The Daily Life of Farming and Raising Children in Ancient Mountain Residences

Chapter 218: Shaking with Excitement

A good meal at noon resulted in the Zhao family working diligently all afternoon. They had initially planned to finish work by noon, but after Shen Lie delivered the lunch and mentioned it was only for the midday meal, the Zhao family felt reassured and continued working without rushing back. After a hearty lunch and honey water, they had enough energy to work vigorously until almost dusk.

Sang Luo did not go to the fields. Shen Jin, while working, observed that every member of the Zhao family was diligently working, proving to be quite reliable.

Of course, when they returned home in the evening and heard about the wages Sang Luo offered, they were even more motivated to work well. But that’s another story.

At noon, Sang Luo had just eaten a meal and wasn’t hungry yet; her mind was focused on the paper she was making. She thought that even though the paper-making process could take four hours, she had burned several bundles of firewood and finally told Shen Ning to stop adding more wood.

First, Shen Ning extinguished the fire in the stove, removed the wooden lid from the clay pot, and took out the bark, which had turned from a yellowish-brown to a blackish color and was softened.

Sang Luo carefully handled the hot bark, feeling it with her hands, and then looked at the other pots.

The difference was most noticeable between the bark with added ash and the bark without. The one with ash was truly black.

Sang Luo did not remove all the bark at once but selected two groups of bark that had been dried before soaking. One group had ash added, and the other did not. She called Shen Ning to bring two bowls of water.

Since Shen Ning had seen her make records before, she knew that Sang Luo wanted to analyze the differences between methods. Therefore, Shen Ning quickly brought two clay bowls of water.

The two women, one with each bowl, began washing the softened bark. Shen Ning found it easier to clean her bark, but the one treated with ash required a lot of scrubbing with a luffa, changing the water seven or eight times before it looked better.

There were always some old pieces of bark that were not thoroughly stripped. Once the cleaning was nearly done, they removed the impurities. There was a long table outside, about the same height as a desk. The two women each brought a stool and sat by the table, slowly cleaning the bark. Shen Ning noticed that the bark boiled with ash was obviously easier to clean than the one without.

“Sister-in-law, the bark boiled with ash is easier to clean, and after several washes, it seems even whiter and softer,” she said, feeling it with her hands.

“Hmm, I wonder if there will be a difference in the paper made later.”

Cleaning the bark of impurities took them until sunset. Shen Lie and Shen An came out to check and, seeing that the two women had been busy all day, took over cooking dinner and feeding the chickens and sheep.

That evening, the sound of pounding and grinding from the Shen household continued intermittently for over an hour. Fortunately, the neighboring houses were far away, so the noise was barely noticeable.

It was mainly Shen Lie and Shen An doing the work. Sang Luo and Shen Ning occasionally helped out. Shen An would get tired and call for help, but Shen Lie worked tirelessly as if he were never tired, not letting anyone else take over.

Sang Luo watched Shen Lie’s arms several times, thinking that if they could indeed make paper, they would need a water mill. Otherwise, making paper would be too exhausting.

Although Sang Luo had never operated a water mill, she understood its principles.

—

By late evening, Shen Lie took Shen An to Shen Jin’s house. Shen Jin guessed that his second brother and eldest brother were planning to read together, so he left the door open. Since the village was very safe, Shen An settled in and quickly fell asleep.

At the Shen household, Sang Luo and Shen Ning were working by the light of an oil lamp, stretching a clean piece of cloth over a tofu mold.

Yes, this was the paper-making method Sang Luo had developed over the past month. It was similar to making tofu—filtering the pulp and seeing if the dried remnants could form a sheet.

The difference was that tofu could be a bit wet, with the cloth placed directly at the bottom of the mold, whereas paper needed to be dry. So, she had stretched the cloth over the top of the mold, allowing any excess water to drip into the mold and flow out through the gaps in the wooden frame.

When Shen Lie returned, he saw Sang Luo carefully pouring the mixed pulp into the tofu mold with a spoon. The water flowed away from under the cloth, leaving the pulp on top. Whenever there were gaps or thin areas, Sang Luo would add more.

The gaps in the wooden frame leaked water slowly. By the time Sang Luo was satisfied with the pulp, the water level had risen, but this helped make the pulp more evenly distributed on the cloth.

“Is this right?” Shen Lie asked, voicing Shen Ning’s curiosity.

Sang Luo shook her head. “I don’t know.”

She didn’t have high expectations because tofu can form properly due to the use of gypsum, but she wasn’t sure if the pulp would form properly after drying.

“Let’s wait until tomorrow. It should be sunny tomorrow; we can take it out to dry and see.”

Since entering the mountains, they hadn’t made tofu for sale. The small tofu racks at home were only for personal use and were quite limited. Shen Lie looked at the two buckets of unused pulp and said, “I’ll borrow a saw from Uncle Youtian tomorrow morning and make a few more useful racks for you.”

He examined the cloth with the gradually drying pulp and added, “We should make a frame to secure the cloth. It will be more convenient.”

Sang Luo nodded, “We’ll see tomorrow. If it works, we’ll make more.”

If it doesn’t work, it means this method is useless, and they won’t waste time on it. Chen’s saw had been worn out over the years, and it was now quite difficult to cut anything. She asked Shen Lie, “Are there any blacksmith shops in town?”

Shen Lie understood her concern and said, “Yes, there’s an old blacksmith, but he’s been requisitioned by the county office to make farming tools. He’s not taking private jobs at the moment, but I’ll check in a while.”

They would definitely need these tools in the future.

Sang Luo agreed, feeling tired, and asked Shen Ning to wash up and rest.

When she returned to her room, she took off her outer clothes and lay on the bed. Shen Lie helped her massage her shoulders and neck. His controlled pressure and the warmth of his hands made Sang Luo close her eyes in comfort, almost moaning. After a while, she reluctantly moved and asked, “Aren’t your hands tired?”

As she spoke, she reached out to massage him, but found his muscles too tense and her hands too tired, making Shen Lie laugh. He embraced her and continued to massage, which eventually turned into a more intimate moment. In the dark of night, Sang Luo, blushing and annoyed, asked, “Don’t you ever get tired?”

Shen Lie’s response was mumbling and indistinct, with only the faint words “I miss you” clearly heard, while the rest was muffled and suggestive.

After being away for half a month, Sang Luo slept in late for two consecutive days. The first day was because Shen Lie and his team had to hurry to sign up, but on the second day, she slept until the sun was high.

Shen Lie, however, was energetic and had risen early. Knowing that Sang Luo had worked hard on the two buckets of pulp, he didn’t wait for results. He borrowed a saw from Chen’s house and made several larger wooden frames, placing the tofu mold with the dried pulp outside to dry.

Shen Ning wasn’t surprised by this. During the two years they lived outside the village, Sang Luo often slept in late. She hadn’t considered that her elder sister-in-law had started this habit after marriage. Excited to see Sang Luo, she told her about the breakfast and said, “Sister-in-law, my brother made several wooden frames. I’ll prepare the cloth first. Once you’re ready, we can pour the pulp together.”

After everything was done, there was still some pulp left. The difference in the paper made with ash-added bark was more noticeable—it had a higher yield.

All day, Sang Luo and Shen Ning focused on the frames with the pulp. By evening, the paper was still half-dried, but it looked like it was forming.

Unable to wait, after dinner, they used a fire pit to heat the two frames, placing them at a distance from the fire.

Shen Lie and Shen An stayed in the room to observe the results.

By late evening, when the two sheets of paper were fully removed, even Shen Lie and the others, as well as Sang Luo herself, could hardly believe it. She touched and examined the paper repeatedly.

It was really paper!

Although the finished product was yellowish and uneven in thickness, with one side smoother and the other rougher, it was unmistakably paper.

Paper!

This Is Paper

The whole family knew what this meant.

Sang Luo couldn’t hide her joy and examined the paper in her hands with delight. By the firelight, she scrutinized every inch, running her fingers over the surface, lightly scraping a visible fiber of bark. “An Ning, look here. If we make the pulp finer, the paper should turn out smoother and more delicate. We still have two batches of bark soaking. Let’s get up early tomorrow to pound the pulp and give it a try.”

“Sure, if we start early, we can get it drying before the sun comes up,” Shen Ning replied eagerly, her excitement evident. She added, “Sister-in-law, should we try chopping the bark into smaller pieces before pounding it?”

“Good idea. We’ll make half a batch and see how it turns out.”

Shen An and Shen Lie, who were closer, looked at another sheet of finished paper. Shen An was passionate about reading. From the time his sister-in-law decided to make him and An Ning the “Thousand Word Classic” bamboo slips and bought the ink and brushes, he understood that ink was expensive, but paper was even more so. After years of studying, despite hiding in the mountains, he had only recently used paper to write, and it was the paper sent by the Wang family.

Though the paper in his hands was rough, for Shen An, his sister-in-law had made paper!

Shen An held the coarse, yellowed paper, his hands trembling with excitement. “Brother, Sister-in-law really made paper!”

Shen Lie had already seen it; he had helped take it down himself. Shen An’s excitement was such that he could only nod in response, staring at Sang Luo with a dazed look. His throat bobbed several times, unable to utter a word.

He thought of the bamboo slips received when registering household residency, the half-used paper for the registry, and the court’s edicts seeking talented individuals.

The thought that surged in his mind, strong and uncontrollable, was—why does the court only select talent from men? His Ah Luo was more intelligent than countless men in this world.

Clearly, her knowledge surpassed everyone in their village, and her insight and intelligence were beyond many. Yet, because she was a woman, she didn’t even get a chance to participate.

Sang Luo waved her hand in front of Shen Lie’s face. “Have you gone daft with happiness? Get up early tomorrow and help me and An Ning pound the pulp.”

She knew she didn’t have Shen Lie’s strength.

Shen Lie took Sang Luo’s hand and held it tightly, not letting go. After a moment, he managed to speak, “Alright, but don’t leave it outside to dry. Let’s dry it in the stove room first. I’ll set up a small yard behind our house as soon as possible. In the future, if you and An Ning want to experiment with anything, you’ll have a private space. As for the vegetables behind the house, let’s enclose the area for now, clear a piece of the mountainside, and plant it there in the spring.”

He didn’t know if Sang Luo would ever have a chance to stand out, but he knew he should provide every convenience so she could do whatever she wanted and not let himself and their family become a burden to her. He was also more determined than ever to work harder. If it came to foraging in the fields, he was unworthy of her and couldn’t protect her.