Violent-Violent Bird

They worked for most of the night, only stopping the fire late at night, letting the cloth soak in the scooped-out dye water, planning to check it the next day.

Jian Mo was so tired she was almost collapsing. She had lost all curiosity and went home to wash up quickly before falling asleep.

The next day, Wu Jiong got up first, went to collect his family's cloth, and then went to the river to wash it clean and hang it to dry in the yard.

When Jian Mo got up, she saw ten pieces of fabric drying in the sun.

The blue fabric actually has a bluish-black feel, very similar to Earth's indigo.

The yellow fabric has an orange-yellow hue with a hint of vermilion, which looks very beautiful.

He never expected the dyeing effect to be so good; it was much better than he had imagined.

He circled the fabric, examining it closely. He thought that if they could maintain this level of quality every time they dyed, they could dye more fabric, which would be a great choice for bed sheets or tablecloths. Combined with the fabric's pale yellow or off-white natural color, they should be able to create some nice patterns.

After feeding the Pack-Pack Beast, Wu Jiong went to the front yard and saw Jian Mo looking at the fabric. He asked, "What's wrong?"

Jian Mo: "I just think this color is really beautiful. We have so much leftover fabric at home, we can dye a lot more."

Wu Jiong: "We can't use it all up after dyeing."

Jian Mo held up the fabric. "How could that be? We need fabric for everything we wear and use, and we can use it all. It's just that we might not have that much time for needlework. I was thinking, how about we give some fabric to others as payment and hire someone to do it?"

Before Jian Mo came, everyone was used to making all their own household items by hand. After he arrived, he frequently exchanged various items with others, and everyone had become accustomed to these different exchange patterns.

The only problem is that currency hasn't been developed yet, but Jian Mo thinks it will be soon. The cloth and metal currently in circulation are very useful, and people in any tribe will recognize them.

Wu Jiong: "Please, it's too tiring for us to do it all by ourselves."

The two of them make all the handicrafts at home together, without any division of labor like beastmen or sub-beastmen. They often weave cloth and sew clothes together.

Jian Mo has less patience, and she's even less skilled at weaving and making clothes than Wu Jiong.

Jian Mo: "I think so too. I'll go find Qing Kuo later and see if he's free. If he's not, I'll try to find Min Dang and Ye Luo."

Chapter 74 Violent-Violent Bird

Humans are naturally drawn to beauty, and even the people of the beastman world are no exception.

Despite the hardship of searching for dyes, everyone climbed up and down the hills and found a lot of dyes, which turned pieces of light-colored fabric into yellowish-brown or blue.

During the dyeing process, Jian Mo discovered that the indigo fabric was very stable in color, and it consistently produced the same color each time it was dyed.

The yellowish-brown is different; sometimes it turns out more orange-yellow, sometimes more yellowish-brown, and once it was pale yellow. The results are very inconsistent.

Jian Mo wasn't very familiar with dyeing cloth, but he had seen it many times.

After dyeing several times, Jian Mo remembered the tie-dyeing technique from Earth and taught the people in the tribe how to tie-dye.

Tie-dyeing is not difficult. The main technique is to tie the areas you don't want to dye tightly, or to cover them with an object before tying them up, leaving the areas you don't want to dye to form a pattern.

Jian Mo couldn't find beeswax or similar substances, so after several experiments, she found that applying Hairy Root starch worked well. She then led everyone to use Hairy Root starch for tie-dyeing.

In the realm of art, Ye Luo and his team were far more skilled than Jian Mo, and they quickly took the lead, creating all sorts of beautiful patterns.

Jian Mo learned a lot from following along, and finally entrusted Ye Luo and the others to help with the dyeing.

Jian Mo consists of only two people, so they don't need to dye much fabric.

After collecting dyes a few times, he moved on to other collection groups.

Relatively speaking, he is more interested in food.

In the evening, after returning from gathering, Jian Mo finished her chores at home and prepared the side dishes. Seeing that Wu Jiong's hunting team had not yet returned, she went to Shi Chun's place to help pound the dye for the day.

When Zhou Fu saw him approaching, he straightened up and asked, "What brings you here today?"

Jian Mo: "I came over after I finished my chores at home."

Zhou Fu: "So fast? Didn't your gathering team just get back recently? Don't you need to cut grass for Jiujiu today?"

Jian Mo shook her head. "Jiujiu was ridden out by Ban Ming and the others today. They'll be responsible for feeding it. We can just give it an extra meal later."

Zhou Fu: "I was wondering why you were free today. Hey, don't pound the leaves, just help me pick out some. The leaves mature quickly, and some of the leaves I picked today are really old and don't have much juice inside. Pick them out and set them aside."

Jian Mo walked to the basket and casually scooped up a handful of dyed leaves.

These leaves are indeed quite old; they're prickly to the touch, and the leaves have grown considerably larger. They're much older than when he first went to pick them, when he could squeeze out a handful of juice with just a pinch.

He rummaged through the leaves, picking out those with particularly thick veins and setting them aside.

Soon, all the dyed leaves were picked.

Jian Mo finished tidying up the batch of old dye leaves and asked, "How should we prepare these dye leaves?"

Zhou Fu glanced up and casually said, "Just throw it in the woods, it's useless."

Jian Mo pinched it; she had carried it all the way back, and it was soaked with sweat. It would be a waste to just throw it away.

He looked at the leaf in his hand, its veins clearly defined, and suddenly an idea struck him—the leaf shape was quite nice; he wondered if he could transfer it onto his clothes?

Jian Mo looked up and asked Zhou Fu, "Can I have these unwanted leaves?"

Zhou Fu: "Of course, you can take it if you want. What do you need these for?"

Jian Mo: "Print them on clothes."

Zhou Fu was startled. "Printed on clothes? That would be so weird!"

Jian Mo smiled and said, "Why would it be strange? The veins on the leaves are so beautiful."

After Zhou Fu, Jian Mo took half a basket of dyed leaves home.

He searched on the second floor and found a roll of flax-colored fabric. He took the fabric and dyed leaves to the yard, preparing to make rubbings.