Chapter 4 Soap
While Jian Mo and Wu Jiong were eating, the children who were given meat cakes also ran back home.
Qiu Li was one of the little beastmen.
He ran to his father's legs with a meat cake and shouted, "Dad, try it."
"What?" His father Zhou Fu smelled a strong fragrance, looked down, and found that it was a small piece of meat cake, "Where did the meat cake come from?" "
The tribe leader gave it to me." Qiu Li patted his father's leg gently and urged, "Try it quickly."
The sub-beastman Zhou Fu lowered his head and bit his fingernail-sized mouthful. The delicious and rich taste instantly swept his entire mouth.
He had eaten so many meat cakes since he was a child, all kinds of dry, salty, hard... but he had never tasted such a fragrant one.
The meat pie at the bottom was indeed the common kind of meat pie, but it had a perfect burnt layer on the outside and was more juicy.
His already round eyes became even rounder, and his cute face with a little baby fat was full of surprise: "It's delicious, Qiuli, try it!"
Qiuli nodded vigorously, opened her mouth wide, bit off a piece as big as a fingernail, and tasted it with care: "It's delicious!"
Zhou Fu smiled: "That orc made it, right? He's really amazing."
Qiuli nodded his head and said with certainty: "We watched him make it."
Zhou Fu gently pushed his son: "Your father is chopping wood at the big rock, go and give him a taste."
Qiuli responded with an "ow" and ran out on his short legs.
Similar conversations took place in several people's homes.
At dinner time, many people took their bowls to the open space outside to eat, chatting while eating.
Speaking of Jian Mo, everyone couldn't stop talking.
"You all said that the food cooked by that Asian beastman was delicious. I just tasted the meat pie he made, it was really fragrant."
"Me too. I even made a few more meat pie, the taste is completely different."
"Hey, how do you think people are made?"
"I don't know about this, but that Asian beastman seemed to come from a big tribe, and he knows a lot of things. He was the one who cured Hongqiu's illness."
...
Jian Mo didn't know about this conversation. He ate dinner, brushed his teeth with a tree branch, and went upstairs to sleep - Wu Jiong insisted on taking over the rest of the housework.
Jian Mo had been out for most of the day and was so tired that his legs were twitching. He fell asleep as soon as he touched the bed, without any random thoughts.
However, the next day, after Jian Mo had finished breakfast and followed Wu Jiong to find the beastmen to gather, the beastmen became much friendlier and many of them took the initiative to greet Jian Mo.
Jian Mo didn't know why, but he didn't miss the opportunity to get acquainted with everyone. He took the initiative to greet them back and stood aside to chat with everyone.
Although he spoke less, he still managed to join in the chat.
Everyone was on time, and after waiting for a while, the team members arrived, and Jian Mo and his team set out to collect.
Jian Mo noticed that the tribe actually had several hunting and gathering teams, and the beastmen he followed were generally older, and most of them had partners and children.
Maybe Wu Jiong felt that these beastmen were more stable, so he entrusted him to this task.
When Jian Mo went out to collect for the first time, he felt very fresh and motivated.
This time, it felt more ordinary.
The repetitive scenery, similar routes, and a lot of walking made Jian Mo feel tired.
Their harvest today was also relatively ordinary.
Today, they mainly went to two major collection points, one was the fruit forest, and the other was the mushroom slope.
After they arrived at the place, they found that the fruits in the fruit forest were basically not ripe, and they tasted very sour. They could not be eaten until at least half a month later. There
were not many mushrooms on the mushroom slope, probably because the rain lasted too short a time late at night the day before yesterday, and it did not rain thoroughly.
There are always many uncertainties in collecting, and everyone was a little disappointed, but they quickly accepted it.
Because the harvest at the original collection point was not good, they walked more and went to more places.
When they stopped to rest by the river at noon, Jian Mo felt that the soles of his feet were red and swollen, and they were twitching a little, and his head was a little dizzy.
According to the time and walking speed, he should have walked twenty to twenty-five kilometers this morning, including many uphill and downhill sections.
Jian Mo took out the meat pie he made in the morning, took a bite, and put it all in his mouth, but he couldn't swallow it. He
was too tired to eat.
He had to wrap the meat pie with leaves, put it in the backpack, took out the wooden barrel of water, and drank a few sips.
The other beastmen didn't seem to feel tired at all, and they talked and laughed on the side.
At noon, Jian Mo could take a longer break. He sat on a stone, leaning against a tree trunk, and fell asleep quickly in this environment.
He was still in a daze until he was gently woken up. He looked at Qing Kuang in front of him in confusion, with bark marks on his cheeks.
Qing Kuang motioned for him to look forward: "They said they want to take a bath, do you want to take a bath?"
Jian Mo: "What?"
While speaking, Jian Mo saw a group of beastmen who had untied their fur skirts and fur sandals, and went into the river in twos and threes.
At first glance, Jian Mo found that the body structure of the beastmen was not much different from that of men on Earth - except for a few who exposed their tails, claws and other beast marks, other parts were basically the same.
It would be impolite to look closely, so Jian Mo quickly turned his eyes away and looked at the river.
This section of the river is wide and clear, with round pebbles all over the bottom, and the water depth is no deeper than the average person's hips.
It really looks like a good place to take a bath.
However -
Jian Mo asked Qing Kuang: "
Is this how we wash?" Qing Kuang: "How else can we wash?"
The beastman named Ye Luo said: "The sun has warmed the water, and the weather is hot, so we can take a bath."
Jian Mo has never taken a bath since he came to this world. He only wiped his body with animal skin dipped in water. He looked at the river with desire: "Did you bring things for washing your hair and taking a bath?"
Qing Kuang was puzzled: "What do you want?"
Jian Mo: "It's just something for washing hair and taking a bath. If you wash with water like this, won't it not be able to wash away the dirt on your body?"
"If it's dirty, you can pick some grass and rub it. People take a bath regularly, so their bodies are not dirty." Qing Kuang looked at Jian Mo's exposed milky white skin and commented, "You are not dirty either."
Jian Mo had a difficult communication with them and confirmed that there were no detergents here.
They did not develop plant detergents such as soap pods and soapberries, let alone artificial detergents such as soap.
Qing Kuan didn't understand what he said at all: "Why do we need to use these? We are not dirty."
Jian Mo: "It will be cleaner if you use it. For example, your hair will be more refreshed and flowy after washing if there is detergent, and it can also prevent insects."
Ye Luo: "Not for now. If I deal with caravans in the future, I will see if I can exchange some."
Qing Kuan: "Did your previous tribe exchange directly with the caravan? Do you remember where your tribe is?"
Facing the two pairs of inquiring eyes, Jian Mo didn't know how to answer, so he could only respond vaguely, and then said: "Sometimes we do it ourselves."
Ye Luo: "How to do it? Can we do it now?"
The Asian beastmen who were originally playing in the water stood in front of them without knowing when, and now they were looking at him curiously.
"Well," Jian Mo looked at the sparkling eyes of the surrounding beastmen and thought for a while, "it seems that ash will work too. If you don't mind, why not give it a try?"
Qing Kuang: "Ashes? It's the stuff left after burning. Isn't that dirty?"
Jian Mo explained: "It looks dirty, but it actually has a good cleaning effect. It may make your hair cleaner after washing it."
Ye Luo looked at Qing Kuang: "Then let's try it? Anyway, there is nothing else to do today, so why not go back and get some ash and have a good bath."
There was no harvest at these two collection points today, and they didn't have any new plans. After saying this, everyone agreed.
Jian Mo stood up and saw that everyone was in high spirits, so he had to follow them back to the tribe to get ashes.
The tribe burned firewood and didn't plant anything, so the ashes collected were piled together.
Jian Mo followed the crowd to the ash pile, and peeled off the slightly damp ash on the surface. The ground was all soft and fine ash.
There was a lot of ash here, so everyone just filled a basket and walked to the river.
Because they had returned to the tribe, they did not go to the previous section of the river, but washed in the section of the river near the tribe.
This time Jian Mo also went into the water.
The river was slow and shallow, and it was indeed a good place to take a bath, but the water was relatively cold, so cold that he gritted his teeth to prevent himself from shivering.
He wet his hair and body, and hurried back to the shore to rub the ash, rub it dry, and then rinse it with water.
The other beastmen did not have this concern. They stood directly in the water and rubbed it. Some beastmen even swam in the water after washing dry. It seems that their ability to withstand cold is much stronger than Jian Mo.
The sun was very strong today, and it was very comfortable to take a bath and sunbathe.
After Jian Mo finished his bath, he also scrubbed his socks clean with ash.
The cleaning effect of wood ash is good. After the socks were washed and hung on the big rocks by the river, they dried quickly.
They were bathing here, and soon the little guys in the tribe came over. After being caught by the Asian beastmen, they were scrubbed.
Later, the beastmen also heard the noise and asked from a distance. Knowing that they were taking a bath with ash, they also curiously took the ash and ran to the downstream of the river to take a bath.
Jian Mo saw that more and more people were coming, so he said hello to Qing Kuang and the others and went back first.
When passing a certain section of the river, he heard a strange and painful faint cry coming from the river valley, and the sound was very long.
He stood there and listened carefully for a while, but could not hear anything again.
After returning, he saw Wu Jiong at home, and asked: "Have any orcs or sub-orcs been injured in the tribe recently?"
Wu Jiong paused: "Why do you ask that?"
Jian Mo: "When I came back from taking a shower, I passed by a big rock in the middle of the river and seemed to hear some strange noises. Or maybe I heard it wrong, it was the sound of water or something."
Wu Jiong: "No one in the tribe is injured, I'll go check it out later."
Jian Mo was relieved to see that he agreed: "That's great. What do you want to eat tonight? I'll cook."
Wu Jiong had already brought back the meat that was divided between them and piled it aside.
After looking through it, Jian Mo planned to marinate it and make a steamed meat cake to try - he had eaten too much barbecue, so he wanted to improve the taste today.
They were all busy.
In the evening, after a day's work, everyone took their meals to the open space outside to eat.
Because most people had taken a shower, everyone looked particularly fresh and clean.
When chatting, they couldn't help but talk about plant ash:
"I never thought that this dirty-looking ash could actually be used for bathing."
"Yes, I've never washed so cleanly. Now when I touch my knees, they creak."
"Me too, my head feels two pounds lighter!"
"Jian Mo knows so many things. Didn't he say he has other cleaning agents?"
"It seems he did, but I don't know if our tribe can use them."
"We'll find out later when we ask him. Anyway, it's still early and he probably won't fall asleep so soon." As
everyone chatted, they went straight to find Jian Mo with their bowls.
Jian Mo and Wu Jiong were also eating.
They had steamed meat cakes and stewed meat with sour fruits today, which was a change of taste.
When the people from the tribe came over, Wu Jiong was telling Jian Mo about the things in the valley, saying that they didn't find anything unusual.
Jian Mo estimated that what he heard might be the sound of flowing water or the wind.
The two were talking, and seeing the people from the tribe come in, Jian Mo held the bowl and blinked in confusion.
He thought these people had something to say to Wu Jiong, and was about to stand up and avoid them.
Zhou Fu in the crowd immediately saw his intention and hurriedly said: "Jian Mo, don't go, we are planning to look for you."
"Yes, yes, Jian Mo, we want to ask, didn't you say that there is something better than ash? How do you do it?"
"Is there any near our tribe? Tell us what it's like. If not, we can see if we can exchange some with other tribes during the hunting meeting?"
Jian Mo was surrounded by people. Facing their expectant eyes, he hesitated for a moment: "It seems that there is some. We can make some ash water soap or something."
Everyone was even more expectant: "How to do this? What should I prepare?"
Jian Mo: "Just prepare plant ash and animal oil."
Qing Kuan: "Any animal oil will do?"
After Jian Mo nodded, Qing Kuan immediately said: "My family just refined a can of animal oil. I'll go back and get it now!"
Zhou Fu: "Hey, I have some at home too."
Everyone went back to get the animal oil and left in the blink of an eye.
Jian Mo held the rice bowl and looked at Wu Jiong.
Wu Jiong: "It doesn't matter if it goes badly, animal oil is not a rare thing."
Having said that, Jian Mo hurriedly recalled the knowledge points about making soap.
He has not learned to make soap specifically, but he knows about the saponification reaction through various channels.
Soon, everyone came with animal oil.
Jian Mo had already cleaned up the fire pit, and when he saw them coming back, he didn't say much and directly asked someone to bring the wood ash.
There was too little entertainment in the tribe, and everyone was very curious about making soap.
Jian Mo didn't have to do anything, and the people around him listened to his instructions and prepared the wood ash extract.
In order to ensure the effect, Jian Mo specifically asked them to extract it several times to try to increase the alkali concentration in the ash water.
After filtering the ash water several times, he directly heated up the pottery jar, then heated up the animal oil, and then added the animal oil to the ash water, with more water than oil, and stirred it quickly with a wooden stick.
"Is that all?" The people who surrounded Jian Mo couldn't help but ask curiously.
Jian Mo didn't know, but he stirred faster: "Try it first."
As he stirred, the animal oil and ash water mixed quickly, changing from water to paste, and the color also turned milky yellow, looking a bit like shampoo in later generations.
There's hope!
Jian Mo was delighted and stirred even more vigorously.
Wu Jiong saw that he was struggling, so he took the pottery jar and wooden stick from him and asked, "Let me do it. How much do you want to stir?"
Jian Mo didn't know this either. He stared at the pottery jar: "You stir first, and I'll stop when I say stop."
Wu Jiong nodded and continued to stir.
The paste in the pottery jar looked more and more like the shampoo that Jian Mo had seen before, but it was thicker than shampoo and the color looked pretty good.
Wu Jiong stirred it for a long time, and when Jian Mo saw that the paste inside had not changed much, he said, "Let me try."
He dipped a little of the paste with a wooden stick and touched it lightly with his hand.
The paste felt slippery and did not sting. Perhaps the ash water and animal oil were relatively mild, not as irritating as benzene, so it didn't matter if it got on the hands.
Jian Mo asked Qing Kuan to pour some water on his hands and then rubbed them.
The soap successfully formed bubbles, and after washing it off with water, Jian Mo's hand skin was obviously much cleaner and there was no residue.
It seems that the soap was successful this time.
He nodded at Wu Jiong: "That's it, scoop it out, put it on the leaves, take it outside and blow it, and then you can use it when it turns into lumps."
Wu Jiong stared at the soap liquid: "Is it that simple?"
Jian Mo: "Just leave it like this for now, and see the effect when you use it, and then adjust it."
Jian Mo's words were always a little strange, but everyone understood.
Wu Jiong looked at the remaining animal oil and ash water: "Then make some more."
Everyone agreed. Anyway, animal oil and ash water are not rare things.
Jian Mo saw that they were in high spirits and did not object. It would be better to try a few more times. Then they could see if they could find the best ratio of ash water and animal oil.
Everyone was busy at Wu Jiong's house for half the night, until the sky outside was full of stars, they reluctantly put the soap paste outside to wait for it to solidify.
After two or three days, the soap will solidify and can be used.
Of course, if it can be left for a while longer, the soap will be more effective.
But it doesn't matter if you use it right after it solidifies. It just contains more free alkali, which is more irritating, and the ingredients are not as stable. It can still be used.
Today is another day of hard work.
After sending the tribesmen away, Jian Mo insisted on brushing his teeth with a wooden stick, climbed upstairs onto the animal skin, and soon fell asleep.
The next day, when he was woken up, Jian Mo was completely confused.
He opened his eyes and looked at the large group of sub-beastmen above his head, not understanding what was going on.
The Asian Beastmen were very excited, talking at once:
"Jian Mo, there are already clumping soaps!"
"I just used it, it's very useful, the mud behind my ears was rubbed off!"
"The soap from your tribe is really useful, much better than washing with water before!"
"Do you want to come down and take a look?"
Jian Mo followed the Asian Beastmen outside in a daze, and sure enough, there were already small pieces of soap, which felt okay to use.
At least it was much better at removing oil than water.
Before, when he was cooking, if his hands were stained with oil, he could only pull out a handful of grass and rub them to try to get the oil off.
After checking, Jian Mo nodded and said, "It is indeed usable. If it is left for a while, it should be more useful."
Zhou Fu: "Then make more and keep it?"
The Asian beasts said that they still had animal oil at home, so they could make more when they came back in the evening.
There was really no harm in making it and leaving it, and Jian Mo did not object.
After checking the soap, Jian Mo returned to Wu Jiong's house.
Wu Jiong looked at him: "Are you feeling unwell?"
Jian Mo raised his hand and pinched the Jingming acupoint: "It's okay, just a little sleepy. I had a messy dream last night and didn't sleep well."
At this point, Jian Mo hesitated for a moment: "I dreamed that there was something in the valley. Did you go and see it? Is there really nothing there?"
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