Jin Feng’s small courtyard was packed with women, all scrambling to sign up.
Anyway, the carpenter would deliver more spinning wheels soon, and even if all the village women came, it might not be enough.
Tang Dongdong didn’t pick and choose, but selected the first twenty who arrived, on a first-come, first-served basis.
The women who came later were unwilling, but no one said anything more.
Who could blame them for being late?
Tang Dongdong called the selected twenty into the courtyard and started assigning shifts.
Ten during the day, ten at night, switching every ten days.
This was the method Jin Feng taught her.
After assigning shifts, the ten day-shift women entered the thatched shed and began working.
The unselected women and those on night shift didn’t leave, curiously gathering around to watch.
Near the corner spinning wheel sat a little girl called Xiao Bei, only ten years old this year. She might not have spun much before, her movements clumsy, and she kept making mistakes.
Already anxious, the surrounding women kept teasing and mocking her, making the girl sweat profusely.
“Feng, Xiao Bei doesn’t know how to spin yet. Why not replace her with me? I guarantee I’ll be faster than Xiao Bei.”
A village woman in her twenties saw Jin Feng enter and asked with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Bei burst into tears, “Brother Feng, don’t send Xiao Bei away. Xiao Bei needs to earn money for mother’s medicine. Trust Xiao Bei, I can definitely learn… I… I can skip meals at your house…”
“Alright, Xiao Bei, Third Sister-in-law is just teasing you.”
Jin Feng said, “Eat properly when it’s time, and as long as you work well, I won’t send you away.”
He knew Xiao Bei’s family situation. Her father died on the battlefield a few years ago, and her mother, though young, was always ill.
Poor children grew up fast. In later times, ten-year-olds were still in primary school, and doing chores occasionally made them diligent.
But Xiao Bei had been gathering firewood on the mountain and working in the fields since seven or eight.
Jin Feng had seen her more than once, carrying a bundle of firewood bigger than herself, inching down from the back hill.
Spinning was a skilled trade, with no technical difficulty. Jin Feng was willing to give Xiao Bei a chance to support herself and her mother.
“Thank you, Brother Feng! Don’t worry, I won’t slack off.”
Xiao Bei wiped her tears and immediately started working.
“Third Sister-in-law, stop crowding here. Go home quickly. In a few days, when new spinning wheels are ready, everyone can come.”
Jin Feng noticed the watching women still wanted to speak, so he started shooing them away.
After all, they would work under Jin Feng later, and seeing him a bit angry, the women left one by one with anticipation.
Guan Xiaorou handled the day shift, Tang Dongdong the night shift, and Runniang and Xiao E handled cooking.
This was the agreed arrangement.
Runniang was satisfied with it, busy from early morning, stewing a pheasant until tender. Without other spices, just some salt made it fragrant.
The rich pheasant aroma mixed with the fresh scent of millet rice.
The women in the shed already cherished the job opportunity, and smelling the kitchen aromas, they worked even harder.
They thought midday would be wild vegetable porridge at best, but there was meat.
One pheasant wasn’t enough for over ten people. Leaving the drumsticks for the youngest Xiao E and Xiao Bei, the others got a ladle of broth and a piece or two of meat, moving the women deeply.
Jin Feng saw Xiao Bei secretly wrap her drumstick in a leaf and tuck it into her bosom, but didn’t point it out. When she got a second bowl, he added an extra chicken wing.
Zhang Liang had only sent a few pheasants, so they couldn’t eat them every meal. Dinner switched to wheat porridge and wild vegetables.
Even that made the unselected women terribly jealous, urging Jin Feng to make new spinning wheels quickly.
As night fell, Jin Feng carried a ladder, lighting the oil lamps on the pillars one by one.
The shed was thatched, full of flammable hemp threads and such. A fire would be disastrous.
So Jin Feng nailed the lamps high on pillars, to avoid accidental knocks.
Though adding oil, lighting, or extinguishing required climbing each time, Jin Feng preferred the hassle over safety risks.
Before leaving, he reminded Tang Dongdong, “If a fire starts accidentally, get everyone out first. Don’t worry about the things inside, understand?”
“Don’t worry, I know.”
Tang Dongdong pushed Jin Feng out of the shed, “Go sleep, Sister Xiaorou is waiting for you.”
The working women all smiled ambiguously.
Going back to sleep with his wife, who could say anything?
Smiling was pointless.
Tang Dongdong planned to start with these ten spinning wheels, earn money, and add more gradually.
But Jin Feng had over ten taels of silver left. Mountain firewood was cheap, carpenter wages too. Disliking wasted time, he told the carpenter to keep working.
Over the next few days, the carpenter delivered more spinning wheel parts one after another, and the initially unselected village women started work gradually.
Jin Feng’s small courtyard became the liveliest place in the village, the creaking spinning wheels running day and night without stop.
In the first days after getting the crossbow, Zhang Liang had bountiful hunts daily, once nine rabbits and seven pheasants, making villagers terribly envious.
But in the last two or three days, the catches decreased daily.
Today, he returned with only one pheasant.
Hunter Chen Laoliu was even unluckier, empty-handed for three days straight.
Jin Feng knew Zhang Liang hunted too often. The rabbits and pheasants in the old forests near the back hill had sensed danger and fled.
To hunt more, he’d have to go deeper.
Zhang Liang planned that, but Jin Feng dissuaded him.
“Brother Liang, the old forests by the back hill are fine for a trip, but further in is primeval forest, full of fierce beasts and miasma. That stuff is a hundred times deadlier than tigers. Once trapped in miasma, certain death.”
Jin Feng advised, “Don’t go anymore. If something happens to you, what about the family?”
He wasn’t a saint. Helping the Zhangs, besides Guan Xiaorou’s relation, deep down aimed to gain allies.
For the future, Jin Feng had several plans, and Zhang Liang had a place in each.
Making the crossbow for Zhang Liang was to improve his family’s life, freeing him from constraints.
But Jin Feng didn’t want him as a hunter forever, nor risking life in primeval forests.
In those deep mountains, accumulated leaves thicker than a person, corroded by rain over time, formed miasma.
Such miasma covered large areas. Once inside, no rescue possible.
“I understand the reason. A forest trip takes ten days to half a month to exit. If I can avoid it, I don’t want to go.”
Zhang Liang sighed, “But besides hunting, what else can I do?”
