Deep in the alley, it's quiet.

There was only a sound of ping-pong coming from the humble courtyard, a bit like the dull sound of someone stumbling over something and falling to the ground.

Pei Baoer knocked on the door of the courtyard, but no one answered, she simply raised her voice and shouted: "Uncle Li? Are you at home? A rough male voice answered, and she pushed open the door and went in.

The yard was a mess, and there was a mess everywhere, the most conspicuous of which were the three piles of things piled high in the sky. One of them was a pile of sand that could be found everywhere on the seashore, as if it had been washed away, clean, and reflected a colorful dazzling light in the sunlight. The other two piles were stones of different colors and shapes, one was gray and white, which looked loose, and the other looked very hard and not uniform in color, some were light yellow, light brown, and even pink.

On the other side of these three strange piles of sand and stones, there are many debris and debris, large and small, lying on the ground like countless tiny mirrors reflecting the sunlight and making people's eyes ache.

Pei Bao'er stepped over from the mess without changing her face, her eyes fell on the debris, and she couldn't help but squat down and pick up a small piece to look at it for a while, but when she saw that the thing was muddy and dull, she threw it aside in disappointment.

Out of the room on the left was an old man with gray hair, who was wearing only a thin single coat in the twilight of spring, with his sleeves rolled up high, and sweat on his forehead and arms.

"Uncle Li, have you finished my new bamboo set?"

The old man hummed sullenly, poured a bowl of water by himself, and drank it before he walked inside, took out the strangely shaped big guy, and handed it to Pei Bao'er.

"Well, it's baked, it's covered with varnish, and it's just a few days away from a ventilated place."

Pei Baoer took out the money bag, gave the balance to the old man, thanked him in his mouth, and finally patted his ass.

"Uncle Li's craftsmanship is really getting better and better~"

The old man sighed unhappily, "What's the matter, there are hundreds of furnaces, and I still haven't been able to burn decent glass~"

Pei Baoer looked at the bamboo pipe in her hand, the faint smell of varnish was still a little obvious, and she couldn't help frowning. hesitated, but still thought about her for a while.

"Well, actually, I've heard an old craftsman say that the heat control of glaze firing is particularly important......"

The old man frowned: "Of course I know this, but ......"

"For the first two quarters of an hour, the fire should not be too big, about a small and medium-sized fire to warm up. Then it should be immediately turned to a high fire and foamed and sintered, which should be maintained for two to three quarters of an hour. After pouring into the mold, turn to medium heat, let cool slightly for about two quarters of an hour, and then turn off the heat. Uh, and then let it sit for a day, like this......"

Staring at the old man's glittering eyes, Pei Bao'er suddenly felt a little weak.

Well, she admits that she has only seen the whole process of glass firing in a book on an elective course, and she has basically forgotten the specific temperature, but she still knows the basic principles, and those large, medium and small fires are not nonsense, they are just not accurate.

Unexpectedly, the old man was very excited, maybe Pei Baoer was too serious and convincing, and the steps she said were a little different from his operation.

He hurriedly asked, "The craftsman you are talking about, is he still alive?" Where does his family live? ”

Pei Baoer had to pour a basin of cold water on him, and made up a story based on his words, saying that the old craftsman had died and was an elder of his own family, Yunyun, and had no heirs.

Uncle Li was very disappointed, so he had to pick up the details of her words and ask a lot of questions, so he sighed and asked her to leave.

"Go back, go back, I'm going to try again according to your method, if it really works, hehe, the old man will make you a set...... Hmm, that's all this weird thing, how's that? ”

Hearing this, Pei Baoer couldn't help but feel happy in her heart.

God knows how long she has missed those ordinary glass jars and droppers in the past, and the glass of this year is also called glass, which is rarer than gold, and the output is very small, and only the princes and nobles have the opportunity to enjoy it. She is a common man who wants to get a set of glass products to carry out her research work, which is even more difficult than a bull's eye!

Therefore, she had to distill essential oils from flower petals and grass leaves, as well as purify alcohol, only by relying on this large bamboo tube.

If she can really help Uncle Li overcome this problem, it will be a great good thing for her.

I'm afraid that the government will find out, and I want to get Uncle Li to some craftsman company. She has heard that craftsmen in these years are very unfree, and their status is low, in case you come up with a new invention, most of them will have to hand over the skills of people to the imperial court, and of course they will also distribute some negligible money. At that time, her full set of experimental tools will be in the soup again, and Uncle Li will lose his freedom, which is not what Pei Baoer wants to see. It was precisely because of this consideration that she had been hesitant not to tell Uncle Li how to improve the process.

Pei Bao'er just held her bamboo distillation tools and walked through the streets and alleys back to her house, causing some strange eyes.

She didn't care at all, especially since she had gained a lot from setting up a stall yesterday, and she had made a net profit of more than one or two silvers, which was one step closer to her goal of opening a shop, which made her very satisfied. The most important thing for her now is to make more small money and improve her living standards, and the rest of those people and things are not what she should be worried about.

Pei Bao'er shook her head, as if she wanted to get rid of someone in her mind, but she saw that the two women in front of her were talking about something like Haikou with a frightened expression.

“…… It's terrible, I heard that one died in that town, and more than a dozen were injured......"

"There are also a few young ladies who have been caught, what a sin~"

She chuckled in her heart, and regardless of the fact that she didn't know the other party, she rushed up directly and asked, "You just said, where is Haikou?" Yes? What town has an accident? When did it come out? ”

The two women were startled by her, and one of them stammered a few words.

"As far as today's matter is concerned, Wuli Town is the southeast outside the city, leaning on Lijia Village."

Pei Bao'er's hand shook, and the strange-shaped, bamboo-shaped pipe that looked a little like a big spider fell to the ground, making a crisp clicking sound, as if it was cracked in a succession. She didn't care about feeling distressed, so she just picked it up randomly, held it in her arms and hurried back, and soon turned a corner and disappeared.

The two women looked at each other, and one of them sighed more steadily, "I guess there are some relatives living around there, poor people~"

At this time, Pei Baoer was really panicked to the extreme, she rushed to the direction of her small courtyard at the fastest speed in her life, her heart almost jumped out of her chest, this fear was deeper than the abduction incident last summer.

Because, early this morning, Liu Yun took Xiao Yan'er out, and it happened to be in the area of Wuli Town.

It was closer to the coast, and the price of buying pearls, seaweed and other things directly from fishermen was cheaper, and Pei Baoer never let the second-tier dealers in the east city make the difference after discovering it.

In the past, she usually took Dani or Liu Yun to buy it herself, but she just sold out all the pearl jade cream at once yesterday, and there was not much pearl powder inventory at home, so she thought about going to buy it today. Coincidentally, a few days ago, Xiao Yan'er saw a large conch at the neighbor's house, and was very envious of the whirring wind inside, and also shouted that he wanted to go to the beach to pick up shells, so Liu Yun thought about taking him with him along the way.

Who would have thought that they would just run into such a catastrophe as the attack of the pirates?

Pei Bao'er muttered in her mouth: "It won't be such a coincidence, they must have come back a long time ago, or else, if they heard the news on the way and turned back, they would definitely be fine......

She ran faster and faster, until she felt that her lungs were about to explode, and then rushed back to her small courtyard.

Whoop -

Pei Bao'er slammed open the gate for the first time, and then found that there was only one Dani in the courtyard who poked her head out and looked at her.

"Lady, what's wrong with you?"

Pei Bao'er didn't care about explaining, she just looked around and asked, "What about Yan'er?" What about Ah Yun? Did they come back? ”

Dani shook her head in disbelief.

Pei Bao'er was hit hard, and the whole person couldn't stand steadily, and a cracking sound came from the right, and she realized that she was frightened and used the bamboo distillation utensils as a crutch. It's a good thing, it's just a small crack, and now it's completely crushed by her.

She didn't care about this thing, she just threw the thing in her hand to the ground, and turned around to go out.

Dani saw that her expression was wrong, so she hurriedly wiped her hands on the cloth in her waist pocket, and ran over to follow her: "What happened?" Don't scare me, lady, where are you going? ”

Pei Bao'er's footsteps paused slightly, and her blurry eyes were focused again.

yes, where is she going? Going to Wuli Town?

It is a fantasy for a weak woman to single-handedly go to a place where the pirates are raging to find and even save people! But she couldn't help but go!

No, even if you want to go, you can't go like that!

Pei Bao'er took a few deep breaths, and hurriedly explained to Dani about Haikou, and that Yan'er and the two of them were likely to be in danger, so she turned around and entered the house again.

"I've got to go find them!"

Dani was so scared by her that she pulled her alive and didn't let her go.

"Those pirates must be some vicious guys, if you run into them, not only will you not be able to save Yan'er and them, but you will be compensated. Perhaps, they were not captured at all, and they might have hid in some house and waited for the chaos to pass before returning to the city. ”

Pei Bao'er smiled reluctantly, "Of course not." With that, she turned and went into the house.

Dani's eyes widened, and she suddenly thought of some kind of sabre-rattling picture, and muttered in her heart. You don't want to bring a kitchen knife to someone, do you?

She looked at it fixedly, and Pei Baoer did not enter the kitchen, but the back room of the living room. She couldn't help but shout: "Lady, if you run into those thieves, you won't be enough to bring ten hairpins!" ”

There was silence in the back room for a few moments before a strange, muffled voice came out.

"Who said I'm going to go toe-to-toe with those pirates?"

How else could there be?

Dani walked in in disbelief, but saw Pei Baoer grooming in the mirror. The bun on her head has always been the simplest and most convenient bun, but there is no change, and Pei Baoer did not insert a few more golden hairpins on her head to prepare for hand-to-hand combat as Dani imagined.

She was just about to ask, but her eyes fell on the men's clothes on Pei Baoer's body, and the voice suddenly became hoarse in her throat.

"This, this is ......"

Pei Baoer glanced at her through the mirror, and threw down the word "camouflage" without saying a word, only kept moving her hands, and dipped her fingertips in the dark powder paste in the porcelain box and applied it to her head and face. At this time, her movements are not as gentle as applying makeup to others or herself, but rather a little like spreading pancakes and fruits, no matter what else, as long as the skin that is evenly wiped and exposed on the outside of the clothes looks sallow and sallow, it is enough.

It didn't take long for her face and neck to instantly darken by four shades, and her eyebrows and eyes were slightly outlined, and the contour lines of the whole person looked rough and mediocre. She was a little taller than ordinary women, and she wore an old gray dress of Liu Yun that she pulled from the suitcase, but she didn't look bloated, and then removed her hair bun and combed it into the simplest men's bun.

It was only a stick of incense before and after, but Dani watched Pei Baoer transform from a little lady to a pretty man.

"Lady, your craftsmanship is really ......"

Pei Baoer turned around in front of the mirror, but found something wrong in the corner of her eye, and hurriedly reopened the box of shadow paste that she was about to use to the bottom, and wiped it on her hands and forearms.

"Hey, what kind of craft is this, if you don't have these things, you can go under the stove and find some soot, paste it on your face with water, and then pick a thin branch thrush that is burned to the half, and the effect is similar."

Dani was stunned for a moment, and only then did she react. Dare to love your own lady is to disguise herself as a man to find someone? However, if you really encounter those evil things, even men will not escape their doom, right?

"There's no way around it, I'm pretending to be a vendor who goes to the village to pick up the goods, and it's better to ask along the way than to wait like this."

Dani was about to say something, but was interrupted by Pei Bao'er: "You go to the city gate to guard, if they want to come back, they must enter through the city gate in the south!" Whether I can find it or not, I'll be back in town tomorrow at the latest. If only they had come back first...... Don't go out of the city to look for me, remember? She could only bite her lip and nod heavily.

At this time, the courtyard was sprinkled with spring sunshine, but the warmth did not penetrate the house at all, and the two people in the room were tense like bowstrings stretched to the full moon, and their eyes were still quenched with anxiety and fear of the unknown future.