Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 313 - 202: Taking Advantage and the Secret of Paper

Chapter 313: Chapter 202: Taking Advantage and the Secret of Paper

"For any Beastmen from outside tribes who come to study in the city, as long as they are diligent and pass their coursework, the city will cover all their food and lodging expenses. What do you think? Are you willing?"

Willing? Of course, they were willing!

The Clan Leaders were so excited they could hardly speak. Their inner beasts were roaring with joy.

’We can solve the food and housing issues for some of our people, and we get to learn planting techniques for free? No matter how you look at it, we’re the ones getting the better end of the deal, right?’

"How many Beastmen do you want... ah, no, students! As long as you don’t mind, we could send every single Beastman from our tribes to study!" It was an offer too good to refuse; of course, the more, the merrier.

An Jin smiled faintly. "Of course, you can."

The currently cheering Beastmen could never have imagined that this would be the beginning of their future "suffering."

An Jin said, "The city just finished two major projects recently, so we haven’t had the time or manpower to build a schoolhouse. In a few months, once everything is ready, I will send someone to notify you."

With that, she had the Beastman guards escort the Clan Leaders out of the city.

This was an opportunity that had fallen right into her lap. She had been worrying about how to persuade these Beastmen to attend her school, but now, she had no concerns about enrollment.

The next step was to begin construction of the school.

A building, tables, benches... these most basic school facilities were essential. Everything else could wait and be added later as needed.

Thanks to her deliberate efforts to cultivate talent over the past few years, a large number of skilled artisans had emerged in the city. After An Jin explained the construction plan to them, she could confidently leave them to it.

Because she had another important matter to attend to.

Papermaking.

To learn, one needed a writing system, and paper was the medium that carried both writing and civilization.

Papermaking was one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China, and as one of the Huaxia people, An Jin felt a deep sense of pride.

In different eras and regions, the raw materials used for papermaking varied, as did the quality of the resulting paper.

An Jin had started planning the papermaking project last year, searching far and wide for suitable materials. She had ultimately settled on two: mulberry bark, which was abundant in the forest, and some fairly durable rice straw.

The gathering team received her instructions and went to collect the raw materials needed for making paper.

Three days later, the first batch of mulberry bark and rice straw was delivered to the newly built paper workshop. The two were then mixed according to a specific ratio.

Under An Jin’s guidance, the Beastmen in the workshop began the daily routine of soaking, cleaning, steaming, and drying the mixture. At each stage, any substandard bark and straw had to be removed.

...

It was now the beginning of the hot season, and the weather was already stifling. Nearly a hundred Beastmen were crammed into the small paper workshop, An Jin among them.

The air, a mixture of heat and sweat, seemed to shimmer. Everyone was drenched in sweat from the oppressive heat.

"Open all the windows as wide as they’ll go," An Jin said.

The Beastmen nearest the windows immediately went to open them.

Though the breeze from outside was also warm, it was cooler than the air inside, bringing a hint of relief to the stuffy, sticky room.

Everyone sighed in relief. ’Thank goodness for these big windows,’ they thought. ’We’d suffocate otherwise.’

Over the past few weeks, they had repeatedly soaked and steamed the mixture, and the straw fibers had already softened.

Next, the Beastmen began to chop it by hand—the finer, the better.

An Jin retreated to a stool in the corner to supervise. Suddenly, a slender, cool, pale hand appeared before her, holding a bowl of water up to her lips.

"Rest for a bit. There’s no need to rush. They can handle it," Gu Yin said, feeding her a sip of water before lifting her onto his folded tail.

"I can’t. I’m too worried. Papermaking is an incredibly tedious process. One small mistake could ruin an entire vat of pulp," An Jin said, placing the empty bowl back in his hand.

"Still, you can’t be allowed to exhaust yourself. You’re the most important thing," Gu Yin said. His cool fingers touched her forehead to check her temperature. It was a little hot.

He knew her high temperature was just from the heat of the room, but he couldn’t help worrying. He took her outside for a breath of fresh air before they went back in.

A few days later, the Beastmen packed the beaten pulp into coarse burlap sacks. After tying the sacks shut, they took them to the nearby river and repeatedly rinsed them to wash out impurities before pulling them from the water.

They squeezed the water out of the sacks, leaving behind a large, uniform mass of pulp.

The Beastmen carried the sacks back to the paper workshop, opened them, and showed the contents to An Jin. "Clan Leader, does it need more washing? This is our first time, so we don’t know if we did a good job..."

An Jin reached out and pinched the soft fibers between her fingers. Her eyes curved into a smile. "You did a great job, much better than I expected. Now, just continue with the steps I explained earlier. Show me your work after you complete each stage."

After receiving her praise and encouragement, the Beastmen’s enthusiasm surged. They returned to their stations, rolled up their sleeves, and threw themselves back into their work.

After a short rest, An Jin stood up and rejoined the bustling papermaking efforts.

Gou Ni, who had been bored at home, came over to help. The two women worked shoulder to shoulder, chatting and laughing.

Unlike the heavy labor of iron smelting, papermaking was much lighter work. Many of the female Beastmen came to help, and the males clearly worked with more vigor with them around.

The female Beastmen packed the cleaned plant matter into fine gauze bags. The males then tossed these bags into a large pool filled with clean water and agitated them back and forth.

This step allowed the "pulp" from the raw materials to be filtered through the gauze and dissolve into the water.

As the pulp dissolved, the once-clear water grew cloudy, and small, cotton-like fibers became visible.

The Beastmen retrieved large, rectangular, triple-layered bamboo screens that had been woven long ago from a corner of the workshop.

They carefully lowered a screen into the pool of pulp-and-water slurry. Following An Jin’s instructions, they gave the screen a quick shake from side to side at the very moment they lifted it from the water.

A thin layer of pulp quickly formed on the bottom of the screen.

"Heavens..."

Someone in the crowd gasped in amazement.

"This is just the newly formed sheet. It still needs to be dried. Come on, carefully carry the screen over to me..."

She led the Beastmen out into a spacious, open area.

The air outside was dry under the blazing sun. Not far off, there was a large, clean expanse of flat, cemented ground.

Once the excess water had drained away, the Beastmen flipped the screen over, carefully laying the sheet of pulp onto the cemented ground.

A second sheet of pulp was laid on top of the first.

The process was repeated for the third, fourth, and fifth layers...

In a single afternoon, the once-empty cemented area was covered in a stack of pulp half a man’s height. Large patches of water spread out across the ground, slowly drying under the scorching sun.