Chapter 77

After distributing the work to the four brothers, Ji Jiu took the flower saplings she had prepared last night and gave them to Uncle Kang to help plant in the empty space. Uncle Kang made quite a few vegetable plots while they were there. Travel outside the village She also told Uncle Kang to be careful that the vegetables would die in the winter. If the weather was too cold, he would have him spread dry grass on top of the soil to protect it later.

"Miss, will you let us make more vegetable plots or not?"

"That's enough, Uncle Kang. The five of you, if you take care of the vegetable patch too much, it won't be good. If I need to use you, it will be difficult." Ji Jiu still didn't know what they would use them for. But she must definitely have one. So she had to let them do what was necessary. You don't have to plant too much. However, there are quite a few vegetable plots in the greenhouse.

"Yes, Miss. Then I and my son will plant flowers and take care of them for you."

 Ji Jiu nodded his thanks to Uncle Kang and walked towards Aunt Qiao's house. She was about to experiment with making soap. So I had to ask her for some ashes to test first.

"Aunt Qiao, can you take the ashes from the kitchen and put them in a jar for me?"

"Yes, sir, please wait for me a moment. And do you want anything else?"

"Um, do you know where I can get my animal fat?"

"Oh, how does it come from boiling lard, Miss? We also use lard to make rice. Most of the excess fat will be discarded."

"Oh, is that so? Then Aunt Qiao can you get some of that fat for me? I want to try something out."

"Yes, Miss, you can go wait at the house first. When it's finished, I'll bring it to you."

"Thank you very much, Aunt." Ji Jiu finished speaking and turned to look at the four brothers again.

 Ji Jiu saw them slowly adjusting the cut pieces of wood until they were the same size and didn't say much. She just told them to remember to eat on time and then continue. She wasn't in any hurry to use this stuff. She just wanted to know if it would be as successful as she thought.

 The four young men accepted the invitation in unison. Ji Jiu only laughed at them a little and walked towards the kitchen instead. She was going to try extracting flower water from the petals and flowers that she had picked up yesterday.

 She didn't think of using the method of drying and then grinding. Before simmering and extracting with hot water, instead, she would use the method of squeezing the juice out of the petals and first checking to see if the flower scent was still there or not. She didn't like the method that took a long time. After all, making soap involves mixing scents into the liquid.

 Ji Jiu separated the three kinds of flowers. She divided it up a little at a time to smell the smell first. Luckily, she had already set the kettle on for hot water. She was then able to mix warm water and squeeze the flower petals.

 Ji Jiu squeezed out a little bit of flower juice. She lifted the cup and smelled it and found that there was a faint scent of flowers coming out. Ji Ji squeezed out every kind of flower. She separated the flower cups according to their type. Because there were so many flowers and flower petals, She squeezed out three cups of each type.

 Aunt Qiao came to her with two jars and a lunch tray. So she sat down to eat before continuing with work in the afternoon. Aunt Qiao handed the food to Ji Jiu and then walked back to eat with the Kang Dang family as usual.

 In the afternoon, Ji Jiu took the ashes and put them in a pot of water. She boiled it until she saw that the ashes had settled to the bottom and filtered it to leave only the alkaline water. Then she took animal fat and mixed it with a little water and experimented with adding a little lye. She added ten drops of flower water for her experiment. Once you've stirred it all together and the mixture has started to thicken up, Ji Jiu, who forgot to prepare a soap mold, quickly found another small pot and put it in to cool first. She really forgot about this.

 Ji Jiu took her flower water into the bedroom and found a plate to cover the top with. She was afraid that the scent of the flowers would evaporate too much and that when making soap, the scent would not be fragrant. Now there was still almost an hour left. So it's time for dinner. So she thought of going to find some wood to make a simple soap mold.

 Before leaving the house Ji Jiu took her piercing iron with her. She would just sit and do it with her four brothers. There will be no need to clean the house later.

 The four young men saw Ji Jiu choose a not too big piece of wood to sit and trim. They don't know what you will do. In fact, they wanted to help her do it. But since she didn't speak up, they didn't dare to stop the work she had given them earlier by force. As much as they secretly watched her work. She may not be very skilled. But there was no problem with her little hands. They were just being careful.

 Ji Jiu didn't know that she had made the four brothers worried and still sat there drilling holes in the wood before she used her small sharp knife to cut several rounded squares. For fear that when removing the soap from the mold it would be difficult. So Ji Jiu thought of finding some oil to apply it on before pouring it. She had made three designs before dinner time. Each one will hold ten bars of soapy water. So she thought of trying to make three scented soaps. Ten bars of each scent. Look tomorrow. If the soap is dry in the afternoon, she will talk to the elder uncle first.

 Ji Jiu turned to tell his brothers to pack up their things and go eat and rest. Tomorrow they'll continue working on it. They quickly put the finished and unfinished parts separately. Tomorrow there won't be any confusion when I come to continue making it. Ji Jiu takes her mold into the kitchen to clean it. Then she took some animal fat and spread it all over. When she saw that it could be used, she placed the mold in the kitchen and waited to continue making it tomorrow. Ji Jiu dipped at the soap she poured out. She found that the soap still hadn't clumped properly. She probably had to dry it outside tomorrow. Otherwise, it wouldn't dry in time to talk to the elder uncle. During this time the weather is even cooler and humid. The soap might take longer to dry than she thought.

 When Ji Jiu thought about drying in the winter, it made her think of an oven again. But how should she build an oven? She didn't know how to do it.

Don't even cook the oven at all. Sigh. Why are other people so talented? But she only knew what she had read and tried.