The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 134

"This is an emerald, from the Ailao Mountains, and this is carmine red. These two are my favorites."

Lin Yao pointed to two of them and said.

Upon hearing "emerald" and "rouge," Zhou Chu immediately understood what those two things were.

Emerald is an extremely precious mineral pigment. Its value lies not only in its dreamlike color but also in the difficulty of its extraction.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, or rather the entire world, the only known source of emeralds is the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan. The Ailao Mountains are extremely dangerous, filled with primeval forests and various ferocious beasts. Moreover, according to legend, there are even dragons in the waters of the Ailao Mountains.

In his previous life, Zhou Chu had also seen videos of the Ailao Mountains, and just from watching the videos, he could feel the danger they represented.

The most terrifying thing about the Ailao Mountains is that the magnetic field inside is completely different from that outside; it's chaotic, making compasses useless inside, and people who go in can easily get lost.

Even in later generations, with all kinds of equipment available, few people dared to enter the Ailao Mountains, as the mortality rate was extremely high once they did.

Not to mention in this era, getting a piece of emerald ore would require countless lives.

However, this was all the business of the chieftains. Even if the royal family didn't want these emeralds, the chieftains would still send people in to retrieve them. This kind of pigment could no longer be described as more valuable than gold.

Even a small piece of emerald, no bigger than a thumb, could fetch tens of taels of silver if sold on the market.

Although the bottle Lin Yao brought wasn't much, it was still worth several hundred taels of silver. It wasn't a matter of value, but rather that you couldn't buy it even if you had the money.

As the name suggests, carmine red is a pigment made from the corpses of cochineal insects. However, it was usually made directly into pigment and then presented as tribute. Otherwise, if it were said that it was made from cochineal insects, many people would feel somewhat uncomfortable.

It is also an extremely expensive pigment.

These pigments are of the highest quality, so the clothes made from them are naturally of the highest quality as well. In the past, many concubines in the imperial palace might not even have a single garment like this.

If this were made into a set of clothes, it would be a waste of all the paint if it didn't sell for tens of thousands of taels of silver.

“Okay, I’ll make the arrangements later. A group of top-notch embroiderers just arrived from Jiangnan these past two days.”

Zhou Chu smiled.

The embroiderers currently employed in Yun Gui Fang are among the best in the entire Ming Dynasty. Compared to them, the temporary recruits of the past are far inferior.

Of course, the wages are also top-notch.

"Brother, I want to join the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Seeing that Lin Yao had finished speaking, Lin Zhi then shared his own thoughts.

Zhou Chu was somewhat surprised to hear this.

"The Embroidered Uniform Guard is not a good place to go. It is notorious in the eyes of those civil officials. Think it over."

Lin Zhi at this time was completely different from the person he was half a year ago; he was no longer the frivolous and dissolute young man he once was.

In the past six months, he has been quite diligent in practicing martial arts. Although his martial arts skills are still somewhat inferior to those of ordinary Imperial Guards, they are much better than those of ordinary people.

"I've made up my mind. A man should serve the Ming Dynasty and make contributions."

Lin Zhi said with a face full of longing.

"Wait a little longer. Your skills are too mediocre. Practice some more, and you'll find a good place to go in a while."

Zhou Chu looked at Lin Zhi with a disdainful expression.

Lin Zhi didn't feel any resentment towards Zhou Chu's disdain; he just scratched his head a little embarrassedly.

"I've only been training for half a year, haven't I?"

"What about me? Can I join the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

Lin Yao looked at Zhou Chu with anticipation and asked.

Lin Yao's kung fu is good enough; even ordinary imperial guards might not be her match.

But she was a woman, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard was not openly allowed to take women in.

"Women are not allowed to join the Embroidered Uniform Guard, let alone a young woman like you. What kind of image would it have if you joined the Embroidered Uniform Guard? Don't you care about your reputation?"

Zhou Chu said with a hint of helplessness.

Lin Yao knew it was unlikely, but she was still somewhat disappointed to hear this.

"Your Excellency, the Empress Dowager wishes to see you."

At this moment, a member of the Imperial Guard walked up to Zhou Chu and said in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chu laughed, and the Empress Dowager finally couldn't hold back any longer.