Chapter 475 Silk Quilt
Zhao Yeqing had planned it in advance, calculated the date and chose the safest time.
Mu Xi was a little frightened and hardly slept. He went out early in the morning before dawn and picked some water pepper from a stream in the mountains.
This is the kind of Polygonum multiflorum that we picked before to make sweet wine koji. It is autumn now, its flowering season. When you get to the wet waterside, you can see them at a glance.
This time I picked it not to make wine yeast, it is also a medicinal ingredient.
(Pictures available here)
The stems, leaves and flowers of the above-ground part have medicinal effects such as anti-inflammatory and hemostatic, and can also treat rashes and snake bites. Mu Xi took the roots of Polygonum multiflorum, washed them directly, boiled them in water, and drank them to prevent pregnancy.
This medicine is very harmless to the human body and can regulate menstruation. It was used as a seasoning in ancient times and is also used to make wine yeast or soak wine in modern times. It is not without better effects. Mu Xi still chose the one that would cause the least harm to Zhao Yeqing.
Zhao Yeqing drank a bowl and thought it tasted okay. After listening to Mu Xi's introduction, he couldn't help but wonder: "Does this spicy pepper have this function? Why didn't you tell me earlier..."
She closed her mouth as soon as she finished speaking, as if to make herself appear very anxious.
Mu Xi rubbed her head and said, "Silly, medicine is poisonous to some extent, and no matter how good the medicine is, it cannot be guaranteed to be foolproof. Even the western medicine that has been prepared and tested before can still have accidents."
However, he did pick quite a lot this time. Remembering what someone was mumbling while falling asleep last night, Mu Xi thought of picking more. They should be able to be used after drying them.
I found a lot of family planning products in the tourist area. They were expired. Even if they were not harmful to the body, the rubber inside had lost its toughness and would crack if pulled with a little force.
Zhao Yeqing said it was a pity. If he had known this would happen, he would have used it before it expired.
Mu Xi didn't know whether he should respond to this. Some people were scolding him when they woke up in the morning, and now they are saying this kind of thing...
How does the saying go?
"People are addicted to food."
Zhao Yeqing kicked him on the calf and said, "You are the one who is addicted!" She was convinced. Who would talk to his girlfriend like that about such a thing?
But she did feel a little regretful. She should have known it earlier, especially during the polar night. She was so depressed during the whole year when it was dark.
After being kicked, Mu Xi wisely shut up and went downstairs to work.
The koji I made before is almost used up, so I made a lot of koji by mixing the old sweet wine koji with the newly picked peppercorns. After it cools down a bit after a while, I can drink the warm sweet wine again.
Time passed slowly until the second wave of silkworms came up to the cocoons and the two harvested the first batch of cocoons. The helicopter never appeared again.
Mu Xi took over the task of taking out the silkworm pupae. Even if they were going to make a silk quilt, there was no need to reel the silkworms out of the cocoons, but the pupae that had not yet grown into butterflies needed to be taken out of the cocoons first.
The silk cocoons were thrown into the hot water one by one, and the silkworm pupae were taken out and placed in a basket. They were edible, but the two were not very interested and planned to use them to feed the chickens and ducks.
In fact, you can also throw the cocoons with the silkworms still in them directly into hot water to boil them, and then peel them out after boiling. This way the cocoons will not be damaged. Last year, the two originally planned to throw away the cocoons that had already hatched.
But later Zhao Yeqing kept a few of them. After trying to cook them, he found that they were not unusable, but just not that good. He left some in the cupboard, thinking that he could make up for it if the second batch was not enough.
Better than expected, 80% of the second batch survived and spun cocoons. Some of the square clusters made before were not enough, so some squares were occupied by two silkworms, which spun cocoons together and became "double-palace silkworms".
Zhao Yeqing found an introduction in those obscure books written in traditional Chinese characters, which said that this kind of cocoon was very suitable for making quilts, as the silkworm shell was very thick and produced a large amount of silk, but it was not suitable for making clothes because the two silkworms made a cocoon together and the silk would be mixed up.
Generally, a silkworm spins its cocoon in a very regular pattern, weaving the cocoon back and forth and then in a figure-8 shape. Once you find the silkworm head, it's like grabbing the end of a ball of thread. Once you pull it, the cocoon underneath will roll and release the regular silk.
This messy double cocoon is not suitable for making silk thread, but it is just right for making a quilt for two people.
The problem is that the output is too low. For every hundred cocoons, there are probably only five or six double-palace silkworms.
Mu Xi boiled the cocoons over and over again, repeating the process four or five times. He then used low temperature to slowly melt the gelatin in the cocoons, and then washed them clean, so that the cocoons could be pulled evenly when the cotton was opened.
The tool for opening the cotton is a curved wide bamboo stick. After the gelatinous cocoons are cleaned and pulled apart a little in the water, they are put on this semi-elliptical bamboo bow support and stacked up layer by layer until it becomes a small white cotton bag. It is then taken down and hung on a rope to dry.
(Pictures available here)
Some cocoons were not in good condition and were removed. Yellow or black dirt could be seen on the surface, but the two did not feel sorry for them and threw them directly into the compost bin. They were all protein.
Zhao Yeqing tried to take one and unravel the mystery, but as expected, he failed.
Mu Xi was a little slow to do it alone, so Zhao Yeqing didn't try anymore. They made the small cotton bag for the quilt together first. They could make the quilt while the sun was shining for the next two days and dry it before making it.
The little cotton bags occupied all the clotheslines one by one. After they were done, their arms were sore and swollen, and they had to go back to the room to take apart a quilt.
To sew a silk quilt, you need a quilt cover. They had brought back a lot of white quilts from hotels in tourist areas before. The cotton filling inside was chemical fiber. After taking them out, the two of them stuffed them into a plastic bag and threw them into the original owner's house to collect dust.
When winter comes and the weather gets colder this year, you can make a few new beds for the dogs at home.
The quilt cover that had not been used for a long time had to be washed. The quilt cover and the small cotton bag were dried at the same time. The two of them stretched their arms and prepared to start making the quilt.
The book says that force should be applied evenly, and it is best if four or more people pull the quilt to ensure that there are not too many thin or too thick pieces. But conditions do not allow it, so only two people can do it.
Mu Xi put several wooden tables together to make it easier to place the torn silk.
The two of them had a good understanding of each other, and with the effects of several years of training, after pulling a few cotton bags, they gradually mastered the strength and rhythm.
Layer by layer, after stacking up, after three quarters of the cotton pockets were used up, a silk quilt weighing about five pounds was almost done. The only thing left was the final step of fixing it with needle and thread and then putting it into the quilt cover.
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