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"Is there any near our tribe? Can you tell us roughly what it looks like? If we really can't find any, maybe we can trade with another tribe for some at the hunting gathering?"

Surrounded on all sides, Jian Mo met their expectant gazes and hesitated. "I think there is. We could make some ash-water soap or something."

Everyone grew even more eager. "How do we make it? Do we need to get anything ready?"

Jian Mo said, "We just need plant ash and animal fat."

Qing Kuo asked, "Will any animal fat do?"

Once Jian Mo nodded, Qing Kuo immediately said, "My family just rendered a jar of animal fat. I'll go get it right now!"

Zhou Fu said, "Hey, my family has some too."

Everyone hurried home to fetch animal fat, and in the blink of an eye, they were all gone.

Holding his bowl of food, Jian Mo looked at Wu Jiong.

Wu Jiong said, "It doesn't matter if it doesn't work. Animal fat isn't hard to come by."

Even so, Jian Mo hurriedly tried to recall what he knew about making soap.

He had never studied soapmaking, but he had learned from various sources roughly how saponification worked.

Soon, everyone returned with the animal fat.

Jian Mo had already cleared out the hearth. When he saw them return, he wasted no words and had someone fetch plant ash.

There was so little entertainment in the tribe that everyone was curious about making soap.

Jian Mo didn't have to lift a finger. The people around him followed his instructions and prepared the plant ash extract.

To make sure it worked, Jian Mo had them extract it several more times, trying to increase the alkali concentration in the ash water.

After the ash water had been filtered several times, he heated it in a clay pot, then heated the animal fat and added it to the ash water. With more water than fat, he stirred rapidly with a wooden stick.

"That's all it takes?" the people crowded around Jian Mo couldn't help asking.

Jian Mo didn't know either. He just stirred faster. "Let's try it first."

As he stirred, the animal fat and ash water quickly blended together, turning from a liquid into a paste. The color became a creamy yellow, and it looked a little like the shampoo of later times.

This might work!

Jian Mo was delighted and stirred even harder.

Seeing that he was struggling a little, Wu Jiong took the clay pot and stick from him. "I'll do it. How long should I stir?"

Jian Mo didn't know that either. He stared at the clay pot. "Just keep stirring. I'll tell you when to stop."

Wu Jiong nodded and kept stirring.

The paste in the clay pot looked more and more like the shampoo Jian Mo had seen, though it was thicker, and its color was quite pretty.

Wu Jiong stirred for a good while. Only when Jian Mo saw that the paste inside was no longer changing did he say, "Let me try it."

He dipped the stick into the paste and gently touched a little of it with his hand.

The paste felt slippery and didn't sting. Perhaps the ash water and animal fat were mild to begin with, unlike caustic soda, which was much harsher, so getting it on his hand was no problem.

Jian Mo had Qing Kuo pour a little water onto his hands, then rubbed them together.

The soap solution successfully produced bubbles. After he rinsed it off with water, the skin on his hands was noticeably cleaner, and there was hardly any residue.

It seemed the soap had turned out reasonably well.

He nodded to Wu Jiong. "That's good. Scoop it out onto leaves and put it outside to air. Once it hardens into pieces, we can use it."

Wu Jiong stared at the soap solution. "It's that simple?"

Jian Mo said, "For now. We'll see how well it works when we use it, then make adjustments."

Jian Mo always spoke a little strangely, but everyone understood him.

Wu Jiong looked at the remaining animal fat and ash water. "Then let's make some more."

Everyone agreed. Animal fat and ash water weren't hard to come by anyway.

Seeing how enthusiastic they were, Jian Mo didn't object. It would be good to try a few more times, and they could see whether they could find the best ratio of ash water to animal fat.

Everyone worked at Wu Jiong's home for half the night. Only when the sky outside was full of stars did they reluctantly put the soap paste outside to harden.

After two or three days, the soap would harden and be ready to use.

Of course, if they could leave it for a while longer, it would work even better once it had cured.

But it was fine to start using it as soon as it hardened. It would simply contain more free alkali, be more irritating, and have less stable ingredients. It would still work.

It had been another day of hard work.

After seeing the tribespeople off, Jian Mo made sure to brush his teeth with a wooden stick. Then he climbed onto the animal skins upstairs and quickly fell asleep.

The next day, Jian Mo was completely groggy when someone woke him.

He opened his eyes to see a large group of sub-beastmen gathered above him. For a moment, he didn't understand what was happening.

The sub-beastmen, however, were extremely excited and all spoke at once:

"Jian Mo, some of the soap has already hardened!"

"I just tried it. It works! I even scrubbed the dirt off from behind my ears!"

"Your tribe's soap really works well. It's much better than washing with plain water like before!"

"Do you want to come down and have a look?"

Still groggy, Jian Mo followed the sub-beastmen outside. Sure enough, some small pieces of soap were ready, and they seemed to work all right.

At the very least, they removed grease much better than plain water.

Before, if he got grease on his hands while cooking, he could only pull up a handful of grass and rub them, trying to get as much grease off as he could.

After checking it, Jian Mo nodded and said, "It really is ready to use. It should work even better if we leave it for a while."

Zhou Fu said, "Then should we make more and leave it to sit?"

The sub-beastmen all said they still had animal fat at home and could make more when they returned that evening.

There really was no harm in making some and leaving it to sit, so Jian Mo didn't object.

After looking at the soap, Jian Mo returned to Wu Jiong's home.

Wu Jiong looked at him. "Are you feeling unwell?"

Jian Mo raised a hand and pinched the Jingming points by his eyes. "I'm all right, just a little sleepy. I had a jumbled dream last night and didn't sleep well."

At that, Jian Mo hesitated. "I dreamed there was something in the river valley. You went to look—was there really nothing there?"