The Search for Limestone

Mathew stared at the river with his eyes full of expectations, he expected the chances for limestone to develop in the river to be small, as crustaceans and other shelled aquatic beings usually lived in the ocean, however, as the village had no access to the sea, this was his only opportunity.

-" You might scare the fishes if you keep staring at the river like this." A villager, who was sitting by the rivers shore while fishing spoke up, curious about what their magistrate was doing there.

-" I'm not interested in fishing." Mathew took a deep breath and was about to take off his robes to get in the water when the man spoke up once again.

-"But I am! So don't go entering the water here!" The old man sneered, fishing was one of the few times he could feel relaxed, and he didn't want anyone bothering him. " Go swim somewhere else!"

Mathew looked at the old man and simply nodded in acknowledgment, and just before turning away, he decided to see if the man had any knowledge about shells in this area. -" Hey? Do you know if there is any shellfish around here?"

-" Shellfish?" The old man looked at Mathew, and a flash of realization took over his face. " Like crabs and shrimp?"

-" Yeah, did you ever fish anything like that around here?" Mathew swallowed his saliva dry as he waited for the answer.

-" There are a few things like that here, but, eating them is not a good idea." The old man shook his head as he remembered the time in his youth that he had tried to eat one of them. " Not only their meat is quite sour, but there is also a strange purple liquid that will make your mouth itch."

-" Don't worry, I'm not looking to eat them." Mathew looked at the river with a grin. "Were there many of them?"

"There was a place up the streams that was full of them, but I'm not sure if it's still there." The old man was confused as to why the magistrate wanted them, but, he decided not to ask and returned his attention to his fish rod.

Mathew thanked the old man, and followed the river upstream, paying careful attention to its shore, looking to see if he could find any of the creatures that the man had spoken off. It took quite some time for him to finally spot the few snails resting near the river.

He pinched their shells, which crumbled easily under his strength, and observed the powder. -" I guess the buried shells of the creatures slowly turn to rocks as time pass." Mathew murmured to himself and took off his robes. " I guess that should be enough to have a few deposits there."

Mathew quickly jumped into the river, and was surprised by its depth, he always found the river to be quite big from its diameter, but, he never imagined that it would be this deep.

Another thing that surprised Mathew about the river was how cold the water was; it was nearly noon, but the water felt icy cold, and it only got colder as he dove down to the river's bottom.

Mathew's vision was somewhat blurred as the muddy waters of the rivers made seeing anything quite hard, but, through his Qi, he could sense some creatures crawling around the bottom of the river. He quickly reached for them knowing that these deposits were probably the ones he was looking for.

He was delighted to find that the river's bottom was swarmed with small snails, and went straight to work digging the muddy ground, hoping to find the limestone deposits.

Matthew had a difficult time digging through the mud at first, but after a few minutes of furious digging, he finally found a hard surface, and let out a punch, which shattered the piece of rock.

He gathered as many pieces of rocks as he could, and swimming up to put them on the shores, he was about to dive once again, when a voice rang out from behind him.

-" Taking a swim?" Irelia's voice was full of excitement as she exited the forest and saw Mathew on the rivers.

-" Just getting some things from the river." Mathew's eyes brightened as he saw Irelia. " Go into the village and bring me a few buckets."

Irelia didn't understand what Mathew was up to, but, she quickly went to the village to get the buckets he had asked for. She was quite interested in joining Mathew in the river and didn't take long to return with four clay buckets.

-" What are you looking for? Let me help you!" Irelia asked as she threw one of the buckets to him.

-" Some rocks on the river's bottom." Mathew was happy to get some help, as he wasn't sure if the stones he had found were limestone or not, but, he quickly regretted accepting her help as he saw Irelia undressing to her undergarments. " W-W-What are you doing?!"

-" Huh? Taking my clothes, or do you expect me to swim in my robe?" Irelia continued to underdress herself and jumped into the river.

Mathew tried his best to not look at Irelia, but, it was quite a difficult task as he found her body quite alluring, especially now that her undergarments were wet. He'd never noticed Irelia's body and had only seen her as one of the workers, but seeing her without the baggy robes of a bureaucrat hid her plumply features made him reconsider his beliefs about not mixing work and relationships.

Irelia wasn't aware of the effect she was having on Mathew, and instead, just looked up at him with amusement as she continued to splash about in the water -" So? What are you waiting for? Show me the stones."

-" Cof Cof, L-L-Let's go." Mathew shook his head and tried his best to hide his excitement.

The two of them quickly dived to the bottom, grabbed a few stones, and came back up, this time with the buckets filled with stones that were a mixture of gray, yellow, and white.

-" Is this?" Irelia threw the stones on the river shore and grabbed a small piece to observe.

-" Limestone, at least I think it is." Mathew still wasn't sure if they had found limestone or not, but, he decided to grab a few more rocks and ask Ronald to analyze them.

-" L-L-Limestone?!" Irelia screamed in surprise, as she heard about the famed mineral. " Isn't this thing rare?" She looked at the bucked filled with limestone with her eyes filled with greed.

-"Indeed, quite rare." Mathew sighed, if this truly was a limestone deposit, most of the village's woes would be resolved, as they could even sell some of it for funds.

-" What are we waiting for?" Irelia quickly dived again, anxious to get all the rocks out of the river's bottom. "Let's go get the rest."

While the two of them were diving around the river and collecting the stones pieces, Evan and Simon had just arrived and went looking for Mathew.

-" Where the hell is Mathew?" Evan was full of anxiety as he had searched around and didn't find him.

-" Maybe he is busy?" Simon scratched his head and was about to tell Evan that they should go to their homes to rest when he noticed two people swimming in the river. " Wow! Those people are truly crazy! To swim in the Red Creek River, I can't imagine how cold the water is at this time of the year."

-" Let them be, we need to find Mathew." Evan was quite anxious, as he had a bunch of news to give Mathew. " Why does it matter what villagers do or not?"

Simon stared at the two people in the distance and found that they looked to be familiar, and after carefully looking at them, he finally realized that they were Mathew and Irelia. " Wait! Why are the two of them swimming?"

-" Let them! Why do you care about what villagers are doing?" Evan was stressed, as the voyage took longer than expected and some unexpected things had occurred.

"They are not villagers." Simon waved at the two people in the river and continued speaking. " It's Mathew and Irelia."

-" Swimming? Are they Swimming?" Evan's face dropped, as he couldn't believe that the two of them were having fun while he toiled away in hard work. "Let's go there then!"

-" Wait! Are you sure?" Simon observed Irelia splashing water into Matthew and the two of them repeatedly diving into the river. "Doesn't it looks like a date?"

Evan stopped right in his tracks as he heard Simon. " A date?" He hadn't noticed any chemistry between the two of them in the past few months, but, their relationship could have developed while he was away. " Thinking better, we should wait here." Evan was embarrassed because he didn't want to intrude on their private lives.

-" Let's go organize our things.' Simon sighed as he looked at the two supposed love birds. " Single people like us can't stare at a scene like this too much." Simon put his hands over Evan's shoulder and tried to drag him.

-" Speak for yourself! I actually have someone already!" Evan shook Simon's hand off and sneered. " We are just apart because of the Imperial Examination, but, soon enough we will reunite once again."

-" Oh? Little Evan is already a married man?" Simon rubbed his belly as he laughed. " I didn't expect that even someone like you would find a person."

-" Someone like me? What are you trying to say?" Evan shouted in anger, especially due to the nickname that Simon had given him on this trip. " And I said to not call me Little Evan! I'm already 21 years old!"

-" Forget it, Forget it." Simon grabbed Evan's shoulder again and pushed him back to the prefecture hall. "Let's give some space to those two, we can report to Mathew later."