Chapter 92: Making Soap
The children gathered around the table, their eyes wide open and their saliva almost dripping onto the table.
I kept asking, "Mom, can I eat now?"
After getting permission, he waved his chopsticks quickly and stuffed his cheeks full.
The fried pork with chili peppers was the most popular and was quickly sold out.
The adults couldn't stop smiling and showing satisfaction as they watched the children wolf down the food.
The men took a sip of the sweet potato stew and chewed the fragrant bacon, saying with emotion, "This day is really promising!"
The women, busy serving food to the children, chimed in, "That's right! It's been ages since we've had such a hearty meal! The food from our tea mountain is still the best!"
In the family compound, the doors and windows of every household were wide open. The sounds of dishes colliding, adults and children talking and laughing, and the occasional game of finger-guessing were intertwined together. It was more lively than the Chinese New Year, and there was a sense of real abundance.
The air was filled with the mixed aroma of various dishes, which made the patrolling soldiers couldn't help but sniff a few more times.
But they were not worried, because their meals were just as plentiful and had been prepared in advance.
At Zhou Weiguo's home, the table was equally rich in food.
Fubao sat on her own little stool, with the small bowl in front of her piled with vegetables. She was trying hard to put the food into her mouth with a spoon, and her face was covered with grease.
Zhou Weiguo picked up a piece of bacon for Shen Lingning with chopsticks: "Thank you for your hard work, eat more."
Shen Lingning smiled. He was indeed hungry and ate very happily.
Looking at the full table in front of me, and thinking back to the desolation and difficulty when I first arrived, I feel a lot of emotion in my heart.
This meal is not just about food, but also about the hard work over the past few months and the hope that is finally seen.
The stubborn old man was also dragged home by Shen Lingning for dinner.
The old man was awkward at first, but after a few bites, he became more talkative, commenting on the cooking time of the pumpkin and the knife skills for the shredded potatoes. Finally, he concluded, "Well, this dish... the ingredients are really good! It's delicious!"
It made everyone laugh.
After dinner, as the night deepened, every household lit kerosene lamps. Under the dim light, women were cleaning up the dishes, men were drinking simple tea and chatting, and children were chasing and playing in the yard, their stomachs full.
This harvest feast, like a warm seed, is planted in the heart of every Songtaogou person.
It tells them that as long as they work hard, their lives will get better and better. The tea mountains bring more than just food on the table; they also bring a tangible hope.
The tea mountains in the distance are silent in the night, as if they also feel this joy and are waiting for the coming spring to show greater vitality.
The joy of the autumn harvest has not yet faded, and the tea seeds produced by the old tea trees on the tea mountain have become Shen Lingning's new concern.
It was good to squeeze oil for money, but she always felt that this thing could be used for something greater.
Fubao watched Shen Lingning pondering over the tea seeds. She suddenly remembered that in her previous life, she seemed to have used tea seed powder or tea dregs to wash her hair and take a bath. It could not only remove dirt but also nourish her hair.
"Mom, Fubaodaodao, hair care soap."
After spending an entire afternoon hiding in the villa in the space, Shen Lingning and Fubao finally figured out the production process of shampoo soap through writing and drawing, and also got some inspiration from several essential oil soaps.
Shen Lingning shared his pioneering ideas with Fubao: "You can also make some ancient recipes into facial soaps, whitening, moisturizing, and spot-lightening..."
Fubao sat in the chair with his eyes wide open: "Mom is so smart! You are the one who traveled through time, right?"
He said and gave Shen Lingning a thumbs up.
Shen Lingning's eyes were full of smiles: "If you ask me, the people in the future are really smart. They can think of so many ways."
Shen Lingning took out a box of chocolates from the snack cabinet in the villa as a reward for Fubao, but still reminded her: "Don't eat it all at once, two of your teeth are black."
Fubao tried hard to move his eyes away from the chocolate and nodded seriously: "Yeah, don't worry, Mommy, I know."
Shen Lingning sorted out all his ideas and mentioned them to the old stubborn man and some of his family members who were more skilled.
Everyone found it interesting. The old man twisted a few tea seeds and pondered, "The older generation seems to have said that tea dregs water can remove grease. But they can't explain how it works."
Shen Lingning now has specific steps, but she hasn't tried them yet.
"Let's give it a try! Tea seeds cost almost nothing anyway, so if it doesn't work out, we won't lose anything."
She organized several women who were willing to think about it and formed a small "experimental group".
Dry the tea seeds, crush them, and sieve them to get fine tea seed powder.
I also tried mixing tea seed powder with alkaline water filtered from straw ash, adding a small amount of tea oil to increase the moisturizing effect, and then repeatedly pounding, shaping, and drying it like kneading dough...
The process was tedious and I failed many times.
The experiment of tea seed soap has reached the most critical step - preparing alkaline water.
The concentration of the alkaline water filtered out by the traditional method is difficult to control and is also highly irritating. Shen Lingning was so focused on carefully mixing it with a measuring cup that he forgot to wear the protective gloves prepared nearby.
Just as she poured the filtered concentrated alkaline water into the mixing bowl, a few drops of cold liquid splashed out and landed on the back of her right hand and the base of her thumb.
There was a sharp stinging sensation, and several clear red spots immediately appeared on the skin, burning with pain.
She gasped and quickly reached into the spare bucket of clean water next to her to rinse.
The cold water temporarily relieved the burning sensation, but the area that was splashed was already noticeably red.
She frowned, looked at the almost finished alkaline water, then looked at her hands. She thought they were just a few small spots and not serious, so she didn't pay much attention to them. She wiped her hands with a cloth and continued to work on the subsequent steps.
But the burning sensation still persisted.
When she returned home in the evening, she subconsciously moved her right hand, which was still a little sore.
Zhou Weiguo was playing with Fubao in the house. When he saw her come back, he looked up at her.
Shen Lingning subconsciously hid his right hand behind his back, but this small action did not escape Zhou Weiguo's sharp eyes.
"What happened to your hand?"
He put Fubao down and walked in front of her in a few steps, his brows furrowed habitually.
"Nothing."
Shen Lingning wanted to prevaricate.
Zhou Weiguo didn't say anything, but reached out and grabbed her wrist without saying anything, with a firm and unyielding force.
He pulled her right hand in front of his eyes and examined it carefully in the dim light.
When he saw the obvious red marks on the base of his palms and the back of his hands, and even some slight swelling, his face instantly darkened.
"Does it still hurt? What happened?"
His voice was lowered, with a barely perceptible tension. The rough calluses on his fingertips gently brushed against her red skin, but his movements were extremely gentle.
"I accidentally splashed some alkaline water, it was just for a moment, it's okay, I rinsed it off."
Shen Lingning tried to pull his hand back, trying to sound as relaxed as possible.
"Alkali water?"
Zhou Weiguo's brows furrowed even more tightly. "Can you just touch that thing? What if it gets blistered and rotten?"
He pulled her to the water tank, scooped up a bucket of cold water, and without saying anything, pushed her hand in to soak it.
"Why are you so careless? No matter how urgent the experiment is, you can't ignore yourself!"
His tone was accusatory, but his eyes were full of heartache and fear.
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