On the heated brick bed in the main room, two rosy little bundles were sleeping soundly side by side.
Changsheng blew a tiny bubble of saliva, his little fists raised beside his ears. An’an smacked her lips and snuggled closer to her brother.
Lin Qingyue leaned against the wall, her eyes filled with tenderness as she watched her two children.
But in the next moment, an unbearable itch suddenly spread across her scalp.
She instinctively raised her hand and scratched. A foul smell of sweat mixed with the lingering scent of blood, rushing straight into her nose.
Lin Qingyue’s hand froze, and her eyes immediately reddened.
For a woman in confinement, the postpartum month was especially difficult. According to the old traditions, she was absolutely forbidden from being exposed to drafts and was not allowed to wash her hair or bathe for an entire month.
Over the past few days, after suffering repeated scares and the excruciating pain of childbirth, she had sweated through several sets of clothes. Her hair had already clumped together into stiff, greasy strands.
“What’s wrong? Does something hurt again?”
Lu Yuan had just come in from outside. The moment he saw his wife secretly wiping away tears with an aggrieved expression, his heart immediately ached, and he hurried over.
“Husband…”
“I smell terrible… My hair is greasy and dirty. I’m afraid you’ll be disgusted by me.”
Lu Yuan froze for a moment.
Looking at his wife’s red, rabbit-like eyes, his heart instantly melted.
This silly girl…
“What nonsense are you talking about? You’re my wife, the woman I’ve married. Even if you fell into a mud pit, I could never dislike you.”
Lu Yuan reached out and gently patted her shoulder through the quilt.
“Wait here. I’ll get you something good. I guarantee you’ll be fresh and comfortable for the rest of your confinement.”
With that, Lu Yuan turned and walked out of the room.
He remembered the layer of residue at the bottom of the basin from last night’s hand-washing water, produced by the mixture of wood ash and lard—the “saponification reaction.”
In modern times, making soap was one of the most basic chemistry experiments. All you needed was a strong alkali and some fat.
Wood ash water was a natural alkaline solution, and as for the fat, the family happened to have some leftover pork fat from yesterday’s soup.
At that moment, everyone in the Lin family’s small courtyard was busy with their own tasks.
His father-in-law, Lin Dashan, was squatting in a corner, carefully sharpening a dull hoe with a file.
His eldest brother-in-law, Lin Daniu, was in the middle of the courtyard chopping firewood with loud grunts, wood chips flying everywhere.
Second Sister-in-law Li was sitting on a small stool, struggling to wash the dirty clothes belonging to the entire family.
His mother-in-law, Wang, was sitting beneath the eaves, holding a winnowing basket and picking out the bad beans.
“Mother,” Lu Yuan walked over and awkwardly rubbed his hands together. “Can I use the leftover pork fat?”
Wang froze and stopped what she was doing.
“Son-in-law, that’s being saved to make a batch of lard dumplings for New Year. You just recovered from your illness. Are you craving meat?”
“I’m not going to eat it.”
Lu Yuan cleared his throat and brought out his tried-and-true excuse.
“I once saw something in a book at the county academy called ‘pig pancreas soap.'”
“If you boil wood ash and pork fat together, it can transform into something extraordinary—a powerful cleansing soap. I want to try making some to wash Qingyue’s hair.”
Upon hearing that it couldn’t be eaten and that the precious pork fat would instead be mixed with worthless wood ash and boiled away, Wang felt as though someone had cut out a piece of her heart.
That was pork fat!
An ordinary farming family might barely smell meat a few times throughout the entire year!
But when she saw the sincerity in her son-in-law’s eyes, Wang gritted her teeth and remained silent.
“Fine! You’re a learned man. Whatever is written in the books must be right. I’ll go get it for you.”
Wang turned and went into the kitchen.
After a while, she returned carrying a piece of pork fat about the size of half her palm.
“Second Brother, come give me a hand!”
Lu Yuan called to Lin Erniu, who had been standing nearby watching curiously.
The two of them began setting up a broken clay pot in a corner of the courtyard.
The actual process was far from as simple as the theory suggested.
First, Lu Yuan soaked the wood ash in water and filtered it repeatedly to extract a relatively pure alkaline solution.
Then he put the pork fat into the broken clay pot and slowly heated it over a low fire until it melted. He then gradually poured in the alkaline solution.
“Brother-in-law, you’re mixing wood ash with fat and boiling it. You’re saying this can actually be used to wash hair?”
Lin Erniu added firewood to the stove while muttering doubtfully.
The first attempt failed.
The fire was too strong, causing the mixture in the pot to overflow and spill directly into the fire, producing a cloud of black smoke.
Lu Yuan coughed as the smoke filled his face, leaving him covered in black soot like a coal miner who had just crawled out of a mine.
“Again!”
Lu Yuan wasn’t discouraged. He quickly adjusted the heat.
The second attempt also failed.
There wasn’t enough alkaline solution, causing the oil and water to separate. The mixture wouldn’t solidify at all.
It wasn’t until the third attempt.
Lu Yuan stared intently at the thick, bubbling mixture in the broken clay pot.
Relying on the intuition he had developed as a materials science researcher, he waited until the mixture reached its thickest consistency before decisively shouting:
“Second Brother! Put out the fire!”
They carried the clay pot out into the freezing courtyard, using the bitter winter cold to cool it rapidly.
After more than half an hour, the once-cloudy liquid had actually solidified at the bottom of the pot into several rough, pale-yellow chunks.
Lu Yuan pried them out with a wooden stick.
Although they looked terrible and still carried a faint greasy smell, they were indeed the most primitive soap of this era—the earliest form of “pig pancreas soap.”
“Incredible! The water and oil actually turned into solid chunks!”
Lin Erniu’s eyes widened in amazement.
Lu Yuan didn’t even bother washing the soot off his face. He filled a basin with warm water, grabbed a piece of the “pig pancreas soap,” and headed into the main room.
“Qingyue, come. Your husband will wash your hair.”
Lu Yuan placed the basin on a tall table beside the bed and sat down on a stool.
“Husband! You can’t!”
Lin Qingyue was so frightened that she desperately shrank farther into the quilt, tears almost spilling from her eyes.
“During confinement, I’m not allowed to touch water. Otherwise, I’ll suffer from illness later! And besides… how could I let you wash a woman’s hair?”
Lu Yuan ignored her objections and lifted her, quilt and all, into his arms, allowing her to rest comfortably against his legs.
“I made the ‘pig pancreas soap’ mentioned in the book. The water has been boiled with mugwort, and all the doors and windows are shut. You won’t be exposed to any drafts.”
His voice was gentle but firm.
“Once I’m finished washing your hair, I’ll immediately dry it with clean cotton cloth. Then you’ll stay warm on the heated bed. You won’t get sick.”
Hearing her husband’s domineering yet affectionate words, Lin Qingyue stopped struggling.
She obediently leaned her head over the edge of the bed, positioning it above the wooden basin.
Lu Yuan’s fingers were long and strong, yet his movements were incredibly gentle as he carefully untangled her knotted hair and slowly wet it with warm water.
Then he rubbed the pale-yellow soap between his hands in the water and gently worked it into Lin Qingyue’s hair.
A miracle happened!
The grease that ordinary water couldn’t remove at all dissolved almost immediately upon contact with the soap.
Although it didn’t produce the thick, rich foam of modern shampoo, its cleaning ability was practically revolutionary in this era.
“Husband… It really doesn’t itch anymore. My scalp suddenly feels so much lighter.”
Lin Qingyue closed her eyes comfortably.
While massaging her scalp with his fingertips, Lu Yuan glanced at the two sleeping children nearby.
“Look at Changsheng. He’s frowning even while he’s asleep. He looks so serious. I wonder who he got that from.”
Lu Yuan chuckled softly.
Lin Qingyue burst into laughter.
“Obviously you. You used to hold a book every night and had that same stern, old-fashioned expression.”
“An’an is so well-behaved. She eats her fill and immediately falls asleep.”
Lu Yuan’s gaze softened.
“Qingyue, once your confinement is over, I’ll take the three of you to town and buy several sets of bright, beautiful fabric. I’ll dress you up beautifully.”
Listening to her husband describe their beautiful future, Lin Qingyue felt even more at peace.
After washing her hair, Lu Yuan immediately dried her long hair carefully with clean cotton cloth and made sure the heated bed was burning hot.
Lin Qingyue’s long black hair didn’t have the fragrance of modern shampoo, but it was incredibly clean, fresh, and smooth as it fell over her shoulders.
She felt like the luckiest woman in the entire world.
Meanwhile, in the outer room.
A piece of soap about the size of an egg, left over from the piece Lu Yuan had used to wash her hair, had been casually placed beside the stove.
Second Sister-in-law Li was frowning as she stared at a worn undershirt in the wooden basin.
It was one of the undershirts Lin Erniu often wore while working in the fields.
The farmer worked up a sweat all year round, and the collar and armpits of the shirt had long since accumulated a thick layer of hard, yellowish-black grease and grime.
In ancient times, how could poor villagers afford to be particular about washing clothes?
Usually, they would grab a handful of sand from the riverbank or sprinkle some wood ash on their clothes, then beat them mercilessly with a wooden washing paddle. The fabric would often get ruined before the dirt was even removed.
Only wealthy families in town could afford soap pods for washing silk.
Those were expensive. Ordinary people couldn’t afford them and didn’t have the luxury of using such things.
Li sighed, picked up the undershirt, and prepared to sprinkle it with wood ash and beat it with the washing paddle.
Then her gaze shifted, and she noticed the yellowish piece of “pig pancreas soap” on the stove.
“Didn’t my brother-in-law just say this stuff is extremely powerful at removing dirt?”
Li became curious.
Since it was only a leftover piece, there was no harm in trying it.
She picked up the yellow block skeptically and rubbed it vigorously over the greasy collar of the shirt. Then she put the shirt into the water and gently rubbed it with her hands.
Swish—
After just one rub!
Li’s eyes instantly widened like copper bells.
A stream of thick, black dirty water flowed between her fingers.
The hard, stubborn layer of old grease that had refused to come off no matter how much she washed it seemed to melt away like snow!
Unwilling to believe her eyes, Li grabbed the shirt and rinsed it twice in clean water.
When she lifted it up, she stared in astonishment.
The collar that had been blackened for years had actually been restored to the original bright white color of the fabric!
The shirt was still worn-out, of course, but it was so clean that it looked as though it had just been cut from a bolt of cloth at the fabric shop!
“My heavens…”
Li stared in shock, her mouth hanging open.
The shirt slipped from her hands and fell back into the basin with a plop.
What was this? Some little invention from a scholar?
Its cleaning power was probably even stronger than the soap pods used by wealthy families!
This was practically a treasure capable of laying golden eggs!
Li trembled with excitement and quickly washed all the remaining clothes with the soap.
Looking at the pile of freshly cleaned clothes in the wooden basin, each one spotless and fresh, she felt like a victorious general returning from battle.
“Husband! Mother! Come out and look!”
Li carried the wooden basin excitedly into the courtyard and efficiently hung the freshly washed clothes one by one on the clothesline.
The several coarse-cloth undershirts, now washed almost completely white, stood out especially brightly beneath the winter sunlight.
Just as Li proudly admired her “masterpiece,” a head suddenly appeared over the low mud wall of the Lin family’s courtyard.
It belonged to Widow Wang, the notorious neighbor who loved taking advantage of others. A few days earlier, she had even cheated the Lin family when exchanging five eggs for grain.
Widow Wang had originally only wanted to listen and see whether the Lin family’s newborn twins were crying and, of course, take a peek at the excitement.
But when her gaze landed on the half-used yellowish piece of “pig pancreas soap” in Li’s hand, and then on the glaringly white clothes, her tiny eyes instantly widened.
Greedy light flickered wildly in her eyes.
“My goodness… What kind of incredible treasure has this poor son-in-law of the Lin family managed to make?”