Crossing the Unknown Country

The five people came to Li the stonemason's house together. Their door was open and people were talking in the yard.

Su Che called out, "Auntie, are you home? I, Su Che, came over to grind something."

The stonemason's wife came out. She was tall and strong, with a big white face, big eyes, and a big mouth. She spoke in a straightforward manner and said with a smile, "Su Che! Oh, all your children are here. Let's grind! Just remember to clean it up."

Su He smiled and said, "Auntie needs to use some water from home later, do you mind?"

The stonemason's wife said loudly, "This is Su He! What's so special about it? It's free water, so you can use it as you like. Your brother Da Shuan has plenty of water, so if it's not enough, just pick more."

Su He handed her a penny and said with a smile, "Thank you, auntie!"

The stonemason's wife looked at the white kudzu roots in their baskets and asked them, "What are you going to grind? How come I can't tell?"

Su He said: "The medical book says it is called Pueraria root, also known as Huangjin, Jiqi, and Luhuo. How come it should be called Pueraria root!"

The stonemason's wife said, "Kuang root! You know there are some on the mountain. You can see them from time to time. You can eat the newly grown shoots and flowers. This is the root! You can boil it after peeling it. But there are not many. Where did you dig so many?"

Su He said, "In the forest on the back hill. Auntie, how do we usually eat these kudzu roots?"

The stonemason's wife smiled and said, "They are all cut into pieces and cooked. I don't know how to eat them in other ways. How are you going to eat them?"

Su He said: "I want to grind it into a paste, dry it and keep it for later consumption."

The stonemason's wife couldn't imagine it, so Su He smiled and said, "I saw in medical books that this is how to process herbs. Let's try it and see if it works."

When the stonemason's wife heard about the medical book, she smiled and asked, "Su He, do you understand medical books?"

Su He didn't want the villagers to think of her as a monster, so she smiled and said, "Brother Su Pei has seen it, this was his idea."

Su Pei smiled and said, "I occasionally read books and learned that some of them can be preserved in this way. Grind them into a paste, dry them into blocks, and then press them into powder."

The stonemason's wife knew that many medicines could be made into powder form, and they had also gone to the pharmacy to get this kind of medicine.

He smiled and said, "This is different from being able to read and write. It is much better than being blind. I thought of this method when I was reading a book."

Su He and his brothers started to get busy. Su Pei and Su Feng pushed the mill, Su Che put Pueraria root into the mill hole, and Su Run received the white slurry at the outlet. They forgot to bring the wooden barrel, so they borrowed it from their aunt the stonemason.

This little kudzu root is not good enough in front of the big mill. Take out the residue at the bottom of the barrel and grind it repeatedly. It will be finished in a while. Finally, rinse the pulp water in the mill with water, and Su Feng will carry the barrel directly to Su He's house. Su He first vacated the barrel and asked Su Feng and Su Che to send it back and go home directly. In this world, kudzu root powder can be made by yourself, and each family only needs half, so as to save them the trouble. Su He and his two brothers began to wash the powder, filter out the residue with fine cloth, and put the remaining powder water in a basin to clarify. After doing all this, they waited for the final powder to be taken and dried.

Su He had no idea how much lotus root powder would come out of such a big bucket. Anyway, when Su He made lotus root powder before, he could make one kilogram of lotus root powder from ten kilograms of lotus root.

They threw all the residues and skins into the manure pit, and just when they finished and sat down to rest, his parents came back from the field. They excitedly pulled them into the house to see the painted walls. His parents looked at the white walls with great curiosity.

Her mother asked happily, "How did you do it? Why didn't you brush all of them? That would be much brighter."

Su Run rushed to say, "It's not that there aren't enough things. We've barely managed to finish this much. We can just make some more tomorrow and we can also finish grandma's house as well."

His father said, "Go out and tell me how you did it, so I can learn something. This white lime is only used by city people. Village people's houses are all dark."

They came out and sat in the yard, showing off the herbs they had picked today, and then talking about the kudzu root powder. Then they talked about the limestone, how they picked the stone, how they brought it back to burn it, how it became lime water, and how Su Feng painted the wall. They talked about everything they had done today, and Su He's parents were very pleased. The children were so capable.