"Be careful, don't get a splinter in your hand," Li Mai instructed Zhou Quan.
"It would be great if we could make some rubber gloves." Li Mai jotted down her thoughts and needs on a piece of paper.
Rubber gloves are needed when washing dyed materials.
Zhou Quan obediently and diligently washed the wood.
"Mother, what can magpies and I do?" Zhuzhu asked Limai quickly when she saw that her father had something to do.
"You and Magpie help me prepare three pieces of white cloth. We'll try dyeing them. We don't need to dye a large piece. Mother, you cut the white cloth I brought back from inside the house into three-foot pieces. Cut out three pieces first." Seeing that the little one wanted to help, Li Mai assigned her the task.
Zhuzhu and the magpie went to carry out their orders.
Upon looking at the wheat, Zhao asked, "Wheat, should we start a fire? Should we soak it in cold water or boil it?"
"It needs to be cooked, Mother. Could you go to the kitchen and light a stove, and add half a pot of water?" Li Mai also assigned a task to Zhao Shi.
Zhao glanced at Old Man Zhou with a happy smile, then went back to work.
Old Man Zhou coughed lightly, "Xiaomai, what can your father do?"
"Dad, carry half a bucket of water and find a rag to help me wipe a low rack, the one that's about the height of a person will do, so we can hang the cloth to dry after we finish dyeing." Li Mai smiled and assigned tasks to Old Man Zhou.
Old Man Zhou responded and happily went to work.
Zhou Quan glanced at everyone who was busy, then smiled and looked at Li Mai.
"Wash it clean, make sure there are no other wood particles. Take it to the kitchen, put half in the pot and leave the other half in the basin," Li Mai instructed Zhou Quan, who had just finished washing the sappanwood.
Zhou Quan went to run errands, and Li Mai also brought a piece of paper and a pen, and went with them so that she could record every step of the process at any time.
You might not succeed after one or two tries, but as long as you write down the steps each time, you'll eventually find the reason for the failure, get the proportions right, and you'll definitely be able to dye the color you're satisfied with and find the most correct formula.
Although she had a book on dyeing, the proportions weren't clearly stated, so Li Mai and the others had to experiment themselves. (The approximate ratio was one kilogram of dye to ten liters of water.)
"After bringing it to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low and simmer for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, then filter the broth."
After Li Mai read the passage from the book, she asked Zhou Quan to find a sieve and a cloth to place on the wooden basin.
They had prepared all these things in advance, and Zhou Quan took the key and went to the warehouse to get them.
Zhao focused intently on controlling the heat, firmly remembering Li Mai's instructions to bring it to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer.
When Zhuzhu and Xique returned after cutting the cloth, they saw Zhou Quan arranging the wooden basin and sieve, so they quietly watched from the side.
After the pot boiled, the water in the large pot turned increasingly red. Seeing that the pot had boiled, Zhao quickly pulled out a piece of firewood that was burning brightly in the stove and threw it on the ground in the yard. She then poured out a ladle of water to extinguish it and returned to continue monitoring the fire.
Li Mai promptly lit an incense stick in the incense burner on the table behind him.
A single piece of firewood, about the thickness of a forearm, was still burning in the furnace. The fire wasn't as fierce as before. She looked at Li Mai, who had finished writing, and asked, "Xiaomai, how's the fire?"
Li Mai nodded and gave Zhao a thumbs up, "Perfect, Mother, your fire control technique is amazing."
Upon hearing this, Zhao burst into laughter.
Li Mai smiled. Actually, her family had someone who could control fire by hand, but they didn't dare to reveal their spiritual power in front of others, fearing that these unnatural phenomena would frighten ordinary people.
Thinking of ordinary people, Li Mai recalled what Zhou the matchmaker had said last time.
As the two women stared at the pot, Li Mai suddenly smiled and asked, "Mom, did you know my grandma before?"
Zhao shook her head. "I don't know her. I know your grandmother. It was Matchmaker Zhou who introduced us."
"Oh, when did you first hear her mention my family?"
Li Mai spoke casually, and Zhao also laughed as she recounted how the matchmaker Zhou had come to her door and told her that there was a young girl in Li Family Village who would be perfect for their large family, saying that the girl's parents had passed away and she only had a grandmother.
At this point, Zhao told Li Mai somewhat embarrassedly that although she had heard of her family three or four years ago, she felt that her son had just started working outside and wanted to earn some money first so that he could build two new houses before arranging a marriage for him. So she didn't ask the matchmaker Zhou to bring up the marriage.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Quan had an accident before the house was even built.
After listening to Zhao's explanation, Li Mai nodded. This was only natural. The family already had few houses, and if they were to marry off their son, there wouldn't be enough rooms for them to live in.
There was nothing wrong with Zhao's words, so Li Mai dispelled her suspicions. There were no supernatural fluctuations or spiritual energy auras on her. It seemed that Zhao was just an ordinary woman in this world.
Zhou Quan overheard this from outside. He had no memory of his mother ever acting out of the ordinary, which meant that Zhou the matchmaker's matchmaking for him and Xiaomai was the result of Xiaomai's grandmother's deliberate manipulation.
Actually, he was quite satisfied with this result. He didn't know what ability they had developed wheat to suppress in their previous life, but the fact that it allowed them to be husband and wife for life in this life made him feel that if wheat wanted to suppress him, it could suppress him however it pleased.
In any case, he has decided not to awaken water-based abilities in this life. As long as he doesn't awaken both water and fire abilities, his beast bloodline should not be able to awaken.
He guessed that the ancient Zhe and his people in his previous life were probably worried that he would harm humans or take revenge on them, so they wanted Xiaomai to suppress his beast bloodline.
hehe!
Thinking of this, Zhou Quan couldn't help but chuckle. He could talk to Gu Zhe about this next time he saw him, and maybe he was right!
Since I don't plan to awaken, they don't need to worry!
"Time's up!" Zhao called out when she saw that one incense stick had burned out.
Li Mai quickly snapped out of her daze and called to Zhou Quan, "Zhou Quan, come and take the pot and slowly pour it into the sieve to filter."
Zhou Quan responded, took the pot, and went out to pour the contents into the sieve.
Zhao was startled and quickly ran out, hurriedly calling out, "Xiao Quan, isn't that pot hot? Why didn't you use a rag to hold it?"
Zhou Quan smiled and said, "It's alright, it's not that hot."
Zhao, however, kept her eyes fixed on his hand with concern.
After Zhou Quan finished pouring, Zhao quickly told him to put his hands in the basin of water to cool them down.
Zhou Quan had no choice but to obediently go over to cool off. When he met Li Mai's amused gaze, he smiled helplessly.
If his mother saw flames flying out of his palm, wouldn't she faint from fright?
Li Mai gently placed the sieve aside, glanced at the deep red color in the wooden basin, and nodded. "Mother, continue cooking the rest, adding the same amount of water as before, and cooking it the same way."
Zhao responded.
Once the next batch of dye solution is boiled, it is combined with the previous filtered solution.
Looking at the full wooden basin of dye, Li Mai nodded, "Zhou Quan, go and get three large porcelain basins. We're going to add the mordant separately."
Zhou Quan agreed and went to get it.
"Mom, what is a mordant?" Zhuzhu asked curiously.
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