The Mountain of Ice and Fire

The night was already quite deep. Most people had already drifted off to sleep.

Toc, toc, toc!

A polite knock sounded on Jenny's door.

Jenny was lounging lazily in bed. Today, she had assisted her grandmother with experiments on potions. Only when her grandmother told her to rest did she realize it was dark, and only then did she realize how excessively tired she was from the day. She had simply been engrossed in the magical reactions of the potions, forgetting her physical fatigue.

Jenny opened the door to find the mature and dignified Mrs. Allen standing there.

She was a steward of Clegane, in charge of the kitchen's firewood, rice, oil, salt, and everyone's meals.

Jenny had a good impression of Mrs. Allen.

Mrs. Allen's late husband had been a knight, and she possessed excellent manners.

"Miss Jenny, Ser Gregor requests your presence."

"Now?" Jenny glanced outside, noting the late hour.

"Yes, now. The knight is waiting for you." Mrs. Allen wore a smile, her demeanor graceful.

"Uh… alright!" Jenny said. "Please wait for me a moment, madam. I'll be ready shortly."

"Yes, miss."

*

Tomorrow, Ser Gregor would take Ser Polliver and ten mounted soldiers to the royal mint in King's Landing to apply for the rights to mine gold, request the minimum and maximum amounts of ore that must be submitted each month, and obtain an official document assessing the ore's quality.

No one in the Seven Kingdoms had the right to mint coins or gold. Gold ore had to be handed over to the mint outside King's Landing, and then the treasury officials would provide gold dragon rewards based on the ore's quality and quantity submitted.

The King monopolized the minting of gold coins. The gold mines of the Westerlands were all brought to the King's mint, where the gold was extracted and then minted into coins.

The highest official in charge of minting, approving gold ore mining rights, and assessing ore quality was Petyr Baelish, known as Littlefinger.

Gregor's official trip would take him along the Gold Road, a journey of two thousand miles. A round trip would take at least twenty days. Although a good horse could travel a thousand miles a day and eight hundred at night, such horses were rare, perhaps one in a thousand.

This wasn't a military forced march; a party of twelve would be doing well to cover three hundred miles a day.

Jenny didn't know why Gregor was looking for her so late at night. It was a very personal matter; she was his betrothed, and he was notorious for his behavior with women.

*

"Ser Gregor, you wanted to see me?" Although Jenny's beautiful face held a smile, her tone carried a hint of trepidation.

Basically, everyone was asleep, including her father, who was upstairs. Mrs. Allen had escorted her to Gregor's huge bedroom and then left.

If Gregor wanted to do something to her, she would be nothing more than a helpless lamb.

"Jenny, I drew something. Take a look." Gregor noticed Jenny's restraint and tried to relax his inherent ferocious aura, smiling softly and looking at her with gentle eyes.

"What's this?" Jenny picked up a piece of parchment from the table.

Gregor had drawn a diagram with clear lines on the parchment. Jenny recognized it as a pipe with a curve in the middle.

"A water trap," Gregor said.

"…" Jenny stared at Gregor with a puzzled expression. She didn't understand at all and had never heard the name before.

"Water flows in here, and because there's an upward bend, water will be trapped in the curve."

Jenny listened carefully and looked intently. "But if there's a little more water, as long as this end is raised, the water trap can only ever hold a little water in the bend. The excess will flow away, because the pipe is open at both ends."

"That's right."

"So what do you want to do with this?"

"Install it in the toilet to replace the straight-through sewage pipes that people are used to."

"The toilet? Replace straight-through sewage? Won't the waste get stuck in the bend?" Jenny's finger pointed to the curved part of the pipe.

"No, because the other end is higher, the waste stuck in the bend will be forcibly flushed away by the water." The pressure of the water is considerable. Water pressure is a simple physical concept.

"But there will always be some water remaining in the bend!"

Gregor smiled. "That's right, that's the beauty of designing the bend. Install this pipe vertically, with a high water volume, and any waste at the bend will be flushed away. The remaining clean water will block the opening of the bend, and the water will cut off the airflow in the pipe. The odors from the toilet bowl won't enter the room through the sewage pipe."

Jenny's eyes, already large, widened even further.

She stared blankly at Gregor, her eyes full of surprise.

"No matter how clean the Duke's toilet or the King's toilet is, there's always that odor in the air. If there's a strong wind, and the cesspool isn't covered properly, the stench will enter the room through the sewage pipe. Even without wind, there's always a smell entering the room through the toilet pipes."

Jenny nodded like an elementary school student.

Everyone was like this, and everyone knew it. This was common sense. So, whether it was a commoner's or a noble's toilet, it was always built in the most remote corner, and the door was always closed tightly to prevent the wind from carrying the smell into other rooms.

"Designing a bend in a straight pipe won't block the waste, but it will block the odor from entering the room through the pipe. This way, even a small, separate toilet can be designed in the bedroom, as long as the water trap is buried underground! It's just that each time after using the toilet, a little more water may need to be flushed."

Jenny was so shocked by Gregor's 'brainwave' that she couldn't speak.

She knew that what Gregor was saying was entirely feasible.

"How did you think of this?" Jenny heard her voice sounding a little ethereal.

She didn't think Gregor could come up with something that seemed so simple but was actually very clever and ingenious. The name 'water trap' was also very appropriate.

"I didn't think of it. You did," Gregor said with a smile, handing the drawing to Jenny. "I'm a crude villain, illiterate and slow-witted. I couldn't come up with something like this. Alright, it's getting late. You should go to sleep. Tomorrow, take this drawing to the master craftsmen and tell them that all the toilets in Clegane village, the toilets in the Sept, and the ladies' private toilets must be fitted with this type of water trap underground."

"You want to give me this invention?"

"You're talented, intelligent, and surpassingly clever. These little things should have been your ideas in the first place."

"I won't take credit for your work."

"It's not taking credit, it's helping me. If Ser Gregor is known to be getting smarter day by day and constantly favored by the light of the Seven Gods, I'm afraid many people will be jealous of me, wary of me, vigilant of me, and even want to get rid of me," Gregor said seriously. "But you're different. You come from a noble family and are multi-talented. If this is your idea, others won't be wary of me because they're afraid."

Jenny looked at Gregor, her big eyes shining. "Ser Gregor, you're completely different from the villain in the rumors. You're not crude. The people who slander you are crude. On the contrary, you're very shrewd and full of wisdom."

Not wisdom, but cunning.

Gregor decided to take the opportunity to be sentimental. After all, he had watched so many melodramatic dramas in his previous life, and he still remembered some of the disgusting lines: "Jenny, you're my betrothed. We're the most important people in each other's lives. I really can't stand the odor coming from the toilet passage, especially when the weather is hot. Since I thought of a way to solve this problem, I'll do it. But this time, you'll have to bear the false reputation for me. In front of others, I must hide my cleverness."

In other words, in front of Jenny, he was a frank man.

"Alright, I'll help you. This water trap was my idea, and I invented it," Jenny said with a serious little face that looked very charming. "However, I won't take it out the day after you leave. I'll wait a little longer."

"Great!" Gregor smiled.

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