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Da Vinci smiled and handed the tube of paint to Hedy.
"Get better quickly," he said, looking at her. "I'm still waiting for you to push me for the painting—at least two weeks have passed since I started that new order."
Hedy chuckled softly and responded with a long "Mm."
By the time she had regained her energy and began taking walks outside in the courtyard, Florence had already entered spring.
The sunlight, like a warm embrace, felt pleasantly soothing on the skin.
The citrus trees by the roadside had begun to bloom and bear fruit, releasing a fresh, green fragrance.
Due to the new order he took last year, Da Vinci was now balancing helping the lord with various studies and finishing the previous oil painting.
He and Hedy had co-written a "Vision for Florence’s Development," adding related tables and assessments—these modern ways of thinking were, of course, taught to him by Hedy.
The first step was to develop the economy comprehensively.
Whether it be technology or military matters, all of these require strong economic support.
Currently, Florence was thriving in the art industry, and hand-made products and textiles were also selling well, but it lacked proper management.
While the lord was still reviewing and studying the report, Hedy took out all the penicillin she had stored and prepared for animal experiments.
She had extracted about three grams of penicillin, but its purity was uncertain, and the quantity was very limited.
Given the limited conditions, to ferment this substance in large quantities, she would need a sufficiently large container.
The container that once held beef broth had been transferred from a small plate to a deep bowl, and eventually to the largest ceramic jar, requiring constant stirring and extraction.
Upon observation, Hedy found that the mycelium began to deteriorate after growing to a certain point.
She had to collect them at the right time—either to extract them into a solution or grind them into powder.
With the current amount, she might be able to treat a small to medium-sized inflamed wound, but it was absolutely impossible to distribute it on a larger scale.
The two rabbits Da Vinci had given her had already had two litters of babies, and the healthy ones were still lively and hopping around.
Hedy couldn't bear to harm them, so she bought a chicken, first trimming some of its feathers to expose the skin, then cutting a wound on its leg.
It was not easy for her to manage such a noisy animal on her own, so Da Vinci helped her hold the chicken down in the yard, skillfully tying its beak with a rope while curiously watching what she was doing.
"Hey, Hedy, how about we go have another glass of wine?" Botticelli appeared nearby, raising an eyebrow suggestively. "We can just say the angel came again."
Hedy was still busy writing in her experimental log, so Da Vinci decisively turned down the offer.
"She's busy lately, and that barrel of wine should be left until next year."
Botticelli, holding an empty bottle, looked innocently at Da Vinci. "I wasn't talking to you."
"Alright—but you'll have to wait a few more days. The wine will taste better after it gets warmer," Hedy finally finished tending to the chicken’s wound, silently praying that it wouldn’t die from tetanus.
To ensure the chicken was infected with the fungal colony, she even smeared some of the golden staphylococcus powder she had collected on the edges of the wound, using gloves.
Syringes had already existed in the Middle Ages, but their usage seemed rather terrifying...
Aside from the brutal act of bloodletting, there were also doctors attempting to use these long, thick needles to extract cataracts from the eyes of elderly patients.
—For such a genius-level idea, Hedy couldn’t find an appropriate comment.
