Chapter 22 Production and Teaching
"I can do it!" Tukes, summoned by Jiangyou's letter, said with full energy, "It's not difficult! Seven silver coins, I'll take care of it!"
The price was unexpectedly cheap, and Andre immediately agreed: "Do it! Do it now."
Takumi was very curious: "How does this machine work? Does it use magic?"
Tux rolled her eyes at her. "Isn't this the machine you came up with? How come you don't know how it works? It's very simple. Get a big iron box and build a coin weighing system inside. When it reaches a certain weight, the gears turn and the valve opens, causing the goods to fall.
"If you want to use different coins—nickels, copper coins, silver coins, gold coins—each additional currency requires an additional circuit, which would increase the cost dozens of times. But if you're only using nickels, one circuit will suffice." Tukes pulled out a pen and paper and quickly sketched out the design. "This circuit won't take up too much internal space. The right half can be used to store goods, and the left half can be made into a separate mailbox, as you requested."
Jiangyou watched Tukes drawing with great interest. The so-called coin weighing circuit was actually something similar to a balance.
Coins deposited by customers land on the left pan of the scale system. Once a specific coin weight is set, the pan tilts to one side. This tilt activates a gear mechanism on the right side, causing the pan to flip, opening the valve at the outlet. Merchandise placed on the pan then falls through the valve.
Then the valve is closed, and the left scale pan will flip over again, pouring the coins into the coin storage box below. After the weight changes, the mechanism on the right will be activated, and new goods will fall into the right scale pan, waiting for the next customer to insert coins to purchase.
"Can it be finished before 10 o'clock today?" asked Jiang You.
"It's just a small thing, there's nothing I can't do." Tux snorted, "Pour me a cup of witch beer, and I'll show you the skills of a dwarf craftsman!"
So, Takuyou poured him a large glass of Witch Beer, and Tux took out various metal sheets, gears, and hammers from the shop and started banging away. Takuyou checked the time, handed the task of checking the vegetables and meat to Nasha, and hurried to the tofu workshop—she also had to teach Alexi how to make tofu.
During the time that Jiangyou had been at Rose Manor, Nasha had already learned to work independently. She familiarly inspected the fresh vegetables brought by the Hafu driver, collected the day's random meat from Wolf Brother, and also accepted the fresh alfalfa brought by Wolf Brother - this was rations for the black horse Diego and the mule.
Uncle Wolf's ranch grew a lot of high-quality alfalfa, which was excellent fodder and sold very cheaply. Jiang You, who now had a good purchasing relationship with Uncle Wolf, helped Andrei purchase a batch of fodder from Uncle Wolf, saving a certain bankrupt knight a lot of living expenses.
——If we save a little money in this kind of place, we can ensure that Diego and the others eat well and have enough, and we can also save the money that Andre invested in the 'Dwarf Version of Vending Machine'. Why not do it?
Alexi's progress far exceeded Jiangyou's expectations. The weaver had whipped up a lot of fine, soft gauze last night, carefully cleaned the millstone, and made all the necessary preparations. When Jiangyou arrived, she was already grinding soy milk.
Jiang You: This is truly an excellent employee!
Several older children have also gotten up. Some are helping their mother take care of their younger sister by washing and dressing, while others are helping to wash the pots and pans, and their movements are very efficient.
Since all tofu-making operations would be outsourced to Alexi's family, Jiangyou's main role today was to provide oversight and guidance, requiring only verbal instruction. While watching Alexi work, she chatted with the cicada.
"Our clan usually lays two to three eggs per clutch," Alexi said. "The year I gave birth to my eldest, there was a severe drought and very little food, so she was the only one I gave birth to. The subsequent children were born in three separate clutches, so their ages range from about two years old. The youngest, Xiaoqi and Xiaoba, are only three years old now, but the eldest is already nine!"
Children from poor families have to grow up early. These little girls learned to help their mothers with things early on, which reduced a lot of burden on Alexi.
Grinding the beans and boiling the soy milk are easy enough. The only caveat is that when the soy milk reaches 85 degrees Celsius, the bubbling white foam can easily be mistaken for boiling, a phenomenon known as a "false boil." At this point, the soy milk also contains harmful ingredients like trypsin inhibitors and saponins, which can cause a burning sensation in the throat and stomach, leading to symptoms like indigestion, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
The solution was simple: just boil the soy milk a little longer until it boiled thoroughly. Besides letting Alexi use the magic stove, Takumi also taught her a simple temperature-measuring spell. Alexi was a little intimidated by magic at first, but with Takumi's encouragement, she bravely learned this simple spell consisting of only two syllables and a hand gesture.
At this time, the advantage of replenishing the soul fire magic power yesterday became apparent. Alexi had sufficient magic power, not only could he cast magic correctly, but it also did not cause any side effects.
"The elders once asserted that we couldn't use any magic." Alexi exhaled a long, hot breath, "And now I can prove that they were wrong."
"There's no need to rush to prove anything to them," Jiang You said half-admonishingly. "Take it one step at a time and establish yourself firmly here first. You're trying to shake long-standing prejudices and misunderstandings, perhaps even deliberate lies. Fighting these deep-seated problems is no easy task. Even the slightest flaw, even a single weakness, will be magnified by the other side. There's an old saying back home: 'You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry.'"
"...You mean... maybe the elders knew from the beginning that we weren't incapable of using magic?" Although Jiang You had been carefully choosing his words, Alexi still sensitively realized something. She slowly widened her eyes. "They have been deceiving us this whole time, binding us with rules?"
"I'm not sure," Jiang You shrugged. "Perhaps they have their own considerations. After all, apart from liches, no magical creature can easily obtain soul fire. If you want to replenish soul energy, directly devouring the soul is often the easiest way. Perhaps your ancestors didn't want to eat humans, so they chose to bind themselves with layer upon layer of commandments, and passed this custom down from generation to generation?"
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