roccoschili Chapter 220 Down Comforter
Chapter 220 Down Comforter
Chapter 220 Down Comforter
"Does Luo want something else to eat?" Xing asked, her hand already on the lid of the stone pot.
There was a feeling that if Jiang Luoluo nodded, she would immediately prepare the food.
Jiang Luoluo rubbed her stomach. She had already eaten quite a bit when she prepared food for Ge in the early hours of the morning, so she wasn't hungry now.
"I'm not hungry right now, um... I can eat lunch a little earlier."
Xing responded and sat back down to continue braiding the hair tie in her hand.
She did want to help Jiang Luoluo make the bed, but she knew Jiang Luoluo's personality better than anyone else and knew that Jiang Luoluo didn't like to ask others for help with things she could do herself.
So I watched as Jiang Luoluo ran around doing chores, quickly packed her things, and finished washing up.
Perhaps because of the cold weather, the wooden doors at the entrance of the cave were not completely closed as before, but only the two middle pieces were closed, leaving a space for entry and exit.
"Xing, is it getting colder outside?" Jiang Luoluo sat down by the fire and glanced at the cave entrance.
Xing thought about it carefully. She nodded, noting that the temperature was a bit colder than usual on the way here.
"Is Luo feeling cold? Should I put the wooden door back up?"
No matter how sickly and weak Xing was, she was still a member of her tribe who was about to come of age. Moving two planks was still quite easy for her.
Jiang Luoluo shook her head, "No need, it just feels much colder than yesterday, I think I need to put on more clothes again."
“Besides, if we cover the door, it will be too dark and it will hurt our eyes.” Jiang Luoluo rested her chin on her hand, sitting next to Xing and watching Xing braid hair ties.
The little she knew had already been completely learned by Xing—I'm talking about the pure techniques. As for those that require the use of various tools and equipment, let alone teaching them, Jiang Luoluo couldn't even replicate them.
Looking at Xing now, Jiang Luoluo inexplicably felt that the student had surpassed the teacher.
As Jiang Luoluo looked at the items, her thoughts drifted away. She remembered knitting scarves and cushions by hand before, which were fluffy and very warm.
Although Jiang Luoluo wasn't using wool yarn, she inexplicably thought of wool yarn at this moment.
Although animal hides are warm, their thickness and weight are drawbacks. Another drawback is that they are not breathable, making it easy to feel stuffy and sweaty when worn.
Doing this when the weather gets cold can easily make you catch a cold.
Linen is too thin; it's fine to make clothes for hot weather, but it's definitely not enough to keep warm in winter.
Even if you fold the linen into several layers to make it thick, it still won't work; it's not as warm as animal hide.
So, is it possible to create a substitute for wool and make some sweaters? Not necessarily to replace animal skin clothing, but at least to keep you warmer underneath and not have to worry about being stuffy and sweaty because they're not breathable?
Hmm, if we could get wool or other animal hair, could we also make down jackets...? It seems not.
It's not that down jackets are difficult to make, but rather that they are not very durable. Once they are torn, the down inside will come out. Given the overly active nature of the tribal people, they have to change into a new jacket every time they go out.
However, if down jackets aren't suitable, what about down comforters?
Jiang Luoluo glanced back at the stone bed. The straw-filled mattress was prickly and not very comfortable to sleep on, but if it were replaced with a layer of soft down, it would surely be very comfortable.
Having nothing else to do, Jiang Luoluo decided to give it a try.
Xing had become accustomed to the cub's sudden bursts of energy—if it suddenly thought of something, it would immediately run around trying to do various things.
She didn't ask the cub what it was going to do; Xing just watched the cub run around everywhere, looking very diligent.
Jiang Luoluo was searching through the bird feathers she had brought back from Yuan's house.
When it comes to down, it's much easier to obtain ready-made feathers than ducks or geese, which are hard to find anywhere.
Jiang Luoluo went bird hunting with Shou last time and caught more than ten birds, but not every bird had beautiful feathers. Several birds were caught because they were delicious.
Yuan likes to collect feathers, but he doesn't accept just any feather.
Yuan originally intended to use the less attractive feathers as fuel for a fire, as a way for them to contribute their last bit of light and heat.
Jiang Luoluo felt that these feathers might have some other use, so she asked Yuan for them, preventing them from ending up as firewood.
Actually, Jiang Luoluo had the idea of getting a down jacket back then, but the weather wasn't as cold as it is now, and there were other things that were attracting her attention.
So this thought only flashed through her mind for a moment, until Jiang Luoluo brought it up again now.
Upon closer inspection, there were surprisingly many feathers; more than enough to make a double mattress.
Although it's just feathers from a few birds, each of these birds is about half the height of a person, so the chances of getting a single one are not low.
However, not all of these feathers can be used. Some of the larger feathers are no less sturdy than the dry grass leaves.
To use these feathers as stuffing for bedding, the stalk in most of the feathers must first be removed.
Of course, Jiang Luoluo knew that down jackets or down comforters actually use the softest down feathers from feathers; otherwise, why would they be called down?
But didn't she offer no conditions?!
If Jiang Luoluo could get that much soft down, she wouldn't have chosen to fill the quilt with feathers that are at least as long as her arm.
Having lived in the tribe for so long, Jiang Luoluo is most adept at knowing how to handle things.
After all, with so many options, it wasn't that Jiang Luoluo didn't want to choose better ones, but rather that she simply had no choice.
It's as if Jiang Luoluo herself didn't want to use pure wool to make a quilt.
Removing feather shafts is not a troublesome task; it's even somewhat stress-relieving. Simply hold the base of the feather, take out a stone knife, and make a forceful downward cut.
You don't even need to use much force; you can quickly shred all the feathers off, turning them into tiny, fine feathers.
Jiang Luoluo was using her own small stone knife, which was not only small in size but also not durable. It quickly became less sharp, and it became increasingly difficult to cut feathers.
Just as Jiang Luoluo was about to stop and resharpen her small stone knife, she saw Xing silently hand her her stone knife over.
"Use mine, Luo."
"Thank you," Jiang Luoluo said, taking the package and expressing her gratitude.
"Do you need my help?" Xing watched for a while and knew that Jiang Luoluo only needed to break all the feathers, which was not complicated or difficult, so she offered to help.
"No need," Jiang Luoluo shook her head. "I can do it myself."
"Alright." Xing didn't insist. She casually re-polished Jiang Luoluo's stone knife, placed it beside Jiang Luoluo, and continued with her own work.
After a morning of work, Jiang Luoluo finally finished processing all the feathers.
Because the blanket she didn't want to sleep in accidentally pricked her in the middle of the night, Jiang Luoluo processed some of the feathers a second time, making them even finer, which is why she wasted so much time.
Xing had already prepared lunch on the side. She brought her own food, and neither Jiang Luoluo nor Ge would object if she ate Jiang Luoluo's or Ge's food.
Xing, however, couldn't bring herself to do something that would give her an advantage.
After finally finishing processing the feathers, just as Jiang Luoluo took out the mattress and quilt cover she had made earlier, preparing to stuff the fine feathers into them, she suddenly realized something.
It seems she missed a step – can these feathers be used directly without washing them?
It seems like directly filling it in isn't a bad idea, but if she did that, Jiang Luoluo would face two consequences.
First, there's the odor naturally present on these feathers. Will she be able to stand it while sleeping, or will she be woken up by the smell in the middle of the night?
The second concern is whether these feathers might carry dirt, germs, or viruses if they aren't washed.
After all, no one can guarantee that these wild animals will have the good habit of bathing every day—even the tribespeople don't bathe every day—and they might be carrying some germs.
Seeing the cub standing still, Xing asked curiously, "Luo, why aren't you moving? Shouldn't you be filling it in? Or do you need my help?"
Jiang Luoluo snapped out of her reverie and said with a somewhat helpless expression, "No need for help, Xing. I just suddenly remembered something. These feathers seem to need to be washed before they can be stored and used."
Xing tilted her head in confusion. "Why do we need to wash them? They don't look dirty."
Jiang Luoluo scratched her head, feeling that the first reason was not very convincing, so she only gave the second reason.
"Exactly. I'm thinking about the original owners of these feathers. Those birds may not have been to any particular place, and maybe they have some unclean things on them, who knows."
"I don't feel safe unless I clean it properly."
Xing didn't ignore the cub's words. After thinking about it carefully, she found that the cub made a lot of sense, so her expression also became serious. "That's right, Luo."
People like Xing, who are already grown up and about to become adults, don't need to worry too much about such trivial matters, but it's different for the cubs.
It is a very sad thing that the young in the tribe often get sick and die for various reasons.
Many things are perfectly fine for the older members of the tribe to handle, but the little cubs seem so fragile.
Therefore, this matter must be taken seriously!
"Let's wash them quickly, or let's eat first."
Jiang Luoluo felt like she had overlooked something again, but seeing Xing urging her from the side, she could only nod and agree, "Oh, okay."
It wasn't until after the meal that Xing took out the few extra stone pots that had been piled up in the corner—the ones she had used to make jam—in preparation for boiling water to wash the feathers.
Jiang Luoluo suddenly realized what was happening and stopped Xing's actions.
"Xing, wait a minute, these feathers can't be boiled in hot water!"
Jiang Luoluo wasn't very clear on the biology explanation of bird feathers, but she remembered that down jackets couldn't be washed with hot water, only with cold water or very warm water, or dry-cleaned.
Although the down inside the down jacket and the feathers in Jiang Luoluo's hand are not from the same creature, the difference between them should not be significant.
Therefore, by the same logic, these feathers should not be washed with hot water either.
Xing was a little confused. If she couldn't boil them in hot water, how could she clean them properly?
Compared to Jiang Luoluo, who was just a cub, Xing often helped her parents process the prey at home.
We know that some wild animals have special secretions that cannot be cleaned by simply washing with cold water; they must be boiled in hot water to thoroughly clean them.
Hearing the cub say that it shouldn't be washed with hot water, Xing was in a dilemma.
Jiang Luoluo finally realized what she had just overlooked.
It's a detergent.
It was just a short time ago, and those habits are still vivid in my mind—I used dish soap to wash dishes, laundry detergent and liquid laundry detergent to wash clothes, shampoo to wash my hair, shower gel to take a bath, and facial cleanser to wash my face…
Jiang Luoluo has now gotten used to using water for the vast majority of washing tasks, occasionally using wood ash to replace necessary cleaning.
So much so that she overlooked such an important matter.
However, rather than anxiously recalling those complex and tedious chemical formulas, Jiang Luoluo's first reaction was excitement.
Is it finally her turn to try making soap?
So-called classic time-travel plots inevitably involve making soap. It's simple, convenient, and easy to do, with virtually no difficulty, making it an essential tool for time travelers to get rich.
Jiang Luoluo never thought of making soap because everyone else who travels to ancient times makes money by using soap-making skills, and their main motivation is to make money. But here, she has no money to earn, so making soap wouldn't bring her anything in return.
Since it's not a necessity, and Jiang Luoluo isn't exactly free, she wouldn't want to waste a lot of time on it.
Now that soap is finally needed by her, Jiang Luoluo's motivation immediately increased.
The simplest soap-making recipe is lard and wood ash. By continuously boiling them, a reaction occurs, eventually turning them into a solidified product, which is soap.
Wood ash is relatively easy to obtain.
Lard was relatively difficult to obtain, since Jiang Luoluo had never seen a pig in the tribe.
However, lard can actually be replaced with animal fat.
Vegetable oils seem to work too.
Of course, the easiest thing for Jiang Luoluo to obtain here is various animal fats. Making soap from some of them is not difficult for her.
Thinking of this, Jiang Luoluo carefully collected all the feathers, then pulled Xing with a serious expression, "We need to make something else now! With it, we can clean these feathers."
Xing didn't understand what the cub meant, but she cooperated.
Xing was shocked when she saw the cub pouring ash into a pot of oil made from cooked meat, and she quickly reached out to stop it.
"Luo! What are you doing! You can't waste food!"