Cotton Cloth (Continued)

Xin Jun asked curiously, "What kind?"

Jian Mo: "Metal rings, petals made of glass, do you know what glass is?"

Everyone around them pricked up their ears.

Upon hearing this, one of the orcs couldn't help but ask, "I once saw a necklace made of glass by an orc from the Mengshui Tribe, which he gave to his partner. Was it like that?"

Jian Mo: "That was probably traded from our tribe."

The others couldn't help but nudge the orc. "What kind?"

The orc gestured, "It looks a bit like ice in winter, but it's multicolored. When you put it in the sunlight, a point of light gathers in the middle of the shadow. It's very beautiful, but that orc wouldn't let anyone else see it, he only let us take a glimpse."

Speaking of this, the orc grumbled, "That guy wanted to show off but was also being secretive; he wasn't very magnanimous at all!"

The surrounding orcs and sub-orcs all showed longing expressions upon hearing this.

Xin Jun said, "When we have time someday, we definitely want to visit your tribe."

Jian Mo invited, "The Summer Harvest Festival would be fine. But if you're replacing the glass, it's best to come in winter; we haven't had glass made in a long time."

Soda ash is needed to make glass, but their tribe has almost used up all the soda ash they collected, so they can't make glass for the time being.

Recently, the tribe has made quite a few metal utensils. The wood and metal used for burning charcoal are obtained from other tribes in exchange. Many tribes are now willing to trade with them, and they have made a lot of money. Many people now have more than one metal utensil.

Xin Jun and the others agreed, "If we have time, we'll come and cheer you on."

Jian Mo: "Come on in, we'll welcome you. We have plenty of empty houses in our tribe, all with glass windows. You can stay in one of them."

Upon hearing this, Xin Jun and the others felt even more envious. "Are you so wealthy that you can use glass for windows?"

Jian Mo: "The glass won't break, and even if it does, it can be recycled. We can use it as a window for now, and take it down if we need it urgently. It's not much trouble."

They chatted as they continued picking cotton bolls.

Some cotton bolls grow very tall, but the branches are too thin for people to climb up and pick them.

They had to jump to pull the branches down and pick the fruit.

Jian Mo jumped around too. Wu Jiong watched him jump a few times, then reached out and hugged his waist, lifting him up completely.

When Jian Mo turned around and saw Wu Jiong, her eyes crinkled into a smile.

The cotton bolls weren't heavy, but they took up a lot of space. We picked them all day and filled five baskets in total.

Back in the village, Xin Jun told everyone to take a shower; it was too hot today, and they needed to relax before getting back to work.

Jian Mo took out a new bar of soap, cut it into small pieces, and distributed them to everyone, explaining how to use it.

Everyone brought soap to take a shower, and afterwards their skin was indeed extremely clean and refreshed, looking completely different.

So everyone went to Jian Mo to exchange the soap.

Including the payment for getting their ears pierced yesterday, many people in the Long Years Tribe are still short of Jian Mo's fabric, and it will take them ten days to half a month to collect it all.

They decided to exchange some dried fruit or meat for Jian Mo instead of the fabric. They could deliver the remaining fabric to him later, and take it with them when they visited the Riverside Tribe.

Jian Mo agreed.

In summer, it gets dark late; after everyone has showered and eaten, it's still not completely dark.

So everyone lit insect-repelling grass, applied the Mengshui Tribe's ointment, and sat in the open space to cool off, while also processing the cotton bolls.

Cotton bolls are not easy to process. First, people use sticks to pry out the cotton fibers inside, then tear the cotton fibers into pieces and pick out the cotton seeds inside. It takes several steps to process a clump of cotton fibers.

Pulling cotton wadding requires a certain amount of strength; after pulling for a while, everyone's knuckles started to hurt.

Jian Mo flexed her fingers slightly and silently noted down this favor.

After gathering the cotton wadding, Xin Jun carried it to a basket. "We still need to spin it into thread first."

Jian Mo looked at the basket full of white cotton wool and felt a sense of accomplishment. "Spinning thread should be relatively simple."

Xin Jun nodded. "Indeed, we are skilled at spinning and weaving. Leave this to us, and we'll try to finish weaving the cloth by tomorrow night."

Jian Mo: "I won't stand on ceremony with you; your skills are indeed much better than ours."

Xin Jun said with some pride, "Our clan has been weaving cloth for hundreds of years. Only when you're skilled can you weave like this."

Jian Mo asked, "When you spin the thread, could you spin it a little finer? A finer thread will make the fabric softer."

Xin Jun: "No problem, how fine do you want it?"

Jian Mo: "You guys decide. I don't have much experience, so you can judge for yourselves. I hope the fabric is fine but not too thin, otherwise it will tear easily and become unusable."

Xin Jun naturally understood this principle, and after a moment's thought, he nodded. "Leave it to us."

Jian Mo: "Then let's go pick cotton bolls again tomorrow."

Xin Jun: "I'll arrange for a few people to go with you."

Jian Mo quickly waved his hand. "That would be too much trouble for you. If you don't mind, Wu Jiong and I can go into the mountain by ourselves."

The Long Years Tribe still has a lot of stockpiled cloth. In this hot weather, they should be more inclined to weave cloth in the tribe.

Jian Mo felt bad about troubling them.

Xin Jun didn't mind them going into the mountains; apart from Busi, there wasn't anything special in their territory.

Cotton bolls are an exception; they had never even considered using this plant before.

After offering a few words of advice, and seeing that Jian Mo and the others really didn't want anyone to come with them into the mountains, Xin Jun stopped trying to persuade them.

The next morning, Jian Mo and Wu Jiong got up early, had breakfast with the people of the Long Years Tribe, and then went into the mountains.

It's cooler in the morning, and it's more comfortable to go into the mountains with the morning breeze.

They rode on Jiujiu and Ying'ao, flying in the direction they had gone the day before, but deeper into the mountains.

Both the Jiujiu and the Ying'ao fluttered very fast, but they were not adapted to environments with lots of weeds and bushes.