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From that day on, besides making pottery blanks with his family during the day, Bai Wu spent his evenings in the tribe researching how to weave cloth.
He was clever and diligent, and with the help of his family, he built a weaving frame within a few days.
Most cloth is woven from warp and weft threads. As long as the warp and weft threads are aligned neatly and pressed firmly, pieces of cloth can be woven.
Therefore, Bai Wu specially cut down some sparsely wooded timber and made a square frame. He neatly drilled a series of small holes in the top and bottom two pieces of wood, and then neatly stretched the threads onto it—these were the warp threads.
The weft threads were threaded using a shuttle, like needles, one warp thread after another, weaving like weaving a mat.
This weaving was very tedious, and Bai Wu felt dizzy and lightheaded while doing it.
He began to think of further improvements, simply threading two thin wooden strips through the warp threads, picking up every other one, dividing the warp threads into two parts, making weaving much easier.
With this, Bai Wu’s simple weaving tools were finally completed, and he made several more for his family.
The family gathered around the fire pit that evening to weave. They all worked quickly, and the weaving method was simple; they finished enough fabric for Bai Wu’s clothes in two days.
Bai Wu sewed a long robe using a bone needle.
He was tall, and the belt around his waist made his legs appear even longer and his waist slimmer; he looked like a slender, upright tree.
While the robe was being made, An watched from the side, thinking the clothes were too strange, even stranger than the animal skin garments worn in autumn and winter. Only a strange fellow like Bai Wu would like such clothes.
After Bai Wu put on the finished robe and tightened the belt around his waist, before he even adjusted the belt, An had already seen the effect and couldn’t help but mutter, “I’ve changed my mind. I want a set of clothes like the one Wu is wearing.”
An stared intently at Bai Wu, his gaze so intense it seemed he wanted to bore a hole through him.
Chuan also exclaimed, “Wu looks really good in this outfit, it’s not strange at all.”
Even Mo, unusually, joined the discussion, “Wu, you could make a couple more sets of this, so you can alternate wearing them.”
Bai Wu smiled, adjusted his belt, and tried walking a few steps.
The fabric was soft and loose, not hindering his movement at all. Walking in it was even more comfortable than wearing a feather skirt since it wasn’t as stiff.
When he wanted to transform back into his beast form, he only needed to unbuckle his belt, retract his arms into the robe, and the robe would spring up like a feather skirt, bunching around his neck like a scarf.
Perfect.
Bai Wu breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, he could say goodbye to the days of going shirtless. Even though he now had four-pack abs and a perfectly sculpted physique, he still wasn’t used to always being shirtless.
Bai Wu tried it on, and after confirming it was fine, went back to his nest to change back into the feather skirt. He poked his head out and asked, “An, would you like to try this on?”
“Coming!” An dashed over, reaching out to pat Bai Wu’s shoulder. “Good brother!”
Bai Wu nimbly dodged, glaring at him. “Take it easy!”
An chuckled, snatched the clothes from Bai Wu’s hand, and rushed back into his nest to change.
An was slightly shorter than Bai Wu; the robe covered his ankles.
His tan skin and the off-white robe harmonized perfectly, highlighting his lively features.
If Bai Wu looked like a handsome god in this robe, then he looked like a nimble elf.
An skipped and jumped out, “Dad, Wu, look how I look!”
Chuan exclaimed, “Very handsome!”
“Oh, I’m still the prettiest one. Dad, shall we go pick some more white fluff tomorrow? I want to make a robe too.”
Bai Wu said, “You wear this one first, I’ll wear the next one after it’s made.”
“No need, just let me wear it for a while to play around with. Wu, your back can’t stay in the sun any longer.”
An tightened his belt a little more, and sucked in his stomach, “You guys go to sleep first, I’m going downstairs to play for a while.”
Saying this, he impatiently strode down the mountain to find his beastman friends.
Bai Wu said, “Father, Dad, we should make a couple more, these clothes are more comfortable than animal skins in autumn.”
“Make them for An first. There’s still a long autumn, let’s not rush, we can make them slowly.”
An was a magnanimous beastman.
He not only wore the new clothes himself, but also ran up to Bai Wu to ask if his friends could try them on as well.
Since the clothes were made anyway, they needed to be washed. Bai Wu waved his hand and readily agreed.
On that day, almost every sub-beastman in the tribe of their age wore this beautiful robe.
After everyone had worn it, they walked them back to their nest together and thanked Bai Wu.
A sub-beastman asked, “Wu, can we go and pick some white fluff to make robes too?”
“Of course you can! Our family doesn’t need that much fluff. Besides, if you don’t pick it, other tribes will find out in a few days and start picking fluff too.”
“Okay, Wu! I knew you wouldn’t be stingy. We’ll go pick fluff first thing tomorrow morning, and your family can take some too, so you don’t need to go.”
“Alright. When you come back, I’ll treat you to fish soup. After you’ve spun the thread, I’ll teach you how to weave!”
The group of sub-beastmen reached a consensus, smiled at each other, and went back to their nests to rest, hand in hand.
The next day, before dawn, the sound of flapping wings echoed through the tribe.
A large group of sub-beastmen, carrying baskets on their backs, were heading to the fields to pick fluff.
Bai Wu was awakened by the sound. He yawned, sat up, put on his animal skin skirt, picked up his wooden bucket, and walked through the morning mist to the river to collect his fish traps.
The river teemed with fish and shrimp, and Bai Wu placed bait in his fish traps daily. Lately, his catches had been quite good.
After bringing the fish in, he cleaned their scales and innards, brushed them with oil, roasted them, and then simmered them in a large earthenware pot to make soup. He added noodles and beans to the soup, and its aroma filled the entire tribe.
When the dew dried, the sub-beastmen returned carrying baskets of white fluff.
They each gave Bai Wu’s family some white fluff, filling both Bai Wu’s and An’s nests.
Bai Wu invited them to drink the fish soup.
Everyone thanked each other, and laughter filled their nest, making it a lively and cheerful place.
After breakfast, everyone went about their tasks.
Bai Wu scooped up a handful of ash, took his robe, and went to the river to wash it.
He scrubbed the robe clean with the ash, then washed it with clean water. He wrung it out, and hung it on a tree to dry. He figured he could wear it when he returned in the evening.
The clay blanks are finished and just need to air-dry before being fired in the kiln.
These past two days, their family has been mainly collecting firewood.
The firewood for the kiln also needs to be dried to prevent excessive smoke from getting in, and dried firewood produces a larger fire, raising the temperature faster and making the pottery less likely to be damaged during firing.
Firewood is scarce in the nearby mountains, and the tribe has a rule against cutting down living trees, so they have to collect firewood deep in the mountains.
This process is naturally arduous and tedious.
However, by going to many places, they’ve collected a fair amount of wild fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms, which is a pleasant surprise.
In the afternoon, Bai Wu and An carried the last load of firewood to the kiln.
Unexpectedly, when they arrived, there was a large pile of firewood beside the kiln.
Bai Wu and An looked at each other in surprise.
An transformed back into human form. “Where did this firewood come from? Did someone else mistakenly think they were making pottery recently?”
“My information network isn’t as good as yours.”
“That’s strange. There wasn’t any firewood here when we arrived.” An kicked a corner of the firewood pile beside the kiln. “They carried that much in just a short time.”
“Who cares whose it is? Let’s leave it here for now. We’ll ask them when we get back.”
Bai Wu was too tired to investigate further.
An agreed, nodding. “I’ll go ask around later.”
The two returned to the tribe.
Bai Wu first fed the sheep grass, then prepared dinner.
An ran downstairs to ask his beastman friends about the origin of the firewood.
Their family hadn’t gone out for a proper hunt or gathering for many days, and their food supplies were running low.
Bai Wu rummaged through the basket holding the food, took out a handful of wild vegetables and mushrooms, and planned to stew them with smoked meat.
The mushrooms needed soaking, and Bai Wu was busy with that when An came running up the mountain, shouting, “Wu, I know whose firewood that is!”
Bai Wu turned around. “Whose?”
“Ours!”
“…”
“I’m not kidding, it really is ours. The beastmen from the tribe gave it to us.”
Bai Wu’s first reaction was to look An up and down. “You have a beastman partner?”
“I’m with you every day, how could I possibly hide a beastman partner from you?”
“Then why would they give us firewood for no reason?”
“Oh, well, everyone said that since you can teach the tribe to weave, they couldn’t let you teach for nothing, so the beastmen who went hunting carried some firewood back for us.”
“I haven’t taught them yet.”
“You haven’t, but you can weave, and you weren’t just boasting, you’ll definitely teach them.”
Bai Wu’s chest swelled, and for a moment he was so moved he didn’t know what to say.
An, oblivious to his feelings, happily exclaimed, “With everyone’s help, we don’t need to collect firewood tomorrow. We just need to wait for the clay to dry before firing!”
“Hmm.”
“Then I’ll go gathering with my friends tomorrow. It’s been so long since I’ve gone gathering.”
“Okay.”
“Wu, do you want to come with us? Anyway, the chieftain’s ban has long been lifted, and everyone likes you so much. It would be great to go out and play together!”
Bai Wu snapped out of his thoughts. “Not for now. I want to do something else tomorrow.”
“Besides gathering, what else do you want to do?”
“To make something with the clay,” Bai Wu said. “I don’t know if I can succeed. I’ll have to try tomorrow.”
“What else do you want to do? Just tell dad, and we can do it together.”
“No need. You guys go gather. I think dad has been itching to go with his friends for a while now.”
“Who cares if it works or not? Give me a heads-up first.”
“I want to make something like pottery shards to use as a roof.”
“Huh?” An was dumbfounded. “Such big shards, you can’t fire them, can you? Even if you could, wouldn’t they shatter if the wind blew them down?”
“Not big shards, but small shards.” Bai Wu picked up a fish scale from the ground. “I’ll fire small shards one by one like fish scales covering a fish. Then I’ll cover the roof with them, and that’ll make a whole roof.”
An murmured, “I still can’t figure it out. How are you going to do it?”
“Before the clothes were made, you couldn’t figure out how I was going to make clothes either, could you?”
“That makes sense. Why didn’t you tell dad before?”
Bai Wu waved his hand. “With just the four of us, making roof tiles would be exhausting.”
“Huh?”
“Now it’s different. Perhaps we can ask the beastmen in the tribe for help.”