Chapter 74 Bamboo Chair He became soft
Lin Shu slept deeply that night. When she woke up, it was two quarters later than usual. When she moved, she found her whole body ached, so much so that she hissed.
Lin Xiaopu heard the noise and came into the room. Seeing that she had just woken up, she couldn't help but laugh at her. "Sister, if you get up any later, it will be already high in the sun outside!"
Lin Shu was pounding her thigh when she heard this and asked softly, "Xiao Pu, do you still want to go fishing?"
Lin Xiaopu stuck out her tongue at her. "Why don't you just stop talking?"
"Where is A Ye?" Lin Shu looked out through the window and only saw He Guixiang busy at the stove, but did not see Zhou Ye.
"Brother Aye couldn't sit still, so he went to work in the fields with Dad early in the morning. He came back halfway, but found Sister still asleep, so he went back to the fields."
Lin Shu: ...
Blame her for being too lazy?
But she really didn't think she was lazy. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet. How could getting up at seven o'clock be considered lazy? It was obviously the others who got up too early, at four or five o'clock.
Lin Shu supported her legs, feeling that they were so sore that they didn't feel like her own legs anymore. She was shaking as she walked.
I just went to the market for a day and walked sixteen miles, why is it like this?
Seeing her trembling even as she walked, Lin Xiaopu knew it was because she had walked too much yesterday. Although she felt regretful, she still said considerately, "Sister, if you are like this...why don't you go fishing today and rest at home for a while?"
Her elder sister was even more delicate than she had imagined. If it were her yesterday, she felt that she would definitely be tired, but not to the point where her legs would tremble when she woke up.
Lin Shu waved her hand. "No need. The more sore my legs are, the more I need to move them. The more I move, the better it will feel."
"But sister, it's already morning, and we're about to have breakfast. After breakfast, we still have to study. So when are we going to go fishing?"
Lin Shu: "...Since it's already late, why not wait until sunset? Today, Ah Ye and I will make two bamboo chairs and stools together. We will make one for each of us!"
Lin Xiaopu instantly forgot about fishing and began to look forward to the small bamboo stool.
"Wait a moment, I'll get ready. Sister, can you help me put the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table? I'm going to draw a diagram of the structure of a bamboo chair or stool."
"Okay, sister!"
I don't know whether Zhou Ye understood Lin Shu's laziness in this regard, or he was just good at calculating. As soon as Lin Shu finished washing up, he came back on time. However, he didn't rush into the house. He was sweating profusely from working in the fields, so he went straight to the stove and washed himself with the mountain spring water in the bamboo tube.
The pen, ink, paper and inkstone were already placed on the table. Lin Shu used the stone inkstone she had bought yesterday to grind the ink stick, dipped the brush in the ink and started drawing on the bamboo paper.
She had practiced calligraphy before the end of the world, and the original owner had studied hard to be known as a talented woman, and her calligraphy and painting were quite good.
After a while, the structural drawing of a bamboo chair was completed, and it was drawn in great detail.
The joints are marked with arrows, and a detailed enlarged view is drawn on the side. Below the drawing are pictures of the various parts before splicing, making it clear at a glance.
"Sister, this bamboo chair you painted is so beautiful, it looks just like the real one!" Lin Xiaopu held up his little face and looked at it, full of praise.
Lin Shu said, "This is a structural diagram. It's not important that it looks good. The most important thing is that the craftsmen can understand it."
Zhou Ye, who had finished packing, walked over and heard this.
"The craftsman I'm talking about is you." Lin Shu tilted her head to look at him and asked with a smile, "Master Zhou, do you understand this drawing? I drew a bamboo chair. If you remove the backrest, it will become a bamboo stool."
Zhou Ye stared at the drawing for a while and nodded, "It's very clear, I can understand it."
"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. I'll teach you how to do it step by step."
What she called step-by-step instruction was nothing more than Lin Shu making various gestures, and Zhou Ye chopped and cut the bamboo according to the lengths she gestured.
This bamboo stool and chair is difficult to make, but also easy to make. The most important thing is to measure all the dimensions and chisel the holes for connection. As long as these are aligned, it can be completed by splicing without mortise and tenon joints.
"Sister, I see that Grandpa Gao's family needs a lot of knives to do bamboo weaving. Can we just have Brother Ye with an axe and Mom with a kitchen knife?"
Lin Shu raised an eyebrow and said, "Whether it works or not depends on how good your brother Aye is at using a knife and an axe. Logically speaking, an expert can make bamboo stools, bamboo tables, and other bamboo utensils with just a machete."
Zhou Ye proved to be quite capable. He could chop bamboo with an axe, creating neat, even cuts. He could drill holes with a kitchen knife, whether they were round or long. He could also dig grooves—Y-shaped, semicircular, or square—with ease.
Lin Shu brought over a small stove and started a fire. "Put the grooves where we want to bend them on the fire to roast them. After they cool down a bit, we can bend them into the various curvatures we want."
Zhou Ye nodded, "I know this."
With Grandpa Gao in Tianshui Village, bamboo stools, bamboo chairs and other bamboo utensils can be seen everywhere in the village. However, seeing them a lot in daily life does not mean that one can appreciate them, and Zhou Ye naturally cannot do it either.
But after looking at Lin Shu's structural diagram, combined with the bamboo stools and chairs he had seen every day, everything became clear and simple. He already had the complete structure of the bamboo stool and chair in his mind, but it was his first time making them, so his hands were inevitably unfamiliar. He had to mark the grooves at the joints, trimming and chiseling them several times, so that the bamboo stools could be connected tightly.
Later on, Lin Shu no longer needed to remind Zhou Ye what to do, as he did every step very solidly.
In less than half an hour, Zhou Ye, who was not very good at bamboo, had made the first bamboo stool!
The finished bamboo stool has its legs reinforced with straw ropes, making it look very sturdy.
Perhaps because he felt that the bamboo chair was more convenient, Zhou Ye started working on it himself without Lin Shu saying anything. He directly found a bamboo of suitable length and thickness, marked it with charcoal, and after some calculations, he started to chisel grooves, warm it by fire, bend it, and insert bamboo strips... After a while, the bamboo stool had a backrest and became a small bamboo chair.
Lin Xiaopu squatted beside the freshly baked small bamboo chair, looking left and right, feeling extremely curious.
"Pfft, what's the point of just looking at it? Try sitting on it. This bamboo chair is made for people to sit on."
Lin Xiaopu said with a troubled look on her face: "Sister, this bamboo chair is so beautiful, I'm afraid it will collapse if I sit on it."
Lin Shu was amused by her.
"It won't collapse. Try sitting on it." Zhou Ye moved the small bamboo chair behind Lin Xiaopu.
Lin Xiaopu then sat down with a smile, touching the bamboo chair from one side to the other, and he liked it very much.
"I'm sitting right here! Come and try it, sister!"
Lin Shu sat up and thought it was awesome, but——
"I think the legs of the stool are a little short. It would be better if they were longer."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ye subconsciously glanced at her legs, but when he realized something was wrong, he quickly retracted his gaze.
But it was too late. Lin Shu saw it and said angrily, "What? Do you think my legs are too short? As long as I'm not standing next to you, I can barely be called slender and tall, right?"
Zhou Ye:......
He didn't mean that.
"Wait for the next one, I'll make the legs of the stool longer." Zhou Ye said.
However, just as the second bamboo stool hit his head, Lin Dashan came back.
He Guixiang brought the prepared breakfast to the table.
Today's breakfast was much simpler. Lin Shu didn't help with the food, so He Guixiang reverted to her usual recipe: thick porridge with homemade pickles and dried radish. Three flatbreads were also served, one each for Lin Dashan and Zhou Ye, leaving the remaining portion for the mother, daughter, and three children to share.
Lin Shu ate her porridge without any appetite and said to He Guixiang, "Mother, Aye and I are going fishing today. I want to have fish stewed with pickled cabbage tonight!"
He Guixiang smiled and replied, "Okay, Mother will make some dry rice for dinner!"
Lin Yushu came early today. The family had just finished their meal and cleared the table when he arrived. He first greeted the two elders, and then Lin Shu and the others.
Seeing that he was very energetic, but his eyes were dark blue, Lin Shu guessed correctly, "Cousin Yushu, did you stay up late last night with a light on?"
Lin Yushu explained shyly, "Sister Shu, I was halfway through reading the Three Character Classic at the market yesterday, and it kept coming back to me. I couldn't help it, so I hid it from my mother that night, secretly lit a lamp, and read for a while longer."
Lin Shu bluntly exposed him, "You didn't just read for a while longer. I bet you didn't go to bed until midnight. Studying is not a one-day job. Persistence is key. Only by combining work and rest can you study for a long time. Do you want to make yourself sick from studying?"
Lin Yushu lowered his head in shame, "Sister Shu, I won't dare to do it again next time. I was too happy yesterday."
He didn't know many words, but he knew the "Three Character Classic" by heart. He matched the words in the book while reciting. After doing this once, he couldn't help but recite it again a few more times.
After reading it several times, he had memorized most of the easy-to-remember words, and he became more and more excited. He didn't feel sleepy for a long time.
If the oil in the lamp had not run out, he would not have realized that he had been reading until late at night.
Seeing that he had taken her words to heart, Lin Shu stopped lecturing him and gestured for him to turn the book to the part they had talked about yesterday.
Lin Xiaopu sat obediently on the side and listened, not daring to say a word the whole time.
Well, normally Sister is quite gentle and amiable, but once she enters her female teacher mode, her expression unconsciously becomes serious. It's best not to interrupt her at this time. If you do, you must reason with her, and she can't win over her in that way.
The serious female teacher in Lin Xiaopu's eyes glanced into the courtyard and suddenly called out to someone, "Aye, where are you going?"
Zhou Ye was walking out with the bamboo he had half-processed before breakfast when he was suddenly stopped by Lin Shu.
He explained, "Making bamboo stools and chairs makes too much noise, so I moved them outside the courtyard, right at the door, not far away."
Lin Shu frowned slightly. Although it was the right thing to do, for some reason, she felt a little uncomfortable.
"You are not allowed to go there. Stay in the courtyard."
"...Ashu, I'll disturb you."
"What's the point of your little noise? If your mind is calm, you will naturally be calm. If cousin Yushu and Xiaopu are determined to study, they can concentrate on their studies no matter how bad the environment is. On the contrary, no matter how good the environment is or how quiet it is, it's useless if your mind is not calm."
Lin Yushu agreed and nodded quickly, saying, "Sister Shu is absolutely right! Brother A'ye, don't worry about us. Just do what you need to do. Sister Shu is right beside me. Xiao Pu and I can hear everything she says. If even the smallest noise can affect me, then I won't be able to continue my studies for long."
Zhou Ye:......
Zhou Ye was silent for a while, then put the things back, but he tried to be as gentle as possible while working.
Not long after, Lin Shu's voice, which seemed to contain a hint of anger, came over, "Aye, don't hold back your movements——"
Zhou Ye sighed helplessly, but his whole body exuded a relaxed and happy atmosphere.
So he worked to the sound of reading in the room. The first time he finished the small bamboo chair, it took him nearly half an hour. The second time, it took him about three-quarters of an hour, and the third time was even faster, taking only two-quarters of an hour.
When Lin Shu came over to take a look, Zhou Ye had already made three small bamboo chairs. Together with the first one he made before breakfast, there were four small bamboo chairs in total, lined up, beautiful and eye-catching.
"Aye, how long has it taken you to do so many? You're so fast! And each one is more beautiful than the last!" Lin Shu was pleasantly surprised.
Zhou Ye reminded him, "You promised that auntie last time that you would give her some small bamboo toys. I don't know how to make the bamboo toys you mentioned, so I made some small bamboo chairs. If you give these small bamboo chairs to people, they will be more happy."
"No way." Lin Shu snorted. "This is what you worked so hard to make, let's keep it for ourselves. Make a big one for our family of five, and we can each have one. After nightfall, put it in the courtyard and sit there together to enjoy the moon and chat."
Zhou Ye couldn't imagine the scene of him and Lin Dashan sitting in the yard chatting with her mother and three children. He always felt it was a bit strange, but when he heard this, a smile appeared on his brows, making him feel softer.
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