I Became The Chief of A Primitive Village

Chapter 140: A Bit Bittersweet?

Yu Ying looked at the sand in the iron pot and curiously asked, “Shaman, why did we pour the sand in?”

“We need to heat it to make the shaft stiff.” Su Bai explained, amused by the fox eared girl’s confused expression.

“Heat the sand?” Yu Ying doubted her ears and continued asking, “Shaman, do we really need to heat the sand? In this iron pot?”

“Yes, in this iron pot. Just increase the intensity of the fire,” Su Bai said in a serious tone.

“Okay.” Yu Ying scratched her fox ears and squatted by the fire pit to add more firewood. The fox eared girl pouted and mumbled, her brows furrowed tightly, still unable to understand.

“Hahaha… You’ll see in a moment,” Su Bai could not help but chuckle. Her confused look was so adorable, he wanted to pinch her cheeks.

Ten minutes later, Yu Ying had added a lot of firewood, heating the sand in the iron pot until it was steaming.

“Shaman, *cough cough*… Is this… *cough cough*… enough?” Yu Ying choked on the smoke several times.

Su Bai walked over, observed the sand in the iron pot, and said, “It should be fine now. Have some water and rest.”

Ideally, the sand should be heated to over 100 degrees Celsius, but without a thermometer, they could not measure the exact temperature.

Su Bai did not insist on reaching a specific temperature, relying instead on his judgement.

“Shaman, do we bury the feathers in it?” Yu Ying asked curiously, holding several feathers.

“No need to bury the whole feather, just insert the shaft into the sand.” Su Bai took the feathers and began demonstrating.

One by one, the feathers were evenly inserted into the sand, and then the iron pot was removed from the fire pit.

Yu Ying looked at the pot full of feathers and asked, “Shaman, is this enough? How long do we need to wait?”

“Wait about ten minutes, then pull them out for the next step.” Su Bai explained.

“Fifteen minutes?”

Yu Ying’s pink eyes moved slightly as she asked, “Shaman, what’s fifteen minutes?”

Su Bai covered his face with one hand, forgetting that the fox eared girl did not know these terms. He took out his pocket watch and explained to Yu Ying, “Look, when it turns from here to here. That’s fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, I see. It moves by itself. This is so amazing! Is it because it’s a Shaman Technique?” Yu Ying seemed extremely curious about this small object.

The first time she saw the pocket watch, although curious, she did not dare ask to look at it closely. This was her first time seeing it up close.

“Hahaha, it’s not a Shaman Technique, it’s technology. Here, you hold it and tell me when the time is up,” Su Bai smiled.

“Yes.” Yu Ying carefully took the pocket watch with both hands, tilting her head and muttering, “What’s technology?”

Su Bai walked to the stone table and started recalling the specific steps for making quill pens.

When he was writing novels on Earth, he had written about this topic, but it had been a long time, and his memory was a bit rusty.

The fox eared girl stared intently at the pocket watch, not daring to look elsewhere, afraid of missing something.

Fifteen minutes later, Yu Ying immediately stood up, pulled out all the feathers, and said, “Shaman, it’s been… been fifteen minutes.”

“Good.” Su Bai got up, walked over, took a few feathers, and returned to the stone table.

Yu Ying obediently stayed nearby and asked, “Shaman, is the quill pen finished now?”

“Not yet. We still need to make the nib. This will make the writing more delicate.” Su Bai explained.

Making the nib was perhaps the most technically demanding part of creating a quill pen. Those with poor dexterity might find it maddening.

The fox eared girl just nodded along, her pink eyes full of question marks, waiting for Su Bai’s next move.

Seeing her expression, Su Bai thought of a phrase, [‘Little one, is your small head full of big question marks?’]

Of course, making the nib might be difficult for people in the Tribe, but for Su Bai, a modern person, it was not too hard. After all, the Ancestor of the fountain pen was the quill pen. He knew about fountain pens, and with a Fruit Knife, it was not too challenging to make quill pens.

Su Bai took the Fruit Knife and made a cut at the base of the feather, creating the nib of the quill pen.

The thickness of this cut would determine the thickness of the writing. Writing styles might make the thickness of the strokes vary, but the overall thickness was still determined by this cut. For Su Bai, he cut it very thin and sharp.

After cutting the nib, he made another cut up the middle of the nib, splitting it in two.

“Ah! Shaman, weren’t you just making the nib? Why are you splitting it open?” Yu Ying felt a bit sorry for the newly made nib.

“This is called the ink reservoir. This cut is for storing ink,” Su Bai explained.

“Oh, I see…” Yu Ying’s face reddened slightly as she squatted down again.

Su Bai smiled and continued his work. He drew double lines along the ink reservoir and finally used the needle to make a hole in the middle of the center line.

He picked up the quill pen and shook it, smiling as he said, “Alright, the quill pen is ready.”

“…” Yu Ying’s pink eyes remained wide open, fixed on the quill pen.

Su Bai was already a bit impatient. He took out the Black Stone Nut Juice, dipped the quill pen in it, took out a piece of Wolf Tail Grass Paper, and began to write.

Looking at the fine strokes on the Wolf Tail Grass Paper, he nodded with satisfaction and said, “Perfect. The quill pen has been successfully made.”

“That’s great! We finally don’t have to use charcoal anymore!” Yu Ying smiled.

“Yes, no more charcoal.” Su Bai felt a mix of amusement and sadness. [Why did that statement feel a bit bittersweet?]

He handed the quill pen to the fox eared girl and said, “Here, you try it. Write what I taught you before.”

“Okay.” Yu Ying excitedly took the quill pen and bent over the stone table, writing the numbers she had learned before.

The numbers one to ten appeared on the Wolf Tail Grass Paper, very fine and neat.

The fox eared girl stopped writing, delighted, and turned to look at Su Bai, expecting praise.

“You wrote very well. The first quill pen is yours to keep.” Su Bai gently said.

“Thank you, Shaman,” Yu Ying said happily, her fox tail wagging continuously.

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