Chapter 48: Drying Sugar

  "It's not bad, huh!" Chu Yan also thought so, looking at the blushing Mo Yi'er, smiling slightly. Mo Yi'er was more prone to shyness, he had long been used to it and liked this side of her very much. "What's in this ceramic pot?"

  "You'll know soon." Mo Yi'er found a branch used for stirring soup and mixed the fruit gel and wood pulp evenly, then put it on the fire to simmer over low heat. At this time, the women had already finished making breakfast, and after they ate, they reluctantly took the men who went hunting away. Chu Huo glanced at the three hollow trees and decided to stay behind and follow Mo Yi'er's orders. Moreover, with his foot injury not fully healed, Mo Yi'er would not agree to let him go hunting.

  The jam was cooked for about another hour, and Mo Yi'er tasted it. This time the flavor was good. "Chu Chu, try some! How is it?"

  Chu Yan smiled, but opened his mouth, not taking the initiative himself. Mo Yier had no choice but to use chopsticks to pick up a piece of jam and put it in his mouth. The way he was being fed made her feel ambiguous, and her face couldn't help but flush again.

  "The taste is indeed very good!" Chu Yan nodded in satisfaction, although he was saying that the jam tasted good, his expression seemed to be saying that Mo Yi Er was very good too.

  "Alright, alright, this can be served tonight. Let's first study how to deal with the pulp in this hollow tree! How did you discover it was hollow? Didn't you find any pulp inside?"

  Chu shook his head, thought for a moment before saying: "It's what the old folks said, that this is a hollow tree. They also heard it from the old folks who passed away earlier. Besides, all the branches that fall off the tree are hollow!"

  "So that's how it is!" Mo Yier was somewhat in a dilemma, wanting to quickly make the water jug and bucket, but these sweet wood pulp couldn't be wasted either, what to do?

  Just as they were having a hard time, Kasa and the two old men walked out of the cave with several stone axes in their hands. "Moyi'er, the stone axes have been sharpened, next is to make wooden bowls and chopsticks!"

  "Good!" Mo Yi'er suddenly jumped up, took the stone axe handed over by Kasa, and polished it very smoothly. This way, when chopping branches, it will be much more convenient than a stone knife. Mo Yi'er explained to Kasa the specific shape of the wooden bowl and chopsticks. If possible, it would be best to also polish out a wooden plate. Later, they can cut down some smaller hollow trees to make wooden basins and other living utensils, which will become increasingly rich, and the tribe's people will do things more conveniently and save time.

  Chu Ge was now holding a stone axe to help Kasai cut down suitable branches, which made Fang Ke very puzzled. "Leader, why not saw wood anymore?"

  "There is very useful wood pulp inside the wood, so we should wait until it's used up before making a water bucket."

  "Really..." Kasa's eyes still shone with doubt, and Moyi'er smiled as she brought some wood pulp for Kasa to try. Kasa laughed with joy: "I didn't expect the hollow tree to have such delicious wood pulp, just like honey."

  "Right!" By this time, humans already knew that honey was sweet, but because the bees' heads were much larger than those of previous generations and their killing power was greater, people generally wouldn't provoke the bees for the sake of honey. "Kasa, help me think, can these wooden pulp be stored in something else? That way we'll just have to wait until they're eaten before making water buckets." Mo Yier couldn't help but ask Kasa for help, hoping he would come up with a solution.

  However, Kasa just shook his head, and he had no idea either. Mo Yier thought about it too, if there was a container that could hold wood pulp, she wouldn't have to rack her brains to make water vats and wooden barrels.

  "If only we could turn wood pulp into powder like the Haimu tribe does with salt, it would be great." Chu Yan inadvertently inserted a sentence, with deep thought between his eyebrows.

  "Salt... white sugar... right, that's it, great! Let me think for a moment..." Mo Yier suddenly thought that if she could turn the wood pulp into white sugar or brown sugar, that would be great. But as to how to do it, she really had no idea and could only try bit by bit. After thinking for about half an hour, Mo Yier found all the clay pots and stone pots and asked Chu Yan to help her fill them with wood pulp, placing them on the stove over a low flame to simmer.

  "Mo Yu'er, what are you going to do?" Chu Yan had been following her all along, and whenever he didn't understand something, he would ask.

  "Let's try to make these wood pulp into a powder like salt." Mo Yier said with a smile, the salt here is not too fine, but if this wood pulp can be dried, it must be incredibly fine.

  "What should we do? Let's go together."

  "It's really hard to manage on my own, I'll call Xiaozhen over." Mo Yier said, now that the tribe had pottery pots, and previously Kasai had also ground out many stone pots. She alone couldn't keep an eye on everything to prevent the porridge from being overcooked.

  Chu Huo heard the words and went to call Xia Jiji over. The two of them looked at the two stone pots, occasionally stirring them up. This task was very testing of their patience, but no one was impatient. All three were eagerly anticipating the outcome.

  The sap became thicker and thicker, until it was difficult to pull out the branches. Mo Yi'er let them stop and pour the thick sap onto large lotus leaves, so that it wouldn't flow away like water, but instead pile up like a heap of rice cakes. After a whole day, they finally managed to produce six small piles of sap, which could now be called syrup.

  At night, Mo Yier put the syrup back in the cave and took it out to dry in the sun during the day. After doing this for three days, the sap of the small hollow tree was finally all processed. Chu Yan's foot injury had also fully recovered, and the women had already produced a lot of silk fabric. Like Mo Yier, they were all long pieces of cloth, truly what kind of master teaches what kind of apprentice. The first batch of silk fabric had been sent to Xiao Hei to make bedding, after all, silk was better for children's skin than fluffy animal hides.

  Chu Huo also started working with Xiao Jiao on the hollowed-out tree. Cutting the hollow part was much easier than cutting from the bottom, and they had already mastered the technique of using stone saws. Within an hour, a wooden bucket was made. Mo Yi'er asked them to fix the tree vines on the bucket as a handle, so that they could carry water back. Chu Huo immediately tried it out, and it was indeed super convenient to use. The tribe members all showed joyful smiles, and all their efforts over the past few days had not been in vain.

  At this time, Xia Lala exclaimed in surprise on the side. "Come and see, come and see, our syrup has turned into salt..."

  "How can syrup turn into salt?" The villagers were extremely puzzled, they had only seen the piles of unknown syrup recently, but never thought it would turn into something that looked like salt.