CHAPTER 9
Smile?
Hedy's first reaction was The Mona Lisa's Smile.
She had seen the original painting, and it was much smaller than she had imagined. While she was waiting in line, there were staff members urging everyone on, so the time spent actually viewing the painting was quite brief.
But the smile in that painting was indeed mysterious, captivating enough to make one stare, as if there were some kind of magic behind it.
Wait—this question, I should be asking you, shouldn't I? Who exactly is the Mona Lisa? Why does her smile seem to hide some secret?
At the moment this thought occurred to Hedy, she subconsciously had an even stranger idea.
The Mona Lisa painting had obviously not been created yet.
Could it be... that the painting was of herself?
No, no, no, that would be like some cheesy popcorn movie.
Leonardo da Vinci washed his face and hands in the nearby stream, wiped them down with a rough cloth he carried, and began sorting through the manuscripts around him.
He wasn’t very experienced in this area and had failed several times before. Either he misunderstood the layers or cut too deep, directly severing the texture.
A smile requires the activation of dozens of muscles in the face.
At one point, he kept touching his face, repeatedly smiling many times.
Not just the muscles around his lips—but also the muscles in the cheeks, cheekbones, and even near the eyes—would all be involved and change accordingly.
Painting was both incredibly tedious and profoundly simple.
As the artist, Leonardo hoped that he could present everything from the bones to the muscles, revealing the innermost essence on the surface.
What he painted appeared to be merely a skin layer, but it actually contained the dynamic movement of muscles and bones.
And those who viewed the painting may not necessarily understand the various secrets hidden within.
Even so, he would still dive into the tomb of corpses, lying with truth.
Hedy was actually somewhat reserved about such things. She brought him some wine and water and reminded him to return early, urging him not to stay in such places for too long.
She had heard that in these remote areas, there were even reports of people encountering wild beasts.
After the farewell, Hedy returned to the riverside workshop and began confirming the purification process settings.
The boiler room occupied four or five rooms in total, with four pools and several pipes installed.
The first pool was the clean water sedimentation pool.
The waterwheel took advantage of the height difference in the terrain to continuously channel river water into the pool.
This pool was used to settle various debris, such as stones, water plants, and gravel, and a dedicated person would be hired to regularly dredge and clean it.
The second pool was the charcoal adsorption pool.
She wasn’t quite sure what material would be best for adsorption, so she had asked a specialist to gather a lot of information and conduct comparative experiments.
Hedy had never participated in such work before, but she was naturally clever and imaginative, always interested in mixing and innovating different concepts.
Charcoal had been used as a medicinal substance by the Egyptians over 1,500 years ago. A thousand years later, Greek doctors used it to treat epilepsy. But when added to murky water, it also had a noticeable effect.
Alum was just as effective as charcoal. In fact, it had a stronger clarifying function, and its yield was considerably larger.
There was an alum mine to the northwest of Florence, which had previously seen small-scale disputes over ownership.
However, when alum was soaked in water, it gave off a faintly sour odor, as though it had gone bad.
Hedy was also unsure if alum was toxic, so in the end, she chose to use charcoal to adsorb the other impurities.
Between the second and third pools, there were movable pipes, each holding layer after layer of filtration mesh.
Fabrics like gauze were placed in multiple layers for filtering.
The water from the second pool naturally flowed slowly, blocking all the small insects, fine sand, and other particles that charcoal couldn't absorb.
The filtration system needed to be changed about once a month, but after actual testing, it worked quite well.
Whether from the river or the well, both sources of water had issues with parasites and bacteria.
—No wonder the ancient people of the East preferred drinking tea.
Hedy confirmed the size of the boiler and sighed in relief.
The Medici family was generous with famous paintings, and when it came to practical needs like this, they were equally generous. They had purchased enough fuel to supply the furnace, which continuously heated the filtered river water according to the diversion system drawn by Da Vinci.
The hot water was split into two streams. One part flowed into new-style iron kettles with inner linings, where it was kept at an insulated temperature to provide ample bathwater for the adults in the palace.
The other part flowed into a heat dissipation pool, which maintained a semi-vacuum state.
It had a faucet for drawing water, providing the purified and disinfected water at room temperature for drinking.
Her original idea had low feasibility, but luckily, Da Vinci spent an afternoon drawing the entire set of facilities clearly and even added several clever small designs.
As a painter, he only needed to showcase his skills in portraiture to gain recognition and praise from many people. However, with each of Hedy's new inventions, Da Vinci's engineering and mechanical skills were revealed, earning him the lord’s attention and favor.
He not only helped the Florence Academy write treatises on various cells but also improved the microscope, making it more flexible and precise.
From 20x magnification to 80x, and from 80x to 120x.
If it weren’t for this genius who honed the key to biology, Lorenzo would never have allowed him to perform dissections in the wilderness.
Soon, people discovered things even smaller than mosquito legs and onion skins.
These tiny organisms would wriggle, divide, and swim.
Hedy quickly used the new equipment to publish a paper, collectively calling them microorganisms.
Over the past few months, Hedy had become increasingly close to the people at the academy, earning the unanimous recognition and affection of many scholars.
With the discovery of bacteria, the difference between boiling water and river water was further demonstrated. People found barely visible eggs in river water, even witnessing the hatching process under the microscope. After being filtered and boiled, the water was indeed safe and clean.
As microbiology spread like wildfire, the news of Hedy building the boiler house garnered support from both the academy and the Medici family.
The generous lord expressed willingness to provide Florence Academy with a long-term supply of clean water, and if conditions allowed, would consider building a second boiler house.
Such advanced everyday items would inevitably spread from the upper class to the lower society, slowly transitioning from luxury goods to more common commodities.
Halloween soon arrived.
Hedy’s seat was now much closer to the head of the table, and during meals, she could hear the chatter and laughter of the five or six young boys.
This era also had a form of Trick or Treat, but instead of candy, children went door to door asking for “soul cakes,” which appeared to be a type of bread covered in raisins.
For each cake they received, they would pray for the friends or family of the strangers.
"May your family find the path from purgatory to heaven."
In addition, people would leave an empty chair, with corresponding food and wine set out on the seat.
Hedy noticed that the empty seat was very close to Mr. Medici and was filled with the finest wine.
Suddenly, she realized.
This wine was poured for his younger brother, Giuliano.
And… he, Giuliano, and Botticelli had all loved the same person.
She lowered her head, cutting into her lamb chop, and began thinking about other things.
Mr. Medici appeared indifferent, rarely showing any signs of emotion.
Botticelli would weep and drink heavily for the deceased, even wanting to charge into hell to find her.
But Mr. Medici, she thought, would likely never be moved by anyone.
Whether in the Middle Ages or during the Second World War, politicians are always politicians. Everything can be weighed on the scale of self-interest.
Hedy was lost in thought, thinking about old matters, when suddenly she heard a startled cry.
"Piero!"
Clarice immediately stood up, and her chair screeched loudly against the floor.
Hedy instinctively turned her head to look and saw a child clutching his throat, his face turning pale from coughing, and he had already started making suffocating wheezing sounds.
"You're choking on beans—spit it out!" Lorenzo's face also changed as he quickly moved over to pat the boy’s back.
But the child kept coughing desperately, unable to expel the obstruction in his airway.
“Hedy—Hedy!” Clarice was completely frantic, and instinctively looked towards her.
Hedy quickly ran to the other side of the table, reaching out to hug the boy from behind.
The child had started struggling wildly, gasping for breath.
Her arm went around Piero’s abdomen, between his navel and ribs, and she clenched one fist while wrapping the other hand around it, applying strong, upward pressure—
One push!
Two pushes!
Three pushes!!
Suddenly, the child spat out an olive, tears and snot streaming down his face, and he was finally able to take deep breaths of air.
“He’s saved—” Clarice was on the verge of tears, rushing forward to tightly hug her child.
Hedy stood beside them, wearing a complicated smile.