Chapter 20: Stone Mill He stared at the remaining half plate of cake...
He stared at the remaining half of the plate of cakes for a moment, picked out a piece filled with juicy fruit and took a big bite.
The sweet taste melted in his mouth, and his taste buds, which had never experienced such a sweet taste, exploded instantly, making him feel a little overwhelmed.
But he still dipped the cake in the mulberry paste and ate the rest bite by bite.
The next morning, Fu Li had breakfast and then took Ling Zhuzi with her to see the craftsmen making porcelain. On the way, she asked about Jin Ning, who had disappeared without a word. Ling Zhuzi told her that Jin Ning's true form was a golden phoenix, the mount of the goddess Nuwa.
Ever since the war between the wizards and the lich, when Gonggong crashed into Mount Buzhou, causing the pillars of heaven to collapse and the sun and moon to set in the west, the Daoist Patriarch had ordered all saints not to venture out lightly. Nuwa, the goddess, had taken up residence in seclusion on Mount Buzhou, rarely needing a mount. This left Jin Ning free to travel.
What Lingzhuzi didn't say was that Jin Ning had been to Boyi in his early years, and this time he was the one coming, and the other party was afraid that he didn't know the way, so he specially accompanied him.
Sensing that he had returned to Mount Buzhou, Jin Ning naturally left.
"I heard that the Phoenix Clan was once the overlord of the Three Realms?"
After reading the encyclopedia of vegetation bestowed by Nuwa, Fuli became interested in ancient stories of the prehistoric times. Hearing that Jin Ning was a Golden Phoenix, he asked about the three tribes of dragon, phoenix, and unicorn.
Ling Zhuzi curled his lips and said, "That was all ages ago. The Dragon, Phoenix, and Kirin tribes have long since fallen. The Kirin tribe has disappeared, and the Dragon and Phoenix tribes once kowtowed to the demon tribe. Where are their backbones left?"
He added, "But Jin Ning has been following the Empress for a long time, and he is different from the remnants of the Phoenix Clan."
As they were talking, they had already arrived at the porcelain making area. Because the kiln temperature wasn't high enough, the blank pieces were scattered all over the floor. Fu Li looked at the shapes and saw that they were still the same types commonly used today.
She did not disturb the kiln workers, but whispered to the craftsman who was making the molds to one side, and used a branch to draw on the ground the shapes of a pumpkin bowl, a hexagonal plate, a crabapple plate, a thin-necked bottle for warming wine, and a small wine cup.
"These bowls make a set of eight, and these three plates make a set of twelve each. One flask and four wine cups make a set. Let's make a batch first to see how they look. If they're good, we'll make more later."
She pointed each one out to the craftsman, telling him which was which, and then asked, "Is there any gold dust left?"
The leading craftsman said, "Yes, there are still seven ounces of gold powder."
"That's enough." Fu Li pointed at the pictures of the plates again. "After the blanks are made, they are first sent inside to be fired. Once the shape is formed, the edges are rolled with gold powder and sent back to be fired again. It is important to fire it into shape before rolling with gold powder, otherwise the shape will change."
The mold maker nodded repeatedly to indicate that he had remembered it, and the helper had already brought the mixed clay over.
Fu Li was afraid that her presence would affect their performance, so she pulled Ling Zhuzi aside and asked Fu Shuang, "Junior sister, where are the things you burned earlier? Take me to see them."
Fu Shuang led them to a room with ventilation on all sides. In the center of the room, seven or eight fired porcelain pieces were neatly arranged.
The porcelain appears white at first glance, but if you look closely at it against the light, you can see a faint green tint.
The kaolin in Boyi is of excellent quality, and the temperature of the coal is high enough to directly burn the porcelain into a glassy texture. These utensils with a white and green tint also have a unique beauty.
Fu Shuang said with regret, "When I fired this batch, I didn't get the proportions right, so it didn't turn out the pure white color that Senior Sister wanted."
Fu Li gave her a strange look and said with a smile, "I just said I wanted white porcelain. It's not just white that looks good. This one is quite nice, but the shape is a bit old."
She held up a pointed-bottomed vase and asked Ling Zhuzi to look at it. "Look at the color, isn't it beautiful?" She tapped it with her finger, making a crisp sound. "And listen to the sound, it's like the sound of metal and stone. The texture is superb."
Even though Lingzhuzi was used to seeing magnificent buildings in the Wahuang Palace, he had to admit that this thing called "porcelain" was no less exquisite and elegant than jade.
Fu Li put the bottle down, picked up a bowl, tapped it twice with her fingernails, and said happily, "Once this batch of new vessels is fired, we will take them to the palace to persuade the King of Shang not to use human skulls to make bowls in the future."
She was a little cunning and said "we" naturally, and brought the spirit bead in directly.
Ling Zhuzi didn't seem to hear it, he just raised his eyebrows and asked, "You want to save those slaves?"
"Yeah." Fu Li nodded and admitted it openly. "If it were someone I didn't know, it wouldn't be a problem, but most of the slaves I worked with are familiar faces to me. Since I can save them, how can I bear to let them die at the age of thirty?"
Ling Zhuzi asked, "How can you guarantee that the King of Shang will listen to your advice? Just based on these porcelains?"
Fu Li smiled and said, "If someone else asked, I definitely wouldn't tell you, but I won't hide it from you. To tell you the truth, these porcelains are just a stepping stone. I just hope they can get me to see the King of Shang."
Since ascending the throne, King Wo Ding of the Shang Dynasty has been committed to eliminating the influence of Yi Yin, the founding prime minister. Yi Yin was born a slave, and no one can guarantee that there will be no more talented slaves after Yi Yin.
In the future, whenever someone emerged as a talented person from among the slaves, Yi Yin would be repeatedly mentioned and praised. If one wanted to diminish Yi Yin's influence among the slaves, the best way was to show him kindness, and it had to be a great kindness.
Moreover, the majority of the human race are slaves. Even if no one stands out in the future, the reputation of being a virtuous person passed down by word of mouth is enough to attract people’s attention.”
As long as Woding is not stupid, he will definitely adopt Fuli's suggestion.
Ling Zhuzi sighed, "Although your human lifespan is short, it has more twists and turns than other races."
Fu Li said, "It is precisely because life is short that we should pursue infinite wonders within this limited life."
Lingzhuzi thought about it and nodded in agreement with her, which was rare: "That makes sense."
He discovered another advantage of Fu Li: this girl is quite optimistic.
If Fu Li were to speak for herself, she would have to be optimistic.
Given her terrible luck in her previous life, if she hadn't tried to be more optimistic, she would have become depressed long ago.
But then again, the fact that she was able to develop a positive and optimistic attitude towards life under such living conditions was inseparable from the support, encouragement and guidance of her parents and sister.
When she was three or four years old, because she was too unlucky and too prone to accidents, the private kindergartens near her home did not dare to accept her, for fear that if something happened to her at school, the kindergarten would be held responsible.
Her parents had no choice but to rent out their original house and take her and her sister to rent another house near a public kindergarten.
That area not only has public kindergartens, but also elementary and junior high schools. It is a school district house. The rent they receive from their house is not enough to pay for the rent.
In addition, the place where parents work is far from where they rent a house, so they not only have to spend more time on commuting, but also more money.
It can be said that in order to allow her to go to school smoothly, the family has to spend an extra amount of money every month.
Children are very sensitive. Although her family never said a word to her about it, little Fuli still vaguely felt that her parents seemed to have a harder time because of her.
Her sister, who was five years older than her, was the first to notice her uneasiness and told her parents. The three of them comforted her together, repeatedly emphasizing that it was not her fault and that God liked to play jokes on her.
Children are easy to coax. Many times, as long as their family members give them enough support and encouragement, the grievances they suffer outside can be easily healed.
In this way, she grew up with both bad luck and optimism until she was in her early twenties. Before she could repay her parents and sister in any way, she brought bad luck upon herself.
Whenever she thought about this, Fuli would feel depressed. But because of her optimistic personality, she could quickly comfort herself: without such an accident-prone daughter (sister), life for her parents and sister would definitely be easier than before.
She quickly comforted herself.
The craftsmen in charge of firing porcelain have accumulated some experience. As long as the blank is made well, there will basically be no mistakes when firing.
But firing takes a long time, even five hours for ordinary porcelain. Fu Li also requested an additional layer of gold powder glaze, so the finished product would take at least twelve hours.
Fu Li couldn't just sit here and wait, so after giving instructions here, he took Lingzhuzi to the stonemason.
She wants to ask a stonemason to make a millstone.
According to legend, the earliest stone mill was invented by Lu Ban, and was originally called "硙". At that time, Lu Ban was not yet born, and Fuli wanted to use it, so he had to ask someone to make it himself.
At that time, wheat was already available in the Central Plains and northern regions, but there was no technology for fine processing, so it was directly cooked into wheat rice for consumption.
Barley rice, to put it simply, is simply cooked wheat. Because of its poor taste, it was not favored by the nobility, and naturally no one thought of finely processing it.
Fu Li was a native of the Central Plains in her previous life. The cuisines of the north and south converged in the Central Plains and developed unique characteristics based on the tastes of the local people.
Whether it is rice, corn, flour or various coarse grains and cereals, they have all appeared on their family’s dining table.
Ever since she came here, she has been eating corn, kudzu root powder and other foods for more than ten years, and her body has actually become accustomed to it.
If it wasn't for making a plate of corn cakes to please Lingzhuzi, Fuli wouldn't have remembered to get the flour.
With just one ingredient, flour, she could create hundreds of new pastries. Even if she fed them one type a day, she was confident she wouldn't make the same thing twice a year.
Making a stone mill wasn't difficult; the hard part was finding someone to come up with the idea of making such a tool. The stonemason simply listened to her description, asked about the intended use and desired effect, and promised to deliver the finished product to the Grand Tutor's residence the next day.
As for the sieve for sifting flour, a round one is difficult to make, but a square one is much easier.
Fu Li asked the family elder for a piece of coarse ramie cloth, and used the mortise and tenon method to connect the four wooden boards into a square. Finally, he stretched the ramie cloth on it, and a square basket was made.
Lingzhuzi didn't know what she was going to do, nor did he know why she did these things, he just kept following her and watching out of curiosity.
After she finished making the basket, she asked, "What do you want to do with this?"
Fu Li said proudly, "Just wait, I'll use this thing to make you lots of delicious food."
Lingzhuzi sneered, his face full of disbelief, but his bright eyes revealed the expectation in his heart.
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