Chapter 141 Shelter

Although he didn't come here often, he would occasionally come to cut some bamboo and take it back to weave things, but for all these years, he had never discovered this hole.

The village chief's face was filled with smiles, yet a hint of mystery lingered in his eyes. He raised his hand and gently stroked his beard. "That's because the cave entrance was previously sealed with stone, and vines were crawling all over the outside. If you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't have noticed anything strange."

"This is a secret place passed down by generations of Taohua Village chiefs. Whenever there was a famine, war, or banditry, the chief would lead the villagers here to escape the disaster."

When mentioning this place, the village chief's eyes were full of awe and pride, as if he was telling a glorious history.

Everyone slowly stepped into the cave with curiosity and anticipation.

The space in this cave is much more spacious than everyone imagined.

Gu Jiayue surveyed the cave with a sharp gaze. The cave was surprisingly the size of two football fields. A clear stream gurgled southwest of the cave. Following its flow, it must have flowed into the village river.

There was a rather large cave on each side. In one of these caves, a number of pots, pans, and utensils were hidden. While still usable, the traces of time had left deep marks on them, making them look quite old.

There is a dark corridor in front of the left side of the small cave on the right. The corridor is not long, only about ten meters long.

Once we exited the corridor, a flat expanse of land came into view. Wild vegetables flourished abundantly on the land, thriving with life. Occasionally, we could spot rapeseed, cabbage, and even radish. It felt like a paradise.

The village chief took a few brisk steps forward, his face beaming with pride as he spoke loudly, "This piece of land serves as our village's food reserve. It's just that I can't take care of it all by myself, and I can't come here every day. So every spring I just scatter some seeds and let them grow naturally. If we really have to flee, we can eat wild vegetables or local produce, as long as they can fill our stomachs."

Gu Jiayue carefully observed the cave's environment. She saw that it was well-ventilated, had good lighting, a water source, and land teeming with crops.

She couldn't help but sigh again that the wisdom of the ancients really should not be underestimated.

"Jiayue, look, how about turning this place into a workshop?" The village chief patted the dirt on his hands, as if asking for credit and reward, his eyes full of anticipation.

You have to know that he had been tossing and turning all night long because of this workshop, and he couldn't fall asleep all night long, fearing that there would be some omissions that would lead to the destruction of this "golden egg" that would make Taohua Village rich.

"That's true, but Village Chief, you have taken out the village's shelter. If a disaster happens in the future, what will the villagers do?" Gu Jiayue frowned slightly, with a hint of worry in her eyes.

The village chief waved his hand nonchalantly, a somewhat open-minded smile on his face. "This cave is nestled in the bamboo forest. It's been undiscovered before because few people come here. We'll be cutting bamboo and making paper here someday, and with all the people coming and going, it'll be hard to hide. We might as well just use it and find a new place to hide when we have time."

"And papermaking requires a lot of water. If we go to the village river to fetch water, not to mention the long journey. The village has a large population and a lot of traffic. What if we are seen by someone with ulterior motives?" The village chief further explained, his words showing deep thought.

Gu Jiayue nodded slightly, her eyes full of approval. She thought the village chief had been extremely thoughtful. After much thought, this place was indeed the most suitable.

"Then let's go here. Are all the tools needed for papermaking ready?"

The village chief nodded quickly, a smile plastered across his face. "It's ready. It's in that house we just saw. I'll have someone bring it over right away."

Gu Jiayue looked around the cave, a thoughtful glint in her eyes. "Okay, I'm here, let's plan how to set it up."

From the moment he stepped into the cave, Jiang Luli was immersed in endless shock.

He had never imagined that in this remote and desolate Taohua Village, there would be someone so far-sighted as to have reserved this refuge for the villagers long beforehand. He secretly thanked this person for not having any extra thoughts. Otherwise, if he had hidden thousands of soldiers or food here, no one would have noticed.

Then he heard the village chief and Gu Jiayue discussing papermaking. He looked around, seeing only bamboo everywhere, but no jute, the kind needed for papermaking. He couldn't help but wonder, what exactly were they going to use to make paper? Could it be this hard bamboo?

The corners of his mouth rose slightly, revealing a hint of disdain. He thought that this was simply a fairy tale. He had never heard that paper could be made from bamboo.

He was about to laugh when he heard the village chief say he was going to move some tools. In that case, he wanted to see how these people actually made paper!

The village chief acted quickly. After all, he had already selected several strong and tight-lipped men from the village to cut bamboo in the bamboo mountain and do the preliminary preparations.

It took more than ten people three trips back and forth to move all the tools.

Gu Jiayue wasn't idle either. She took out the paper she had prepared, and with a charcoal pencil in her delicate hands, she replicated the cave's space on the paper in proportion. Then she fell into deep thought, pondering how to demarcate her work area.

The entire papermaking process requires roughly eight steps, and water is indispensable from the second to the sixth step, so these five procedures must be built based on water.

We also have to consider the issue of wastewater discharge. After all, this stream eventually flows into the village river. If it is not handled properly and pollutes the water source, the consequences will be more than worth the effort.

The seventh step can be placed next to the corridor, so that it is convenient to send the finished paper to the flat ground for drying.

The two smaller caves can be used as storage rooms to store the finished paper.

Seeing this, Jiang Luli also squatted on the ground like Gu Jiayue, quietly watching her write and draw on the paper with charcoal.

She sometimes frowned, sometimes nodded slightly, and from time to time she muttered to herself about sewage treatment and automatic drainage.

Jiang Luli was completely confused and seemed to understand but not quite.

"Can you really make paper?" Jiang Luli finally couldn't suppress the doubts in his heart.

I felt that if I didn't ask questions, I would be suffocated to death.

He had been insatiably curious since childhood, eager to explore anything new and surprising, a fact he had endured many times. Worried that his curiosity might lead him into trouble, he was told to remain quiet and act aloof. Even if he was deeply interested, he was not to show it.

Over time, everyone felt that he was a cold and unapproachable person.

He knew very well that this was for his own good, and gradually he got used to keeping a cold face, complaining and talking to himself in his heart.

Gu Jiayue was concentrating on the plan in her hand. Suddenly she heard Jiang Luli's question, and she stopped and looked up.

Only then did she realize that Jiang Luli was squatting on the ground just like her.

She was shocked and thought to herself that something was wrong.

How could she neglect such a noble man? What if one day he was in a bad mood and brought up the past, remembering this matter and wanted to punish her? "Oh, look at my memory. I forget the etiquette when I get busy. I should find a place for Jiang Shanzhang to sit down first."

Gu Jiayue looked around and finally saw a large flat stone at the entrance of the cave.

She walked over quickly with lotus steps, leaned over, pulled a handful of grass, and casually swept it on the stone. Then she took out a handkerchief and gently spread it on the stone. "Come, come, Jiangshanchang, come and sit down."

Jiang Luli looked at Gu Jiayue. He actually saw a hint of flattery in the girl's expression?

He shuddered all over.

It must be my own hallucination. How could Gu Jiayue do such a thing?

"I asked you a question, but you haven't answered it yet." Jiang Luli stood where he was, without moving.

It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but his legs were numb and he couldn't move.

Seeing Jiang Luli's slightly darkened face, Gu Jiayue said with an increasingly respectful expression, "I read a travelogue while I was at the Marquis' Mansion. It detailed a method of making snow-white paper from bamboo. So when I saw that there were so many bamboos in Taohua Village, I wanted to give it a try."

The numbness in his feet finally subsided. Jiang Luli took a few steps forward and stood at the cave entrance with Gu Jiayue. "Travel notes again? Didn't you learn anything else when you were in the Marquis' Mansion? Just reading travel notes all day long?"

I saw that novel charcoal drawing in a travelogue, and I also saw this unique papermaking technique in a travelogue. How could she have so many unique travelogues?

Gu Jiayue quickly waved her hands, "How could that be? I've also learned things like playing musical instruments, singing, and writing poetry. Travelogues are just something I use to pass the time in my spare time, something I only read occasionally."

She didn't want to leave a bad impression on this big boss as being uneducated and doing nothing.

Jiang Luli didn't believe what she said, but just smiled faintly and said nothing.

I happened to see the village chief coming this way, so I pointed. "The village chief is calling you."

"Then please do as you please, I'll go and get busy first." Gu Jiayue pointed at the big rock covered with the handkerchief considerately, then turned and left.

Seeing her leave, Jiang Luli whispered to the guards behind him, "Send a message back to the palace, and have Xiao Fuzi buy all the travelogues in Kyoto and send them over."

Since these were all travelogues about Kyoto, it was impossible that Gu Jiayue was the only one who could see these novel things. He also wanted to explore the mysteries within them himself, which must have been a very interesting thing.

At this moment, a breeze blew gently, and the white handkerchief floated away slowly with the wind.

Jiang Luli's face suddenly changed when he saw this, and he quickly ran out after the wind.

The village chief looked up from his busy schedule and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration: "Chief Jiang is really lively."