I opened a clinic in the Abyss World

Charlotte stared at the letter in his hand in silence for a long time. Nancy's departure left him with a sense of loss.

Charlotte put the letter back into the envelope and stored it in her spatial ring before picking up the exquisite money pouch beside her.

He opened the money bag, which was filled with glittering gold coins. He lay down on the bed and counted them quickly—there were at least 400 coins!

Two nights, 4000000 copper coins!

Charlotte was momentarily stunned; the money had come too easily.

Despite his hard work and ambition over the past few months, he has only earned a little over five million copper coins.

He quickly glanced at his attribute panel:

[Player: Charlotte]

[Occupations: Knight, Doctor, Pharmacist]

[Rank: Elite Knight: 51200/100000]

Senior Pharmacist: 2940/4000

[Wealth Points: 122360]

……

Eh?

Why hasn't my wealth value increased?!

Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

Based on past experience, this increase in wealth value is not limited to the income of the clinic. Even money obtained through murder and robbery can also lead to an increase in wealth value.

Could this be counterfeit money?

Charlotte picked up a gold coin and examined it carefully. Finding nothing unusual, she took out another gold coin from her spatial ring and compared the two carefully, but still found no flaws.

"Could it be because the final ownership of this money hasn't been determined yet, so it hasn't been directly converted into wealth value?" Charlotte put down the gold coins in her hand, lost in thought.

According to his agreement with Monte, the commission was split 55/50, so half of the four million copper coins should go to Monte.

Of course, Charlotte had already changed her mind and would only give Monte a 20% share at most.

From signing up to contacting Nancy, it was all against his will that Monte forcibly dragged him into the group. After Nancy arrived in the Abyss, Monte did nothing, not even preparing a set of clothes that fit him.

He earned this money by risking his life and through his own abilities, even killing a level seven vampire in the process.

  

Looking back now, I realize I ran too fast last night and forgot to loot the corpse. I wonder what good stuff that level seven vampire baron Lorenzo had on him.

Charlotte looked at the glittering gold coins on the bed and felt even more strongly that the money was rightfully hers.

Nancy might even make a profit.

However, when Monte and Nancy discussed the commission, the total amount should have been ten million copper coins. Nancy said she would give him half of that, so it should have been five million copper coins. Why is it only four million?

Charlotte, unable to find a solution, could only put all the gold coins on the bed into her spatial ring for the time being.

If he could convert all four million into wealth points and use them to drink a power potion, his strength would be very close to breaking through to the sixth level of legendary knight.

Strength is the greatest source of confidence, and the more Charlotte comes into contact with strong individuals, the more she agrees with this.

As Charlotte got out of bed, she kicked something. Looking down, she saw half of a whip handle sticking out from under the bed.

Charlotte bent down to pick up the small black leather whip, a smile involuntarily appearing on her lips. Who would have thought that Mrs. Nancy, who liked to brandish whips and handcuffs and threaten to toy with others, was toyed with by a small leather whip all night last night?

……

At the entrance to the abyss, a low-key yet luxurious black carriage sped out and headed straight for the main road.

"Madam, are we leaving the Abyss now? Shouldn't we say goodbye to Dr. Charlotte?" Inside the carriage, Beth knelt on the cushions, making tea, and asked Nancy, who was lying on the bench.

Nancy, with an elegant and languid demeanor, shook her head slightly and said, "No need. If he truly wants to see me, he will naturally come to the Roch Islands to find me."

Upon hearing this, Beth naturally dared not ask any more questions. She handed the brewed tea to Nancy and said, "Madam, your complexion and skin seem to have improved."

"Really?" Nancy's lips curled up slightly. This morning, someone had carefully applied lotion all over her body. Thinking of those restless, hot hands, she couldn't help but feel a little hot. She pushed open a corner of the car window to let in the wind and looked at the scenery that was constantly receding, but she also felt a little melancholy and reluctant to leave.

If he doesn't come, will she come back?

Her hand unconsciously stroked her lower abdomen, unaware of whether a small life was growing inside.

……

"Dr. Charlotte, the young lady asked me to invite you over. The spinning and weaving masters from Scarcity have arrived at the Abyss." Guy arrived after lunch.

"Alright, let's go then." Charlotte boarded the carriage and followed Guy to Harriman Estate.

"How did things go with yesterday's incident?" Charlotte asked Buddy, who was driving, as the car door was half open.

"It is said that the progress is good. Lord Joseph has ordered a thorough investigation into the matter and has strictly ordered the police station to handle the case according to the law and to show no leniency. Anselm's mansion has been sealed off, and all members of his clan have been arrested and taken to the police station," Buddy replied.

Charlotte laughed and said, "It seems the city lord is quite furious about this matter, showing no respect whatsoever to his brother's in-laws."

"The city lord has taken office, and his first act is to burn his own house. It's out of necessity, Doctor. It has to be you, Doctor." Buddy added with a laugh.

"Now that the fire is already burning, I'll add some more firewood." Charlotte took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it over.

"What's this?" Buddy took it, glanced at it briefly, and turned to look at Charlotte with a slightly strange expression: "You're really rubbing salt into the wounds of the Duru family."

Charlotte said with a hint of helplessness, "You can't escape this either. Overnight, I became the abyss's righteous doctor. Patients who had nowhere else to turn turned to me for justice. While the fire is raging, I might as well throw in a few more useless pieces of trash to help the Duru family heal their wounds. Lord Joseph might even want to thank us."

"Swa is the grandson of the Duru family's Grand Elder, and his status is much higher than Anselm's. If the Duru family is determined to protect him, it may be difficult to take him down. I suggest you discuss this with Miss later," Buddy suggested.

"This bastard has this other identity?" Charlotte was somewhat surprised, and her expression became more serious.

The carriage soon arrived at Harriman Estate, drove straight through the gate, but did not head towards the familiar villa. Instead, it circled around to the side and stopped outside a grand hall.

Buddy led Charlotte through the main entrance of the hall, which was empty and spacious, covering over a thousand square meters. Several huge crystal chandeliers illuminated the area, suggesting it had previously been a ballroom. There were four or five people on the left and five or six on the right, divided into two groups. They were all carrying equipment as tall as themselves, covered with old cloth, making it impossible to discern their appearance.

Several chairs were placed in the middle of the hall, where Diana, dressed in a long blue dress, and her father Dirk were already seated, waving to Charlotte.

Charlotte walked straight over and greeted Dirk with a smile, "Hello, Mr. Dirk."

"Hello, Dr. Charlotte, it's been a long time." Dirk stood up, shook hands with Charlotte, and said with a smile, "Please sit down. Diana said you have a lot of experience in building factories. Could you take a look at the skills of these craftsmen and see if they are suitable for large-scale production?"

"I only know a little bit myself," Charlotte said with a smile as she sat down in the chair next to Diana. "One part spinning yarn, the other weaving cloth?"

"That's right, both groups have quite a temper," Diana nodded slightly.

"It's normal to have a bad temper if you're skilled," Charlotte smiled.

Diana nodded to Buddy, who then stepped forward and announced loudly, "Masters, now it's time to demonstrate your skills."

The group on the left was led by a thin old man named Ernest. He was somewhat hunchbacked, with sparse, white hair, but he looked quite energetic, with deep and shrewd eyes. He immediately stepped forward and said, "Then let us first demonstrate our spinning skills to our master. Turning cotton bolls into fine yarn that can be woven into cloth is a very complicated process. Our Lambert family's spinning skills are second to none in Scarcity."

"Okay, let's start with spinning." Diana nodded.

"Kids, show your tools and skills, don't let anyone look down on you," Ernest said, turning around.

The four young men pulled off the old cloth covering the equipment they were carrying on their backs, revealing the various tools inside.

The first young man was carrying a small folding table with a partition in the middle and partitions on all four sides. He had poured a small bag of cotton onto one side.

"The cotton needs to have the seeds removed first. This step is very difficult and requires skill; you need to be proficient to complete it," the old man explained from the side.

As he spoke, the young man picked up a cotton ball, his ten fingers flying, and the wisps of cotton accurately landed in the empty space on his left. In the blink of an eye, only a tiny cotton seed remained in his hand.

Those present were all amazed by this scene; the technique was truly admirable.

"As expected of the Lambert family, their cottonseed removal technique is so skillful," exclaimed Jelia, the leader of the weaving family.

Charlotte was equally dumbfounded. This was truly handmade, without any tools involved!

He'd seen people shear wool before, but this was the first time he'd ever seen someone shear cotton with their bare hands. Look at those clean cotton seeds; you couldn't shear them so cleanly without at least ten years of experience.

However, isn't this efficiency far too low?

A skilled worker can only remove one cotton seed at a time, which takes about three seconds. If it is a newly recruited employee, it may not be possible to process a cotton seed in ten seconds. It also tests the worker's surgical skills and talent.

Leaving aside the efficient cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney, even a foot-operated cotton gin improved by Huang Daopo only required repeating the simple actions of feeding and pedaling to efficiently remove cotton seeds and obtain cotton wool.

Charlotte originally thought that removing cotton seeds was a simple step that didn't require any additional tools, but now it seems that it's still necessary to bring out the wisdom of our ancestors and use it for a while.

Amidst the exclamations of praise, the young man gradually lost himself, and half an hour later, he finally managed to pull out half a table of cotton wadding.

"The cotton fibers have been separated, but they are not fluffy and soft enough. Before they can be spun into yarn, the cotton needs to be fluffed to make it even softer," Ernest continued.

The young man in the second process showed off a special instrument that was nearly two meters tall, shaped like a harp, with five strings.

Charlotte perked up immediately.

He was very familiar with cotton fluffing. He grew up surrounded by flying cotton fibers, watching his grandfather fluff cotton quilts and deliver them to every household.

At first, traditional techniques were used: a slingshot, a millstone, a cotton carding mallet, and a cotton-pulling strip. The slingshot was very simple in construction. When carding cotton, people relied entirely on their hands to strike the bowstring with a cotton carding mallet to soften the cotton fibers.

Later, he injured his back and could no longer gin cotton. Someone sold him a wooden box-type cotton gin, which was pedal-driven and increased efficiency tenfold. He could gin seven or eight cotton quilts a day, thus starting the second spring of his career. He contracted cotton ginning work in several surrounding villages and was deeply envied by his old friends.

The cotton, with the seeds removed, was placed on a flat table in front of the young man. With a low growl, he lifted the heavy harp and suspended it above the cotton. Veins bulged on his arms and back, and with metal finger guards on his left hand, he began to pluck the bowstring.

Thump! Thump! Clang! Clang...

A somewhat jarring sound rang out, and the cotton began to tremble, visibly becoming fluffy.

"Let's fluff the cotton!"

Charlotte couldn't help but want to join in and give him a shout.

It must be said that the efficiency of these five strings is indeed quite high, five times more efficient than the old-fashioned single bow.

It's a bit hard on the hands.

Lifting a heavy five-stringed bow weighing tens of kilograms with one hand, or plucking the bowstring with bare hands, are not things that ordinary people can do.

Experienced craftsmen know to use a bent piece of wood to suspend the bow, distributing the weight to their waist and legs. This young man, however, was honest, putting all the weight on his hands and stomach.

"A five-string slingshot! This young man is remarkable; he'll become the face of the Lambert family in the future," Jelia from the Luce family continued to praise.

A hint of smugness appeared on old man Ernest's face.

There wasn't much cotton, but it was carded in no time, becoming fluffy and soft. The next step was the combing process.

They were quite practical; with a large iron comb half a meter long, the two of them worked together to neatly comb the cotton, with most of the fibers in a straight and parallel state.

This greatly shocked Charlotte. It seemed that she would have to build the foot-operated carding machine herself. She couldn't accept wasting two people's time using a head comb to card cotton.

The combed cotton was rolled into strips with a small wooden stick and handed to Ernest.

"Now comes the most crucial step, spinning cotton into yarn. This is the most important step of all, and it's a closely guarded secret. But since the master has paid to invite us here, we'll give you a brief demonstration." Ernest unveiled the device in front of him, which was a half-meter-high rotating disc with a smaller disc next to it. The larger disc had a handle on it, and it looked like it was hand-cranked. The structure was quite simple.

Ernest picked up a wad of cotton, twisted it with his aged fingers, and pulled out a thread from the top of the wad. While twisting and pulling, he slowly extended a uniform cotton thread from the wad, as if it were being pulled out of the wad, and guided it to the wooden stick in the middle of the small disc next to the large turntable.

As he turned the large disc, the small disc followed suit and spun rapidly, causing the cotton yarn to be drawn out and wound evenly.

Ernest held the tampon in his right hand, his index finger and thumb gently twisting the yarn at the same time, as if he were controlling the thickness of the yarn, his technique delicate and skillful.

"How amazing." Diana's eyes lit up slightly. She had watched the cotton flowers being picked one by one and turned into fluff, but in Ernest's hands, they slowly turned into cotton thread and were wound into coils on the device.

Charlotte stared at the spinning wheel in Ernest's hand. The spinning wheel was somewhat interesting, but it only had one spindle, so its efficiency wasn't very high. Currently, the price of roving was high, and cotton cloth could not be widely promoted. The high labor cost was an important reason for this.

"This machine is truly ingenious. No wonder Lambert Home Textiles produces yarn that is of uniform thickness and has better resilience. It turns out that the process has been greatly improved," Jeria exclaimed.

Before long, the cotton strips were spun into four bundles of yarn.

"Master, this is the spun yarn, ready to be used for weaving. Please take a look." Ernest placed four balls of yarn on a tray and had a young man bring it forward.

Diana picked up a spool of yarn, examined it, and nodded, saying, "It's spun quite well."

Dirk glanced at it but did not offer any comment.

Ernest's face showed a hint of smugness. As long as the client was satisfied, the deal was half done, and he would have more leverage when negotiating terms later.

Charlotte also picked up a roll, wondering what Diana meant. The yarn was very coarse, only coarse yarn. If used directly for weaving, it would only produce coarse cloth, which would feel rough to the touch.

The spinning machine he built last night can refine this coarse yarn, turning it into fine yarn, thus ensuring that the woven fabric is softer, more delicate, and more comfortable to wear.

This is the yarn spun by the renowned top textile family in Scarborough.

When he was six years old, the cotton yarn he twirled by hand while bored next to his grandfather was not much worse than this.

"What do you think?" Diana turned her head to look at Charlotte.

Charlotte shook her head: "I think it's just so-so. Clothing factories wouldn't use fabric woven from this yarn; it's too coarse."

Upon hearing this, Ernest's face immediately darkened, and he said unhappily, "I don't like what this gentleman is saying. There are few spinning masters in Ska who dare to say they are better than me. Of course, I am only giving it my all today. If it were a customer with specific requirements, the yarn I spin would be half as fine as this."

"That was my presumption." Charlotte wasn't in a hurry to argue with him; she wanted to see how the cloth was woven.

When Ernest saw that Charlotte did not argue with him, he could only give up. After all, Charlotte was a guest of the host, and he could not say much.

The spinning session was over. The leader of the Luce family, the weaving family, was a somewhat overweight middle-aged man named Jelia. He was accompanied by five middle-aged women, all dressed in coarse cloth clothes with simple patterns.

Their equipment consisted of a long table pieced together, with several movable horizontal bars on the top and bottom, and numerous upright poles of the same thickness evenly arranged.

It seems they intend to weave on this table, but Charlotte couldn't see much of a loom on it. And with six people and only one table, does that mean all six of them are weaving the same piece of cloth?

Jeria stepped forward and looked at Diana, saying, "My lady, I am Jeria from the Luce family. These five are among the best weavers in our family. Next, we will demonstrate our family's unique weaving technique: six people weaving a single piece of cloth together is more than twice as efficient as a single person."

Diana nodded slightly: "Please begin your performance."