Chapter 93 Bamboo Slips
Sang Luo would go into the mountains during the day when she was at home, but she only dared to stay near the village. She no longer dared to travel several miles to explore the mountains near other villages like she used to.
She stayed at Chen's house at night for three days. On the fourth day, Qin Fangniang brought back a message from Manager Xu.
He said that the county government had checked the surrounding area and asked villagers from all villages, but no one had seen any refugees. He also contacted the shopkeepers of several Dongfulou in neighboring counties, but they had not seen any refugees there either. Those people that day probably crossed the mountains and crossed the blockade to get here, so there shouldn't be a large number of refugees.
Everyone in the village breathed a sigh of relief.
Sang Luo's life returned to its previous rhythm, but this time there were no sour dates at all. She could only pick some jujubes and dig some konjacs. She didn't dare to go far, so she, who had been busy since she traveled through time, suddenly seemed to have some free time?
Fortunately, the hard work over the past three months was not in vain. Ten jars of sour jujube cakes have been made, and 400 pieces are still drying in the molds. If two jars are delivered to Yongfengzhai every four or five days, the stock can last for more than a month. In addition, more than 100 pieces were dried in a bamboo dustpan, which were left for snacks at home.
The big vat in the kitchen that stores dried konjac is now full. The dried konjac slices are packed in bags and then stored in the vat. Every time you want to make vegetarian tripe, you just need to take out a few slices and use a stone mortar to pound them into extremely fine powder, and then they can be directly processed into vegetarian tripe.
Konjac flour has strong water absorption capacity. One or two ounces of konjac flour can make nearly seven pounds of vegetarian tripe. This jar is enough to supply Dongfulou alone. Sang Luo feels safe just by looking at this big jar.
However, compared with sour jujube, konjac can be harvested for another ten days. Sangluo did not want to waste the visible supplies. She decided not to buy another large jar, as it was not cheap. She remembered that there was a method of storing konjac on wooden racks in the countryside. The wooden rack was placed not far from the stove. The dug konjac was piled on the wooden rack some distance from the ground and covered with a straw mat so that it could be stored for a long time.
Sang Luo made a simple bamboo rack and placed it not far from the stove. She would pile the konjac she dug up directly on the rack and cover it with a straw mat for storage.
However, even in this way, the kitchen was full and there was no room for maneuver, because there were so many frames, boards, and wooden barrels for making tofu, as well as a stone mill, a tofu strainer, a large vat, two bamboo racks, and a long table that people could hardly turn around.
Sang Luo looked around and finally took the two children to move the dining table to the main house.
It was early November when all the people who had gone to perform labor service in the village returned. Sang Luo ran down the mountain to see that Chen Youtian and the others were not much better off than the refugees that day before they washed up. They were too thin, their clothes were dirty, and their hair was as sticky as grass.
The only difference in their spirit and demeanor is that they can be distinguished from the refugees.
Thinking back now, Sang Luo even suspected that the person she met that day might be an honest citizen who had been taken away to serve in a certain place and was tortured miserably.
The shadow of the refugees had almost disappeared from Sang Luo's heart, and she felt relaxed.
After more than ten days of busy work, the konjac and jujube were gone. At this time, Sang Luo, apart from making dried vegetarian tripe with tofu sauce, went to the county town every four or five days. She was completely idle during the day. She finally remembered the pen and ink she had bought.
She bought pens and ink to make a book for the two little ones. The characters she taught before were simple, such as names and place names. As she prepared to teach more, she had to think about what to teach first every time.
There are differences in the characters of the two time and space. The characters that Sang Luo knew in her previous life may be typos here. She can only teach those that her original body knew. As a woman, her original body did not learn very deep or much, but it was enough to enlighten the children, such as "Thousand Character Classic".
This time and space also has "Thousand Character Classic". Although the content is slightly different, the difference is very small. It can only be said that there may be some wonderful connections and intersections between time and space.
Sang Luo bought pens and ink in order to teach her two children to memorize an enlightenment book. Now that she had the pens and ink, all she needed was paper and inkstone.
There were a group of kids in the yard, with five sandboxes. Chen An and Shen Ning acted as little teachers, teaching them to read and then playing for a while. Seeing that they were enjoying themselves, Sang Luo went to the mountain where there was a stream.
She had to find a stone that could be used as an inkstone.
Sang Luo was not a very capable person, and she didn't know how to make an inkstone. However, Qiyang County was mountainous, and there were many stones in the streams. It was not difficult to find a relatively flat stone with a slight indentation in the middle that could be used as an inkstone. She walked through several streams and found three or four usable stones. Finally, she chose the most beautiful one, washed it, and took it back.
The last time they made bamboo frames, there was a lot of leftover bamboo materials at home. Sang Luo asked Chen Youtian to borrow a machete and a planer to make bamboo slips, a substitute for paper.
Chen Youtian was resting at home recently. Sang Luo came to borrow tools. When she heard that it was for making bamboo slips to teach children to read, she picked up the tools and left with Sang Luo: "I'll help you."
Then a group of children in the yard learned that Shen An and Shen Ning would soon have a book, and that the bamboo that Uncle Tian and Aunt Shen had found would be used to make bamboo slips for writing.
Now all the games like teasing chickens and ducks and throwing stones were no longer fun. Everyone gathered together to watch a book take shape.
Chen Youtian often makes these things and has much more experience than Sang Luo. Sang Luo thought that any bamboo could be cut and used, but Chen Youtian, with a smile, carefully selected the ingredients, choosing bamboo, cutting bamboo, boiling bamboo, and baking bamboo. He even had to add some Sichuan peppercorns during the boiling step, which meant he had to complete a whole series of steps including frying, stir-frying, and deep-frying.
Chen Youtian explained a few words while he was doing it. After listening to Chen Youtian, Sang Luo realized that bamboo slips made without going through these procedures can still be used, but they are easy to crack, deform and be eaten by insects.
There really were some Huajiao and Sangluo at home, and the two of them were busy making a fuss, which amazed the children who were watching on the side. But after learning that it would take an hour to boil the bamboo, they lost their patience after watching for about a quarter of an hour, and except for the siblings Chen An and Chen Ning and a little girl, all the others ran away.
It took more than two hours to cut the bamboo strips, scrape the green, drill holes, and string the thirty-six bamboo slips together. Sang Luo finally understood how difficult it was for the ancients to write.
Shen An and Shen Ning were already very excited when they saw the finished bamboo slips, even though there were no words on them yet. Especially Shen An, he picked them up from time to time to touch and look at them, and couldn't let go.
After Chen Youtian retired, it was Sang Luo's turn. She took the bamboo slips back to the main room and placed them on the small table, leaving the door wide open to let in enough light. She used the newly bought and unused brush, and then took out the inkstone stone she had picked up in the morning and added water to grind ink.
It was the first time that Shen An and Shen Ning saw someone writing with pen and ink. The brother and sister held their breath and didn't even dare to breathe heavily.
Because the bamboo slips were hard to come by and were already connected, if a word was written wrong, the words had to be scraped off with a knife before they could be corrected. Moreover, this scroll of bamboo slips had been the only book for the two children for a long time, and even for other children who were learning to write with them. It was also an object for copying when practicing calligraphy, so Sang Luo took it very seriously.
Her handwriting is okay, but it is limited to hard pen calligraphy. Growing up in an orphanage, she was destined to have no conditions to learn any extracurricular talents, and she has never written calligraphy.
I can only try my best to explore the memory of my original body, the memory of my brain, and the memory of my muscles.
He did not dare to start writing right away, but instead picked up a pen and dipped it in ink, and practiced on some scraps of bamboo first. After he became proficient in writing, he spread out the bamboo slips and memorized every word of the Thousand Character Classic.
The full text was a thousand words long and she wrote it for a long time. After she finished writing, she realized that her hands and neck were stiff.
Still too nervous.
Chen An was also so tense that he forgot to relax his muscles. He kept staring at the tip of the brush in Sang Luo's hand, watching the ink flow calmly and words appear on the bamboo slips one by one. He couldn't describe what that feeling was.
He was excited, he would have a book, and he would enjoy it, because he didn't know that he could write so beautifully with a pen dipped in ink.
Shen Ning was very straightforward, expressing her envy and admiration: "Sister-in-law, you are so amazing!"
He can write so many words and write them so beautifully.
If Sang Luo could hear what the little girl said, she would definitely say that it was not pretty at all. After all, she was not her original self. Even with the memories in her brain and muscle memory, plus the little skills she had learned from hard pen writing in her previous life, she could not write very good calligraphy.
If it is not yours, it is not yours. How can you possibly master it perfectly without long-term practice?
The original body's handwriting cannot be considered good, but it can be called beautiful, while Sang Luo's handwriting can at best be considered neat.
But it is enough to use as an enlightenment book for two children.
Sang Luo looked at the written bamboo slips and was very satisfied: "Don't touch it yet. Wait until the ink is dry before touching it."
The two little ones nodded repeatedly.
Shen An couldn't help it anymore, so he stood by the table and asked, "Sister-in-law, can you teach me to recognize the words above now?"
Sang Luo smiled, "Okay, this is specially memorized for you to learn to read. It's called Thousand Character Classic. The whole text has 1,000 characters, and except for one character that is repeated, the other characters are not repeated. If you can recognize these 1,000 characters, you will have no problem using words in daily life. I will teach you to recite it first. Recite it several times a day. When you have memorized it, you can recognize and remember the corresponding characters by comparing it with the scrolls."
The brother and sister were so happy that they moved the stools and sat down obediently, looking like they were waiting to be taught.
Sang Luo laughed and taught the two children to recite sentence by sentence. She taught one sentence and the two children followed. The sound of reading spread out of the courtyard, and the cold wind seemed to become gentler.
Chen An was very eager to learn to read and write, and he especially cherished such opportunities. In order to make it easier for the two children to remember, Sang Luo divided the Thousand Character Classic into more than a dozen sections and did not teach too much each time.
Chen An studied hard and remembered things seriously. He would often recite them while doing other things. When he couldn't remember something, he would ask Chen Ning who was studying with him. If Chen Ning didn't know either, the brother and sister would ask Sang Luo.
…
In Shili Village, from some unknown day on, a group of children including Erniu, Huzi, Shitou and Xiaoyaer started to recite things. The words they recited were catchy and sounded very nice, although the men and women in the village could not quite understand them.
But it sounds mysterious, as if the kids are learning something extraordinary.
Shen Jin also noticed it.
He is not so serious about learning things, but he envies that kind of atmosphere. Everyone knows it, so why can't he?
Gradually, we began to move towards the foot of the mountain where the eldest son's family lived. There were too many children reading in the yard. Shen An led the reading, and a group of children followed. The voices were loud and uniform, and could be heard even if we stood at the foot of the mountain.
Two days after eavesdropping, the three brothers were spotted by a goose patrolling the territory.
The big goose recognized Chen Xiaoya and her group who came here frequently, but it didn't recognize the three brothers Shen Jin. They were strangers, and they were acting sneaky. What else was there to say? It just flapped its wings and charged forward!
The goose was still far away, and Chen Tie screamed and cried in fear.
His parents were bitten by a goose and had to lie on the bed for two days, blood all over their bodies. Chen Tie was so frightened by the sight of a goose that he didn't even know how to run. He just cried and called for his second brother and sister!
Shen An, Shen Ning and a group of people heard the noise and ran out. They narrowly stopped the goose when it started to chase Shen Jin, and then rushed forward to drive it away.
The three little ones were caught eavesdropping on people reading at the foot of the mountain.
Chen Ning went back to the house and took out a piece of sour jujube cake to comfort Chen Tie, who was crying because he was scared by the goose. Chen Tie was crying so hard that he was led into the yard by Chen Ning.
Shen Jin: “…”
Seeing him standing there motionless, Chen Xiaoya went over to him and said, "Shen Jin, why don't you go up too? What are you afraid of? Your mother is not at home, and your father doesn't care about you, right? He won't know you're here."
Chen Xiaoya and the others thought that Shen Jin didn't come here mainly because he was afraid of being beaten by his parents. Everyone in the village knew that Shen Jin's parents and Shen An's family were at odds.
That’s right, Shen San came back with the villagers on time after serving for a month. He was so tired that he was exhausted!
Can he run away after working for a month? Of course not, but Shen San felt that one month of the forced labor was for Li, and he couldn't do it all and let Li do it in exchange for him for a month.
Of course, you can't say the same thing to Li. What she meant was that the work of male workers was too heavy, while that of female workers was different. They only had to do things like boiling water and cooking, which was light work, so she could let them take a break.
Since he didn't go, Li had to go by herself, and she said she would be back in a month, so now it was Shen San, not Li, who was taking care of the child at home.
Chen Xiaoya pulled her towards the courtyard and said, "Let's go, let's go. Your father won't know unless we tell him."
Chen Xiaoya was not very strong, and Shen Jin was dragged away as well.
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