Chapter 48: Opening up sales channels
A wave of heat, carrying the strange odor of lye and fermented bamboo, rushed over, making people dizzy and nauseous.
That large cauldron was like a greedy giant beast, the thick, churning slurry within its belly its very guts.
Su Yang gritted his teeth, pouring all the strength in his body into his arms, then transmitting it through that heavy wooden pole into the pot of seemingly congealed paste.
"Huff... huff..."
Beast-like gasps escaped his throat. Every stir felt like dragging a heavy demon up from hell.
Zhao Dazhuang and Zhao Eryong weren't faring much better. They took turns, joining several other men whose fighting spirit had been roused, stubbornly wrestling with this pot of bamboo pulp.
The wooden poles stirred the slurry, producing muffled sounds of "gurgle... plop," slow yet resolute.
That massive vortex, under the life-or-death efforts of everyone, finally began to rotate steadily.
Su Ming stood a little further away, his gaze tightly locked onto the figure of his Second Brother, Su Yang.
Lin Yu chuckled softly. "Brute force alone isn't enough. The timing is about right."Su Ming immediately understood. He stepped forward and raised his voice. "Second Brother! Uncles and brothers! The timing is right! You can rest now!"
Su Yang and the others heard this as if it were heavenly music. They almost simultaneously let go of the wooden poles in their hands, collapsing to the ground one by one like fish out of water, gasping for air in great heaves.
The next step in the process was paper forming.
This was delicate work, requiring patience and skillful hands. Su Ming took charge personally. Holding a wooden frame strung with a fine bamboo screen, he dipped it into the slightly cooled paper pulp, gave it a gentle shake and a sweep, then lifted it steadily.
A thin, damp, unevenly colored yellowish-brown layer of fibers evenly adhered to the bamboo screen.
He carefully flipped the screen over, laying it onto a flat wooden board, then gently peeled it away.
A damp, coarse, even slightly tattered-edged piece of paper was born.
workshop fell
was fixed on
just been half-dead from exhaustion, struggled to get up,
No one answered him.
was stunned by
being pounded, fermented, and steamed and boiled, had actually transformed into paper that
incredible than the ghost stories passed
to regain his senses. His lips trembled as he stretched out his hands, calloused and cracked, wanting to touch it, but
It's really
excitement erupted instantly like a
goodness! Bamboo really can
made it! We
one after another, pounding each other's shoulders, laughing and shouting like a bunch of
into the workshop at that moment, hands clasped
faces of the men at a glance. He didn't smile, his face
board, crouched down, reached out a finger,
the coarse yet resilient texture
not loud but like
silent again, not a sound
stood up, his gaze sharp as a
to let a single word slip, don't blame Zhao Dequan for not caring about
everyone's hearts. The wild joy on their faces quickly faded, replaced by deep
turned to Su Ming. "How long does this thing need
water, then each sheet pasted onto a heated
decisively. "Su Yang! You take some men and build that wall immediately! Su Ming, you're responsible for teaching them how to press and bake! In
...
days passed in the blink of an
Ming's guidance, the first batch of nearly a thousand sheets of
surface was coarse, and one could even see tiny bamboo fibers that hadn't completely dissolved. But they had one
with both hands. The paper only stretched and deformed,
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