The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 142: Glass Tube (Subscriptions Welcome!)

The Mountain closed the door and returned, standing beside Jeyne like a beast beside a little girl.

"Jeyne, where's your cat?"

"My sister Elenya likes it very much."

"You gave it to her?"

"You have too many things to worry about, and I can't just laze around pampering a cat, so I simply gave it to Mother and my younger sister."

The Mountain looked at Jeyne and spread his large hand: "Jeyne, I announced today's decree without discussing it with anyone. I hope you don't mind."

Jeyne smiled slightly: "You've already done it, so naturally, you're not afraid of my parents and me minding. You never cared about our reaction anyway."

"There's not much time left before the outbreak of war. I can't spend time discussing it with parents who don't understand this. If I told them, they would definitely object, and things wouldn't proceed. I didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you, so that our parents wouldn't think you knew but didn't tell them, creating resentment within the family. Let Mom and Dad direct their complaints at me."

"Yes, I know. You didn't tell me because you care about me. Go to sleep."

"You sleep first. I still have very important things to take care of."

Jeyne sat up in bed, supporting herself with her hands as she looked up at the Mountain. She didn't ask, but the Mountain could tell from her expression what she was asking.

"I'm going to talk to Foulmouth and Reynard about something."

Jeyne's questioning gaze continued to ask: "Gold coins?"

The Mountain nodded. The couple had reached the point where Jeyne could ask questions with her eyes and expressions, and the Mountain could understand.

Jeyne spoke, her voice clear and charming, especially by the bedside, her little red lips enticing: "Ser, do you really think the outbreak of war is less than a year away?"

"It's not what I think, it's the prophecy my grandmother, the witch, saw."

"What if Grandmother is wrong?"

"Then we still won't be beheaded by Duke Tywin for minting private coins."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because Tywin already knows that the Lannister family is sitting on a large bonfire. He doesn't want his head to be chopped off, so naturally, he's even more eager to ensure my head isn't chopped off either. I'm a big knife for him to chop off other people's heads."

"Who wants to chop off Duke Tywin's head? How does the Duke know he's sitting on a large bonfire? Is it Grandmother? What exactly did Grandmother say to Duke Tywin in those two days?"

"...Uh... a lot... so Duke Tywin decided to strike first... the seven hundred gold dragons he gave Grandmother weren't for nothing... Duke Tywin himself has confirmed that the prophecies Grandmother spoke of—are all true."

"It's not seven hundred gold dragons, it's a thousand gold dragons. When Mark the scribe catches Littlefinger Petyr Baelish and brings him to the Westerlands, you'll have another three hundred gold dragons coming in."

"Not me, it's us, the couple, who will have three hundred gold dragons coming in."

"You're earning the Duke's money through my grandmother. Do you think the Duke knows?"

"That's a stupid thing we shouldn't think about. Duke Tywin considers every penny he spends. He'll pay without hesitation if it's worth the money."

Jeyne pondered for a moment, then tilted her head slightly towards the door on the right, signaling that she allowed the Mountain to leave.

But the Mountain took a step forward, picked Jeyne up like a little doll, gently touched her face with his thick lips, and then gently placed Jeyne on the bed: "Aren't you going to ask me why I'm going to buy milk in July and August? That's really a stupid thing to do."

"If you can solve the money problem, then it's not stupid. Buying milk is buying the hearts of the people. You've already done that today when it comes to winning the hearts of the people! You've done it very well, and that extra gold dragon was especially effective."

"The decree I proposed to buy milk was indeed to win the hearts of the people, but it was also for us to make money."

"How can you make money by pouring the purchased milk into the sewer?"

"I didn't say that the milk bought at one-third or one-quarter below the market price would be poured away," the Mountain said with a smile.

"If you don't pour it away, what else can you do with it?"

"Of course, we'll make all kinds of milk bread, milk pastries, milk tapioca, and even milk noodles. These are all high-quality, high-energy foods. In addition to supplying our soldiers, we can sell them back to the people at several times the purchase price of the milk. With the income and outgo, our profit margin will be considerable. I'm not just buying the milk from the people in our territory. When the news spreads, I'll buy the milk from the people in other territories at one-fifth or one-tenth of the normal price, the more the better."

Jeyne squinted at the Mountain: "What wicked idea have you come up with again?"

"It's not wicked, and it guarantees healthy, non-toxic food. But I need your help."

"Speak!" Jeyne commanded. Then she raised her head, her delicate chin facing the Mountain.

A woman is always relaxed and unrestrained in front of the man who truly loves her!

"Help me find a glass tube, preferably the size of a finger, or customize a glass tube with a small ball at the bottom and a straight, hollow top."

"Do you want it sealed?"

"No, open, but it needs to have a rubber stopper that can seal it."

"That's it?"

"That's it!"

"This thing can turn undrinkable milk into drinkable milk?"

"Yes!"

Jeyne looked at him with an incredulous expression, moving her head away from the Mountain, pretending to be re-acquainting herself with the Mountain.

"I had a dream last night. In my dream, the Seven Gods said to me, 'Mountain, Mountain,' no, 'Ser Gregor,' oh no, the Seven Gods said, 'Lord Gregor, we want to tell you a way to solve the problem of disease-ridden milk.' I said, 'I'm a bad person, I won't listen, please tell my Lady Jeyne. She knows everything about astronomy and geography, and she even knows about air. Go tell her.' The Seven Gods said to me, 'Lord Gregor, we're telling you, you're responsible for telling Jeyne, and this is exactly how we're telling Jeyne.'"

Jeyne's serious expression finally couldn't hold back, and she burst out laughing: "Get out!"

"Alright!" The Mountain shrugged, opened the door, went out, and gently closed the door.

The Mountain came from Chinese civilization. He started reading at the age of six and studied for a total of sixteen years, two-thirds longer than the ten years of hard study that the ancient Chinese spoke of. The books he had read, the history he had learned, the chemistry experiments he had done, and the physics formulas he had memorized were not completely returned to the teachers and the school.

After all, he had paid to go to school.

If knowledge is a commodity and schools are supermarkets, then they are all commodities that have been purchased with real money and stored in his memory as personal private goods.

Jeyne walked over, opened the door, and saw the Mountain's tall figure turning away in the corridor. On both sides of the corridor, several family guards saluted him together.

The Mountain stopped, nodded, smiled, and said a few words softly, which made the family guards very excited.

In the hearts of the family guards, the Mountain led twenty-two members of the still untrained Clegane cavalry to sweep across the northern nobles overnight, capturing and binding twenty-seven knights, and chopping off Damon Marbrand's right hand in the hall of Crakehall. All the family soldiers and guards in Crakehall admired the Mountain.

As for the Mountain's long-standing bad reputation, all the soldiers, guards, knights, servants, and even his mother in Crakehall chose to ignore it, as if the Mountain had always been a noble and upright, brave and resourceful hero.

Jeyne gently closed the door and leaned against it, lost in thought. Last night, when the two were intimate, the Mountain jokingly told her that he was not from this world, and then she left a string of jade-like teeth marks on the Mountain's shoulder.

The Mountain wanted her to prepare a glass tube, spherical at one end, preferably the size of a finger, or even larger, but this thing could turn undrinkable milk into drinkable milk?

How could that be done?

*

The Mountain came to the dungeon of Crakehall.

The prison door immediately opened, and the jailers treated the Mountain with utmost respect, their eyes gleaming with admiration. The jailer captain and the jailers were honored to personally welcome Lord Mountain.

The Mountain went in, and then a dozen jailers came out, led by the captain, and stood guard at the dungeon door, their hands on their sword hilts.

This was what Reynard Westerling, the heir of Crakehall who had entered earlier, had ordered.

Before the Mountain came here, two teenagers had already entered this dungeon on Lord Mountain's orders, one was Foulmouth, and the other was Reynard Westerling.