"Mr. Li, here's what you wanted!" Jack said curiously, placing the purchased items on the desk. He couldn't figure out what this gentleman from the mysterious East was doing buying so much medicine.
"Thank you, Ruth. Please pay Mr. Jack," Li Qingyuan nodded slightly, instructing Ruth to settle the bill.
Honestly, he had no designs on the female lead. The system tasks had nothing to do with her, and he didn't want to complicate things.
However, he'd clearly underestimated the power of a devoted fan. After learning that Li Qingyuan was alone, Miss Ruth, leveraging her social standing, had insisted on becoming his financial manager.
In her words, "Mr. Li has traveled across the ocean, and it's not right for him to be without someone to help!"
Carl was almost apoplectic about this. However, he couldn't sway Ruth, especially after Li Qingyuan stated that he'd only have Ruth act as his secretary and help him during the day. Carl finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As for whether he could grasp the true purpose of a secretary, that remained to be seen!
"That'll be thirty-two pounds," Jack announced, his face perfectly composed, quoting a price three times the actual cost.
At first, he'd genuinely been attracted to the girl in front of him. It was like being struck in the heart by Cupid's arrow!
But after a few interactions, Jack realized he couldn't keep up with her thought process. Ruth was completely consumed by the poems Li Qingyuan had taught her, completely ignoring Jack's attempts to woo her.
So, after two failed attempts to impress her, Jack had completely given up. After all, there were countless Gypsy girls in the third-class cabins of the Titanic. With his handsome face, he didn't need to waste energy on a girl who wasn't interested.
Besides, his most important task now was to make money. As long as he had money, he could become rich. Then, he could have his pick of women.
"Here's thirty-two," Ruth said, pulling the money from her purse and handing it to Jack. The latter's smile was so wide his teeth gleamed.
"Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?" Jack asked, a hint of flattery in his voice as he stuffed the crisp banknotes reeking of ink into his pocket.
He'd earned twenty pounds just from running errands for a day. This business was practically free money!
"Not at the moment, but I'll get back to you if I need anything," Li Qingyuan said, waving his hand dismissively. He no longer needed this destined male lead.
What he was racking his brain to do now was to recreate the formula for Nitroglycerin.
As a struggling writer, he needed to have some understanding of things like cement manufacturing, glass casting, gunpowder composition, and hybrid rice. After all, whether you were transported to another world or the ancient times, these skills were essential for a protagonist to get rich.
But it was easier said than done. Take the simplest Black Powder, for example. Everyone knew it was one part carbon, two parts nitrate, and three parts sulfur, but what exactly were the proportions? Without hundreds of experiments, it would be difficult to get it right.
Furthermore, with the size of the Titanic, it would be a tall order to sink it with Black Powder. Therefore, he could only choose the more powerful Yellow Explosive.
That is, the Yellow Explosive invented by the alchemist Nobel!
The medicine he had Jack buy was all medicine for angina, and the basic components of these things were Nitroglycerin. As long as it was filtered a little, you could get Nitroglycerin of extremely high purity.
Then, as long as a little egg white, rust, and fine sand were added to the Nitroglycerin, evenly stirred, and then mixed with wood ash and dried, he could get the terrifying Yellow Explosive.
This little trick was readily available on the internet in the 21st century, but in this era, it was a closely guarded secret of major laboratories. Therefore, he wasn't afraid of being discovered, because even if others saw what he was doing, they wouldn't know what it was.
As for the formulas and data written in the diary?
If someone could find a chemist proficient in Mandarin on the Titanic, then it could only be said that the system was maliciously increasing the difficulty!
At first, he wanted to buy explosives directly from the black market, but after learning about the situation there, he had to abandon that idea.
Admittedly, as black market merchants, they didn't care about what was forbidden. Those merchants did have explosives, but they were just scattered grains of Black Powder, and the amount was unbelievably small.
Li Qingyuan suspected that even if he collected all the black market explosives on the entire ship, it would still be difficult to put on a fireworks show.
Using that Black Powder, he reckoned he could at most burn a hole in the Titanic's bottom.
He had to remember that a giant cruise ship like the Titanic had steel plates at the bottom that were five centimeters thick, not to mention the various layers, and the thickness of the bottom would probably exceed half a foot. Even with the Yellow Explosive in his possession, he thought he could only blast a large hole!
A two or three square meter hole might be a fatal threat to small ships, but it had no impact on the Titanic at all.
The Titanic was designed with water leakage in mind, so it had twenty sealed compartments. Even if four compartments flooded, the other sixteen could still ensure the ship's safety.
In the original plot, the reason it sank was because the iceberg smashed through five compartments at once. Then, too much water entered the rear of the ship, causing it to tilt and eventually break in the middle.
Thinking about this, Li Qingyuan felt helpless. He reached up and scratched his forehead. No matter how he looked at it, this mission seemed unreliable!
The explosives he had could, at most, blow up two compartments. If he spread them out across five, he might not even be able to break through the steel plating.
As for gathering more materials to make explosives?
Not to mention whether there were enough raw materials on the ship, he was also too busy!
Making explosives wasn't like laying bricks. If he just found anyone to do it, they would probably blow up the cabin before he even left.
Back then, the alchemist Nobel had also sacrificed his entire family before creating the yellow explosive!
"Qingyuan, have you come up with a brilliant poem?" Seeing Li Qingyuan scratching his head, Ruth immediately thought he was so charming; even his thinking looked so handsome.
There was nothing to be done. When someone is madly in love, even if you're taking a dump, they'll think your effort is different from everyone else's.
Ruth gently walked behind Li Qingyuan, then softly approached him.
"Mr. Li, I..."
Carl Hockley pushed the door open directly, and then discovered a scene that made his head flash green.
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(End of Chapter)