Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Homemade Traditional Soap

It wasn’t until everyone had completely left that Zhong Zijun finally came out. Seeing the mess in the courtyard, she picked up the bags of grain from the ground with a heavy heart.

The wild vegetables and potato-egg pancakes were no longer edible—they’d all been trampled and ruined.

Perfectly good food, wasted.

With her injured hand, Zhong Zijun couldn’t do much, so Dabao and Beibei obediently helped clean up the mess on the ground.

Although they’d lost some food today, that old witch had gotten a good beating and probably wouldn’t dare cause trouble again. Gu Qinghuan felt pretty satisfied.

The only downside was that the wound on her shoulder had split open again, so she secretly applied some healing ointment when no one was looking.

Even though it was a bit late, they still needed breakfast. Gu Qinghuan took out some eggs and flour and made a few more batches of egg pancakes. With the vegetable soup in the pot, the whole family ate until they were full.

After the meal, Xu Huaian acted as if nothing had happened and went back out to dig and plant vegetables.

Dabao and Beibei followed him around like little shadows.

Zhong Zijun gathered up the family’s dirty clothes from the past couple of days, getting ready to do the laundry.

Most villagers washed clothes by the big river, but she couldn’t leave the house.

Fortunately, there was a well at home, so they could still wash clothes.

When Gu Qinghuan first arrived, she’d secretly used the washing machine at the villa to clean her clothes. Back then, Xu Huaian hadn’t regained consciousness, and Zhong Zijun hadn’t moved in yet.

Now, she couldn’t be lazy anymore.

“Mom, let me do it. Your hand isn’t well enough to wash clothes!” Gu Qinghuan rolled up her sleeves, ready to get to work.

Zhong Zijun didn’t insist and gave Gu Qinghuan the main spot, helping out from the side.

She found a broken wooden spatula and scooped a heap of wood ash into a big wooden basin.

Gu Qinghuan soaked the clothes in the wood ash, letting them sit for a while before scrubbing.

Life in the countryside was really tough in those days. The better-off families used soap pods to wash clothes; the poorer ones used wood ash, or just beat the clothes with a stick to get the dirt out.

Washing clothes with soap was out of the question—no one’s clothes were that precious.

The bar of soap Gu Qinghuan had brought out before was treated like a treasure by the family, only used sparingly for bathing or washing hair.

It might sound surprising, but that was really how things were back then. Being able to use store-bought soap for bathing was a real luxury.

Families who could afford it might buy a five-cent bar of pig pancreas soap for bathing.

Pig pancreas soap was made from pig organs. It worked, but the smell was truly awful.

Thinking of this, Gu Qinghuan suddenly had an idea—she could make her own handmade soap!

As long as she had the right materials, it would be simple. She’d even done an episode on traditional soap-making in her old lifestyle videos, and she still remembered the recipe.

But first, she had to finish washing the clothes.

Both mother and daughter were injured, so it took them almost two hours to wash and hang up the big basin of laundry.

Of course, everyone washed their own underwear, except for the kids’—the adults did those together.

Since they’d had a late breakfast, lunch was simple: each person got a bowl of noodles with lard.

A spoonful of lard in the bowl, plus soy sauce, vinegar, and other seasonings—it turned out surprisingly delicious.

They even finished all the soup.

After the meal, as usual, Xu Huaian did the dishes. He’d spent the whole morning digging up four plots of land and was tired, so he took a break.

Gu Qinghuan and Zhong Zijun started researching how to make traditional soap.

Pig pancreas soap would have been easier, but Gu Qinghuan really couldn’t stand the smell, and they’d have to find pig pancreas, so she decided against it.

Zhong Zijun was very interested in Gu Qinghuan’s idea. The recipe was worth a try—if it worked, they’d have their own soap for laundry and bathing.

The basic formula for traditional soap is simple: various fats mixed with an alkaline substance, triggering a saponification reaction.

Gu Qinghuan adapted the recipe to use ingredients they could easily get: clam shells, wood ash, lard, bamboo tubes, and some fragrance.

Dabao listened intently. So the soap sold in stores could actually be made at home?

Mom wasn’t lying—educated people really could do anything!

Next, they started gathering the needed materials. They already had wood ash and lard at home.

For fragrance, the osmanthus flowers from the tree in the courtyard were perfect. Zhong Zijun had dried some a few days ago—plenty for their needs.

Now they just needed clam shells and bamboo tubes for shaping the soap.

Dabao volunteered to go to the riverbank and collect clam shells—there were plenty there.

Beibei quickly chimed in, saying she wanted to help too.

Xu Huaian was also interested and said he’d take care of the bamboo tubes.

Gu Qinghuan happily agreed, just reminding the kids to be careful and not go too close to the river.

Everyone got to work on their assigned tasks.

Gu Qinghuan was in charge of burning the wood ash and filtering out the lye with cloth.

Zhong Zijun prepared the lard—yesterday’s batch had cooled, so today she had to melt it down to use as a liquid.

Dabao and Beibei soon returned with a basket of clam shells.

Gu Qinghuan washed them, roasted them in the stove until they were crisp, then ground them into powder.

She poured the shell powder into the lye, stirred it well, filtered it again, and let it settle.

Once the mixture had settled, she poured the lye into the melted lard, added some salt for hardness, and mixed in the dried osmanthus flowers for fragrance. Then she stirred it all in one direction until it thickened into a sticky paste through saponification.

The final step was to use the bamboo tubes Xu Huaian had brought back.

She poured the paste into the bamboo tubes to set.

In total, Gu Qinghuan made five large bamboo tubes of soap. She set them aside—after three days, they could be unmolded and cut into thick bars for use.

Of course, if they let them cure for another month, the effect would be even better.

The whole family looked at the results of their afternoon’s work and smiled.

“When the soap is ready, we can use it for laundry, bathing, washing our hair, and washing our hands—whatever we need,” Gu Qinghuan said.

Dabao asked a little shyly, “Mom, when the soap is ready, can I give a piece to Erdan? Just a small one.”

“Why only Erdan? Is he your best friend?”

Gu Qinghuan wasn’t stingy about the soap, just a bit curious—this wasn’t the first time she’d heard the name Erdan.

Dabao hesitated for a moment but decided to tell the truth.

“This afternoon, when we went to look for clam shells, we ran into Dacheng by the river. We didn’t bother him, but when he saw us picking up shells, he called us bad luck, bastards, and said we were so poor we even ate shells.

I got mad and fought with him. The others with him started picking on my sister and almost pushed her into the river. Luckily, Erdan came to help, so my sister didn’t fall in.

Dad says we should always repay kindness, so I want to give him a piece of soap.

Is that okay?”"