Chapter 53: Core Technology
Chapter 53: Core Technology
“Shaman, Shaman…” A soft adorable voice called out near his ear, making Su Bai instinctively want to listen more closely.
“Huh?” Su Bai slowly opened his eyes, looking hazily at the person before him. He blinked hard, and after getting more awake, he could clearly see who it was in front of him.
“Shaman, wake up.” Yu Ying softly called out. “The Chieftain and Team Leader Cang Shi are outside the Teepee requesting to see you.”
“Good morning.” Su Bai yawned sleepily, sitting up and asked, “Have they been waiting long?”
He knew why the two were waiting outside so early. It was mainly for matters regarding linen. They probably did not dare to disturb him, so they were just waiting outside.
“En, they’ve been waiting since the sky just started to brighten,” Yu Ying said in a soft voice.
“Oh?” Su Bai was stunned for a moment, then looked up towards the top of the Teepee. He could already see sunlight shining in. Judging by the sunrise for the past two days, the two had been waiting outside the Teepee for three to four hours.
“They are really anxious,” Su Bai shook his head with a wry smile. Last night, he made a Shaman Bone Tablet for the first time. Due to mental exhaustion, he needed more deep sleep to recover his energy.
“Shaman, do you want to meet them?” Yu Ying softly asked.
She had summoned the courage to wake the Shaman up only because she saw how long the Chieftain and Uncle Cang Shi had been waiting.“Let’s go. There’s a lot to do today.” Su Bai got up, stretched, and walked towards the Teepee door flap.
“Shaman, you haven’t eaten any meat yet,” Yu Ying called out hurriedly.
“When you’ve cooked it, bring it over,” Su Bai replied without looking back, lifting the door flap to go out.
“Shaman,” Yan Jiao and Cang Shi greeted awkwardly.
With their hearing, they could certainly hear the conversation inside the Teepee, which made them feel uneasy.
“Let’s go. Send someone to Gu Mu’s place to bring the things I asked him to make to the classroom,” Su Bai said, walking towards the classroom.
“I’ll go get them,” Cang Shi turned and ran off.
“Shaman, you should eat something first,” Yan Jiao said, feeling guilty.
“It’s fine to eat later,” Su Bai shook his head, scanning the surroundings. He saw many people turning over the Ramie fibres.
He walked forward to examine the fibre strips. After a night of exposure, he found that they had lost their moisture.
“Find a few people with dexterous hands to come to the classroom,” Su Bai instructed, turning his head while picking up a handful of fibre strips before walking towards the classroom.
“Understood,” Yan Jiao turned to find people.
Su Bai arrived at the classroom to see Cang Shi already waiting with an armful of wood. His purple eyes were looking at him with anticipation.
“Shaman, Gu Mu said the rest will be made by this afternoon,” Cang Shi stepped forward and said.
“En, we’ll use these things later. Put them down for now,” Su Bai nodded.
“Okay,” Cang Shi nodded.
“Shaman, I’ve brought the people you’ve asked for,” Yan Jiao ran in, followed by seven or eight women, ranging from their twenties to forties.
“Everyone come over, I’ll teach you something,” Su Bai waved his hand and called out.
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of women immediately surrounded him. Their eyes were bright as they looked at Su Bai. Their gazes were filled with curiosity about the Shaman.
“We need to process these fibres to turn them into threads suitable for weaving linen,” Su Bai scanned the crowd, seeing that everyone was very quiet, and began to slowly teach. “You need to pull these thicker fibre strips into thinner strands, then start twisting them bit by bit. Be especially careful at the connecting points of the fibres.”
He picked up a fibre strip and demonstrated on the spot, his fingers clumsily twisting it into a thread, trying to make it clear for everyone to see. This was crucial for the weaving of linen.
“After twisting it into thread, find a piece of wood and do as I’m doing. Winding the thread around the wood to form a coil,” Su Bai slowed his movements.
“…”
He spent about ten minutes explaining, breaking down the steps one by one.
“Do you understand?” Su Bai put down the coil of thread in his hand. He scanned the people around him, and asked, “Does anyone not understand? If you don’t understand, you need to ask questions.”
“We understand.”
“It’s not very difficult, it seems similar to twisting grass rope.”
“…” The women all spoke up. Twisting this kind of thread was a simple task for them.
“Very good. Your task is to twist all the fibres outside into threads,” Su Bai said seriously.
“Leave it to us,” the women responded in unison.
They all began to work, their fingers quickly twisting to produce threads, much faster than Su Bai.
“Shaman, should we keep the method of making these threads a secret?” Yan Jiao asked in a low voice.
“There’s no need to keep it a secret,” Su Bai shook his head. The method to create these threads was not really that important. In primitive society, people twisted grass ropes. With a little imagination, one could figure out how to make such threads with ease.
The same logic applied to the materials. If someone really wanted to find it, they could find plants similar to Ramie with some time and effort.
“Shaman, people might steal this technique,” Yan Jiao said urgently.
“Don’t worry, as long as the core technology isn’t stolen, it’s fine,” Su Bai waved his hand.
The core aspect of linen was the loom. As for thread and such, there were many substitutes. Without a loom, no amount of threads would be useful.
“What should we do next?” Yan Jiao asked in a low voice.
“Don’t rush. We can’t move to the next step until we have more threads,” Su Bai softly said.
“I’ll get everyone to twist threads,” Yan Jiao rushed off.
*Tap tap…*
“Shaman, the meat is ready to eat…” Yu Ying came running in, holding seven or eight skewers of grilled meat in her hands.
“Have you eaten?” Su Bai reached out to take a skewer, eating it in large bites.
“No…” Yu Ying’s fox ears twitched as she shook her head.
“Then, eat with me,” Su Bai took a skewer of grilled meat from the fox eared girl’s hand and naturally held it to her mouth.
*Mmph~~* Before Yu Ying could refuse, her mouth was stuffed with grilled meat.
“…” Cang Shi stood behind them, watching them interact. A satisfied smile appeared at the corner of his lip.
He touched his bruised eye socket, suddenly feeling that being beaten by the Chieftain was not all that bad. After all, his timid Niece finally had someone to rely on.
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