Chapter 117: The Melons Ripened

In the following days, although Fang Jifan still went to the House of the Crown Prince, he did not bother looking for Zhu Houzhao. The Crown Prince seemed carefree as well; he continued to take sick leave and refused to study at Minglun Hall.

Having lived two lives, Fang Jifan felt much more mature about the Crown Prince’s mischief.

He knew this kind of behavior should never be indulged. If it happened once, it would happen again. If the Crown Prince ignored him, so be it. As Nanhe Bozi, he could simply live his own life. After all, it was a secure position. Since Emperor Wen’s time, few nobles in Great Ming were executed simply for having a poor relationship with the Emperor or the Crown Prince.

Besides, he still had five disciples. Even if he, the Young Lord, had no future, his disciples would still become officials of varying ranks.

Thinking this, Fang Jifan felt quite at ease and continued eating and sleeping as usual.

One night, as construction was underway in the backyard and Fang Jinglong was away on an imperial inspection at Tianjin Garrison, a bored Fang Jifan went to bed early.

As usual, he had a pleasant dream. He dreamed of many people, and it seemed the Emperor wanted to betroth a Princess to him. In the dream, Fang Jifan naturally and righteously refused. He thought, Emperor, you think you’re so great? You want to marry your daughter to me, Fang Jifan? I’d have to support her for life—so where’s the dowry?

Besides, marrying your daughter would make me that scoundrel Zhu Houzhao’s brother-in-law? No, no, that wouldn’t do. Zhu Houzhao was terrible. I already cut ties with him. How about a different brother-in-law? Hmm… Who else?

“Old Fang… Old Fang…”

A sinister voice seemed to draw nearer, turning Fang Jifan’s dream into a nightmare. He saw Zhu Houzhao with a green face and fangs chasing after him, letting out a creepy, maniacal laugh.

“Old Fang… Old Fang… Wake up…”

Fang Jifan broke out in a cold sweat and was pushed awake, his perspiration soaking the thick silk quilt. He abruptly opened his eyes in the darkness.

“Old Fang, Old Fang…”

Fang Jifan instantly got goosebumps. Damn it, this wasn’t a dream.

Someone was really pushing him.

Fang Jifan instinctively wanted to shout, “Help! There’s a ghost!”

But as soon as he opened his mouth, a hand tightly covered it.

Mmph…

Fang Jifan shed tears. Could this be the legendary flower thief? But I’m a man! Could it be… special preferences?

“Old Fang, it’s This Palace… It’s This Palace. Don’t shout, don’t shout. I’m telling you, the watermelons… The watermelons ripened… ripened. I was afraid Father Emperor would find out I left the palace without permission, so I sneaked out of the Eastern Palace overnight. That’s why I didn’t bring Liu Banban and the others. I wanted to come through the main gate, but your doorman looked down on me and refused to let me in. It really made This Palace angry. I had no choice but to climb over the wall. This Palace really had a hard time finding you. Alright, now let’s go see the melons. The melons are ripe.”

In the darkness, Fang Jifan couldn’t see Zhu Houzhao’s expression, but… he felt extremely annoyed.

“What? Still angry? Old Fang, you’re a grown man, why so petty? Besides, friends don’t hold grudges overnight. Hurry, put on your clothes. Let’s go see the melons.” With that, Zhu Houzhao dragged Fang Jifan out of bed.

The weather was still bitterly cold. The moment Fang Jifan touched the chilly air, he couldn’t help but shiver.

Fang Jifan felt helpless against Zhu Houzhao and said, “Wait, let me get dressed, let me get dressed…”

In the dark, Fang Jifan fumbled around for the old clothes he had taken off the previous night. He didn’t light a lamp, but suddenly missed having Xiaoxiangxiang help him dress. It felt somewhat unfamiliar. After struggling to put on his clothes, he finally lit the lamp and saw Zhu Houzhao wearing a Python Robe, looking spirited as he watched Fang Jifan. Perhaps because of their previous disagreement, he seemed a little embarrassed to show up so suddenly.

No wonder the doorman didn’t let him in or announce him. Not to mention it was the middle of the night and the doorman didn’t dare wake him, but just Zhu Houzhao’s outfit made it hard to believe he was the Crown Prince. Most likely, they thought he was an actor.

At that moment, Zhu Houzhao said impatiently, “What are you standing there for? Let’s go.”

“In the middle of the night?” Fang Jifan was still considering whether to forgive this guy.

“Our melons!” Zhu Houzhao gave Fang Jifan an exasperated look, stamped his foot anxiously, and said, “The melons we planted together are ripe now. Aren’t you even a little surprised?”

“…” Fang Jifan had no words and sighed. “Your Highness is really too stubborn.”

Zhu Houzhao immediately bared his teeth and said angrily, “Clearly, you’re the stubborn one. You don’t understand anything. Do you know military strategy? Do you know the geography of Guizhou? Do you know the combat effectiveness of the guest troops and Wolf Troops sent to Guizhou? You don’t understand anything, yet you still argue with This Palace.”

Fang Jifan pressed his lips together and only said, “Anyway, Wang Shi lost.”

Zhu Houzhao frowned angrily, but then he laughed. “Let’s not argue about this. Let’s go see the melons. When the Victory Report comes, it will naturally prove you wrong.”

Fang Jifan thought it made sense, so he put on another thick coat and followed Zhu Houzhao out.

In the middle of the night, they rode horses through the cold streets to the House of the Crown Prince. Although they wore heavy clothes, Fang Jifan still felt the cold intensely. By the faint light from a couple of lanterns along the streets and residences, Fang Jifan became a bit worried. If they encountered patrolling soldiers from the Five City Military and Horse Command, it could be troublesome. If word got to the palace, he would surely be summoned for another scolding.

Luckily, his luck was good that day. The whole way, they met no one and smoothly arrived at the House of the Crown Prince. Following Zhu Houzhao, they entered the Greenhouse, where a flickering candle was already lit.

The more than ten melon seedlings they had planted earlier had produced over thirty watermelons. Actually, nearly seventy fruits had set initially, but Fang Jifan feared the soil lacked fertility, so he had Zhu Houzhao remove over thirty of them. Zhu Houzhao had complained for a long time back then, and Fang Jifan had repeatedly explained that having more fruits wasn’t necessarily better. If a single vine had too many extra branches or set too many fruits, the soil’s fertility would be insufficient, leading to poor nutrition. Ultimately, while there might be more melons, most wouldn’t grow large and would taste very poor. Keeping two fruits per vine was the limit to yield two decent melons.

Now, looking at the melons all over the ground, Fang Jifan took a deep breath and couldn’t help but feel emotional. It really wasn’t easy. At least it proved that growing in a Greenhouse during winter was correct. With this Experimental Field, they could promote the method later.

Actually, in this era, winter planting similar to Greenhouse cultivation did exist. For example, as early as the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were records of growing vegetables near hot springs, and even greenhouse-grown cucumbers had existed for a long time.

However… growing vegetables near hot springs wasn’t very meaningful because the soil there often lacked fertility, and the vegetables didn’t grow large. Moreover, ancient Greenhouses lacked sufficient temperature, unlike Fang Jifan’s setup with Flues, so they could only grow cold-tolerant vegetables like cucumbers.

As for fruits like watermelons that usually ripen in summer, growing them in winter was very rare.

“Growing melons in weather like this…” Zhu Houzhao wore a silly, happy grin. He was truly delighted. These melons were the result of his hard work, and the hardships involved were imaginable. Now, it was finally time to harvest.

“These two melons—one is for Empress Mother, for her to taste.” Zhu Houzhao pointed at the two melons from the Champion Marquis vine. Then he continued, “And another one will be sent to Renshou Palace. Great Grandmother is old and her teeth aren’t good, but she should still get to try one.”

Fang Jifan also picked one. “This one is for His Majesty…”

“No!” Zhu Houzhao narrowed his eyes, stubborn and obstinate. “We’ll sell it to him later.”

“…”

“Let’s keep one to try ourselves. What about the others?” Zhu Houzhao looked at Fang Jifan.

Fang Jifan said decisively, “Relying on selling these few dozen melons definitely won’t make us money. The most important thing is to first open up the market and make our melons famous in the Capital. So, sell them! And sell them at a high price, to the wealthiest families in the Capital. Once they taste these rare melons, we can recruit people at Western Hills, build Greenhouses, and expand cultivation. We should clear thousands of acres of land. We shouldn’t just grow watermelons; we should also try planting some other things. In short, we’ll gradually expand production and build our reputation. It’s perfect—the weather will warm up soon. This summer, we’ll first build Greenhouses on thousands of acres. Hmm… this Colored Glaze has good light transmission, but it seems we need to make Glass.”

“What is Glass?” Hearing a new term, Zhu Houzhao looked curiously at Fang Jifan.

Currently, the most important thing was to reduce costs, to the absolute minimum. For the Experimental Field, they could be as extravagant as they wanted since it was just for verification, but real business was another matter.

As for what Glass was, Fang Jifan found it hard to explain to Zhu Houzhao.

Making Glass at Western Hills was actually an excellent idea because glass smelting required a lot of fuel, and the mineral veins in the Western Hills provided fuel, allowing them to source materials locally. The land near Western Hills, originally bought to prevent ore theft, now served a great purpose—it could be used to build large-scale Greenhouses.

Coal was the foundation; it could be used as fuel and also sold. Using smokeless coal to produce Glass could be sold externally and also used to build Greenhouses for vegetable cultivation, forming a simple industrial chain.

However, things had to be done step by step. Expanding cultivation didn’t need to be rushed; there was still a whole summer ahead. The most important thing was to establish the brand first.

Winter watermelons were rare in themselves. If they first became popular among the top noble circles in the Capital, things would get easier later.

Of course, if they could give these watermelons some special significance, that would be even better.

The two of them carried out one watermelon, like two thieves in the darkness, and ordered the Eunuch on duty to bring a watermelon knife. They washed the watermelon, cut it in half, and the bright red juice immediately overflowed. The unique melon fragrance had a special charm in the cold night.

“This Palace will cut it personally.” Zhu Houzhao wanted to slice the watermelon into wedges.

But Fang Jifan said, “We can’t eat it like that. That’s how poor people eat it.”

“Ah…” Zhu Houzhao was stunned.

Fang Jifan said to the Eunuch on duty, “Bring two spoons.”

The Eunuch licked his lips, looking pitifully at this rare item, clearly craving some. Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn’t get any, so he obediently went to fetch silver spoons.