Chapter 37: The Ancient Loom

*Tap tap…* As they walked, Su Bai suddenly stopped, almost causing the fox eared girl behind him to bump into him."Shaman, what’s wrong?" Yu Ying asked softly.

"Have someone make three palm-sized pieces of animal hide, overlap them and sew them together with two vines on the sides long enough to tie behind the head." Su Bai described in detail the primitive version of a mask.

He thought of the scene of stone dust scattering during the polishing of stone tools, and felt that without some protection, Shan Qiu’s lungs would eventually have problems.

"Alright. I’ll remember to do that." Yu Ying nodded quickly.

"Have them make several and send them to Shan Qiu," Su Bai, thinking of how stubborn people on Earth refused to wear masks, added, "Tell him it’s from me. Tell him that he needs to wear a piece while polishing stone tools to protect his lungs."

"En, okay," Yu Ying responded softly.

"…" Yan Hua’s red eyes flickered, staring at Su Bai’s profile, she felt that he had become more approachable.

As the leader of the Tribe, the Shaman had always been seen as awe-inspiring and mysterious, not concerned with trivial matters. However, Su Bai’s current behaviour completely overturned the image of the ‘stern, humourless Shaman’ in the cow horned girl’s mind, making him seem more approachable.

"What are you thinking about?" Su Bai noticed the cow horned girl’s distracted expression.

"Ah?" Yan Hua came to her senses, her cheeks turning slightly red as she turned away, saying, "We’ve reached the woodworker’s Teepee."

"Strange…" Su Bai muttered.

The three of them walked around to the front of the Teepee, where they saw an old man waiting at the entrance.

"Shaman," the old man bowed in greeting.

"Elder, there’s no need for that," Su Bai quickly stepped forward to support the seventy-something-year-old man. He could not abandon the virtue of respecting the elderly that he brought from Earth.

"Shaman, this is Grandfather Gu Mu, the Tribe’s best woodworker," Yan Hua introduced from the side.

Gu Mu, in his seventies, had a face deeply wrinkled by the years, with grey-white hair and beard. Most notably, his white beard was covered in wood shavings.

"Shaman, the things you asked Yan Hua to have me make yesterday are ready now," Gu Mu’s aged voice was full of vigour, not at all like that of a seventy-year-old.

He had heard the commotion from Shan Qiu’s side early on and knew the Shaman was coming, so he had been waiting outside the Teepee.

"Good, let’s go take a look," Su Bai said gently.

"Come in, come in," Gu Mu was very enthusiastic, leading the way into the Teepee.

Su Bai stepped into the Teepee and saw a different scene from Shan Qiu’s Teepee. It was not messy, except for the wood shavings on the ground. The wood was neatly arranged, and the area around the fire pit was very clean.

"Shaman, the things you wanted me to make are here," Gu Mu turned and brought out a large wooden tube half as tall as a person, with a diameter of two palms’ length.

"So big?" Su Bai was stunned, his mouth slightly open as he looked at the giant filter.

"Is it big? If I had larger wood materials here, I would have made an even bigger one for the Shaman," Gu Mu felt it was not big enough.

"No need, this is already sufficient," Su Bai quickly intervened. He had originally intended to make a palm-sized filter, not expecting it to be so much larger than imagined.

"Shaman, is there anything else you want me to make?" Gu Mu asked expectantly.

In the Tribe, the Shaman was the most difficult to approach. Being able to do work for the Shaman was something others would envy, and also an affirmation of one’s abilities.

"Yes, I need you to make a few things for me today," Su Bai beckoned to the fox eared girl.

Yu Ying quickly came forward, handing over the animal hide drawing she had been holding.

"That’s wonderful, this old man was almost out of things to do," Gu Mu’s crow feet instantly spread out.

"Here, take a look. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me," Su Bai handed over the animal hide drawing.

"Alright, let me see," Gu Mu took it and began studying it earnestly.

"…" Su Bai looked at Gu Mu’s hands, the back of which was as rough as old pine bark. There were cracks all over, and several thick calluses on the palm. These were the hands of an experienced old woodworker.

After about ten minutes, Gu Mu finished looking.

He pointed to one of the drawings and asked, "Shaman, the table in this drawing is simple, but what’s this next to it? It looks a bit strange."

Gu Mu had made many tables, but since moving from the Tribal Ancestral Land, the Shaman had not asked him to make anything else.

"This is called a chair, it’s for sitting. It goes with the table as a set," Su Bai explained. This was a chair with a backrest, which is why Gu Mu found it strange.

In primitive society, there was no concept of chairs. People either used stones covered with animal hides, logs, or simply sat on the ground.

"A chair for sitting?" Gu Mu frowned in thought, then realised, "Then this table should be made higher."

"That’s right," Su Bai nodded in agreement. Not having tables and chairs was really inconvenient.

"If the Shaman needs it urgently, I can have it ready by tomorrow," Gu Mu said confidently. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"There’s no rush, it can wait a day or two," Su Bai shook his head and pointed to another drawing in Gu Mu’s hand, saying seriously, "The item in this drawing is more urgent."

Gu Mu glanced at the drawing, which showed just a few pieces of wood that needed holes drilled.

He grinned, saying casually, "This isn’t difficult to make, I can make one set in half a day."

"Good. Make this first. I need ten sets." Su Bai let out a small sigh of relief.

What he wanted Gu Mu to make was a loom, the most ancient type of loom that could be assembled with just a few pieces of wood.

With only six days left until the market at the Spotted Deer Tribe, not counting today, and three days needed for travel, the Flame Dragon Tribe only had three days to prepare.

If the materials for making linen could be found in the next two days, and considering that making a high-tech loom would take at least two days with primitive technology, there was simply not enough time.

Rather than one good loom, within the urgent timeframe of the next few days, it was more important to have ten simple looms, using more manual labour to weave linen as a temporary measure.

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