I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 924: White Pottery
Under the eagerly expectant gazes of the older female primitive, Mao—acting on Han Cheng’s instructions—went to fetch a hook pole from not far away.
The middle of the hook pole had been worn smooth and shiny from long use, constantly rubbing against shoulders and the back of the neck.
Looking at Mao’s smiling face and the flat, somewhat oddly shaped stick in his hands, the older female primitive all looked puzzled, completely at a loss.
They simply couldn’t understand how such a strange stick could possibly be used to solve the problem they were facing.
After all, it was nothing more than a slightly flattened pole, with two wooden hooks tied to each end using ropes.
Even so, how could this solve their problem?
What they needed to solve was how to transport as many things as possible in one go. A stick couldn’t hold anything at all…
Seeing their confused expressions, Mao couldn’t help but smile to himself.
He felt especially proud that his tribe had a Divine Child.
He didn’t try to explain much to the older female primitive—it wasn’t easy to explain anyway.
Instead, he brought over the fish baskets that the older female primitive had been using so ingeniously.
He then began filling two fish baskets, lined with hides, with unhusked rice.
Once they were full, he placed the two baskets apart, picked up the hook pole, laid it across his shoulders horizontally, and held one hook in each hand. With practiced ease, he hooked the two baskets by the ropes at their openings.
Then he straightened his body. The two fish baskets, now full of rice, were lifted off the ground along with the hook pole.
After that, Mao began to walk.
As he moved, the relatively flexible hook pole gently bounced up and down.
Mao’s steps followed this rhythm, giving his movement a sense of cadence.
Of course, this way of walking wasn’t for show—it was because it saved the most effort.
After carrying the load horizontally for a while, Mao shifted it onto his right shoulder, carrying it on one shoulder only. The hook pole changed from horizontal to vertical.
After walking in circles around the courtyard for some time, he shifted it again to his left shoulder.
The moment Mao lifted the two rice-filled fish baskets with the hook pole, the older female primitive’s confusion vanished instantly, replaced by a feeling of sudden enlightenment.
Along with that realization came deep admiration for the Green Sparrow Tribe’s wisdom.
So this strange-looking stick was meant to be used like this!
And the solution to the problem was actually so simple!
Why hadn’t they thought of such a simple method before?
With these thoughts in mind, the older female primitive stood there, turning in circles along with Mao as he walked around carrying the grain, their eyes never leaving him.
“Try it.”
After showing off his well-practiced carrying skills in front of them, Mao gently set the load down and said with a smile to the older female primitive.
As he spoke, he pushed the hook pole—still holding the two fish baskets—toward one of the older women.
Naturally, the older female primitive couldn’t understand Mao’s words, but she understood his actions.
Looking both nervous and curious, she took the pole from Mao, bent over awkwardly like he had, placed it horizontally behind her neck, and then straightened up.
As she stood up, the two fish baskets filled with rice lifted off the ground.
The sight delighted her.
What pleased her even more came next. After standing there with the load for a moment, she personally experienced the benefits of this simple tool.
Not only could it carry far more at once, but it was also surprisingly easy—nothing like as heavy as she had imagined.
With the load on her shoulders, the combined weight of the rice in the two baskets felt about the same as carrying a single basket in her arms before.
This filled the older female primitive with joy.
The principle was actually quite simple: the strength of the arms is far less than the strength of the whole body.
Just like how carrying the same weight by hand feels heavy, but placing it on the shoulders immediately makes it feel much lighter.
After standing there for a while, enjoying the usefulness of this new tool, the older female primitive cautiously took a step forward.
Then something unpleasant happened.
The load that had been so stable on Mao’s shoulders—almost as if it were part of his body—immediately began to sway wildly in all directions as she walked.
The swinging was so strong that it threw her off balance, nearly causing her to fall. Some of the rice even spilled from the baskets.
Startled by this unexpected turn of events, the older female primitive hurriedly stood still, afraid to take another step, frozen like someone who had just seen an orange seller’s stall collapse.
She looked toward Mao, who stood not far away, her eyes filled with confusion and panic, silently asking for help.
She truly couldn’t understand why such a good thing had become impossible to use once it was in her hands.
Mao was warm-hearted. Seeing her pleading look, he stepped forward at once to explain and teach her, patiently guiding her step by step in carrying a load with a shoulder pole.
Watching this harmonious scene from a distance, Han Cheng couldn’t help but sniff slightly.
Luckily, Mao lived in this era—otherwise, he would absolutely have become a model example of helping widows carry water…
After the exchange was completed and they had roughly learned how to use the shoulder pole, it was already quite late. The older female primitive group didn’t leave that day but stayed the night.
Han Cheng arranged for them to stay in the slave huts outside the inner courtyard.
In the tribe the older female primitive belonged to, aside from holding regular joy gatherings, if they encountered other tribes and time allowed, they would also take certain additional actions.
As a result, the singing from the slave huts that night was especially loud.
Of course, before carrying out such sacred activities, the Green Sparrow Tribe first heated water and had the older female primitive bathe.
Under the leadership of Han Cheng, the Divine Child, the Green Sparrow Tribe placed great importance on hygiene.
Han Cheng was naturally aware of what was going on. Having been away from the tribe for so long, he admitted that he felt a bit uncomfortable himself. But when he carefully recalled the appearance of the older female primitive group, the flame that had just been lit quickly extinguished itself…
Early the next morning, the older female primitive set off from Jin’guan City, carrying the goods they had obtained in the exchange and returning along the same route.
Among them, the older female primitive and three others each carried a hook pole that the kind and generous Green Sparrow Tribe had gifted to them.
From the wooden hooks hung precious pottery, tightly bound with thick ropes twisted from straw.
As they walked forward, the older female primitive occasionally looked back, showing clear reluctance to leave.
Living in the mysterious Green Sparrow Tribe had been incredibly comfortable. These kind people had plenty of food and let them eat their fill.
Before leaving, Mao used his own way of communication to exchange messages with the older female primitive, still about trade and that unknown tribe.
Compared to before, their communication had become smoother and more tacit…
After the older female primitive group departed, Han Cheng and the others resumed their previous work, continuing to open up paddy fields in preparation for the next year’s planting.
After working for a while with a bronze shovel, Han Cheng straightened up, leaned on the shovel handle to rest, and looked in the direction the older female primitive had left.
It wasn’t that he regretted his restraint from the night before, but that he was thinking about that unknown tribe, which also possessed bronze and other such items.
This time, the older female primitive hadn’t brought any news about that tribe, because they hadn’t encountered it.
The tribe they had traded with recently hadn’t gone out to trade either.
This would have to be taken slowly.
After thinking for a while, Han Cheng felt a bit more rested. He spat into his palm, rubbed his hands together vigorously, then gripped the smooth wooden handle of the bronze shovel and got back to work.
The wooden handle, which had previously been slippery and hard to grip, gained much more friction once moistened with saliva, making it far easier to use…
As the weather grew colder day by day, the leaves of fruit trees such as apricot and peach in the Green Sparrow main tribe had long since fallen, leaving only bare branches.
Looking around, only the bamboo grove and the dozen or so young pine trees transplanted from Tongfu Inn still retained their greenery, though their leaves had darkened in color.
Most of the fields developed around the tribe were also bare and barren, except for those planted with rapeseed—one of the few crops that could survive the winter—which looked less desolate.
On the outskirts of the tribe, near the brick kilns, Hei Wa and several others were working.
These people were mainly from the pottery workshop.
Before them stood a kiln different from the brick kilns—a smaller one.
This simple kiln was quite common in the Green Sparrow Tribe, as it was what they usually used to fire pottery.
Hei Wa reached out and touched the kiln wall for a while, feeling no heat. He then took out a small notebook, checked the date recorded there, thought for a moment, and decided to open the kiln.
He didn’t let anyone else do it—he opened the kiln himself.
As the kiln was opened, fine dust rose upward. Hei Wa ignored it, squinting into the kiln at once.
A hint of white showed through the opened kiln mouth, and Hei Wa’s heart began to pound.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, then reached toward the kiln opening to feel the temperature again. There was no scorching heat, only a temperature slightly higher than outside.
He immediately reached inside, carefully grasped the white object at the edge, and removed it.
As soon as Hei Wa brought it out, everyone watching fixed their eyes on it.
This included the shaman and the eldest senior brother—two of the Green Sparrow Tribe’s most important figures.
It was an ordinary-looking bowl.
But unlike the bowls commonly found in the Green Sparrow Tribe, this bowl, freshly taken from the kiln, was completely white, giving it a very distinctive appearance.
It had been fired from kaolin clay.
In fact, some completely white vessels had already appeared in the Green Sparrow Tribe.
Ever since people from the Creek Tribe had accidentally eaten kaolin clay and were later cured by the kind-hearted Tie Tou and others using dung scoops and similar methods—and after learning from the wise Divine Child that this white clay could be fired into porcelain more beautiful than pottery—Hei Wa, who loved making pottery, had begun experimenting with firing porcelain using this white clay, which the Divine Child called kaolin.
All the white pottery currently in the tribe was by-products of Hei Wa’s recent experiments with porcelain.
Holding the white vessel in his hands, Hei Wa’s eyes eagerly examined it.
But soon, that hopeful look turned into disappointment, and his excitement faded.
After staring at it for a short while, still unwilling to give up, he bent a finger and flicked the white bowl.
“Dang, dang, dang…”
A sound rang out as he flicked it.
Hearing this sound, Hei Wa’s disappointment deepened.
Because this kaolin-fired bowl was no different from the other vessels previously fired with kaolin—it was still rather coarse, and when struck, it produced a dull, muffled sound.
The pottery the tribe had fired before sounded much the same when flicked with a finger or lightly tapped with other objects.
Yet before the Divine Child had left the tribe to head south and develop Jin’guan City, he had told Hei Wa that porcelain was not only smooth and delicate on the surface, but also very strong, and when flicked or lightly tapped, it produced a clear, crisp sound.
Now, this kaolin-fired bowl was nothing like what the Divine Child had described.
That meant this firing attempt had failed once again.
What he had made from kaolin was not porcelain, but white pottery.
Hei Wa placed the white pottery bowl on the ground and continued removing the fired vessels from the kiln.
After a while, all fifteen white vessels from the small kiln had been taken out.
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