"The oil cabbage bears ’Long Horn Fruit’, its seeds can number in the dozens, but it bears ’Short Horn Fruit’, with only a mere few seeds. Do you know of this grass?"
As soon as An Jing finished speaking, the dye workshop owner said, "Princess, are you talking about ’Blue Grass’?"
"Blue Grass?" An Jingxin’s heart leapt with joy, and she exchanged a glance with Xiao Changyi. Perhaps Songlan really was this ’Blue Grass’.
"Judging by your description, Princess, it should be ’Blue Grass’. Our dye workshop also uses this to extract the blue dye for fabrics; I’m fairly familiar with it."
An Jing became even happier, and her clasped hand with Xiao Changyi tightened with excitement as she immediately asked, "Then does your workshop have any roots of this ’Blue Grass’?"
The dye workshop owner found it even stranger. It was one thing to ask about ’Blue Grass’, but to inquire about the roots? Nevertheless, the dye workshop owner did not ask why, simply replying truthfully, "Our workshop only needs the leaves of ’Blue Grass’ to extract the blue dye; we do not require the roots, so we do not have any ’Blue Grass’ roots."
"Do you grow the ’Blue Grass’ yourselves, or do you buy it from someone?"
"We buy it. There are people who specifically grow it to sell to us." After a pause, "We only buy the leaves of ’Blue Grass’ from that person. They only provide us with the leaves; the roots have already been removed."
"Whom do you buy it from?"
"From Tao Aigui’s family in the west of the city."
"Do you know if there are other families growing ’Blue Grass’?"
"It seems there are several families in the city growing it. As for exactly who, I’m not sure. I have always bought ’Blue Grass’ only from Tao Aigui’s family."
"Alright, I, Princess, understand now."
There was nothing more to ask the dye workshop owner, so An Jing and Xiao Changyi did not seek out other dye workshop owners in the city but went to the west to find Tao Aigui, who planted ’Blue Grass’.
At first, Tao Aigui was also unwilling to open the door, fearing contagion from the epidemic, but as soon as he heard that Prince Yi and Princess Yi had come, although he was still afraid of catching the epidemic, he opened the door and let An Jing and Xiao Changyi in.
An Jing and Xiao Changyi did not sit down inside the house; they stood in the courtyard and asked Tao Aigui.
It was still An Jing who spoke first, "I hear your family lives off planting ’Blue Grass’?"
Tao Aigui was an incredibly honest and straightforward One Person, especially reserved and also very afraid. He had never seen such high-ranking individuals like the Prince and Princess, but he still answered, "Yes, our family plants ’Blue Grass’ and sells the leaves to some dye workshops for dye extraction, barely making ends meet."
"Does your family have any ’Blue Grass Root’?"
"We used to have some at home, but it’s all been burned as firewood."
Burned as firewood...
Such waste of heaven’s gifts...
Xiao Changyi remained expressionless.
Tao Aigui continued, "The roots of ’Blue Grass’ are useless. Every time after harvesting the leaves, since I didn’t want to throw the roots away, I dried them all out and brought them back to burn as firewood, and they burn quite well."
An Jing: "..." One day if you knew it could be used for medicine, you would certainly regret those ’Blue Grass Roots’ you burned...
After a moment of silence, An Jing then asked, "Do you know of any other families in the city who also grow ’Blue Grass’?"
Tao Aigui indeed knew, and he reported truthfully about four families.
An Jing made a note of it and then asked, "Does your family still have ’Blue Grass’ planted in your fields?" She wanted to go directly to their fields and dig up the roots.
Tao Aigui said, "Last month was the usual planting time, but with the epidemic outbreak, leaving the city was prohibited. The fields are outside the city. Hence, I couldn’t plant them. Those fields are lying fallow now."
An Jing was already disappointed; now, even more so.