Chapter 167 Papermaking Success
After half a month, the first batch of paper from Taohua Village Paper Mill was finally completed.
The cave is filled with a faint aroma of paper pulp, a unique aroma of bamboo and water fermented together, with the freshness of plants and the mellowness of time.
The village chief stood beside the paper drying platform, where sheets of freshly dried paper were neatly stacked.
His hands trembled slightly as he carefully picked up a piece of paper.
The paper was as white as snow and reflected a soft light under the light.
The village chief's eyes were filled with wonder and disbelief. His rough fingertips gently stroked the paper, as if touching a rare treasure. "Oh my God, such beautiful paper, is it really made in Taohua Village?"
The worker who was drying the paper nearby also laughed when he heard this, "Yes, I couldn't believe it when this paper was copied out."
"Village Chief, this paper can be sold for a lot of money, right? It looks better than the paper the children are using now."
The village chief was about to answer when he saw Gu Jiayue and Jiang Luli walking in from outside the cave.
The sunlight outlined their figures. Gu Jiayue stood tall and straight, full of vigor, while Jiang Luli exuded a cool and calm demeanor.
The village chief waved his arms and shouted, "Jiayue, come and see if this paper can be used."
Gu Jiayue walked over quickly and saw a pile of white papers on the table from a distance.
Picking up the paper on the table, she first faced the sunlight coming in from the skylight, narrowed her eyes slightly and carefully examined the evenness of the paper, not missing any tiny flaws.
Then she flicked the paper lightly with her fingers, and it made a crisp sound. Then she brought the paper to her nose and sniffed it to confirm whether the scent was pure.
After completing these preliminary checks, she picked up the brush on the table beside her, dipped it in ink, and began to write on the paper.
The ink quickly penetrates and spreads evenly on the paper, presenting rich changes in ink rhyme.
When the brush is dipped in ink and dances on the paper, the ink will not gather into clumps on the paper, but will produce different shades of ink according to the strength and speed of the brush, as if a vivid ink painting is slowly unfolding on the paper.
"Uncle Village Chief, the paper is ready!" Gu Jiayue suddenly raised her head with a bright smile on her face.
Her eyes sparkled, more dazzling than the blossoms in bloom in spring. The joy in them seemed to overflow. "Look at the smoothness and toughness of this paper. While it's not as good as the finest rice paper in Kyoto, it's perfectly suitable for daily writing, bookkeeping, and window pasting."
The workers who were busy working in the cave put down their tools and gathered around when they heard this.
Their faces were full of fatigue, yet filled with uncontrollable excitement.
After being busy in the cave in the back mountain for half a month and working for countless days and nights, we finally see the results.
Looking at the white and smooth paper, they seemed to see the hope for the future of Taohua Village.
"Jiayue, thanks to your idea, you led us all to build this paper mill. From now on, our Taohua Village will not only be a place for growing crops and vegetables, but we can also make a name for ourselves with our craftsmanship!" The village chief's eyes were slightly moist, and his voice was choked with sobs.
Gu Jiayue smiled and waved, her smile warm and sincere. "This is all thanks to everyone's concerted efforts. No one would have been able to do it without them. Now that paper is made, the children in the village will no longer lack paper for their studies and can study with greater peace of mind."
She looked at the villagers around her, and after he said this, the joy on their faces became even more obvious.
"Jiayue, this paper should be quite valuable, right?" someone asked nervously.
Gu Jiayue nodded. "In terms of quality, it's much better than the jute paper we commonly use now."
"Oh, it's so expensive! It would be a waste to use this kind of paper on those little brats to practice calligraphy. Why don't you keep it and sell it?"
"I think so too. If that doesn't work, we can just give them the discarded ones or the scraps from the torn paper. Why would we waste such good paper on them?"
Gu Jiayue's heart moved slightly, but she still smiled and said, "No matter how hard it is, we can't let the children suffer. No matter how poor it is, we can't let them go without education. Before, when we couldn't make paper, we spent money to buy paper for them. Now that we can make paper ourselves, why are we reluctant to give it to them?"
"Village Chief, starting this month, every child in every household who needs paper can get a roll of paper for free, right?"
This was a good thing for the village, so the village chief naturally had no objection, but he was a little hesitant. "One knife per person is too much, isn't it? Jute paper costs two hundred coins per knife. Our paper is better..."
Not counting the girls, there are over 200 children in the village who are currently studying. Each child receives one kilogram of silver per month, which is 200 kilograms. One kilogram of silver is 200 wen, which is the price of jute paper, which is 4 taels of silver!
And their paper is better and sells for more.
A single piece of paper costs more than four ounces of silver? That's too extravagant!
The villagers also knew how to do the math, and the numbers they came up with almost scared them to death.
"Oh, what a waste! My kids at home can write just fine in the sand. Why would they need such fine paper?"
Seeing everyone expressing their opinions, they all felt that it was a waste for the children to use this paper to write.
Gu Jiayue signaled everyone to calm down. "Uncles and aunts, this is all for the child. It's just a piece of paper a month."
"This is just the basic rule. If you don't use up the money you receive this month, you can come back next month to get it after you use it up. But if you use it up before the end of this month, you still have to pay for it. Let's set the price at one hundred coins per knife. This is a price only people in the village can afford." Gu Jiayue said, looking at the village chief and speaking in a negotiating tone.
The village chief thought this was a good idea. He couldn't just make paper in his own village and then have the children go out and spend a lot of money to buy it, right? "Okay, it's settled. From now on, each child can come to the ancestral hall every month to get a roll of paper. This will be assigned to Uncle Li, who looks after the ancestral hall."
Gu Jiayue had no objection.
Another villager raised a question: "How much can we buy? What if someone buys cheap paper in the village and sells it outside?"
This is indeed a problem.
The village chief pondered for a moment, then looked at everyone and said, "If we use it up, we can only buy another one if we spend money. A child wouldn't use that much in a month, right?"
"Yeah, that makes sense. That's it."
After discussing this, Gu Jiayue said, "Keep going. Make more. I'll arrange for Kangzi to take the paper away and see how to sell it. Then, after we decide on the price, we'll sign the contract."
The village chief nodded repeatedly, a look of awe in his eyes. He had only met the young man named Kangzi once, but he was still impressed. "Hey, you made all of this, why sign a contract? Just let Kangzi sell it all, and then give us some hard-earned money later."
Gu Jiayue smiled faintly and shook her head, her eyes showing seriousness. "How can that be? In business, one is one, two is two."
This business is no joke; we've hired nearly a hundred workers alone. If we don't sort things out clearly, there will definitely be big problems later.
Since she has already shared her papermaking technology, why would she be greedy for such a small benefit?
She is responsible for the future of Taohua Village and for every villager involved.
After discussing some details with the village chief, Gu Jiayue remembered that Jiang Luli had been silent and nowhere to be seen since he came in.
She couldn't help but feel a little puzzled, and looked around the cave, and finally saw him in the corner of the paper drying mill.
"What are you doing squatting here?" Gu Jiayue walked forward and asked softly.
Jiang Luli was seen squatting on the ground, his hands repeatedly stroking the papers that had been dried in the sun, his eyes so focused that it seemed as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.
Then he picked up a brush and wrote on the paper, his eyes fixed on the changes in the ink on the paper, carefully observing the properties of the paper.
He was shocked. He didn't expect that she could actually make paper with bamboo, and the paper she made was no worse than rice paper.
He picked up the bamboo on the ground in disbelief, looked at it again and again, frowning.
How could this happen?
This bamboo is extremely hard. How can it become such good paper after being soaked and rubbed?
Jiang Luli had been clever since childhood, so he possessed a voracious curiosity. Whenever he encountered something that interested him, he wanted to understand it thoroughly. At this moment, he saw the bamboo cutters heading up the mountain to cut bamboo, and as if possessed, he suddenly stood up and wanted to follow them.
The village chief looked at Jiang Luli's actions and couldn't help but feel a little worried. He came to Gu Jiayue and asked in a low voice: "Jiayue, is it okay to let Jiang Shanchang know the secret recipe of papermaking?" After all, this paper mill is related to the future of Taohua Village.
Gu Jiayue looked at Jiang Luli's receding figure, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, revealing a mysterious smile. "I just let him know on purpose."
"Huh?" The village chief didn't quite understand what Gu Jiayue was doing, his eyes full of confusion.
But this originally belongs to Gu Jiayue, so she can arrange it however she wants.
The two stopped discussing Jiang Luli's departure and began to check each process of papermaking from the beginning.
They shuttled between the pulp pool, paper drying platform and cutting area, carefully examining every link.
Gu Jiayue would sometimes squat down to check the consistency of the pulp; sometimes she would pick up a piece of semi-finished paper to check its quality.
After reviewing every process in the papermaking workshop, he found that everything was on the right track and there was no need for improvement in the short term. Gu Jiayue finally felt relieved and breathed a sigh of relief.
Now all we have to do is wait until we have stocked up on some goods, and then have Kangzi come over to take the papers out to see what the appropriate price should be.
Once the production of this writable paper stabilizes, she can start producing toilet paper.
Everything was fine during the time she traveled through time, except that going to the toilet was really a torture for her.
"By the way, I found the hillside suitable for planting mulberry trees that you asked me to find last time." The village chief suddenly remembered something and patted his head and said.
Gu Jiayue's eyes widened in disbelief, filled with surprise. "Uncle Village Chief, haven't you been busy renovating the house recently? How do you still have time to do other things?"
She really didn't expect that the village chief, despite being so busy, would still take her instructions to heart.
The village chief said with a smile, "What a coincidence! I need a lot of trees to build my house. Just ahead of Zhushan, there's a pine forest, so I planned to cut some down to build my house. I ended up discovering a large, fairly fertile, gentle slope. It's just that there are too many weeds and shrubs, so I need to clear them out."
"But these are all trivial matters. We ordinary people have nothing but strength."
The village chief said it lightly, but Gu Jiayue felt a little sad listening to it.
Physical labor is the most tiring and makes you age quickly. The people of Taohua Village, regardless of gender or age, all look seven or eight years older than their actual age.
There are also many people who do physical work and have hunched backs and bent waists at a young age, and their hands and legs cannot be straightened. These are all sequelae of doing physical work.
It seems we need to find a way to improve productivity.
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