Chapter 23: Bamboo Slips III

“How long is this going to smoke?” Yan Yu, her face flushed, leaned in and asked while looking at the meat hanging over the charcoal brazier.

“We have to dry out the moisture to make jerky; then it lasts longer,” Yan Lao'er said.

A spark of inspiration flashed in Yan Yu's mind, and she looked at the ox that had just set her down.

She asked it, “Hey, Ox, fodder can be compressed and dried—can meat strips do the same?”

Yan Lao'er and Li Xuemei both turned their heads to look at it at the same time.

The ox—living up to everyone's expectations—nodded.

Yan Yu let out a cheer and clapped her hands happily: “Quick, quick, how do we do it? Can you open your belly? Can we put the meat inside?”

The ox walked over unhurriedly, shook its head first, and then opened its mouth.

Yan Lao'er:...

Li Xuemei:...

Yan Yu:...

Yan Lao'er asked a question everyone was concerned about: “If you eat it into your belly to process it, where does the jerky come out from?”

Please, let it not be what they were thinking!

The ox's tail pointed accurately in the direction of their suspicions.

The three of them felt as if they had been struck by lightning!

Then, the ox's mouth opened and closed.

*Thank goodness, thank goodness.*

They instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as it went in one way and out the other, it was fine. Thinking about it, it wasn't actually a real ox; having an entrance and an exit was just what was needed to restore the essence of a true ox.

But it was still hard to get past that mental hurdle—cough, it was a bit awkward.

Yan Lao'er tentatively put a long strip of meat inside. After a few breaths, the ox spat out a piece of jerky...

“Hahahaha...” Yan Yu was laughing herself to death.

“We're rich, we're rich! In the future, we can make money by processing jerky for people! Can we also make five-spice jerky, spicy jerky... oh, right, instead of spitting it out, can we just store it directly in your belly?”

She looked at the ox, and the ox nodded.

Yan Yu burst into another fit of manic laughter and continued to ask the ox, “If meat can be made into jerky, can vegetables and fruit too?” She jogged a small circle around the ox and continued, “The space in your belly isn't small; can you store other things too? Can you store them by category?”

The ox just kept nodding, nodding, nodding.

Li Xuemei: “Then what about when it eats fodder? It can't just stop eating and drinking, or people will notice.”

“Since it can store things by category, eating and drinking shouldn't be an issue, right, Ox?”

The ox's tail pointed toward the rear exit once again.

Yan Yu understood. “You mean that if you eat and drink normally, it won't affect the things stored in your belly, but if we don't let you discharge, it will?”

The ox nodded again.

Yan Lao'er said discontentedly, “You guys, listen. This ox is so high-tech, why can't it talk? We have to keep guessing. Next time we run into that man, we'll have to mention it to him so he can give us an upgrade.”

“It's better that it can't talk; that's more like a real ox.” Li Xuemei didn't want a talking ox. Mooing was fine; if it actually spoke and suddenly called her Princess Iron Fan, it would scare her to death!

“Ox, can you refrigerate?” Yan Yu's imagination began to run wild.

“Can you stir-fry? Braised? Stewed? Why can't you steam? You can dry things out, so if we give you some water, can you steam them? No? Fine, fine.”

“Can you breathe fire? To light a pile of firewood or something?”

“Can you dissipate heat? Like a radiator—do you know what a radiator is? No? It's a heating device. Dissipating heat would keep us from being so cold. Can you do that? Hahahaha!”

“That's all I can think of for now. I'll ask you more when I think of something else. Oh, Ox! Sigh, I have to give you a name. Let me think about it.” Yan Yu reached out, and the ox's head lowered naturally. She patted it, then turned to look at the stunned Yan Lao'er and said, “Hurry up, Dad, let's get making the jerky!”

Yan Lao'er: “Oh, right!”

Raw meat rubbed with salt went in, and fragrant, salty jerky came out.

The person and the ox worked in perfect harmony.

“It's a pity we didn't bring Sichuan peppercorn powder, chili powder, or cumin, otherwise we could have made several flavors of jerky,” Yan Yu said with slight regret.

The weight of the jerky was much less than the raw meat, so they decided not to store it. They each took a few pieces to keep on them, to be eaten whenever they were hungry.

After packing up, they set off on their journey.

Upon reaching the town, they headed straight for the cloth shop.

It was a bitter lesson; they were happy when they were selling the scraps, but later they realized those small pieces of cloth were incredibly useful. They could be sewn into bags of various sizes.

They also needed some wrapping cloth to hide the awkwardness of their meager belongings.

While enduring the heartache of spending money, Li Xuemei haggled with the shopkeeper, eventually managing to get six feet of cloth for two copper coins less, spending a total of 118 wen.

“I'm never buying cloth from outside again!” Li Xuemei regretted it deeply. “The cloth on the platform is so cheap; we'll buy from there in the future.”

Yan Yu muttered softly, “Every mistake is a lesson learned. We're still in the exploration stage, so we're bound to pay some tuition.”

“Buy a few more bamboo tubes,” Yan Lao'er said, walking toward the bamboo utensil stall. “They're much cheaper than water skins.”

For things like oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, bamboo tubes were better than jars or pots; they could be stood upright without taking up too much space.

“Dad, look at the wheels on those carts.” Yan Yu's eyes were sharp, and she noticed that the wheels of the ox cart belonging to their rivals were wrapped in layers of hemp rope.

Yan Lao'er let out a "Heh," turned to buy some hemp rope, and tried wrapping it himself following their example. It worked quite well; if wrapped in two layers, none of the wood underneath would show.

Hemp rope was very cheap, so Yan Lao'er simply bought a large bundle and tossed it on the cart. This time, those two iron wheels might actually come in handy.

“Dad, how much money do we have left?” Yan Yu asked.

Yan Lao'er counted and said, “There's still a small piece of silver, plus these seven copper coins.”

“Then let's not buy anything else. We should save some for emergencies,” Yan Yu said.

They couldn't go around with empty pockets and have to ask their uncle for money every time they wanted to buy something.

Since they couldn't spend any more, the family headed back.

Li Xuemei pulled out the bamboo slips she hadn't had time to read yesterday and began reading them word by word.

It wasn't traditional script, but seal script!

She read very slowly.

Yan Yu felt dizzy just glancing at it. “Mom, what's written on there?”

“What's written here should be... a method for making charcoal.” Li Xuemei looked back at the first column: "Firewood Charcoal Burning Method."

“Look, there are even drawings in the middle.”

Yan Yu skipped the text and looked at the individual illustrations, which depicted a person using only wood and mud to produce charcoal.

Impressive!

“It looks simple enough, but we can't use it at all!” Yan Yu said, feeling like crying. “Mom, I chose wrong. I shouldn't have picked Bamboo Slip 3; I should have picked Bamboo Slip 1.”

“Those slips should correspond to different skills, and I bought the most useless one.”

“How could it be useless?” Yan Lao'er interjected. “Daughter, it's very useful! Don't forget we're going north, and it gets very cold there. This charcoal-making method will be extremely useful. Setting aside whether we sell it or not, it'll be so convenient for our own family to have charcoal! We won't have to save a bit; we can burn it day and night. Just think how warm our home will be!”

Li Xuemei: “Your father is right. Once we truly reach the north, having this skill will give us a way to make a living. It's more reliable than selling jerky.”

“Spicy jerky, so fragrant...” Yan Yu muttered softly.

“Then you'll need that many chilies!” Li Xuemei replied.

Yan Yu: *Mom is right! We wouldn't even have enough chili powder for ourselves.*