After a cold water shower, Lu Yujin's mind became increasingly clear. He felt that Tang Wanwan had undergone some changes today, but he couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what they were. In any case, he found himself quite fond of the changes.
She seemed more lively and loved to tell jokes now.
She could tell lies.
The way she smiled was rather beautiful.
He thought, maybe he could find other ways to get closer to her tomorrow, and perhaps she wouldn't be so resistant to his help. With that thought, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
Meanwhile, in the Tang Family's third household, apart from the twins Tang Xiao Yi and Tang Xiaorou, everyone else had their own thoughts and couldn't sleep well.
Tang Wanwan wanted to sleep too, but the hard plank bed was so uncomfortable it nearly broke her bones. Eventually, she had no choice but to sleep lightly on her side near the edge of the bed. By tomorrow, she had to figure out a way to make the bed softer.
Although she had traveled through time, her bad habits of being particular about life hadn't changed. It seemed she'd need some time to adapt to the conditions here.
However, her principle in doing things had always been not to compromise. Transforming a bed was no big deal for her. The difficult part was where to find things like a Simmons mattress and those spring wires.
Given her family's current situation, they couldn't possibly improve their living environment. Never mind, she'd find something soft to lay down temporarily to get through the life crisis. She'd think about the "Simmons bed" after their lives improved.
The next day, Tang Wanwan got up early but didn't see Lady Chen. After calling out a couple of times with no answer, she didn't dare call louder, fearing she'd wake everyone else up.
There was a slight smoke coming from the stove, half a pot of hot water in the pot, and on the table was a bowl of gruel, along with some leftover potatoes from last night, still warm as they had been steamed again. They sufficed as breakfast.
She quickly rinsed her mouth with some salt water, considering it done for oral hygiene. Didn't books say ancient people used green salt or willow branches to clean their teeth? Were those all tricks? From the original owner's memory, people here didn't bother cleaning their teeth. At most, they'd rinse their mouth with water. Ordinary families couldn't bear to use salt to clean their teeth; using it once could equate to several days' food supply. Wasting salt like that could invoke heavenly wrath.
The salt in ancient times was controlled by the government, only opening up to private contracts and processing of salt and iron, textile industry, and the like around the mid to late Ming Dynasty. Daxia Country had very strict control over salt. There was an incident where a big merchant colluded with the government to secretly hoard salt and iron, causing prices to skyrocket, leading to many people starving to death due to a lack of salt. The new emperor decreed that anyone secretly selling salt could cause their entire family to receive collective punishment if the situation was serious.
Tang Jianfei also made a living from salt, by transporting salt and iron for the government, earning his keep through manual labor. Since this work was not only exhausting but also risky, it laid a hidden danger for his incident later on.
Some transporters, to save money on salt, would take off their clothes to soak in a salt pool when no one was looking. They would then dry their clothes and wear them back. After returning home, they boiled their clothes to extract the salt for use.
Tang Jianfei used his connections to buy some unprocessed salt blocks, kept some for himself, and then handed them over to the clan.
The Tang Family Village had a large salt refining pool, and with a few hundred people including adults and children, they used a considerable amount of salt daily. Salt that wasn't processed couldn't be consumed. Some people even got poisoned and died from eating unprocessed brine. But what they did was only rough processing; refined salt required a hefty price, unaffordable for ordinary families.
After Tang Jianfei's incident, the people in Tang Family Village faced salt issues again, so they found a young clansman to replace Tang Jianfei. However, this person couldn't handle the hardship, often slacking off, let alone bringing back cheap salt. The village then had to rely on official channels to buy salt, causing the salt price to jump from a few cents to over ten cents.
Sigh, the salt issue really was a big problem.
Without salt, people lost strength. However, long-term consumption of such inadequately processed salt was bound to cause problems.
As Tang Wanwan thought about this, she noticed a tinge of purple on Mrs. Wang's and Granny Zhang's faces that day.
Lady Chen and her family likely consumed less salt, so the signs of poisoning weren't very severe.
They had to figure out a way to solve the salt problem; otherwise, it would inevitably lead to trouble over time.
Managing a household truly revealed the preciousness of everyday necessities, and only now did Tang Wanwan understand how much work a person managing a family had to do, and how much they had to worry.
Tang Wanwan initially planned to go up the mountain later, but seeing the current situation, there was no time to waste. However, her mother hadn't returned yet, so she needed to prepare things for the mountain and inform her mother.
While tidying up, Tang Wanwan found many finely crafted tools at home, like self-made bows and a scimitar for chopping wood. There was also a basket, covered in dust in a corner, which looked ordinary but different in her eyes. Because she had seen similar baskets in the Lu Ban Ancestor's Tool Diagram. Just that the basket there wasn't as complicated, more of a simple design.
This basket surely had a story.
In such a small mountain village, in a crumbling mud house, finding such things made Tang Wanwan wonder about the strange twists of fate in life.
Was it Heaven's arrangement for her to end up here? Unfortunately, the original owner's father had passed away; otherwise, she could have asked about it.
With some hope, Tang Wanwan took out the basket again, wiped it with a damp cloth to see if she could restore it. To her luck, the basket emitted a dark red glow after being cleaned. The bamboo material was also unique, likely soaked in some special solution. Not only was it as tough as iron, but it also made a metallic sound when lightly tapped.
This treasure was hers now, and it would belong to her, Tang Wanwan, from now on.
In no time, Tang Wanwan was fully equipped, ready with climbing tools and self-defense equipment. She found that the scimitar and the bow left by her father were quite good. She shot an arrow at a nearby tree and missed, but she felt very happy. The bow could exert the force of one tael of stone at least. She previously could only draw a bow with the force of fifty to sixty pounds, approximately half a tael, proudly basking in others' envious glances. Seeing the mighty self-made bow and arrow, Tang Wanwan was entirely convinced.
Fortunately, her small crossbow was almost complete, hidden in her sleeve. In case of danger, she could easily hurt someone. Originally, it needed a spring machine expansion, but she made it manually; with a simple press to the trigger beneath, the bamboo arrows hidden inside would immediately shoot out.
When she had the chance, she'd replace the bamboo arrows with iron arrows; then it would be truly formidable.