The original repairer

When the sky brightened, Shi Chen got up and cleaned himself.

He Laosan did not go to the river to fish today. He was already making bamboo mats in the yard early.

The four green bamboos that Shi Chen had cut down the day before yesterday had been split into finger-wide bamboo strips, about ten feet long. He Laosan split the bamboo strips, leaving the bamboo skin aside. The remaining bamboo strips could be split into three or five strips. Only after all the bamboo strips were split could the bamboo mat be woven.

Bamboo mats woven from bamboo skins can be used as sleeping mats, while bamboo mats woven from other bamboo strips are used to dry things to avoid drying them directly on the soil, which will stick to mud and look bad.

Before weaving the bamboo mat, Shi Chen asked He Laosan to weave two bamboo baskets first. The bottom of the basket was conical, the basket body was tight, and there were four handles symmetrical to each other. The basket was as wide as a person's waist and about one foot deep.

Shi Chen found the only three pottery jars in He Laosan's family, and crushed and ground the salt ore he bought yesterday in a stone mortar.

Pour the ground powder into a ceramic pot, add water, and teach Qingqing to stir it with a bamboo stick.

It took half a day to crush and grind twenty pounds of salt ore, which only filled two pottery jars. Each weighed about ten pounds, which took up one-third of the pottery jar. The pottery jar was filled with water, four-fifths full. After stirring, the salt had melted into the water. Then a newly woven bamboo basket was used to filter out impurities that were not soluble in water.

Put some washed dead leaves or weeds in the bamboo basket for adsorption and filtration, which is more effective than filtering directly with the bamboo basket. In fact, it is best to use activated carbon, and ordinary carbon that is broken into small pieces is also good.

However, carbon also has a cost, and few poor people can afford it.

The first pottery pot has been fully mixed. A frame is made of wood and rattan, and a bamboo basket padded with leaves and weeds is hung on the frame. Under the bamboo basket is a clean pottery pot. The mixed pottery pot water is slowly poured into the suspended bamboo basket.

When the filtered water in the bamboo basket has dripped away, pour the filtered water into a clean water tank.

After completing this step, there are about two pottery jars of filtered water in the water tank.

Add wood ash or stove ash into the water tank, stir for about quarter of an hour, remove the floating objects, and let it stand for about two hours.

Two hours later, the water in the tank was no longer turbid and the impurities had settled to the bottom.

Hang up another bamboo basket, pad the bottom with clean leaves and weeds, and cover it with large pebbles. Place the clean pottery jar under the bamboo basket, collect the secondary filtered brine, scoop out the clean brine that has settled in the water tank, and put it into the bamboo basket for filtration.

Fill the clay pot with the filtered salt water and pour it into the pot. Bring to a boil and cook until it is dry. Stir with a clean stick during the cooking process to evaporate the water and precipitate the salt crystals.

Three days had passed by the time the crystallized salt precipitated. For the first operation, besides Shi Chen, He Lao San could only assist, and Shi Chen had to perform many steps himself.

When the filtered water in the pot was half dried up, some white salt crystals had already precipitated on the edge of the pot, and He Laosan's eyes changed.

He had no idea what the white stuff was, but after watching what he had done over the past few days, he had a vague guess that it was probably related to salt.

He couldn't be sure that the white thing was salt. In his opinion, there was no salt that was so white.

When the water in the pot has boiled dry, slowly remove the firewood and turn the high heat to medium heat, then to low heat to dry the remaining charcoal.

Scrape out the white crystals from the pot, put them into a clean and dried stone mortar and pestle, crush them and grind them into powder.

There were more than five bamboo tubes as thick as arms, each weighing more than three pounds.

Shi Chen gestured to He Laosan to dip his finger in some powder and put it in his mouth to taste it, unable to hide his shocked look.

"This...this...is salt?" He Laosan said in surprise.

"Yes!" Shi Chen replied with a smile, "This is pure refined salt. It has almost no bitterness and tastes better."

He Lao San said happily: "After what you did yesterday and wasted the ashes, I thought... Fortunately, this is fine salt. I have never seen it before. I guess the nobles in the imperial city eat salt of this quality."

"I don't know what kind of salt the nobles in the imperial city eat. You must remember what I have done in the past two days and don't make any mistakes. I will teach you step by step. However, you'd better not show it or you'll get into trouble." Shi Chen instructed.

He Laosan said solemnly: "Even if I die, I won't tell you, don't worry."

Three days after returning from town, Shi Chen took his two children up the mountain to gather mushrooms and dig bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest to find bamboo worms. Life continued as usual, and the porridge, dumplings, and mushroom and vegetable soups he ate were no longer bitter.

Four bamboos were woven into three large bamboo mats and one small bamboo mat. The large one was about ten feet long and wide, while the small one was six feet long and wide.

He Laosan also went fishing in the river, but he didn't catch many big fish, only three or five small fish as big as the palm of his hand every day.

Tomorrow is another day for the villagers to gather and go to the town for the market. There is no other major event happening in the village. They gather once every ten days and go to the town together to sell mountain products or herbs, furs, and buy some daily necessities, food, linen, etc.

During the ten days, Shi Chen spent three days making refined salt using traditional methods, and five days picking wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots, peeling them, and drying them on bamboo mats.

In the next two days, we went up the mountain to chop firewood. Firewood, wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots were drying outside the three thatched houses.

It was still dawn when Shi Chen carried a bamboo basket on his back. There were three bamboo tubes of refined salt at the bottom, and the bamboo tubes were filled with dried mushrooms. He Laosan wove a bamboo lid to cover the basket.

Next to Shi Chen, Da Zhuang and San Gouzi from the village also carried bamboo baskets. They came to help carry the goods back and forth between the town and were paid twenty copper coins each.

When they arrived at the village entrance, there were more people going to the town this time. Shi Chen counted them and found that there were twenty-seven people including Shi Chen and the other two.

He Laosan had no fish to trade, so he wanted to help carry the fish to the town. However, since it only cost twenty copper coins to hire one person, He Laosan felt heartbroken.

Shi Chen persuaded He Laosan to stop. This time, the issue involved refined salt, something that even the lords of the city didn't have. If something happened, Shi Chen, an outsider, was the only one who could deal with them. But if they threatened He Laosan and the two children, he would have no choice but to surrender and hand over the refined salt production method, and his future rich life would be shattered.

The more people there are, the less likely wild beasts will come near. Bandits rarely block the way for a group of poor people, as there is basically no profit to be made.

After more than two hours, everyone arrived at the town. After agreeing on a time to go back, they all dispersed, each busy selling their own goods and buying what they needed.

He brought Da Zhuang and San Gou to the grocery store they had been to last time. After the shopkeeper finished taking care of the customers, Shi Chen approached and said, "Shopkeeper, you didn't take the dried mushrooms last time, but this time I brought some dried bamboo shoots. I wonder if you'll take them."

"Oh," the grocery store owner looked at Shi Chen and said, "Selling wild mushrooms is indeed extremely risky. I told you last time that eating wild mushrooms can cause confusion, and in serious cases, death. I was wrong last time. Your wild mushrooms are indeed safe. Wild mushrooms are indeed delicious. Are the wild mushroom dishes at Lai Fu Restaurant made with your mushrooms?"

Shi Chen smiled and asked, "What's the shopkeeper's name? I'm Shi Chen. I came here to discuss business with the shopkeeper."

"Brother Shi, my surname is Zhang, you can just call me Manager Zhang." Manager Zhang introduced.