Da Zaojun

Chapter 181 The underlying tone of life is suffering
These aunties, grandmothers, and old women each had a basket full of things.

Even Huang Qiaoyun, the ninth-rank skilled weaver, joined in.

Silkworm breeding and silk production were always something only the wealthy could afford; ordinary people typically wore clothes made of kudzu and hemp.

What she was looking for was wild kudzu and hemp, or even mass-produced varieties; otherwise, the people in the city might have no choice but to wear animal skins. Animal skins were good, but they were never as good as cloth.

As for cotton, Taichang City did not originally cultivate it unless it was produced in a special secret realm.

However, hemp is not hard to find; there were many ramie cloth workshops in Taichang County.

Ramie fabric is made of ramie fiber, but the price of ramie fabric depends on whether it is fine or coarse. If it is fine ramie fabric, it is the "Luo" among silks and satins, and it is a very high-end garment that wealthy people like to wear in summer.

The cloth in the city today is still stock from before the demonic catastrophe.

Food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

In Taichang City, food is not a problem for the time being; the problem now is clothing.

As for housing, the city is being expanded, and some large clans are also thinking about establishing villages elsewhere... In short, these issues are being addressed.

The problem of transportation is that there are indeed few horses, cattle, donkeys, and other livestock, as they are mostly used for farming, and transportation is mainly done by foot. However, without these large livestock, the biggest problem is not actually transportation, but "transporting heavy goods".

In short, we have to solve them one by one.

Kudzu cloth comes from kudzu vines, and hemp cloth comes from ramie; both grow in clumps.

However, after the chaos caused by demons, the world changed drastically, and some crucial items became resources in secret realms.

Although Huang Qiaoyun found some scattered hemp and kudzu, the quantity was too small, and the collected seeds were far from sufficient.

She worshipped the Heavenly Weaver Girl in the Rakshasa Ghost Market and understood that her own eighth-rank ritual was to solve the problem of "clothing" for the people in the city. With this merit, she would create "floral brocade" and embroider a "geographical map of the prosperous human realm". Only in this way could she become an eighth-rank "brocade spirit weaver".

She gradually walked away, leaving the large group gathering wild vegetables.

However, Song Wuji noticed this and sent Master Bao out to protect her, since Huang Qiaoyun currently had no combat ability.

Although Master Bao had lost his left arm, his knife skills were even more superb, showing the demeanor of a master butcher. He said to Huang Qiaoyun, "Little sister, don't go too far. I was thinking of going back to cook with Lord Song."

Huang Qiaoyun said, “I have a vague feeling that there is something that is destined to be with me. Just like when Miss Lin wanted to go out of the city to find her natal flower goddess, I also need to refine my natal silk thread. The fabric materials in the city are really scarce. If I can find suitable fabric, I might be able to weave an even more powerful magic weapon.”

“For example, the money bag that the Lord of the Realm gave me before contained a kind of silk thread. After identifying the material, I found that it was tiger demon hair. However, the hair on these demons is too short and too stiff, and it is difficult to weave it into thread without processing.”

"I need to find a better, more suitable one, and of course, it's also to give back to everyone."

"Master Bao, think about it. If I weave a garment that is a magical artifact, impervious to swords and spears, and immune to water and fire, wouldn't it be able to withstand some fatal injuries in battle?"

"Even if this clothing can only block one attack and will be destroyed by the second, it still has its value, doesn't it?"

“Not bad.” Master Bao looked at his empty left sleeve: “If I had a robe like this, I could certainly avoid a lot of problems.”

Huang Qiaoyun comforted him, "Brother Bao, the food made by the Realm Lord has all sorts of mysterious effects. Doesn't it have the ability to regenerate severed limbs?"

“He told me back then that if the severed arm could be found, it could be reattached, but my severed arm was bitten by a snake demon and cut off by myself, so it was already poisoned.”

"It's difficult to grow back out of thin air. If some flesh is lost, it might grow back, but if bones and tendons are missing, how can it possibly grow back unless there are some kind of magic pills or elixirs."

"However, in the Tiger Kingdom, there are mechanical bronze puppets, so I was thinking about whether I could make a mechanical hand."

“Brother Bao, I don’t understand mechanisms, but if it doesn’t require heavy work and is just about grabbing things, I can make you a hand out of bamboo strips and silk thread.”

The two gradually walked away, continuing their search for kudzu, hemp, or other materials that could be used for weaving.

The further they ventured into the wilderness, the weaker the laws of the city became, and they gradually encountered some wild demons. Fortunately, Master Bao's swordsmanship was quite good, and these demons were all of low rank.

……

Here in Song Wuji's area, people gather many wild vegetables, including shepherd's purse. Fresh shepherd's purse can be used to make steamed buns and dumplings, while older shepherd's purse can be used to boil eggs.

However, the number of chickens raised in the city is generally small nowadays, so getting an egg is considered a luxury.

Some people even found straw mushrooms in the grass. The straw mushrooms tasted alright; when fresh, they tasted ordinary, but when dried, they had a unique flavor.

In short, all kinds of wild vegetables were available, and basket after basket were delivered to the kitchen office, where they were assigned work points according to their weight.

Of course, there are also some "vegetable demons" that are suitable for taming, such as leek demons and sunflower demons.

Mallow has been used as a vegetable since the pre-Qin period, as evidenced by the poem: "Green mallows in the garden, waiting for the morning dew to dry in the sun." In short, both of these small, delicate plants were captured and cultivated by the Five Elements Minister of Agriculture.

Song Wuji and his aunts then began to use these wild vegetables as food.

Most wild vegetables have a bitter base flavor, and even after blanching, they remain bitter. Without enough oil for cooking, they are essentially no different from eating grass.

Fortunately, Song Wuji was only using the bitterness as a pretext, not genuinely trying to torture other people's taste buds.

After making dishes such as stir-fried wild vegetables with cured meat and shepherd's purse, shrimp, and meat buns.

Song Wuji had others taste it, and although it tasted good, it also had a refreshing bitterness, but it didn't activate the stove's energy and was identified as "the bitterness of the five flavors".

"This stuff tastes good, but... it doesn't taste like the kind of food we used to eat."

Song Wuji's eyes widened: "Does this really mean we have to make bitter vegetable buns and rice bran and bitter vegetable porridge?"

"Give it a try," Aunt Liu said. "It has to be pure coarse flour, preferably aged sourdough..."

“Spirit rice won’t work either; we have to use the regular rice.”

Song Wuji followed their advice and added bran powder, kaolin clay, and bitter vegetables to the flour before kneading it.

"Adding rice bran is one thing, but why add kaolin clay?"

"Adding kaolin clay makes bitter vegetable buns last longer, harder, and more filling. Also, a small amount of kaolin clay won't cause bloating. In fact, kaolin clay does have a slightly sweet taste."

Upon hearing this, Song Wuji was shocked. After all, he was a transmigrator. In his previous life, he was always able to eat his fill and had never experienced hunger. After transmigrating, he was a descendant of the Kitchen God and possessed the supernatural power to eat wood, soil, and stones.

But the common people cannot do it. Even those who perform the rituals of worshipping the Kitchen God, who now possess one percent of Song Wuji's supernatural abilities, cannot eat soil and gnaw on wood for a long time, otherwise they will die from intestinal obstruction.

But for these ordinary people, these are just common occurrences.

Song Wuji sighed sincerely, "The hard times are over now."

Aunt Liu sighed, "This is nothing! The world is in chaos now, and it's actually much worse. It's just that with the efforts of you, Magistrate Tian, ​​and many others... As for food, as long as we work, we won't go hungry, which is better than before... If the demons had succeeded in attacking the city back then... what would we have done?"

Touched, Song Wuji steamed the bitter vegetable buns. They didn't have an exaggerated aroma, but only a solid, simple, and light aroma of staple food, which looked very filling.

Song Wuji added the "Satiating Dew" he had refined from the hungry ghosts to the water used to knead the dough, along with powdered dried fruit.

Hungry ghosts in the hungry ghost realm suffer from hunger, and the materials they refine are all related to filling their stomachs.

The bitterness that Song Wuji realized was suffering, not hatred or separation, but pure suffering that crushed people's ambitions to the dust. For a bite to eat, people lowered their moral standards step by step, turning into despicable creatures, worse than stray dogs.

The bitter taste is closely related to hunger.

The stir-fried cured meat and steamed buns that Song Wuji made were things that only landlords could afford, so they couldn't really be considered hardship.

The bitterness of the bitter herbs, the astringency of the clay, the choking sensation in the throat from the bran, and the obsession with "being full" contained in the sweet dew and the famine fruit finally touched Zaoge.

When Song Wuji ate a cornbread, his first thought was that it was unpalatable and coarse food. But for some reason, he felt a kind of resilience in it, like wild grass and flowers that grow tenaciously in the harsh saline-alkali land. They survived drought, were trampled and ignored.

[By making bitter vegetable buns, one comprehends the five flavors of bitterness and gains the trait: Overcoming Calamity]

Overcoming Adversity: The eight sufferings of life are birth, old age, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, encountering those one hates, not getting what one desires, and the burning of the five aggregates. Each adversity is a hardship, a tribulation, and a barrier; every barrier is difficult to overcome, and one must always pass through them. Increases various resistances by 1-10%, slightly enhances adaptability in extreme environments, and greatly increases satiety.

The bitterness is the underlying tone of suffering, but the food made from it has the power to overcome adversity.

"It's done!"

"It's amazing!"

Aunt Liu exclaimed in surprise, "This is exactly the taste!"

"When I first ate it, I found it extremely bitter, but if I didn't eat it, I would go hungry. Today, I don't know why, but the bitterness doesn't seem so bitter anymore."

As she ate, she recalled her childhood, tears welling up in her eyes but not falling. Her voice choked with emotion, finally turning into a long sigh: "Alas!"

"What are you sighing about?"

"I sighed. This cornbread is getting worse and worse. I've finally made it to the point where I can enjoy life. I don't want to die too soon. I want to enjoy life for a few more years. But I don't know when I'll die. In this world, if a great demon comes and breaches the city one day, I'll have no choice but to die. At least I won't be a slave to the demon."

(End of this chapter)