Traveling through the mountains and farming

"Sister-in-law, there are a lot of gardenias in front of you. Be careful when you come over here. There are snake grasses here, which are thorny."

Li Ke, who was walking in front, held the thorny vine in his hand and moved it to the side, clearing a path so that the sister-in-law behind him could pass smoothly.

Although she didn't know why her sister-in-law asked her to lead the way to pick gardenias after getting up from lunch, she knew that what her sister-in-law wanted to do was definitely right. Gardenias must be able to be made into something delicious or sold for money, so she would pick more later.

Lin Wan, who was walking behind, had no idea what the little girl was thinking. When she heard the snake retreat, didn't that mean it had returned?

In modern times, she was in charge of an ancient town project, which included a cloth dyeing workshop. In order to complete the project, she looked up a lot of information about plant dyeing. Only then did she know that the kangbangui, which was ubiquitous in the countryside when she was a child, was actually one of the blue plant dyes.

With an idea in mind, he said, "Xiao Ke, go pick the gardenias, and I'll pick some snake retreat grass here."

She stopped, took off her backpack, took out her newly bought sickle and started cutting the steel plates. She had to be very careful when doing this, otherwise she would easily get hurt.

"Okay, be careful, this grass is thorny." Li Ke responded.

Then she walked towards the gardenia tree in front, ready to pick gardenias, while muttering to herself, everything my sister-in-law does is for food and money, I didn't expect that snake grass can be useful!

In less than two quarters of an hour, Li Ke picked half a basket of gardenias, and Lin Wan cut a small bundle of mulberry trees.

Because when she was returning from cutting the bamboo shoots just now, she saw indigo grass nearby, so she turned to cut the indigo grass, and soon her backpack was full.

These are the most common weeds in the countryside. If she had not done special research on plant dyes, she would not have known that these weeds could be used to make plant dyes. She might have treated them as weeds like she did when she was a child.

On the way back, Li Ke did not let the backpack empty. He picked a lot of lantern fruits along the way, with the intention of picking as many as possible.

When the two returned home, Li Chongle, who had gone out to pick ficus carica, had not returned yet. Li Ke was going to the backyard to dry the ficus carica fruits, so she asked her sister-in-law if the gardenias needed to be dried. After Lin Wan grabbed two handfuls of gardenias, she asked her to take the rest to the backyard to dry.

Lin Wanze turned and went into the kitchen, picked up the newly bought knife and chopping board and began to cut the gardenias that had just been left.

Li Ke came back from the backyard and saw his sister-in-law busy, so he asked:

"Sister-in-law, do you need me to do anything?"

"Please help me boil some water. One basin of water is enough." Lin Wan said without raising her head while concentrating on cutting gardenias.

After cutting the gardenia, she walked into the room, took out the cloth and scissors she had bought in the morning, and cut two pieces into the size needed to make a pair of trousers for Li Chongle and a small skirt for Li Ke, and put them aside for use.

Then, she picked up the wooden bucket beside her and went out to fetch water, added alum and stirred it evenly, and then soaked the two spare pieces of cloth in it.

Then she turned around and went into the kitchen again. Seeing that Li Ke had boiled the water, she put the chopped gardenia on the chopping board into the pot to cook.

Li Ke worked hard to light the fire and asked, "Sister-in-law, how long will this take to cook?" She was thinking about the new food she would have later and didn't notice her sister-in-law going out to cut the cloth and other actions.

Lin Wan responded, "About quarter of an hour, call me when you're ready." At this moment, she didn't know what the little girl was thinking, and she turned around and walked towards the yard with a chopping board and a kitchen knife.

She put the barbeque boards on the ground into a wooden basin, washed them with water, and cut them into small pieces. Then she got up and went back to the house, took out the newly bought mortar, and put the cut barbeque boards into the mortar to crush them.

Due to the limited capacity of the mortar, she repeated the process three times before she could finally pound the lever properly.

"Sister-in-law, is it quarter of an hour yet?" At this time, Li Ke's voice came from inside the house.

Lin Wan walked to the wooden barrel where the cloth had been soaked with alum, took out the smaller piece of cloth, wrung it dry and brought it into the kitchen.

Li Ke in the kitchen saw his sister-in-law come in with a wet cloth, walk straight to the stove, and then put the cloth in the pot.

She was shocked. Her sister-in-law actually put the cloth into the new food. How could she eat it? ! !

"Sister-in-law, if you put the cloth in, can you still eat it?"

When Lin Wan heard what Li Ke said, she couldn't help laughing, "Eat? Do you think I'm cooking?" Only then did she realize that the child had always thought she was cooking.

Seeing Li Ke feeling sorry for the pot of food, Lin Wanle laughed out loud, "Hahaha~ It's not cooking, it's dyeing cloth."

Then she picked up a stick and handed it to Li Ke, saying, "Come on, help me stir the fabric evenly with the stick."

Although Li Ke was disappointed that the delicious food he had been looking forward to did not arrive, he quickly adjusted his mood and did what Lin Wan said.

Seeing that Li Ke was doing it very well, Lin Wan went out to the yard with peace of mind. She put the crushed rice flour into a wooden basin, put another slightly larger piece of cloth in it, and rubbed and stirred it repeatedly.

After a quarter of an hour, she stopped, got up and walked into the kitchen, picked the cloth out of the pot with a stick and put it into a wooden basin.

When Li Ke was stirring the cloth in the pot, she found that the color of the cloth had changed. Seeing her sister-in-law coming, she asked curiously, "Sister-in-law, it's so easy to dye it yellow? Can the color be washed off?" She thought it was unbelievable that dyeing could be so easy.

"I'll take it out and wash it with water now. You'll know when you come and see." Lin Wan said as she picked up the wooden basin and walked out.

Li Ke followed Lin Wan to the spring in the yard, and saw another wooden basin next to it with a piece of cloth soaked in green juice.

She immediately squatted in front of the wooden basin and took a closer look. Then she looked up at Lin Wan, who was bending over to collect water, with a puzzled look on her face:

"Sister-in-law, is this also being dyed? What color is it?"

Lin Wan put down the wooden basin to collect water, turned around with a smile and said, "Take it and wash it. You can see what color it is after it is clean."

Afterwards, the two took turns fetching water to wash the cloth. Soon the two pieces of cloth were washed and hung on the clothesline in the yard to dry.

One piece of cloth is dark yellow, and the other piece is blue, which is slightly darker than sky blue and slightly lighter than navy blue.

At this time, Li Ke saw the pile of indigo grass that had been cut back in the yard and asked curiously, "Sister-in-law, aren't those indigo grasses also used to dye cloth?"

"Yes, we can make indigo mud, but the process is more complicated and will take several days. Let's do the first step today and soak these grasses in a wooden barrel."

While answering Li Ke's question, Lin Wan turned around and walked towards the pile of indigo grass carrying the wooden barrel.

Li Ke immediately ran over to help, and they put the indigo grass into the wooden barrel together. Li Ke brought a basin of water and poured it into the barrel, letting the water cover the grass. Lin Wan took the stone she had picked up before and pressed it on the indigo grass to ensure that all the indigo grass in the barrel would be completely soaked in water.

Lin Wan shook off the water on her hands and said, "Okay, let's soak it like this for three days." Then she began to clean the wooden basin and barrel that had been soiled before, doing the final finishing work.

Li Ke still helped to clean up very sensibly. When they both finished cleaning up, they heard the sound of Li Chongle coming back from outside.

"Sister-in-law, sister, where did you buy these two pieces of cloth on the clothesline? The colors are so beautiful."

As soon as Li Chongle came back, he saw two pieces of cloth hanging in the yard. It was not that he was surprised, but because he rarely saw these two colors of linen. Most people around them wore original linen clothes, so the two pieces of cloth hanging here looked particularly eye-catching.

At this time, Li Ke ran out, smiling and said proudly:

"Brother, this is dyed by my sister-in-law herself. Isn't it beautiful?"

Then he ran over and explained the whole process of dyeing cloth to Li Chongle with his hands gesticulating and chattering.

Li Chongle no longer cared about the lychee fruits he had just picked. He listened carefully to Li Ke's explanation of how to dye cloth, wishing he could try it himself right away.

When he heard that the indigo dye had not yet been made, he begged Lin Wan to let him help in three days.

After hearing Lin Wan's agreement, he turned around and continued to process the litchi fruits he had just picked.

Lin Wan was a little dazed by the child's jumping thoughts. She shook her head helplessly and smiled, then followed him to process the litchi fruit.