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“What’s this?”
The craftsman appeared surprised as he took the blueprint.
The design depicted a cylindrical, strange-looking object, with adjustable wooden strips in the center and two lenses placed at the upper and middle sections.
“This is for Lord Medici,” Hedy said briefly, handing over the deposit. After giving the specifics for delivery and requirements, she quickly left.
The less said, the better—there was no need to explain further.
Taking advantage of her time outside, she wandered around with her maid.
Florence was immense, and its buildings were all laid out in square blocks, making it difficult to navigate.
When she was Da Vinci’s maid, she only dared to explore a few streets nearby and spent a long time finding the road to the outskirts.
Now, with Dechio by her side, acting as Medici’s eyes to monitor her, it was actually a good thing. After all, every condition could be used to her advantage.
The Church of the Holy Cross and Florence Cathedral were to the east and north, while the Arno River stretched wide and long to the south, and the Doge’s Palace stood at the far northern end.
Heading north from the Doge's Palace, about four or five hundred meters away, was the historic Florence Academy.
Dechio clearly didn’t understand why she wanted to come to a place like this and pointed to the guards at the door.
Women weren’t allowed in places like this, let alone study there.
Hedy only stood across the street, looking at the university from a distance. After a long pause, she asked, “What are they teaching at the university now?”
“I’ve heard from the palace servants that they have civil law,religion, literature, and even pharmacy,” Dechio said uncertainly. “If you really want to see, I can ask the lord for permission.”
“No need,” Hedy replied.
She might just be the smartest person in all of Florence right now.
They lingered on the street for a while, then turned back to the palace.
She heard from a servant that Da Vinci had sent the body back overnight, even erecting a new cross and placing flowers for the poor soul.
Hedy had originally planned to visit him for a chat, but when she turned, she saw that Dechio had brought back the cleaned glass vessels.
Ah, that’s right—the unfinished experiment!
The ones that had molded and grown moldy were all scraped off and thrown away. She had explained for a long time before the others understood that this wasn’t some evil witchcraft.
Now, with help at hand, many things were much easier to do.
The moldy orange peels, a spoonful of diluted beef broth, and pus scraped from the inflamed wounds of patients at the hospital—
With just a command, everything was gathered.
Dechio stood by, looking doubtful, obviously still not fully trusting the process.
Hedy mixed the agar powder into the beef broth in front of her, stirring it until it was evenly combined, then waiting for it to solidify into a jelly.
The experiment now was to grow Penicillium and Staphylococcus aureus and confirm the dissolving effect of penicillin on this bacterium.
If the Penicillium colony expanded continuously in the petri dish and the Staphylococcus aureus decreased, it would confirm thatthe colony in the dish was the life-saving medicine she needed.
—But it seemed like this alone wouldn’t be enough.
