In high spirits, Tong Xiangbei, feeling refreshed, walked around the bed twice. A maid entered, "Miss, you've finally woken up. Feeling better now? Please sit for a moment. The master ordered hot rice porridge, soup cakes, and tea. We'll bring them to you shortly."
Soon, the table was set with seven or eight dishes. Xiangbei ate halfway, put down her chopsticks, and told the maids, "It's already dawn. I'll go back to sleep, and I won't get up until daylight. You all should go to sleep too." Saying this, she wiped her hands and face and returned to the bed. The maids agreed, swiftly cleared the table, closed the front canopy of the bed, leaving two dim oil lamps, and then exited.
Xiangbei immediately got up and went to the table. She stored pigments, ink, rice paper, candles, fire starters, charcoal stoves, and wooden frames in the Snow Jade Cave within her space. Due to the time constraints, she had to use the 20-times time dilation cheat provided by her space. In the cave, she found that the central pool had nearly a bowl of thick white milk at the bottom, and the white mist on top rotated slowly clockwise, forming a small vortex. Releasing her consciousness, she saw that some ducks and geese had grown, and some had just hatched. This was their new home, great! She could return the ducks and geese she borrowed earlier.
She placed the materials on the flat ground near the confluence of the hot and cold rivers. First, Xiangbei mixed the ink into a deep blue color, poured it into two wooden frames, and soaked A4-sized rice paper for about five to six minutes. After both sides of the paper absorbed the ink, she took them out to dry. Then, she soaked the two sheets of paper in ink again, repeating this process five times to complete two sheets of traditional replica paper.
Near the sulfur hot spring, she squatted down to collect gypsum powder from a pit, which was almost half a basin. Taking a porcelain bowl, she filled it with two-thirds of gypsum powder, slowly adding cold water to make a red color. When it became sticky, she kneaded it like dough, rolled it into ten-centimeter sections, arranged them on the hot riverbed stones to dry. Following the same process, she made chalk in white and yellow colors.
Finally, she looked at a box of cosmetics in a cloth bag. She marveled at the ancient women's pursuit of beauty. The so-called eyebrow-painting stone powder turned out to be finely ground scale graphite. In the future, even if she just made some basic cosmetics, she wouldn't worry about making a living. Thinking ahead, she focused on making the first pencil, completing the initial step of her stationery reform plan. Blackboard with chalk, mulberry paper with goose feather quill, carbon copy paper with pencil – a series of writing tools could be considered novel. Now, she wondered how well they would be received in the market. Tomorrow, she would go to the town first, check the commercial stores, and then decide.
Xiangbei mixed one part clay, six parts graphite powder, and three parts animal glue. Adding a small amount of dark ink mixed with water, she carefully kneaded it into a fine, long strip. She cut it into 20-centimeter lengths, laid it on a hot stone, placed a copper tray on a charcoal fire, melted a large piece of goose fat with a candle, picked up the slowly drying graphite strips, dipped them into the mixture, coated them with a thin layer of wax. The lead core was successfully completed!
Unknowingly, she spent a day and night inside the space, forgetting everything while working. Now, feeling hungry, she flashed to the oasis, ate various fruits, and saw the increased number of mountain chickens and water birds in the space. There were nests of eggs in various colors in the green vine and grass. Using her usual method, Xiangbei cut some wheat grass and made an egg string, placed it in the hot spring, and made a straw basket to store the finished items. The unused materials were placed on the bedroom floor where she was going to sleep, and after peeling and eating a few eggs, she exited the space. Outside, it was just before dawn, and Xiangbei lay down on the bed and quickly fell asleep.
Early in the morning, Cheng Mo had come over ten times. Now it was almost noon, and even if she had worked hard yesterday, she should have recovered. Thinking of this, Cheng Mo couldn't wait any longer. He pushed the door, stepped quickly to the bedside, and probed Xiangbei's wrist with two fingers. Her body was fine now, just sleep-deprived. Should he let her sleep a little longer? Lost in thought, Xiangbei suddenly sat up, and her forehead bumped into Cheng Mo's sharply defined chin. "Ouch!" she exclaimed in pain, then fell back.
"Xiao Bei!" Cheng Mo instinctively lifted Xiangbei's reclined body, one hand rubbing her forehead, while anxiously asking, "Did you get hurt? Xiao Bei, I'm sorry. Are you in pain? I wanted to wake you up for lunch, but seeing you sound asleep made me worried that the pain from yesterday hadn't healed."
"It's already noon? Then I'll get up now. Let's eat, and then quickly go into town," Xiangbei said.