Chapter 241: The Secret on the Deer Hide
When Wang An returned home, he saw Liu Guilan tinkering with the sewing machine.
Perhaps she couldn't figure it out, as her face was filled with a mixture of anxiety and frustration.
Meanwhile, Mu Xueqing and Wang Dazhu stood by the side, their faces full of question marks and shared anxiety, yet unable to help in any way because neither of them knew how the thing worked either.
Looking at the three of them circling around in confusion, Wang An almost burst out laughing.
Actually, this was normal. Although a sewing machine looked simple, it was a novelty in this era.
Furthermore, in the entire Kaoshan Village, the sewing machine in Wang An's house was only the second one. As for the first, it was naturally at Chang Niu's place in the Front Village.
Therefore, it wasn't just Liu Guilan and the others who couldn't figure it out; most people across the country at this time were equally clueless.
Seeing Wang An enter the room, Liu Guilan's eyes lit up instantly, and she shouted, "Eldest son, come over here quickly! The three of us have been pondering this for ages, and this thing just won't work."
Wang An suppressed his smile and began teaching the three of them how to use the machine. Fortunately, the sewing machine came with a manual and diagrams.
Otherwise, although Wang An was incredibly familiar with sewing machines, there were many names of specific components that he truly couldn't recall.
The sewing machine was actually quite easy to learn, but one thing to note was that when threading the needle, one must use the left hand.
If the right hand was used, the thread would enter in the opposite direction, which would prevent the upper thread from interlocking with the lower thread.
Wang An explained everything in great detail and personally demonstrated how to use the machine to make shoe uppers.
Although Wang Dazhu didn't do needlework, he studied the process quite seriously.
Wang An felt that as long as they knew how to make shoe uppers, using the machine for other things would be a trivial matter.
Cloth shoes of this era were all made from cloth *gubei* (stiffened fabric). *Gubei* was essentially a fabric board formed by gluing multiple layers of cloth together with paste.
That *gubei* was quite thick; the shoe upper consisted of one layer of *gubei* and two layers of surface cloth, sewn together.
As for the sole—what people commonly called the "thousand-layer sole"—it was actually many layers of *gubei* sewn together densely, stitch by stitch, with fine hemp rope.
Sewing soles was a chore that rural women of this era could never escape; whenever they had free time throughout the four seasons, they would inevitably be sewing soles.
However, even if they spent the whole year sewing, it was still barely enough to provide shoes for the whole family, because cloth shoes were essentially just many layers of fabric.
They were quite prone to wear and tear, not very durable, and thousand-layer soles were not comfortable to wear.
Despite the name, they feared both water and snow. In winter, if one stepped on the ground in these shoes, the soles of the feet would feel ice-cold in less than a minute.
Therefore, to keep one's feet from freezing in the Northeast during this era, one had to wear *yunguang* shoes made of hide and fur. If wearing cloth shoes, the uppers had to be made higher, and insoles woven from *ula* grass had to be placed inside.
Ever since Wang An's cloth shoes were splashed with blood while he was playing with his knife and hunting, he had been wearing the *yunguang* shoes made by Mu Xueqing. Although they were ugly, they were incredibly comfortable for trekking through the mountains.
After completely teaching his mother and wife how to use the sewing machine, Wang An found himself with nothing to do.
When a person is idle, they look for work to do.
Thus, Wang An boiled some hot water and scalded the bear gallbladders, which had swollen up again.
Scalding bear gallbladders wasn't a one-time deal; it required multiple treatments.
Each time they were scalded, the gallbladder membrane would shrink. After a few days, the membrane would be bloated again by the bile, and that was when they needed to be scalded again.
Only when the bile had completely dried into a powder could the gallbladders be sold; only then would the supply and marketing cooperative purchase them.
Of course, if one wanted to sell them quickly, they could be placed in a slightly warmer area to accelerate the process of the bile turning into powder.
While scalding the gallbladders, Wang An discovered that the gallbladders from the large *Batie* bear he had fought with Mu Xueli, the three from the *Jintie* grass bear, and the *Bajin* bear gallbladder were now ready to be sold.
Although Wang An wasn't short on money and knew that bear gallbladders would increase in price in the coming years, it was still better to sell them now. Once dried into powder, bear gallbladders became medicinal materials.
Storing such things was genuinely troublesome; they were susceptible to insects, dampness, and mold. If a good batch of bear gallbladders became worthless, it would be enough to make someone cry to death.
Moreover, whether it was bear gallbladders or furs, as long as they were in his hands, they were merely objects—and not particularly useful ones at that.
Only after selling them for money could one experience the joy of reward for labor, regardless of whether one was already wealthy or not.
After finishing with the gallbladders, Wang An took out the deer hide that had been sewn into one large sheet once again.
Just as he was getting drowsy and nearly falling asleep, he suddenly discovered that the mountain range on the deer hide was actually just a guide, or rather, a positioning marker.
The most important part of the map was actually the river below the mountain range.
Wang An searched his memory carefully and vaguely recalled that this river was located in YJ County, next to JY County.
In his previous life, before entering the "fence" (labor camp), he had read in the newspaper that a large placer gold deposit had been discovered in this YJ County.
Placer gold is gold dust; this kind of gold is usually mixed with sand in rivers. Of course, beneath the river, there are proper gold mines.
What people call "gold panning" is actually using a pan in the river to wash away the sand like washing rice; the small amount of gold remaining at the bottom of the pan is the gold dust!
This discovery instantly cured Wang An's drowsiness, and he became incredibly energized.
A gold mine—what did that even mean?
Most importantly, right now, he might be the only person who knew the location of this mine; it would be more than ten years before the state discovered it.
But the frustrating part was: how could he maximize the profit?
Wang An remembered from his previous life in the South that he had truly witnessed the hardships of gold prospectors.
Standing barefoot in the river for an entire day, all while risking being beaten to death at any moment.
Because gold is absolutely the thing that makes people lose their reason and strips them of their humanity.
In fact, after entering the "fence," Wang An had the "privilege" of personally doing gold panning work.
However, his method was far more efficient than those using pans in the South, and he did it for nearly two years.
Of course, he had been forced to do it, and it was pure labor with basically no subsidies.
No matter how much gold dust was washed out, they wouldn't reward you with a single extra steamed bun.
If it hadn't been for a ruthless man who managed to escape while working, Wang An's group might have worked that job until they died.
In the wild, as long as you were ruthless enough, you could definitely escape.
Actually, Wang An had prepared everything at the time, but the damn thing was that his plan was two days later than that ruthless man's, and he just didn't manage to get away.
(End of Chapter)