Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

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Chapter 126: Addiction 6

As I stepped out of the guest hall where Georyong was staying, Hua Eun followed closely behind, asking, “What are you planning to make, So-ryong?”

Although I had mentioned creating something necessary, I hadn’t detailed what it would be. I wanted it to be a surprise, and saying outright that I would be making lipstick for them to smooch with would have been a bit too much.

Such things are best handed over discreetly with a wink, after all.

“You know? It’s my heart. Take care of your health and have fun. Until you lose your front teeth.”

I entertained the thought of keeping it a secret from Hua Eun until it was completed, but since I needed her help, I decided to let her in on it.

Keeping secrets between us felt a bit off.

“Oh, I’m making a lipstick that’s non-toxic and good for the lips. In this relationship between men and women… well, just because you want to control yourself doesn’t mean it’s easy.”

“Ah, I see. That… that’s definitely something both of them would need.”

Hua Eun was rubbing her hand against her face as if her cheeks felt warm.

With her cheeks still rubbing, Hua Eun cautiously asked me again, “But, So-ryong, you knew how to make something like that?”

“Oh, the lipstick?”

“Yes.”

How would I know what to make? I only had a rough idea based on the ingredients I knew.

With our departure imminent, I decided it was time to act.

“Yeah, I sort of do. But I need to find the materials; is there anywhere to buy medicinal herbs?”

“For herbs, you could get them from the Medicine Hall within the Martial Forest Alliance. If you ask the military officer Zhuge Hu, he might lend you some.”

Well, it was for both of them, after all. It’s also a preventative measure against addiction…

The evening was getting a bit late, but I resolved to find the military officer Zhuge Hu immediately to ask for permission.

As Hua Eun had said, it was medicine meant for my nephew, so I thought he might just give me the herbs.

“You want to borrow some herbs?”

“Yes, how should I put this? Anyway, I’m trying to make some medicine for both of them…”

The sun was setting, but Zhuge Hu, the military officer, was still seated at his desk, wrestling with a pile of documents.

When I asked him for the herbs, he immediately, in a refreshing tone, offered to write a letter for me since it was for my nephew.

“Medicine? Then I shall help you! I will write you a letter to take to the Medicine Hall. Show that letter at the Medicine Hall, and they will give you the herbs.”

“Thank you, sir!”

“Thank you? I should be grateful for you taking care of my nephew. Now, come here.”

As I entered the Medicine Hall with the letter Zhuge Hu gave me, a familiar face greeted us: Won-kyu, the physician dispatched from the Tang Clan.

“Miss? What brings you here?”

“Oh, So-ryong wanted to… No, he’s just making some medicine.”

“Is it really So-ryong making it?”

Won-kyu tilted his head when he heard I was making medicine.

When I showed him the letter from the military officer, his head flipped from side to side, nodding.

“Ah, it was the medicine needed for Georyong? If you need anything, just say so. I’ll prepare it.”

‘Let’s see, what ingredients do I need for lipstick… Ah! Pearl!’

As I thought, the first ingredient that popped into my mind was pearl.

“Do you happen to have any pearls?”

“Pearls, you say?”

“You’re using pearls, So-ryong?”

“Yes, I kind of need them…”

‘Pearl is the best ingredient for lipsticks. Shiny lips are the best!’

In my past life, many cosmetics contained pearls—everything from foundations to lipsticks and BB creams included pearls as an additive.

When pearl is included, it gives a slightly glossy look, often referred to as Pearl Bright.

And if it has pearls in it, it’s considered luxurious, so just having that fact alone is good enough.

If a gift includes pearls, there’s no better present!

“I do have some, just wait a moment.”

I had heard that pearls were once used as medicinal herbs, so when I asked, Won-kyu looked surprised for a moment but then nodded.

Won-kyu started a conversation with someone from the back and soon emerged with an elegant medicinal jar.

Click.

When he opened the jar, various colors of natural pearls were revealed.

He scooped out a handful of the brighter ones, and Won-kyu’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Th-That many?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Oh, not at all.”

“Oh, and I’d like to request a pestle for grinding as well.”

“Yes, of course, So-ryong.”

‘Now that the most important ingredient, the pearl, is prepared, next is… Oh, that thing!’

The base ingredient was ready; thus, I needed one more thing to ask for.

“Do you have any earth dragon (地龍) oil?”

“Earth dragon?”

“Yeah, earth dragon.”

“Yes, I need its oil and powder.”

What I requested as earth dragon was not the wise Georyong lying sick in bed, but rather earthworms. The oil and extract from earthworms are excellent moisturizers, so that’s why I planned to include them.

In my past life, earthworms were also used as ingredients for lipsticks.

‘Since I’m making this for Georyong, it only makes sense to include the earth dragon!’

“Of course, we do. Just a moment.”

A large medicinal jar filled with dried earthworms was prepared next, followed by my requests for honey and incense.

“I need honey and some fragrant incense used in scent pouches; I wonder what scent would be favored by the people of the Central Plains?”

“Hmm… cinnamon, So-ryong. It’s commonly used in scent pouches by women. Cinnamon.”

‘Is that Hua Eun’s preference?’

Hua Eun chimed in while I was deep in thought. Having received basic scent training from the Tang Clan, I could identify a few scents, and thinking about it, it was indeed cinnamon that lightly lingered from Hua Eun.

I decided to reflect Hua Eun’s taste in it.

I would make plenty so I could share some with Hua Eun too.

‘Well, I also want to live a long life, you know.’

“Then, I’ll request dried cinnamon, please.”

“Honey and cinnamon. This concoction smells mysterious indeed.”

Soon, after everything was prepared, I decided to ask Won-kyu for crafting assistance.

I could make it, but from here on, I needed to find the most important ingredient.

Besides, it felt like he would be better at creating it than I would.

“I’ll give you a rough idea on how to make it. Would you be able to help? I’ve never made it myself before.”

“Really? What kind of medicine are we making?”

“How should I put this? Oh! Right! Ointment!”

Now that I thought about it, ointments are quite similar to lipsticks.

When I said that, Won-kyu nodded along.

“Oh… it’s a combination I can understand. The earth dragon is good for jaundice and detoxifying, and with the pearl powder, pearls are known to soothe skin ailments.

Additionally, honey adds shine to the face, so if it’s an ointment applied to the skin, it makes sense. Cinnamon also helps in removing blood stasis…

It appears it may be good for bruises?”

Curious, Won-kyu contemplated aloud.

While he was lost in thought, he suddenly looked thoughtful and asked, “By the way, So-ryong, didn’t you say this was for Georyong?”

“Yes, so?”

“I have some concerns…”

‘What? Is it toxic or something just because I followed my instincts and mixed it?’

Not being a physician, I had just mixed without much thought, but it seemed he found something troubling.

I looked at him, prompting him to explain while he scratched his head.

“Honey enhances vitality and strengthens potency… so, hem, since he hasn’t experienced marriage yet… Well, you two have had your moments, and ahem…”

‘Honey has those effects!?’

Listening to him, I realized it could be a bit risky, but since Georyong is like a lizard from the Su-gongsha… I decided to trust him.

Besides, there were no other options to include anyway.

Honey is excellent for moisture retention and prevents spoilage, perfect as a cosmetic ingredient.

Well, if the side effect of using too much lipstick means just that he has a child of Zhuge Hu’s clan a bit earlier, then it’s not too bad.

“I’ll just have to trust Georyong to be a gentleman. Ahem.”

“Right. So, how do we make it?”

“Oh yes, the method is roughly like this. First, grind the pearls finely, then add the powder of the earth dragon. Eight parts of pearl to two parts of earth dragon powder.

Next, add the oil from well-processed earth dragons, honey, and cinnamon powder. Use three parts of earth dragon oil, seven parts of honey. The incense powder will help eliminate any bad odor while giving a pleasant scent, so just enough for it to barely waft.

Everything must be finely ground until the powder is invisible. I’ll go find the last ingredient, so I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Got it! Just leave it to me! I’ll have it ready even if it takes all night!”

With a determined Won-kyu left behind, Hua Eun asked me, “Do we still need more ingredients?”

“Yes, the final and most important ingredient is missing.”

“The most important?”

“It’s the dye to color the lipstick.”

“Oh, I almost forgot that we need to add powdered pearls.”

I couldn’t precisely know the exact components of the current lipstick, but I suspected it would clearly require a fragrance, moisturizer, and dye.

Since all the other ingredients would be blended and prepared by Won-kyu, what we needed now was the dye.

“Bright red isn’t very common… do you have anything in mind? Safflower isn’t in season and you wouldn’t use cinnabar, so it seems you have something else in mind?”

Ah, of course, I had something prepared just as Hua Eun mentioned.

I had anticipated that because that was the first thing that came to my mind.

That’s why I had initially said I was going to make the lipstick.

“Yes, of course.”

“What is it?”

I smiled gently while responding to Hua Eun, who cautiously asked, “Cochineal (연지충).”

“?”

‘It seems that because it’s Fabre, the main ingredient is indeed a bug!’

*

Through this recent incident, I realized the people around here didn’t seem to know about cochineal.

The usage of cochineal has a deep history, so they likely have heard of it, but it looks like they don’t use it.

Honestly, it’s easier to extract red dye in abundance from safflower or martagon flowers, whereas hunting cochineals is quite labor-intensive.

“There’s a bug called cochineal?”

“It might be referred to differently around here.”

Cochineal originally refers to the female scale insect that parasitizes cacti, located more toward South America.

This bug, somewhat resembling a maggot with its shell, produces a substance known as carminic acid to avoid being eaten by other bugs, which is what gives it its red color.

The dye extracted from this is called cochineal.

When thinking of the colors of cactus flowers or dragon fruits, the bright red color is easy to understand.

In my previous life, cochineal was utilized for a wide variety of purposes—everything from ham to lipstick, lip balm, candy, and jelly. The most common way many of us come into contact with it is the red color in strawberry milk.

Strawberry milk doesn’t actually contain strawberries at all; rather, it’s just milk mixed with strawberry flavor and cochineal to give it a red tint.

In precise terms, strawberry milk is the milk colored with red dye extracted from bugs!

‘So we’re actually drinking bug-infused milk!’

I thought about how to find the bugs living in South America, but there is a species in Southeast Asia too.

The scientific name of the South American ones is Dactylopius Coccus Costa, while the Asian species go by Kerria lacca or Coccus lacca, both of which are the females that produce the red pigment.

As such, Hua Eun and I ventured out together at midnight, heading toward the Martial Forest Alliance’s sponsorship to hunt for cochineals.

By dawn, we found a tree beside the road dying, with its branches looking as if they were covered in white hair.

Rushing over to check, there were swollen galls all over the trunk.

The Asian cochineal, Kerria lacca, lives in colonies, and when they cluster together, they produce red galls on tree trunks known as blood-red lac.

As I squeezed one to collect the dye that flowed out, I cheered since I finally gathered all the ingredients for lipstick.

“I found it!”

*

Before departing the next day, I visited the guest hall where Georyong was staying.

I had spent the night crafting the gift, and Hua Eun even tried it on herself; it turned out the lipstick was fantastic!

Hua Eun seemed to like it too, following me with it already on her lips.

As I stepped inside with the tube, I found only Georyong and Eun-bong present in the room.

After some random greetings, I quickly got down to business.

“Here.”

“What’s this?”

“Open it up.”

The tube was honestly rather unremarkable.

It was just a gold-plated medicinal container that martial artists commonly carried.

But when the lid was opened, Eun-bong’s eyes widened in surprise.

Eun-bong looked startled as she gazed at me in disbelief.

“This is… cochineal?”

Handing over the cochineal suddenly startled her, and I explained while looking at both her and Georyong.

“I couldn’t just ignore the unfortunate circumstances you both are in, as you agreed to help me.”

“Um? Unfortunate circumstances?”

“It’s non-toxic, good for the body, and surprisingly sweet and tasty cochineal.”

“…”

“…”

In the now-quiet room, I noticed Eun-bong’s neck slowly turning red.

I raised two fingers, saying, “Since I saved you both twice, you owe me a favor later.”

It wasn’t that a lack of lipstick meant not being able to kiss, but for heartthrob lovers, a gift like this would suffice.

It’s just like having saved them once, after all.

‘Well, should I go hatch the Heavenly Silkworm now?’

With everything settled at the Martial Forest Alliance, it was time to hatch our lovely little ones!