CMWKSD -Chapter 38 Results

Jiu Yue felt like her brain was about to burn dry. How was she supposed to know how to paste it? How to make it?

She only remembered that there was something called paste; as for the rest of the process, she knew absolutely nothing.

“I don’t know. It seems like you use paste—anyway, just layer it a few more times.”

After saying that, Jiu Yue fled at top speed, afraid that if she were asked more questions she’d expose herself.

After all, if you don’t know how to lead a team, you end up doing everything yourself until you drop dead.

Jiu Yue felt like the kind of unreasonable client who makes absurd demands, while the contractor, Su Ruo, stood there dumbfounded.

In her head, apart from the word “paste,” she hadn’t received a single useful piece of information.

Or perhaps Jiu Yue had really only said the word “paste.”

At this point, though, all she could do was think carefully about how to do it.

Since Jiu Yue said that layered soles used paste, she’d give it a try. Whether it worked or not could be decided later.

With that thought, she went straight to the kitchen—it was time to make lunch.

As soon as she arrived, she saw that Shen Mei had already tidied up everything Jiu Yue had bought.

All kinds of seasonings were laid out across the stove, far better than the lonely little jar of salt they’d had before.

The moment Shen Mei saw Su Ruo, she immediately put on a fawning smile, her eyes filled with visions of white rice and fine flour.

“Eldest sister-in-law, you’re here. What are we having for lunch today?”

Su Ruo’s cooking was pretty average. Usually no one helped her anyway—so long as it was edible, it was fine.

Shen Mei had a bit of skill, but not enough to be anything special.

Still, Jiu Yue was picky, and Shen Mei was afraid of cooking something that didn’t suit her taste.

She was worried that one wrong move would make her into someone who was useless and disobedient.

That wouldn’t do at all. Just look at the cloth Su Ruo had brought earlier—she’d never worn such fine fabric in her entire life.

And then there was all that rice and white flour.

Following Jiu Yue was the only reason they had these things to eat.

“You do it,” Su Ruo said. “I don’t cook very well. But Jiu Yue probably wants meat—take down the meat hanging from the beam and cook that.”

Ji Yiqing had gone out; who knew if he’d buy some fresh meat on the way back.

Ji Dahu and Ji Dahai had gone to clean out a room to make a pharmacy for Jiu Yue.

Li Xiaocao had taken the three girls and prepared a hundred jin of sweet potatoes to try out the starch Jiu Yue had mentioned.

Ji Chaomian, now full of hope, was off to the side giving instructions. Jiu Yue always knew strange things—but never how to actually do them.

Ji Yiqing didn’t come home for lunch. He bought six or seven flatbreads on the street, asked the shopkeeper for a bowl of hot water, and swallowed them down.

Then he silently moved from one medical shop to another.

The quantities Jiu Yue needed were large, and not every shop could supply everything.

After lunch, Ji Chaomian sat under the eaves, holding a sweet potato and thinking hard about how starch was formed.

There was still work to do in the afternoon—soon it would be time to sow the autumn wheat.

Ji Youqin led Ji Xiaoya and Ji Xiaoyu to wash the selected sweet potatoes.

Knowing that Jiu Yue didn’t like seeing dirty food, they washed a large basin full of sweet potatoes, then peeled them.

The peels were mixed with water; in the evening, adding a bit of wheat bran would make a meal for the pigs.

The three little girls washed, cut, steamed, and dried, but sweet potatoes were still just sweet potatoes. At most, the steamed ones became dried sweet potatoes.

That was something they already knew how to make.

After wasting an entire basin of sweet potatoes, the girls all felt awful.

This was a time when grain was extremely precious. Drying such a big basin resulted in very little.

The biggest waste was the sweet potatoes that had been smashed into crumbs—dry and tasteless, without the slightest hint of starch when you bit into them.

Everyone felt a bit heartbroken.

Meanwhile, Jiu Yue was inside processing the medicinal herbs she’d bought. She was going to make skincare products suitable for herself.

This was something she couldn’t be careless about at all.

After finishing their work, Su Ruo and the others hurried back to cook.

Seeing the basin full of sweet potato peels soaking in water, they sighed but didn’t say anything. In their eyes, this was pure waste.

While talking, Su Ruo got up to carry the large basin of soaking sweet potato peels to the kitchen to cook pig feed.

The basin wobbled. Ji Chaomian wanted to help, but his legs wouldn’t move.

The sweet potato peels that had been settling all afternoon were jostled, and the water—previously fairly clear—suddenly turned cloudy.

Ji Chaomian jolted and shouted, “Mother!”

Su Ruo was nearly startled into stumbling. “Oh heavens, why are you shouting so loudly?”

Ji Chaomian waved his hand and hurriedly called to Ji Youqin, who was in the backyard chopping chicken grass. “Youqin!”

Hearing the call, Ji Youqin wiped her hands and ran over. “Big brother, what’s wrong?”

Ji Chaomian didn’t explain much. “Get me a smaller basin, then bring some clean water. Wash the sweet potatoes clean and bring them to me.”

Ji Youqin hesitated. They had already wasted a whole basin of sweet potatoes—normally, they would’ve been scolded badly for that.

“Brother, have you figured out how to make starch?”

Ji Chaomian wasn’t sure if he’d figured it out either. He’d just suddenly noticed how the cloudy sweet potato water settled at the bottom.

Could what sank to the bottom be the starch Jiu Yue talked about?

He decided to do a small experiment first.

When Jiu Yue came out, she saw Ji Chaomian smashing the sweet potatoes into a mush, then putting the pulp into gauze and rinsing it with water.

After rinsing several times, all that remained in the basin was a pool of white slurry.

Jiu Yue didn’t understand it, but she was deeply impressed.

Ji Yiqing returned dusty and travel-worn, with a cart full of medicinal herbs. Everything was unloaded into the newly cleared room.

After checking everything one by one, Jiu Yue nodded. Ji Yiqing was truly reliable when it came to getting things done.

“Tomorrow we can treat big brother’s leg.”

Ji Yiqing immediately beamed with joy. His head was covered in sweat, but he didn’t seem to mind at all.

That afternoon, Su Ruo followed Jiu Yue’s method, cut out a shoe pattern for her, and pasted scraps of cloth onto it with paste.

She layered it many times, then set it out in the sun to dry.

For stitching the soles, they still used hemp rope like before—ordinary thread simply wouldn’t do.

But the sole was so hard it couldn’t be pierced at all. In the end, Ji Dahu had to pound it. By the time one pair of soles was done, several needles had been ruined.

The cost was quite a bit higher, but to be fair, these soles were much thicker and sturdier than the cloth soles they usually wore.

The next day, at a quarter past five in the morning, the door to Ji Yiqing’s room opened.

Jiu Yue slowly walked out.

After loosening up a bit in the courtyard, she began to train.

When she’d first arrived, she hadn’t thought about these things, but if she wanted to maintain her formidable strength, daily training couldn’t be neglected in the slightest.

Jiu Yue first did a hundred push-ups, then a hundred one-handed push-ups with each arm.

Then she picked up the stone mill in the courtyard and did fifty squats.

After that came fingertip handstands…

Finally, she finished with three full sets of routines, bringing it all to a near-perfect end.

Several people inside the house were already awake, but seeing Jiu Yue’s training posture, no one dared step outside.

The sight of her holding the stone mill and squatting with loud thuds was terrifying enough.

Not to mention her punches—the whooshing sound of air being torn apart with each strike made it feel as if she could smash a person to death.