Chapter 201 - Chapter 201: Chapter 197: Too Expensive_1 (1/2)

Chapter 201: Chapter 197: Too Expensive_1

Translator: 549690339

After the Double Ninth Festival, everyone in Dongchen Village was at home stripping cotton seeds, including the Jiang family.

Yingbao thought about it for a night, sorting out the plot in the book, and found that the focus was on the female protagonist, with little description of peripheral characters.

Even her own parents and younger brother, who were part of the supporting cast, were not mentioned, let alone Chuchu and others.

However, in the book, a process of cotton farmers using a machine to remove seeds from cotton was described. They used a machine called a cotton gin, which was a lot faster than manually picking out one seed by one.

The description mentioned securing a set of shelves on a table, with a wooden axle and an iron axle horizontally installed on top.

The iron axle was uppermost, with the wooden one beneath. The right side of the wooden axle had a crank, and the left side of the iron axle had a spinning wheel attached to a cross-shaped wooden frame.

During operation, the two axles cranked against each other, with one hand feeding the cotton in between the axles. The cotton was then ejected from the front of the machine, while the seeds fell to the ground behind.

Yingbao took a charcoal pencil and roughly sketched the shape of this cotton gin on paper, guessing that the craftsman would have to figure out the finer details.

“Dad, we can use this to strip the cotton seeds. It should be faster than picking by hand.” She handed the drawing to her father.

There was an overwhelming amount of cotton in their home, and the removal of seeds was a huge task. It would take their entire family at least a month or two to complete it.

Jiang Sanlang took the drawing from his daughter, examined it, and nodded, “I’ll ask Wang Ke to make one and see if it works. If it does, we’ll make a few more.”

Now as the village chief, he was responsible for all matters big and small in the village, and cotton ginning was a major one.

Sun Licheng kept urging him to hurry and sort out the cotton seeds, staying some for the villagers to plant and selling the rest to the County Government.

It was said that the Imperial Court attached great importance to this batch of seeds, and ordered the County Magistrate to send a batch of seeds and cotton to the Ministry of Revenue of the Capital City.

Yingbao suddenly thought of something and asked, “Dad, why haven’t the two looms we ordered from Zhou arrived yet?”

“I asked the Steward Zhou, Zhou Mao said he would definitely bring them when he came to collect golden corn ears.”

Jiang Sanlang often took his wife to the county town to visit their eldest son, which caused more interaction with Zhou Mao.

Yingbao nodded.

Their golden corn ears would be harvested in half a month, so she should first go to the county town and spend a few days there, and return after dealing with shop matters.

At noon, Jiang Quan loaded several baskets of chestnuts on to the wagon, and hung several large gourds on the roof of the wagon.

The gourds were as big as washbasins, and it was scary when they hung on both sides of the wagon.

Erni took a carry-all and climbed onto the cart, sitting next to her young cousin.

Today, her third uncle asked her to accompany Yingbao to go to the county. Erni was absolutely thrilled.

She had never been to the county town even once in her whole life, and this time she would definitely have a good time there.

“Bao’er, take Xiaohei with you. Dacheng said having a dog at home can prevent theft at night.” Chunniang took Xiaohei onto the wagon and instructed, “Xiaojie also wants to see Xiaohei, so just leave it in the county town afterwards.”

“Alright.” Yingbao held Xiaohei in her arms and waved to Chunniang, “Mom, I’m leaving.”

“Be careful on the road.”

“I know.”

Jiang Quan whipped the horse to start the cart and quickly left the village.

After a long and tiring journey, they finally arrived at the shop in the county town before nightfall.

By this time, the shop was already closed, but luckily Jiang Quan had a key.

Jiang Quan and Erni unmounted the chestnuts and gourds, and after putting everything into the shop they finally locked the door and led the cart to the backyard.

The backyard was piled full of bricks and tiles, almost filling up the whole yard.

“Where is big brother?” After entering the grass hut and not seeing Jiang Cheng, Erni asked Jiang Quan, “Doesn’t he live here at night?”

“Big brother should have gone to Plum Blossom Lane.” Jiang Cheng usually slept in the shop, probably knowing that his younger brother was coming back today, and thus went to Plum Blossom Lane instead.

Jiang Quan lit an oil lamp with a fire-starter and said, “You two stay here tonight, and go to Plum Blossom Lane tomorrow.”