Diao Lan was slowly circling the classroom with a somewhat withered herb, explaining its uses, harvesting methods and preservation techniques as she walked.
Qi Bai peeked in from the classroom doorway.
A beastman sitting near the door saw Qi Bai and was about to greet him, but Qi Bai quickly waved his hand. He signaled for the beastman to focus on the lesson and not get distracted.
Qi Bai had gotten into the habit of checking on the school every morning to make sure there was nothing needed before quietly leaving.
Qi Bai touched his nose as he watched the obedient beastman turn his head to listen attentively. He suddenly felt that he was somewhat like his former homeroom teacher. Even the way he peeked into the classroom was similar.
He walked a few minutes from the school and reached Yang Luo’s house. Qi Bai softly called out at the door, “Grandpa Priest, I’m coming in.”
Yang Luo’s voice came through the wall. “Come in.”
With Yang Luo’s words, the animal skin curtain in the bedroom was lifted. Qi Bai smiled at Zhu Zhu, who was holding the curtain for him, and went into the room.
As the tribe’s priest and chief, Yang Luo and Hou Yan’s house was slightly larger than the others. The windows were open, making the room fairly bright.
Four or five beastmen sat on the heated kang, all older members of the tribe. Their enthusiasm for learning was clearly not as high as the younger ones.
“I can’t learn it.” An old member of the Horse Tribe waved his hand.
“That’s right.” Another old beastman laughed, raising his rough hands. “My fingers are so thick, I can’t even hold a small twig. Let me do some heavy work.”
Zhu Zhu sat down on the edge of the kang and shook her head. “Bao Bai came up with this. Even if it is heavy work, it definitely won’t be easy.”
Yang Luo held a bamboo cup filled with hot water, pointed with his chin to the rattan basket on the ground and said to Qi Bai, “This is the wool shaved from the four-eared sheep in the summer. What do you want to do with it?”
Apart from a few lambs born this year, the wool of all the adult four-eared sheep in the tribe had been completely plucked in early summer.
The wool had undergone preliminary processing when it was first collected.
The loose wool was gently patted with twigs to remove the dirt. It was soaked and washed in wood ash, and finally air-dried in a cool, shady place.
However, during the summer, everyone was busy and the temperature was high. The wool wasn’t needed and remained in storage.
It wasn’t until winter that Qi Bai considered processing it.
Qi Bai replied, “We can spin this wool into yarn and make clothes that are even warmer and more intimate than animal skin garments.”
Wool had many uses. It could be made into woolen cloth, felt or used as clothing.
However, the Black Mountain was cold. Animal skin garments provided warmth and wind protection, so making wool outerwear was unnecessary.
Still, spinning the wool into yarn to make sweaters was a good option.
Zhu Zhu grabbed a handful of wool from the rattan basket. “How can you make yarn from such a clump of wool?”
Qi Bai took out a small spindle from his animal skin bag. “This can turn wool into wool yarn.”
Zhu Zhu took the spindle and examined it. “Isn’t this a hand drill for making holes?”
Qi Bai nodded. “It is similar but they are still different.”
Qi Bai pointed to the bottom of the spindle, gesturing for Zhu Zhu to look at the small hook.
Making the spindle was very simple. All that was needed was a thin wooden stick. A hook shape was carved at the bottom of the stick with a bone knife, and a slightly heavy wooden board was threaded through it slightly above the hook. It did indeed look like a hand drill without the straw rope wrapped around it.
Qi Bai plucked a small clump of wool from the rattan basket, combed the wool fibers open with a fine comb and pulled it into a thin strip. He gently twisted off a small section by hand and hung it on the small hook of the spindle.
It only needed a gentle twist of the spindle and the loose wool instantly transformed into yarn.
The old beastman, Ma Qian, touched it lightly and exclaimed in surprise, “It really has become a sturdy thread!”
The ropes that beastmen usually used were mostly woven directly from long fibers or thin vines. No one had ever tried to turn short fibers like wool into thread before.
Qi Bai said, “It isn’t just the four-eared sheep. Any soft wool can be made into yarn using this method.”
Yang Luo leaned closer to take a look and asked, “How can this type of yarn become clothing?”
Qi Bai kept him in suspense and said, “Grandpa Priest, you already know half of this method.”
Yang Luo stroked his chin. “What do you mean by knowing half?”
Zhu Zhu looked at the rattan basket on the ground and her eyes lit up. “By weaving these threads together using the method of weaving rattan baskets, we can make clothes.”
Qi Bai smiled and nodded. “Yes, weaving the threads together can make cloth. There are even simpler methods for weaving wool, which I will tell everyone later.”
Fabrics woven from coarse wool weren’t really cloth, strictly speaking. Qi Bai just referred to them all as ‘cloth’ for the sake of easy understanding.
“Cloth?” Yarn’s voice suddenly rose as he walked to a small cabinet by the wall and took out his linen clothes. “We can make such precious cloth?”
Qi Bai nodded. “Of course, we can. We can make even better cloth.”
Everyone nervously gulped looking at the very expensive linen clothes in Yang Luo’s hands and the wool placed casually on the ground.
The method of spinning thread by hand wasn’t difficult but it was quite time-consuming.
However, there was much less work in the tribe during winter. The pottery in the kiln only required more manpower when shaping the clay. Once the clay was dry and firing began, only one or two people would be needed to watch the fire.
The carpentry work on Hu Huo’s side had been taken over by the stronger horned beastmen. The remaining sub-beastmen gathered together on the heated kang after school, talking and spinning thread.
They just changed the place where they spun thread from Yang Luo’s house to the house where children lived.
The children now lived in the first two-bedroom, one-living room house that was built. The children who originally lived in the children’s cave, along with around twenty or so orphaned children from the Xishui Tribe, now lived here together.
Two rooms with ten meter long heated kangs were just enough to separate the horned beastmen and sub-beastmen children.
The adults also came here during the day.
The two rooms had the largest heated kangs. Everyone was together, so it was lively and warm. It also saved a lot of firewood. They could go back to their heated kangs after cooking.
The four large stoves in the two rooms were always burning. Pots filled with water, a few large bones and a handful of salt were added to ensure that everyone had hot bone broth all day.
In addition, dried sweet potatoes and dried fruit were roasted on the lids of the earthenware pots.
The wooden lid wasn’t airtight. The steam rising from the gaps cooked the dried sweet potatoes and fruit. More importantly, it made the slightly moist sweet potatoes chewy and glutinous. It was completely different from oven-roasted ones. Even the children who didn’t like plants would fight over them.
Little Xiong Shan held a piece of dried sweet potato bigger than his palms in both hands, munching away. His chubby little face was soon covered in yellow sweet potato bits.
Shu Lin said to Xiong Shan with some disdain, “If you make a mess everywhere, I won’t give you anymore.”
The beastmen children were born in beast form and could crawl around on their own within a month. Shu Lin never had to take care of Xiong Shan. If he wanted to play, he would tease the cute Xiong Shan. Then when he was done, he would leave Xiong Shan aside to play by himself. After all, Xiong Shan’s skin was thick and he wasn’t afraid of falling.
Once Xiong Shan transformed into human form, he became much more delicate. At least now, Shu Lin couldn’t put the furless baby on the ground. He had to keep him on the kang.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. The beastmen didn’t care about how well a child ate. In fact, the more they ate, the more endearing they became.
The problem was that the kang was now covered in clean wool and he was also holding a spindle. If Xiong Shan rubbed against him, the thread would break and he would have to start all over again.
Shu Lin’s current feelings were probably those of all parents. Looking at their child’s thin arms and legs, they were so fond of him that they wanted to rub their face against the soles of his feet. Then before long, the child would wet or soil himself and become naughty, making them desperately want to put the child back in their womb.
However, only those who had raised children truly understood this type of trouble. Others wouldn’t feel the same way.
Hu Xue put down the spindle, held Xiong Shan, took out a small piece of animal hide and gently wiped the sweet potato bits from his mouth.
Hu Xue rubbed his nose. “Eat whatever you like. We will clean it up if you get dirty.”
Perhaps understanding Hu Xue’s words, Xiong Shan nestled in her arms, revealing four tiny, white teeth.
Shu Lin smiled and blessed her when he saw this. “You will definitely have a child this year.”
Hu Xue had a partner in her previous tribe. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a child that year and they separated the following year.
She still longed for a child of her own. This year on mating day, Hu Xue chose a horned beastman from the Xiaoniu Tribe, and the two became temporary partners.
“There are so many children in the tribe now. I believe the Beast God is blessing us. Even if we don’t have one this year, we will have one in the future.” Hu Xue put down Xiong Shan, who was starting to struggle in her arms. She patted his butt and said, “Okay, I know you won’t follow me when you see Bao Bai. Go and play now.”
Xiong Feng stood up unsteadily and took two steps forward. Just as everyone thought he was going to fall, his slightly pigeon-toed legs paused for a moment. He regained his balance and even started to slowly accelerate. Then he rushed all the way to the other end of the kang.
The other three little ones, who hadn’t transformed into human form, were already there, nuzzling Qi Bai’s palm.
Qi Bai had just returned from outside and was still carrying the chill on his body. Yang An shivered from the cold and sneezed slightly.
Qi Bai smiled and stopped the children by the edge of the heated kang. He took off his animal skin coat and placed it on the table in the outer room.
Yang Ling looked at the two stones Qi Bai brought in and asked, “What are you doing with these stones?”
Qi Bai moved a small wooden stool to the ground. He was going to polish these two stones, which would definitely create a lot of dust. It was better to not get it on the kang.
Qi Bai replied, “I want to try making new ways to eat food.”
It wasn’t that Qi Bai was being lazy and not spinning yarn. The tribe had only harvested a dozen or so baskets of wool this year. It was just something to do to pass the time, and everyone managed to finish the work.
In such a leisurely winter, it would be a real waste not to explore new ways to cook.
Upon hearing that Qi Bai was going to make new food, everyone turned their attention to him.
The braising liquid Qi Bai used on mating day was distributed to the tribe members after the mating day ended. Now everyone liked to add a bit of braising liquid when stewing meat. The taste was so delicious that they would never get tired of it.
They never expected that in just a few days, Qi Bai would be coming up with a new way to cook food again. How could they not be excited?
A sub-beastman sitting on the kang asked loudly, “Can we make this new food too?”
Qi Bai nodded. “Of course, you can. It might be a bit troublesome but it is definitely something no one has eaten before.”
The beastman laughed. “We aren’t afraid of trouble. Everyone has plenty of time now.”
Qi Bai patted the stones on the ground. “To eat this food, I need to make a small stone mill first.”
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