As the clay seal came away, Bai Shuo hardly dared breathe, after all, he had no idea what he’d actually find. Once the sealing clay was fully removed, the very first thing he saw was the jar sitting right in the middle, split clean in two, this had been the biggest piece, so it had gotten placed in the best spot.
Even having half-expected this outcome already, Bai Shuo still felt a pang of disappointment. He tested the temperature with his hand, a bit warm, and used a couple of leaves to shield his fingers as he pulled it out.
The jar had cracked into two halves. Bai Shuo set it aside and moved on to check the others.
The two on either side were jars too, just a bit smaller, each holding roughly a liter of water, one of them had come out intact, the other had split into two halves just like the big one.
Bai Shuo’s confidence rebounded a little at the sight, at least one had succeeded, which meant, at the very least, the raw materials hadn’t been the problem. The cracks were likely down to the firing process itself.
Feeling a bit better after finding a success, Bai Shuo pulled out the intact one. Right beside it sat the jar’s lid, also intact, he took that out too and set it down alongside, a perfect fit.
He set this one whole set down carefully on the ground and moved on to the rest. This firing had only produced three large pieces total, everything else was small.
Of the ten sets of plates and spoons he’d made, three plates had turned out intact, and the spoons had come out one ahead of the plates. Bai Shuo noticed that the mixed-clay batches had a much higher success rate, every single piece made from a single, unmixed type of clay had failed, while even the successful jar had been made from mixed clay. Clearly, from now on, he’d need to use blended material.
As for the glaze, among the various types of soil he’d tried, the final colors had come out different for each, taking it all in, the soil that leaned whitish-yellow had produced the best results, the others had either come out uneven or leached out traces of heavy metal, making them unsuitable for holding food.
Having set his own pieces aside, what remained were all the chicks’ toys. Bai Shuo pulled them out one by one, since they’d been placed in slightly less ideal spots, the success rate here was a bit lower, though because the pieces were small, quite a few had still come through fine.
The chicks came to collect their own toys, and a few who couldn’t remember which was theirs had Bai Shuo sort it out by the names written on them, the firing had blurred the writing quite a bit, but since he’d written the names large to begin with, and only three or four chicks total couldn’t place their own, it didn’t take long to get everyone sorted.
The chicks were utterly fascinated by mud turning into “stone,” and after checking their own pieces, went to look at Bai Shuo’s as well. Compared to theirs, Bai Shuo’s pieces had a nicer sheen to them, almost glossy.
One chick, curious, reached out and touched one, then exclaimed in surprise, “It’s smooth!” Really different from what he was holding!
Bai Shuo nodded. “That kind takes a lot more effort to make, you can try it once you’re older.”
Hearing this, the chicks looked at him, then at themselves.
The chick who’d spoken up before said, bluntly, “Bai Shuo, you look younger than me.”
Bai Shuo: “……”
Bai Shuo: “I’m different! You’re older than me and you still can’t cook!”
The chick was momentarily stumped, true enough, he was older than Bai Shuo, but he couldn’t cook either, well, it wasn’t quite that he couldn’t, more that whatever he made tasted terrible.
Thinking it over, the chick said admiringly, “Bai Shuo, you’re really something.”
Bai Shuo cleared his throat lightly, accepting this [tn content=”little flattery card “] (an empty flattery token) (kuā kuā kǎ, 誇誇卡) – modern slang for an insincere, transactional compliment, used playfully here since the chick isn’t really praising him, just angling for more food[/tn】, and carried the intact jar and the plates and spoons down to the river to wash and to test how well they held water.
Once they were clean, he handed the plates and spoons to his brother beside him, and holding the jar himself, walked over to their cooking spot, using a bamboo tube to ladle water from the wooden bucket into the jar until it was full, then set it aside, after a while, no water had pooled around it, so it likely wasn’t leaking, whether it seeped through more slowly, he’d only know for sure by checking again at noon.
Bai Shuo went back over his whole process and realized there’d been a problem with the drying stage, beyond just the raw material.
To speed things along, he’d dried the pieces using fire, the larger jar had only been turned a few times, leaving some spots not fully dried, on the surface it all looked the same, but internally the moisture content varied, and that made the piece prone to cracking during firing. The smaller jar, with less surface area, had dried much more evenly under the same fire treatment, which was exactly why it had succeeded.
Having summed up the lessons learned, Bai Shuo was just about to start cooking when he noticed a few items had appeared beside the jar, broken shards. He looked up and found Wu Yan standing right in front of him. Assuming Wu Yan had mistaken the shards for something useful, Bai Shuo explained, “It’s fine, those are the broken pieces, not much use to them.” Aside from the shard from that biggest jar, which was maybe big enough to hold something small, they had wooden bowls, bamboo tubes, and all sorts of woven goods now, hardly any real need for pottery shards.
Hearing the words “not much use,” Wu Yan fell silent for a moment, then, just as he was about to say something, Bai Liang, standing nearby who’d overheard the commotion, let out a startled cry: “Colorware!”
Neither the hunting party nor the gathering party had set out yet, and quite a crowd had gathered down at the base of the mountain, that one word landed like a stone tossed into water, instantly drawing every last person’s attention.
Bai Yun, hearing the commotion, walked over to see what was going on, since it was happening right at their own cooking spot, and found the item in the chick’s hands somewhat familiar, it was exactly the batch from a couple days back, just looking completely different now. Once she got close enough to see clearly what it was, Bai Yun froze on the spot.
She’d assumed all along that fired mud would just turn into slightly harder mud, instead, her chick had come out with colorware???
Meanwhile, the rest of the adult Feather Clan reacted as if a bombshell had gone off, some stared fixedly at Bai Shuo, others shook the people beside them frantically, asking if they were seeing things too.
Bai Shuo, watching everyone’s reaction, sensed something was off, glanced down at the jar in front of him, then turned and asked Wu Yan, “What are they talking about?”
Wu Yan’s careful handling of the pottery shards, and Bai Liang’s sudden outburst, Bai Shuo instinctively felt the two had to be connected somehow.
Wu Yan hesitated for a long moment before finally asking the question he’d wanted to ask from the very start. “You don’t even know what you just fired?”
Bai Shuo: “Fired mud.” Bai Shuo, of course, knew exactly what he’d fired, he just had no way of explaining how he knew, so he figured it was better to just let everyone assume he’d stumbled onto it by playing with mud.
Wu Yan: “……”
Wu Yan: “This kind of thing is called colorware.”
Bai Yun was the first to snap out of it, and picked up right where Wu Yan left off, explaining to Bai Shuo.
Colorware was something only large tribes ever had, and even there, not everyone could afford it, the price was simply too steep. Their tribe, being a small-to-mid-sized one, had never had the spare food to trade for such a thing. And since most of the tribe’s chicks had never once left the territory, none of them recognized colorware at all, of all the chicks, only Wu Yan, having just joined the tribe, knew what it was.
“Colorware comes in several colors, which is why it’s called colorware.” Bai Yun added one more thing, today, once again, she found herself stunned by just how clever her chick was, and at the same time felt an even keener pang of regret that their tribe had no priest, though thinking about it further, she also felt a swell of comfort and pride, her chick had managed all this without any priest’s guidance to begin with.
The rest of the Feather Clan gradually snapped out of it too, gathering around Bai Shuo to look at the water-filled jar, though none of them dared get too close, if they accidentally broke it, there was no way they could ever make up for the loss. Only Bai Liang asked if he could touch the cracked shard.
Bai Shuo pushed the shard forward. “Touch it all you like.”
Bai Liang, practically incoherent with excitement, kept repeating, “Colorware, it’s colorware.”
The Hundred-Feather Tribe had never owned any colorware, but that didn’t mean they’d never seen any, so the moment they saw what was in front of Bai Shuo, everyone recognized it instantly, and hearing now that they could touch it freely, no one could hold back any longer. Hunting and gathering could wait, they had to touch this precious, priceless colorware first.
And so Bai Shuo watched a whole crowd of people gingerly cradling pottery shards in their hands, treating them with the utmost care.
Bai Shuo: “……” No wonder Wu Yan had been so careful to bring back all the cracked pieces, now it made sense.
Amid the crowd of excited Feather Clan, Chieftain Hua Yong was the first to grasp what mattered most. “Bai Shuo, can you fire more colorware?”
Everyone else immediately fell quiet. Right, could he really fire more?
Bai Shuo hesitated, then answered, “I can try again.” Even a low success rate still counted as success, and now that he had this firing under his belt, he’d learned from the experience, for the next batch, he planned to use only blended clay, since blended material clearly had a much higher success rate.
Hua Yong said, “Tell me what raw materials you need, and we’ll go dig them up.”
Bai Shuo, seeing they were all but ready to charge off on the spot, shook his head. “No need for that many people, I’ll go dig up a bit myself once everyone’s back tonight.” Right now, this was still very much in the experimental stage, he didn’t need much raw material yet, and besides, he still had leftover soil from what Bai Xun and Bai Yun had dug up before.
Hearing this, Hua Yong went straight to the cave, hauled down the soil they’d dug before, and poured it into the same two pits they’d used previously, stirring it around, he remembered this was exactly what the chick had done last time.
Once the adult Feather Clan had left, the chicks finally worked up the nerve to crowd around Bai Shuo, looking at the jar, even not knowing what colorware was before, seeing how much it mattered to the adults told them clearly enough that this was something valuable.
Bai Shuo wouldn’t let anyone else touch the intact one, and instead pulled out the shards again, warning, “Don’t break them.” Of course, they were already broken pieces, breaking further would make no difference at all, but the adults in the tribe treated this stuff with such care that Bai Shuo knew, if word got back that the chicks had smashed it up, someone’s heart would surely ache over it.
Today’s reaction to pottery made one thing click for Bai Shuo, if pottery already existed here, and clearly already had an established price, did that mean he could trade pottery for salt and other supplies?
For everyone, salt was an absolutely essential resource, and yet even Bai Xun and Bai Yun, among the top pairs in the whole tribe, could only trade for enough to cover their own family’s needs, half the tribe still had to rely on animal blood to supplement their salt intake.
With that thought, Bai Shuo started counting out the timing for the next market fair. There were two market fairs held each year around here, one at the end of the third month of the growth season, and another a month into the dry season.
Which meant there was a month and a half left before the next fair.
Shaping the clay, drying it, glazing it, firing it, if air-dried naturally, the whole process from start to finish took roughly ten-plus days, he could make a fresh batch of clay pieces every day or two, and firing would require building a few more kilns. Bai Shuo did the math in his head.
Still, even if pottery could be traded for supplies, he couldn’t bring too much to market at one time, Bai Shuo understood well enough the old saying about a [tn content=”jade disc bringing ruin to its owner “] (possessing treasure invites trouble) (huái bì qí zuì, 懷璧其罪) – idiom, owning something too precious can invite danger or envy[/tn]. Their tribe wasn’t a large one, being too conspicuous could bring real danger down on them. Fortunately, theirs was the only tribe in the area, making a bit more than usual for everyday use here at home posed no risk at all.
Turning these thoughts over in his mind, Bai Shuo picked up a small basket woven from cattail, scooped out the impurities floating on the water’s surface, and discarded them, then covered the clay pits with two willow crates, just in case any chick fell in.
That evening, once the gathering and hunting parties got back and finished eating, the very first thing they did was come help Bai Shuo.
An adult Feather Clan member’s strength meant Bai Shuo didn’t hesitate at all to put a few of them to work pounding and kneading the clay, everyone else kept weaving tools, since, much like Bai Shuo’s own plan, plenty of the tribe figured whatever excess baskets and crates they made could be carried to market and traded for goods too.
Back before Bai Shuo had turned human, evenings after dinner had just been for chatting, sleeping, or scuffling around, but ever since he had, there’d been something new to do nearly every single night. The workload had gone up, sure, but everyone’s faces carried more smiles than before, thinking about how much these goods might fetch at market, and thinking about the bigger Redroot tuber harvest waiting at the end of this growth season, it was hard not to feel a lift in spirits.
With everyone in high spirits, the work went even more enthusiastically, for a while, the sound of clay being pounded and slapped filled the whole riverbank.
Once the clay had been thoroughly worked, Bai Shuo began teaching everyone how to shape the vessels, this job required more than just strength, it took patience and a careful hand too. Bai Shuo picked out a handful of the Feather Clan whose weaving had always come out especially neat and even.
Bai Xun had wanted to help too, but Bai Shuo turned him down flat, he knew his own father well enough, if he let him help, this whole batch would probably end up half-cracked during the drying stage.
Of course, a comment like that would never do their father-son bond any good, so it went unsaid. Instead, Bai Shuo said, “Papa, could you take the chieftain to go dig up soil? Same two kinds as before.”
Sure enough, hearing his chick’s request, Bai Xun didn’t spare a single thought for why he hadn’t been asked to help with the clay-shaping, and simply picked up a hoe and a backpack-basket, ready to go dig and haul soil.
Once the digging team had left, Bai Shuo began teaching the surrounding Feather Clan how to make clay pieces. He used two different methods, the coil-building technique for jars, and simple hand-pinching for the smaller pieces.
Everyone gathered here had nimble hands to begin with, and picked it up fast, though the shapes that came out were a bit lopsided here and there, a little touching-up made them perfectly usable.
As long as the shape wasn’t wildly off, Bai Shuo kept every piece, the finished clay pieces, just like the batch he’d made before, went to a shaded spot away from direct sunlight, freshly made pieces held too much moisture to dry in the sun right away, they’d need a few days first.
Besides the clay pieces themselves, Bai Shuo also had two more kilns built, ready for when this whole batch had dried enough to fire.
While waiting, Bai Shuo didn’t sit idle either, besides making a new batch of clay pieces every couple of days, he also finished planting all the wheat Bai Yun had brought back.
The early stage of planting demanded a great deal of effort, before the pottery firing succeeded, even with the Redroot seedlings already sprouting up, Bai Shuo hadn’t asked anyone to help clear ground or dig on a large scale. But things were different now, after everything he’d accomplished, one after another, right up to the priceless colorware, the tribe now placed enormous trust in him, enough that most of the tribe fully supported planting wheat too.
A small handful still felt it wasn’t worth all this effort to grow a crop that tasted so mediocre, and Bai Shuo didn’t press the issue with them either, letting them keep weaving tools instead, or clearing weeds from the plot meant for Redroot tuber seedlings. They weren’t willing to work for wheat, but they were more than happy to work for Redroot tubers.
Listening to her chick’s assignments, Bai Yun watched the Feather Clan who hadn’t wanted to plant wheat head off cheerfully to work, and couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, not until she reached the wheat field herself and it clicked: what was the actual difference between a “Redroot tuber field” and a “wheat field,” when in the end the labor was exactly the same?
Bai Shuo winked at his mother, a silent understanding passing between them. This was a lesson he’d worked out over the past little while, if he’d told everyone upfront that clearing the whole plot of land was for planting Redroot tuber, only to turn around and plant wheat there instead, someone was bound to get upset, after all, wheat and Redroot tuber held completely different standing in the Feather Clan’s minds. It was a bit like telling a farmer you wanted to plant garlic, then turning around and scattering a bunch of grass seed they’d never heard of, claiming it would come in useful someday, that would absolutely earn you a beating.
Framing it differently changed everything. Whoever wanted to help plant wheat, planted wheat, whoever didn’t, went and planted Redroot tuber instead. In the end, the total amount of work stayed exactly the same, but everyone came away happy. And really, those Feather Clan who didn’t want to plant wheat weren’t wrong to feel that way either, they were simply being more cautious, different people called for different approaches.
Once the soil had been tilled, Bai Shuo led a group of chicks in scattering the wheat seeds. One of the real advantages of planting during the growth season was that there was no need to water specially, the rain that fell every few days more than met the plants’ water needs.
But as time passed, another change crept in, the temperature climbed steadily, and along with faster plant growth came the arrival of mosquitoes in the woods. Even a short stretch of time spent among the trees left Bai Shuo’s skin dotted with several new bites.
It itched badly, but Bai Shuo didn’t dare scratch, he only rubbed at them a little before heading off to rummage through their family’s stores.
During this stretch of time, besides transplanting and marking useful plants, Bai Shuo had already brought back nearly everything worth picking, Bai Yun and the gathering party had helped gather plenty too. Bai Shuo had sorted through it all and dried out what he could to keep on hand for future need, and now was exactly when that stockpile would come in handy. Plenty of these plants had mosquito-repelling properties, and Bai Shuo decided to make a simple anti-mosquito balm to rub on himself.
The growth season still had a few months left to run, and neither the dry season nor the rainy season would be short on mosquitoes either, better to make a good supply now, rather than not enough.