However, the person responsible for the incense recently took a leave, so Ji Nian had to seek out a master perfumer.
"Extracting essential oils? I remember the Ji Family owns a renowned brand that produces perfumes and fragrances. If you want to visit, you can go to the factory."
"Don’t believe everything you see in online videos. They hide many steps; it’s not that simple."
"Wow, young lady, you even know about old sandalwood? How smart of you."
The perfumer was clearly trying to humor the child, but he couldn’t help but marvel at how different children from wealthy families were. At such a young age, she already had her own hobbies and knew so much. When he was five, he had just started kindergarten.
After chatting with the perfumer, Ji Nian went to find Zhiliao.
"You want to visit the raw materials factory?"
Ji Nian nodded: "Dad’s not here, and no one’s keeping me company. I’m so bored, Zhiliao."
Ji Tingzhou wasn’t home. Indeed, the homebody had been unusually busy these past few days, and yesterday he even went out, which was rare.
Zhiliao didn’t agree immediately, saying she needed to ask the family head first.
Ji Nian had been waiting for this.
Thinking that Ji Tingzhou probably wasn’t busy at this time, she went straight to the study, found his spare phone, unlocked it with ease, and video-called him.
Ji Tingzhou had just gotten off the plane when his private phone rang.
The caller ID showed his own name.
He didn’t need to think twice to know who it was.
As the phone rang, the video connected, and Ji Nian saw Ji Tingzhou’s face on the screen.
She moved closer, squeezing her little face into the frame.
"Dad!"
Ji Tingzhou seemed to be outside; the wind was blowing his hair slightly messy.
But he still looked handsome, even under the unforgiving HD camera.
"Yes, what is it?"
Ji Tingzhou held the phone, looking at the child on the screen.
Her hair was tied into two loose braids, adorned with pink hairpins. Her eyes were wide and round, lighting up with a smile as soon as she saw him.
Zhiliao took the phone and explained that Ji Nian wanted to visit the raw materials factory.
Ji Tingzhou knew she had been spending a lot of time in the lab recently. Though he didn’t know what she was doing, her sudden interest in visiting such a place must be related to her experiments.
"Both you and Wei Yang accompany her. There’s no danger. Let her do whatever she wants."
Zhiliao nodded without further questions.
The factory was also under the Ji Family’s name, and they wouldn’t let Ji Nian do anything dangerous.
After that, Zhiliao handed the phone back to Ji Nian.
"All good?"
Seeing her smiling so much that her eyes turned into crescents, Ji Tingzhou’s tone was amused.
"Not quite."
"Dad, I miss you. Come back soon, okay?"
He knew she was just trying to sweet-talk him, but Ji Tingzhou still found it endearing. "Got it, you little clingy one."
After a few more words, Ji Tingzhou got into the car and hung up.
With Ji Tingzhou’s approval, and accompanied by Zhiliao and Wei Yang, they went to the factory.
However, for safety reasons, they didn’t reveal their identities.
After all, this factory was just one of the thousands of businesses under the Ji Family empire.
If you said the factory manager’s daughter was coming, they’d be excited. But if you said Ji Tingzhou’s daughter was coming, their first reaction would probably be to think you were crazy.
So, Ji Nian entered the factory smoothly and discreetly.
She was bent over, examining a box of what looked like tree bark that had been brought to her.
Wei Yang was curious: "What’s so interesting about this bark?"
Listening to the worker’s explanation, Ji Nian thought to herself that this wasn’t just any wood.
It was the outer oily layer of old sandalwood. The higher the oil content, the longer the fragrance would last.
Zhiliao shot Wei Yang a look, signaling him to stop disturbing Ji Nian.
Wei Yang, seeing that Ji Nian was deep in thought and hadn’t noticed him, kept quiet.
Ji Nian was silent for too long, and Zhiliao sensed something was off. She walked over and asked, "What’s wrong?"
Ji Nian whispered, "Zhiliao, these aren’t good. They’re not what I expected. The oil content is too low."
Hearing this, Zhiliao didn’t think Ji Nian was being unreasonable. She immediately turned to the yawning manager behind them.
"These are of poor quality. Bring better ones."
The manager inwardly groaned.
A child’s whim—just give her something to look at and play with.
Now she wants the good stuff?
He had only heard that someone was coming to visit and didn’t know Ji Nian’s identity, assuming she was just some rich kid on a whim.
Thinking of the high-quality stock he had been selling privately at a premium, he felt a pang of regret. He couldn’t touch those. He gave someone a look and had them bring over a different batch.
Ji Nian only had a basic understanding of the oily layer, but when they moved to the extraction workshop and saw they were using subcritical extraction methods, she sneered.
They weren’t even using supercritical extraction. They really weren’t taking her seriously.
"I’m done here."
Ji Nian had thought there might be something different about their methods, but seeing their operations, it seemed there wasn’t.
She had the machines too, though they were a bit slow due to her limited strength, which made the process cumbersome.
But it wasn’t a big deal.
A few days ago, the Gu Family had sent over some large toys as a thank-you gift, including a few programmable robotic arms. She knew right away they could assist her experiments.
They were quite convenient.
She’d use those for the extraction later.
Seeing the child’s displeasure, Zhiliao’s sharp eyes narrowed, and a subtle but deadly aura leaked out as her gaze locked onto the manager.
"Call your factory manager here."
The manager, for some reason, felt his legs tremble under the gaze of this woman with the terrifying scar on her face.
"The manager… he’s not here."
Zhiliao’s expression turned icy, her tone firm. "Call him. If he’s not back in five minutes, he’s fired."
Hearing this, the manager knew things had taken a serious turn.
He didn’t even know how he had offended these people.
In truth, the reason didn’t matter. Zhiliao only knew that Ji Nian was unhappy, and that was enough.
Wei Yang, who had been standing protectively near Ji Nian, now loomed over the manager, his nearly two-meter height making the other man look like a small chick in comparison.
Ji Nian chuckled.
Her anger dissipated.
Oh well, she was just a kid. It made sense they didn’t want to waste good materials on her.
But still, even if they didn’t know who she was, such blatant disregard was a bit problematic…
Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she deliberately used her innocent, childlike tone to drop a hint.
By the time the factory manager rushed back, sweating profusely, he found himself dismissed.
Upon investigation, it was discovered that high-quality sandalwood had been secretly sold off by the staff.
For a small factory like this, there was no need to inform Ji Tingzhou. Zhiliao simply called Zuo Yi and had him handle it.
The manager, who had never imagined that a moment of negligence would lead to imprisonment, was filled with regret.
As Ji Nian left in the car, the man was still wailing, "I was wrong!!"
However, the upside was that the trunk was now filled with high-quality sandalwood oil that satisfied Ji Nian.
Zhiliao was disinfecting Ji Nian’s hands with sanitizing wipes while Wei Yang said, "You didn’t really need to come all this way, Ji Nian. Just say the word, and I’ll have the best stuff sent to you."
Ji Nian giggled. "But then I’d miss out on all the fun!"
Going out once in a while wasn’t so bad.
Taking a bite of the candied hawthorn Wei Yang had bought her on the roadside, Ji Nian thought to herself.
Back home, Ji Nian spent over two days extracting a mixture of sandalwood from the machine.
Using molecular distillation, she further purified it, finally isolating a highly concentrated sandalwood essential oil.
Looking at the amber-colored liquid emitting a rich, mellow fragrance, Ji Nian was thoroughly pleased.
Meanwhile—
In a grand, luxurious castle abroad, Ji Tingzhou raised an eyebrow at the words of the man sitting across from him.
"An arranged marriage?"
The man opposite Ji Tingzhou smiled and nodded. If Ji Nian were here, she’d probably drool all over the place at the sight of his face.
"Yes, an arranged marriage."
The man tilted his head slightly and softly instructed a maid, "Go call Huai over."
