20demayo Chapter 317 Making Paper
Chapter 317 Making Paper
As soon as she finished her words, she heard the cheers of children coming from the backyard, like birds out of a cage. Erhua, who had just returned from school, took over the job of looking after her sister, and Daxin and Dahua helped her pick water celery.
After working hard, they finally made the buns with the help of Old Yang and Zhao Nan. It was already dark.
The donkey and the two lambs were brought back by Zhao Bei after he returned home to take a bath.
Eat by lighting an oil lamp.
Gu Qingqing said to Old Yang, "Uncle Yang, I have something to tell you. Your classroom is going to move."
"Moving?"
"Well, I'll clean up the study room in the front yard tomorrow, and you can teach the kids there. I'm going to use the backyard for other things, and it won't be good if it disturbs your classes." Gu Qingqing said again.
"Wuyan's study? In my opinion, we should not use the study and leave it for the children at home to write. I see that the gatehouse has been empty all the time, so it will be the same if we use it." Old Yang thought that the study in the front yard was decorated bit by bit by her and Wen Wuyan, and it would be a pity to vacate it now.
Gu Qingqing disagreed with his point of view. "The gatehouse is a pitifully small room. Wuyan only comes back once a month, so he doesn't need the study room. The children at home need to study in that room, so we can't use the west wing, the ear room, or the inner courtyard study room. We promised the village chief that the children in the village could study at home, and they also paid a tuition fee. We can't mistreat anyone but the children's education."
Old Yang was amused after hearing this. "What you said is quite interesting. Does Wuyan know about this? Otherwise, he will come back next time and find that the study is gone. He will definitely feel empty."
"Hahaha, don't worry, Uncle Yang. I've already discussed it with him when he was at home, and he agrees. It's just that I've been really busy these past two days, so I didn't have time to tell you."
"Okay then. I'll listen to you. Which room should the things in that room be moved to? Zhao Dong and I will vacate that room tomorrow morning." Old Yang asked while shoveling a mouthful of porridge into his mouth with chopsticks.
"Let's move to the west wing first, and we can deal with the rest later."
Then Gu Qingqing assigned Zhao Dong and his team a new task, which was to bring back the fermented bamboo that had been soaked in the ditch during the winter.
"Okay. There are still two acres of wheat fields over there that haven't been fertilized yet. Zhao Bei, you drive the donkey cart with Zhao Nan to finish fertilizing the fields tomorrow morning. Zhao Feng, you go to the newly selected pigpen to dig two holes. I'll clear out the study first, and then go to the mountain to get the bamboo back." After listening to Gu Qingqing's arrangements, Zhao Dong sent people out again according to the work at hand.
After everyone had left, she lit an oil lamp and blanched the remaining half basket of water celery. She found a large bamboo winnowing basket at home that could hold small amounts of food, and spread it out to cool. Only then was she done.
The next day, it was dawn.
Everyone was busy with their planned tasks. Gu Qingqing was thinking about the persimmon tree outside the study, and she said to Old Yang, "Uncle Yang, you have to help me take care of this persimmon tree. Don't let the children look at it too much and knock off the buds. We still hope it will produce persimmons for us to eat in a few years."
"Haha, don't worry. No one dares to touch it under my nose. Are you going up the mountain with the bamboo basket on your back?"
"Well, I'm going to the mountain to cut some things and will be back soon." After Gu Qingqing said this, she went up the mountain alone, carrying a bamboo basket and holding a sickle.
To make paper, there is one thing that is indispensable, and that is Litsea cubeba. She doesn't know why it is put in, but in her understanding, Litsea cubeba plays a role similar to that of a paper primer in this process.
I can't say that this thing is everywhere in the mountains, but as long as there is no malicious felling of trees, she will never be able to use it all up.
When she came back with a bamboo basket of young branches of mountain pepper, she listened to the sound of reading coming from the study in the front yard and smiled silently.
The children had moved to the front yard, and the empty backyard became her paper-making workshop.
When she arrived at the backyard, she saw a pile of bamboo boards with skin on the ground. On that day, she had two ways of fermenting bamboo, one was peeling the skin and the other was not.
If you didn't peel it before, you still have to peel it now.
She went to the front yard and moved two benches to the back yard, and she sat on one of them to remove the bamboo skin.
There is a big flower, and three flowers are playing nearby.
When Zhao Dong came back, the basket of bamboo skins had already been packed by her.
"Boss, just leave it there. You can tell me what to do when I come back. Why bother with you? Even though the bamboo has lost its properties due to rot, I think some of it is still prickly."
"Brother Dong, I couldn't help but want to make it when I saw it. I also wanted to see the finished product as soon as possible." Gu Qingqing was pricked on her hand several times, but she didn't care.
She looked at his backpack, which was still made of bamboo strips with skins on, and asked with a smile, "Have you carried back almost all the ones with skins on?"
Zhao Dong shook his head, "I need another basket."
After Zhao Dong carried back the six baskets of bamboo strips, he went home to change into dry clothes, then returned to the backyard and began to pound the ingredients in the stone basin at home according to Gu Qingqing's instructions.
Pounding the ingredients is not easy. It is the same method as making glutinous rice cakes in some areas, except that one method is to beat the steamed glutinous rice into glutinous rice balls, while this one needs to separate the fiber and bamboo pulp in the bamboo.
Pounding the ingredients and stepping on the pulp.
Pulping means people jump in the beaten bamboo fibers to squeeze out the pulp on the fibers more fully.
Gu Qingqing was reluctant to leave. When it was almost noon, she asked Dahua to cook a pot of rice soup and eat the buns from last night as a meal.
Zhao Beiren, who had just returned from work at noon, had not yet entered the backyard when a voice came in, "Brother Dong, you haven't finished yet!"
Zhao Dong, who was stepping on the oars as Gu Qingqing instructed, suddenly looked up and shouted at Zhao Beilai's house, "There is nothing for you to do here, don't come over."
Zhao Bei, who was walking through the courtyard to the backyard, stopped where he was and exclaimed, "I'm here to help! Brother Dong, what are you doing jumping in the basin?"
Zhao Dong yelled at Zhao Bei in a rare serious tone, "Get out."
"Just go out, why are you yelling at me?" Zhao Bei muttered, and turned around to go out.
Gu Qingqing stopped pounding the mountain pepper, and held up her whole body with the pounding. She said to Zhao Dong with her aching waist, "Brother Dong, if Zhao Bei wants to come over, just come over."
Zhao Dong glanced at Gu Qingqing and said, "Boss, I don't quite understand what you are going to do, but if you move the children to the front yard, there must be some people who don't want too many people to see the process. Since it's important, it's better to let him know less."
"You guys are all trustworthy. I didn't say it before, but this is used to make paper." Gu Qingqing first affirmed them, and then suddenly made a thunderous sound.
Zhao Dong looked down at the slurry under his feet and then looked up at Gu Qingqing. Making paper? The paper he was thinking about?
Gu Qingqing nodded.
Even Zhao Dong, who had seen big scenes, found it a little unbelievable at this moment.
Seeing that he was shocked, Gu Qingqing said, "You'll still need his help in the future, otherwise you won't be able to handle it alone."
"This is too important, let's talk about it later." Zhao Dong felt his throat was a little dry.
Squeeze out the bamboo threads from the slurry, add water to an extra-large wooden basin, pour in the bamboo pulp, and use a strainer to filter out the bamboo threads.
Add Litsea cubeba juice, beat the pulp, scoop out paper, put down the screen, and squeeze.
Paper pressing, commonly known as paper pressing, is an important step in the process, and this process uses tools she customized from a carpenter.
When all this was done, it was dark again.
Even at this moment, Zhao Dong still found it a little hard to believe that he was actually making paper.
"You are such an amazing person. Is this all?"
Gu Qingqing laughed out loud, "Not so fast, we have to wait for two days. Brother Dong, you should read more books, these are all from a rare book!"