LSLFBW: Chapter 134

Qi Bai brought two large stones roughly round in shape, each one around fifteen centimeters thick.

He used a straw rope as a radius and drew two concentric circles on the slightly larger stone. This stone would serve as the base of the stone mill. He drew only a small circle on the slightly smaller stone, which would be the upper part of the stone mill.

Then using a small piece of red bird bone as a chisel, he used a small stone hammer to smooth the edges and the top and bottom of the stones.

A protrusion was left in the middle of the stone mill base for the upper and lower parts to fit together. This protrusion would be used to fix the upper part of the stone mill. The concentric circles were hollowed out, and a powder outlet was chiseled out. The base was now complete.

Besides carving an inward-facing groove in the center to secure the base, the upper part of the stone mill also needed a through-feed inlet and a handle for pushing the millstone.

Qi Bai fixed the upper part of the stone mill to the base. The stone mill started to rumble and run with a slight turn of the handle.

Hearing the sound, the people sitting on the kang gathered around and asked, “Is it finished?”

Four days had passed since Qi Bai moved the two stones into the room. As the stones were slowly carved into regular shapes, everyone’s curiosity grew.

During these four days, the tribe members had spun all the wool from the four-eared sheep into coarse yarn. They were now clumsily learning to knit sweaters with bamboo sticks.

Qi Bai’s knitting skills were mostly thanks to his college roommate, who studied textile design. In order to complete his coursework, this young man had spent a semester knitting in his dormitory.

Qi Bai was exposed to it and sometimes tried out knitting. He wasn’t as skilled as his roommate but he knew how to start and finish stitches and some simple patterns.

Qi Bai had no experience in weaving a complete garment, but that wasn’t a problem. He could always succeed through trial and error.

Qi Bai broke the dried sweet potato chips into pieces and threw them into the feed chute. He tried turning it a few times before shaking his head. “Not yet. The food can’t be ground into powder. I need to study it some more.”

Xiong Feng had just finished his carpentry work and came to pick up Shu Lin and Xiong Shan. He scratched his head after hearing this. “If you want to crush the sweet potato chips, just give it to me. I can use a stone to grind them into a very fine powder.”

He couldn’t understand why Qi Bai would make a tool for something like this.

Qi Bai smiled and said, “Powder ground with stones isn’t uniform and it takes too much time. Right now, we can barely manage with less food. Once we harvest more food, we can’t rely on brute force every time.”

No matter whether it was the celosia or the sweet potatoes growing around the tribe, Qi Bai planned to cultivate them extensively in the spring. By this time next year, he believed they would have a much larger harvest.

So it was worth it no matter how much time it took to make the stone mill.

Qi Bai removed the top layer of the stone mill and carefully examined the junction of the two stones.

He remembered seeing an abandoned stone mill in the countryside before. That mill seemed to have many patterns on it.

Qi Bai’s eyes lit up.

That’s right, patterns.

The reason the dried sweet potatoes put in weren’t turning into powder was mainly because the spaces between the stone slabs were too smooth. If he carved some fine patterns on the millstones to increase friction, he might be able to draw the food into the space between the slabs.

In addition, these slanted lines could also carry the ground powder out of the center of the millstones and slowly overflow onto the grooves in the base.

With this idea in mind, Qi Bai started working on it the next day. He used a chisel to carve fine lines on the two stone slabs.

Once the two millstones were joined again and the millstones rotated, the crushed dried sweet potatoes thrown into the feed chute gradually disappeared. Then fine white powder appeared along the edges of the millstones.

Qi Bai wiped the dust off his face, looking at the stone mill he had finally succeeded in making.

Honestly, in the modern era where Qi Bai was born, tools like stone mills were almost obsolete. Everyone could buy various types of flour ground by machine at any time. It was only when making it by hand that a person could know how much wisdom the ancient people contained in such a seemingly simple tool.

Yang Luo picked up a small pinch of sweet potato flour. “How do you make food from this flour?”

Qi Bai grabbed Yang Luo’s arm and shook it gently. “Grandpa Priest, let’s bring a basket of dried sweet potatoes from the warehouse today. I’ll make you sweet potato noodles.”

Yang Luo gave Qi Bai a disapproving look. How much could he eat by himself? Why was it needed to bring food from the tribe’s warehouse? In the end, Qi Bai still wanted everyone to have a taste. Yang Luo waved his hand. “Go get it, get it.”

Qi Bai immediately jumped up. “Okay.”

Hu Xue put down the half-knitted sweater she was working on and quickly got up. “I’ll go with you.”

The two of them went to the outer room and found their animal skin clothes and hats on the table.

The moment the door opened, the cold wind whistled against their faces.

It had been getting colder the past few days. The snow was falling heavier and heavier. Everyone swept the area in front of the door every day, but a thick layer of snow still accumulated on the ground.

Qi Bai pulled his animal skin hat over his head, leaving only his eyes showing as he gazed at the swirling snow.

Hu Xue closed the door. She saw Qi Bai’s dazed expression and asked, “Are you worried about Lang Ze?”

Qi Bai stepped forward, his thick-soled animal skin boots crunching on the snow.

Qi Bai sniffed and smiled. “I was just thinking about the food we made today. I wonder if Lang Ze and the others will be angry that we ate alone when we get back.”

Qi Bai actually had many worries. It was so cold outside and the snow was so heavy. Would Lang Ze have enough to eat? Would they get lost? Qi Bai had many concerns but he didn’t want to voice them and make everyone worry.

Hu Xue’s voice drifted in and out of the snowstorm. “Then we’ll make it again when they get back.”

They opened the warehouse door and the cold stone cave was even colder than outside.

Qi Bai and Hu Xue found a basket of dried sweet potatoes by the wall.

The warehouse currently contained meat and thinly sliced, completely dried food. Whole sweet potatoes and root vegetables were stored in the warm cellar, or they likely would’ve frozen in the cold weather.

Animals generally didn’t frequent the warehouse because of the beastmen’s dwellings. The warehouse door wasn’t completely sealed, so it couldn’t completely keep out small animals like mice. Therefore, Yang Luo personally inspected the warehouse every day to check the condition of each food item.

The two of them carried the dried sweet potatoes back to the house, wrapped them in clean animal hides and gently patted them with wooden sticks. The dried and frozen sweet potatoes, crisp and crunchy, were quickly broken into small pieces.

These pieces were then placed into a cleaned stone mill inlet. Soon, a steady stream of sweet potato flour started to grind out.

The children were completely fascinated. Qi Bai saw their eager eyes and pointed to the handle of the millstone. “Who wants to try it?”

“I want to!”

Qi Bai smiled and gave up his spot. What humans considered strenuous work was like child’s play for the strong beastmen who hadn’t seen anything like it before. Those who didn’t get a turn felt cheated.

Qi Bai found a large wooden basin and used a small brush to sweep the sweet potato flour into it little by little from the flour outlet.

As everyone continued grinding the sweet potato flour, Qi Bai took the small wooden basin to the side, added water and started kneading the dough.

There were so many people eating tonight, so Qi Bai decided to make the simplest sweet potato noodles.

Dough made entirely of sweet potato flour lacked elasticity and couldn’t be kneaded into dough and rolled into noodles like regular flour.

Qi Bai thought for a moment. He found a piece of bamboo and used a hand drill to make several round holes in it, creating a grater.

This type of grater was originally used to shred vegetables and fruits, but now it was perfect for making noodles.

Qi Bai placed a small piece of dough on the grater and pushed it back and forth, slowly piling up round noodles on a winnowing basket.

Meanwhile, the water in the earthenware pot was boiling. He poured all the noodles from the basket into the pot and they quickly rolled around in the boiling water. Then they became translucent and smooth after being rinsed in cold water.

Yang Luo pushed through the crowd and walked to the front of the stove. He somewhat laboriously picked up a piece with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. Then his eyes widened. “This is actually made from sweet potatoes?”

The springy noodles had a hint of sweetness. If he hadn’t seen Qi Bai transform dried sweet potatoes into noodles step by step, Yang Luo would’ve never believed that this food was made this way.

Qi Bai carefully scooped the remaining noodles from the earthenware pot. Noodles made from pure sweet potato flour were naturally short, and they would be further shortened after entering the pot. This wouldn’t affect the taste but Qi Bai still tried his best to keep the noodles intact.

He saw that Yang Luo was eager to try the noodles and reminded him, “Grandpa Priest, noodles might be a bit bland on their own. They taste better with some toppings.”

At this moment, Yang Luo had a sudden inspiration. He found a ceramic bowl, filled more than half of it with noodles and ladled a generous spoonful of braised meat from the clay pot beside him.

The sweet potato noodles were sweet and the braised meat was salty. These two seemingly conflicting flavors blended perfectly.

Yang Luo slurped down a large bowl of noodles, but the sound of swallowing came from beside him.

Apart from a few beastmen still happily grinding the millstone and oblivious to what was happening, the others watched Yang Luo devour his bowl of noodles, swallowing along with him.

However, no one dared to speak. The priest was eating. No matter how much they craved it, they could only endure it.

Yang Luo raised the bowl, poured the last of the broth into his stomach and smacked his lips together. He felt that he hadn’t tasted anything at all. He just wanted two more bowls.

Yang Luo saw the eager looks on the faces of his tribe members and said, “Today, everyone will get a small bowl of noodles.”

Qi Bai added, “I’ll put the stone mill in the outer room, so everyone can come and grind sweet potato flour whenever they want.”

Making sweet potato flour noodles wasn’t difficult. After his demonstration this afternoon, he believed that anyone with a bit of experience had learned most of it and could make it themselves.

Qi Bai’s goal was simple. He wanted to make everyone realize that plants weren’t just a simple food source. If everyone could enjoy these foods, he wasn’t worried about not being able to motivate them to cultivate the land.

Yang Luo nodded slightly after hearing this. Then he announced, “Bao Bai has created a new food for the tribe members. The tribe will reward Bao Bai with two high-quality animal hides.”

Naturally, the tribe members had no objections.

The Black Mountain Tribe had a clear reward and punishment system. Anyone who contributed to the tribe received a reward. Sometimes it was food, animal hides or points for new members.

Qi Bai had no shortage of food or points, so Yang Luo gave him two animal hides.

Soon, all the tribe members received the news and gathered at the children’s house, practically surrounding it.

Hu Xue and She Li were left with no other option and had to send away those who had already eaten noodles, allowing others to come in and get a small bowl.

The beastmen who received noodles weren’t picky. They simply drank the small amount of food as they walked out.

Besides Yang Luo’s bowl of plain braised noodles, the other tribe members’ bowls were also ladled with a large spoonful of bone broth.

In such cold weather, a bowl of hot noodles was incredibly comforting.

If there was any drawback, it was that there were too few noodles. Their cravings were aroused after eating this bowl and they became even hungrier.

Almost everyone in the tribe made a resolution at the same time. They would also hurry up and dry the sweet potatoes at home, grinding them into sweet potato flour. Next time, they would definitely be able to get their fill.

At the end of the day, Yang Luo indeed delivered two pieces of animal hide to Qi Bai as promised.

Unlike the animal hides that everyone had shared the previous two days, the ones Yang Luo brought this time were the ones that Qi Bai’s group had traded from the War Bear Tribe. Yang Luo’s description of superior animal hides was absolutely true.

Qi Bai held the two pieces of animal hide and decided to make arrangements for them that night.