Chapter 32 Ge Yi
"Yike, come, help aunt to put out the things in the backpack, so that the uncle and nephew can soak their feet and take a rest." Zhang Yuling put more than 100 kilograms of rice in the snakeskin bag in the rice cabinet, and took Yike to carry the backpack to the storage cave, and put out the things in the basket one by one.
There was a bundle of red cotton cloth, a bundle of blue cotton cloth, a bundle of gray fine cotton cloth, two pairs of cotton shoes, a large stack of red paper, a bag of about three pounds of salt, a bottle of chili sauce, a dozen handfuls of noodles, and brown sugar, white sugar and other miscellaneous things. Zhang Yuling sorted and placed the things while nagging:
"Why buy so many cloths of other colors when you can just buy a bundle of red cloth? You spend money recklessly when you have money. Isn't that a waste? You will need to spend money on many other things in the future, but you don't know how to save. What a bunch of spendthrifts."
Yike was helping to arrange things silently without saying anything, so she didn't know how to respond.
"Aunt, those blue cloths can be used to make a few sets of clothes for Yi. She doesn't even have any spare clothes, and she can't always wear leather clothes. Besides, it will be cheaper if you buy more cloth." Ziyi explained to Zhang Yuling while soaking his feet.
"What? You don't even have any change of clothes. How did you get through last year? That heartless mother is so cruel to her own daughter. She will definitely not have a good ending in the future." Zhang Yuling didn't even put her things away. She came over and took Yi Ke's hand and asked, "What do you usually wear? It's all your fault that I didn't find out earlier, otherwise I would have used the remaining cloth at home to sew a set for you. Oh, I'm so stupid. I only thought about sewing a leather jacket and forgot about the clothes underneath. What are you wearing underneath now?"
Uncle Hao and Auntie were about to lift up Yike's leather coat. Yike was so embarrassed that she quickly held down the hands that were trying to lift the coat. "Don't look. The clothes underneath are made of fibers from kudzu vines."
"Kudzu? Which one can be made into clothes? Isn't it just vines? My poor girl, these are vines and leaves that only wild people wear! My girl, it's all my fault for being so careless. I didn't expect you were not wearing any clothes underneath..."
"Aunt, stop talking!" Yike's face was completely flushed by Zhang Yuling's words. There was a man next to her, why did she keep saying "no clothes inside"? "Aunt, it's not a vine, I made it with the fiber from kudzu vine, it's very soft, if you don't believe me, let's go over there and I'll show you."
"Really? Then let's go over and take a look?" Zhang Yuling was skeptical. She couldn't imagine how kudzu vines could be used to make soft clothes.
Yike and Uncle Hao and Auntie went to a distance to look at Ge Teng's clothes, but Ziyi was there soaking his feet slowly. He felt sorry for Yike because she had no clothes to wear, but he was also anxious to know what the clothes made by Ge Teng looked like? But he was too embarrassed to ask to see the clothes he was wearing underneath, and he felt very worried!
"Wow! It's really soft and warm to the touch. How did you do it? Our daughter is so smart!"
"This is a bit troublesome to make. The main thing is that you have to boil it in water. I don't have a big iron pot, I only have a small one, so it took a long time to boil the rattan. After it's cooked, I rub it. I have small hands, so rubbing it also took a lot of time. Finally, I dry it in the sun. After the fibers are dried, I rub them into thicker threads and weave them like a sweater. This is how the kudzu clothes are made. In fact, the method is very simple, but it takes a long time. If there is a loom, the fiber can also be woven into cloth. The kudzu cloth worn by the ancients was made of kudzu." Yike was also a little proud that although he was small, he had a smart mind.
"I can weave. When I was a child, my grandmother had a loom and I watched her weaving. But later the loom was burned as firewood." Uncle Hao and his aunt said regretfully. "Aunt, if there is a loom, can you weave cloth?" Ziyi interrupted and asked. He knew about Kudzu vine, but he didn't know that the material was Kudzu vine.
"Of course. If you can get a loom, I'll take that kudzu vine or something..."
“Kudzu fiber.”
"Yes, kudzu fiber, and I can weave cloth. We don't have to buy cloth in the future. It saves so much money!" Zhang Yuling was happy at the thought of not having to spend money on cloth.
"Yike, can you show me that kudzu fabric?" Ziyi asked embarrassedly.
"Sure! My backpack is made of that. Wait a moment." Yike happily ran to get the backpack.
Yike's backpack was woven with kudzu fibers. At that time, she thought that it was inconvenient to put some small things in the backpack, so she used the remaining kudzu fibers to weave a shoulder bag.
Ziyi took the shoulder bag and looked at it carefully, and found that it was indeed soft, but the bag was not as dense as cotton cloth, after all, it was knitted with knitting needles. Such soft fibers should also be soft when woven into cloth. He had an idea in his mind, so he said: "If you like, I will find a carpenter outside to make a loom. Then you can weave some to kill time, but you can't be too tired. If you want to use cloth, you still have to buy it outside."
"Aunt, if you teach me, I also want to weave cloth. Haha, I want to wear clothes made of the cloth I weave myself." Yi Ke didn't expect that there would be such a good thing.
"Yike, are there too many entanglements?" Ziyi asked.
"A lot. A lot. And we can plant more." Yike was very excited and told Ziyi and Uncle and Aunt Hao that the whole body of kudzu vine was a treasure.
"Pueraria root can be used as medicine. Grind it into powder and boil it with some water. It can be eaten when it becomes a sticky state. If you want to eat it sweet, add sugar or honey. It tastes good and is good for the body. It can clear away heat, resolve phlegm and relieve cough, and it can also cure constipation. In addition to extracting fiber from kudzu vine to weave cloth for making clothes, the vines can also be used to weave baskets and rattan chairs. The leaves of kudzu vine can be eaten as vegetables. We raise pigs, so kudzu vine can also be used as pig food." Yi Ke listed all the effects of kudzu vine on the body in one breath.
Zhang Yuling's eyes lit up when she heard this: "Oh my God! This is such a good thing, we should plant more of it."
In fact, Pueraria root can be ground into powder and made into Pueraria root vermicelli, but this is quite difficult. She has eaten Pueraria root vermicelli in the modern world, but she doesn't know how it is made, so she didn't tell her.
"Aunt, do you think we should reclaim more wasteland and grow more sweet potatoes and corn to raise pigs? Then we won't have to go hunting and still have meat to eat?"
"We want to, too, but you don't know that there is no suitable land for farming nearby, otherwise we would have planted it long ago. Just like your uncle Hao said just now, they have looked for many places, but none of them are suitable. But now it's good, with the place you mentioned for farming, we not only have food to feed the pigs, but we don't have to buy rice outside."
"Aren't there still many mountain people here? They don't farm either?"
"No. They are just like us. They couldn't make it outside the mountains anymore, so they were rescued by your uncle Hao and came here to live. They don't have the ability to get into the mountains themselves, otherwise they would have been eaten by tigers and leopards long ago."
“Are there many tigers and leopards here?”
"Yes, I heard from your uncle Hao that when you go deeper, you have seen tigers, leopards, wolves, and blind bears several times. Even if your uncle Hao is very skilled, he would not dare to go in alone. If you want to go hunting, you must at least bring Ziyi with you, or go with the men from other families. It will be safer with more people."
Zhang Yuling and Yi Ke chatted ramblingly...
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