
“Maybe it’s called differently here.”
The term “coccinellidae” originally refers to female scale insects that parasitize cacti like aphids, native to South America.
These insects, which have a slightly raised shell like a giraffe, produce something called carminic acid to avoid being eaten by other insects, which gives them their red color.
The pigment extracted here is called Cochineal.
It’s easy to understand if you think of the color of a cactus flower or a dragon fruit, and that’s the color of cochineal.
It’s bright red.
In a previous life, cochineal had many uses.
It was also used in ham, lipstick, lip balm, candy, jelly, etc., and the most common one we come across is the red color of strawberry milk.
Strawberry milk, to be honest, doesn’t contain any strawberries at all; it’s just milk mixed with strawberry flavoring and cochineal to give it a red color.
To be exact, strawberry milk is milk mixed with red dye extracted from insects, right?
‘We’re actually drinking milk with bugs in it!’
Well, you might wonder how you can find one that lives in South America, but there is also a species in Southeast Asia.
The scientific name for those living in South America is Dactylopius Coccus Costa.
Those that live in Asia are called Kerria lacca or Coccus lacca, both of which are females that produce red pigment.
So, Hwa-eun took him to the backyard of the Murim Alliance in the middle of the night to look for the scale insects, and when dawn broke, she was able to find a tree on the side of the road outside the Murim Alliance that had died with its trunk dried up white as if it had grown hair.
Let’s run over and check. There are galls all over the stem.
The Asian cochineal bug, Keria lacca, lives in groups, and when they gather together they create red blood galls on tree trunks, which are called blood red lacs.
When you remove the stain and press it, the red dye flows out.
I screamed in excitement because I had all the lipstick ingredients together.
“Found it!”
***
The next day, before leaving, I went to the reception hall where Ji-ryong was staying.
I made the gift overnight and Hwa-eun even tried it on herself, and it turned out to be a really good lipstick.
Hwa-eun also follows me with the lipstick on her lips, as if she likes it.
As I put the chimney in and went inside, only Ji-ryong and Eumbong were inside the room.
We exchanged a quick greeting and quickly got on with our business.
“here.”
“What is this?”
“Please open it.”
The barrel was frankly unappealing.
That’s because it’s said to be a container containing a golden elixir that martial artists commonly carry around.
But when you open the lid, the eyes of the candlestick open wide.
Eumbong looked at me with a surprised expression.
“Is this Yeonji?”
He looked a bit surprised when I suddenly gave him Yeonji, but I looked at her and Ji-ryong and explained.
“You said you would grant my request, but I can’t just sit by and watch you two suffer.”
“Huh? What are your circumstances?”
“It is non-toxic, good for the body, and even sweet and delicious.”
“···.”
“···.”
In the room that became quiet after my explanation, only the nape of Eumbong’s neck turned red.
He said, holding up two fingers to them both.
“You saved each of us twice, so you must help us later.”
It’s not like you can’t kiss without lipstick, but this is a gift for the aching lovers.
Because once you save it, it’s useless.
‘Then, should we go and have a go at hatching Cheonjam?’
The business at the Murim Alliance was taken care of, and now it was time to hatch our cute little ones.
