Chapter 104: Wool
“Pitiful.”
“Really pitiful.”
The two guards looked at the nest of pitiful grassland cats and sighed, shaking their heads.
Keke: “As expected, having too many children leads to poverty.”
Not only can they not eat enough themselves, but there’s no milk for the kittens.
If Qin Wanwan and the others hadn’t come across this nest of grassland cats, this whole family would probably have died here.
You ask where the grassland cat father is?
Sorry, most male cats are scumbags, the kind that only care about procreating and not raising their young.
Grassland cats resemble leopard cats, and it’s even possible that domesticated leopard cats were domesticated from wild grassland cats.
However, wild grassland cats appear to have longer legs and a fiercer, more wild appearance.
Just by looking at that face, which resembles a big brother among cats, their ability to catch mice must be considerable.
“You two come home with me, my Daddy will raise you!”
The two guards exchanged glances.
The General’s burden had grown a little heavier.
Originally, they had intended for Miss Wanwan to invite two cat officials back, but instead, she returned with a whole litter.
Ten little kittens still needing milk.
Lang Ya took off his coat, and Qin Wanwan wrapped all the mewling kittens inside it.
Only Qin Wanwan could do this; the mother cat, even though weak, would lash out at anyone else who got close.
But on the way back, Qin Wanwan couldn’t possibly carry all ten kittens herself.
Qin Wanwan comforted the mother cat for a while, and then one of the guards carefully took the clothes with the kittens wrapped inside.
Qin Wanwan then rode on the same horse as the mother cat and Lang Ya.
It was getting late, and the kittens were crying for food, so they returned to Shahe City without any further stops on the grassland.
At the General’s Mansion, Xie Chong had not yet returned.
Qin Wanwan asked a guard to go to the military camp and fetch a ewe that was still lactating.
The military camp didn’t have many sheep, but there were over a hundred.
Three of them were lactating ewes.
They brought back the ewe with the highest milk yield, one that was only nursing a single lamb.
As soon as the large and small sheep arrived at the General’s Mansion, they began to bleat in panic and chaos.
Their sounds were particularly noisy, especially the little one, whose bleating was exceptionally loud.
They absolutely refused to enter the General’s Mansion, and not even an adult man could pull them in.
“What’s wrong? Weren’t they fine before?”
The guard, who had been pushing the sheep’s rear, stood up and suddenly saw something that made his pupils constrict.
“You… you behind you.”
The guard, with his back to the General’s Mansion’s main gate, suddenly felt something cold and with a peculiar sensation land on his shoulder, and he immediately stiffened.
“Hiss…”
His expression terrified, he turned his head and met the black snake’s head, which was flicking its forked tongue.
“Aaaaah!!!”
“Baa baa!!!”
Such overlapping screams.
Qin Wanwan ran out: “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
Seeing the large snake, and the people and sheep shrunk into a ball in fear, Qin Wanwan blinked her eyes.
“Xiao Hei, why did you climb up a tree again?”
Xiao Hei was weak for a few days after shedding its skin, then it fell into a repetitive cycle of eating and sleeping.
It would go out hunting on its own at night, and after eating its fill, it would lazily sleep for two days.
Its size had also grown considerably since before.
It was now as thick as an adult man’s leg.
The speed of its growth was truly astonishing; let alone these people, even Xie Chong would be startled by its current size.
How long ago had this large python been brought back by Qin Wanwan?
“Xiao Hei, go back, you scared people.”
Xiao Hei loved to twine itself around trees or rafters, and its head and tail suddenly dropping down could be very frightening, especially at night.
Xiao Hei was obedient and quickly descended from the tree completely, slowly crawling into the grass.
“This… this is too big, how big will it grow in the future?”
“This snake isn’t normal, is it really the little black snake that could wrap around your hand?”
Qin Wanwan nodded: “Yes~”
Keke said that Xiao Hei seemed to have awakened the bloodline of some ancient python.
Actually, Qin Wanwan didn’t find Xiao Hei to be that big.
She had seen bigger snakes, even one with nine heads.
Wanwan could even lie down and sleep on the big snake’s head.
After being startled by the large snake, the ewe and its lamb were even more reluctant to go into the General’s Mansion.
Because there was also the scent of wolves inside!
Sheep were most afraid of wolves.
The ewe seemed stunned by fear and directly knelt on the ground, trembling.
Qin Wanwan ran back into the General’s Mansion to get some pasture grass, then squatted in front of the ewe.
“Be good, eat this grass and you won’t be afraid anymore.”
Compared to the ewe, the lamb seemed bolder, its large eyes full of curiosity towards Qin Wanwan.
Then it walked over to Qin Wanwan’s side.
She divided some pasture grass onto her other hand and fed it to the lamb.
“Baa~”
The influence of the little Qilin was still significant; at least after being petted a few times, the ewe truly became less afraid.
Then, without needing to be led by two people, the large and small sheep followed Qin Wanwan into the General’s Mansion.
However, they still hesitated when they saw the wolf and the lion.
Qin Wanwan: “Big Goldy, you guys go play inside the house.”
After making the few reluctant fierce beasts leave, they finally quieted down completely.
Aunt Zhang would milk the ewe, so this task was handed over to her.
Qin Wanwan was responsible for feeding the sheep and calming their emotions.
“Their fur is so thick, aren’t they hot?”
The border army also raised sheep with very thick wool.
The wool not only looked thick but also dirty.
Especially around the buttocks.
“Every year, during the hottest period, these sheep get their wool shorn, but this year it was delayed due to the planting matters.”
“What about the wool?”
“Wool? If it’s not useful, it’s discarded. Although wool can be made into carpets, the smell is too strong and it’s coarse, not as soft as animal hides, so it doesn’t sell for much.”
Qin Wanwan: Then why did the inherited memories about planting make wool seem so useful?
Keke: “Stupid, wool is very useful, it can be made into warm things. It’s because you don’t process it properly that the wool becomes coarse, hard, and smelly. If processed correctly, it can be made into warm clothes and bedding!”
Qin Wanwan nodded, her inherited memories contained methods for processing wool.
The two guards scratched their heads: “Well, we know wool can keep you warm, but the smell is too strong and it’s stiff.”
Keke: “Foolish, foolish, foolish, that’s because you didn’t process it properly!”
The methods people used to process wool at the time were very crude; they simply washed it with water and added things like wood ash.
Wood ash is weakly alkaline and, although it can remove some grease, it cannot remove it completely.
Nor can it remove the sheepy smell from the wool.
When they made wool products, they didn’t sort the wool, so some coarse wool was very prickly.
Since the grease wasn’t completely removed and the wool wasn’t fluffed, it naturally became stiff.
“Wasteful, too wasteful. Let’s collect this wool first, and when the scented soap is ready, we’ll try using that.”
The days were visibly approaching autumn, and after autumn, the weather at the border would rapidly turn cold.
In this era before cotton was widespread, how would her cubs manage in such cold weather?
Therefore, wool must be made into warm things; they absolutely couldn’t let the cubs be cold for a single bit this winter!
