Chapter 155: The Task, One Hour!-I Became a Master Craftsman by Weaving Straw Sandals(Wukong chews on candy.)

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Most of the characters above were obscured by mud. Wang Ge’s destination was the materials area; after a brief pause, she stepped outside the wooden ring and moved on. Compared to luck-based tasks, she still found fixed tasks more reliable.

At a wooden pavilion behind, a candidate had just stumbled over an oval-shaped mud ball with writing on it. That person shouldn’t have been curious enough to pick up the mud ball and immediately burst into tears in frustration: “Isn’t this cheating? Who writes tasks on mud?” It turned out that when he tripped, some crucial characters had been rubbed off.

Wang Ge glanced back briefly and quickened her pace. She didn’t know that under a banyan tree in the northeast corner, someone was secretly watching her... it was the middle-aged candidate whose hypocritical facade she had exposed.

A stone slab path running north-south lay ahead, with corridors on both sides accessible from it. She chose to go left, walking briskly along the corridor for about forty steps until she reached the bamboo materials area.

This place was quite spacious. Two craftsmen stood guard in front of every pile of bamboo materials. Behind the bamboo were many grass huts, which served as the production areas.

Without hesitation, she headed straight for the tender bamboo section. The two craft officials guarding this area were women; one asked proactively, “Here for the daily task?”

“Yes.”

“Show your permit.”

Wang Ge took down her bamboo permit, which not only stated her reason for coming to Shanyin County but also included her craftsman rank.

First-class apprentice craftsman? The female official’s eyes showed approval: “Follow me.”

Wang Ge followed her behind the material piles. The shelter was empty—she was the first to come for a task. The tender bamboo section had only three production zones, separated by white chalk lines, fully equipped, sharing a single hourglass timer.

“The tasks in all three production zones are the same.” The female official stopped at the first zone and lifted the oilcloth covering the basket of materials.

The tools consisted of only the simplest straight-handled wooden knife. The material was a thin bamboo strip.

“Apprentice Wang, your task is to split the bamboo strip into at least one hundred fibers within one hour. Each fiber must be no shorter than two feet in length. Begin.” After speaking, the official checked the hourglass and sat down.

At the same time, the hypocritical candidate stopped at the spot where Wang Ge had just slowed. He noticed characters on the feeding trough and swiftly stepped into the wooden ring, brushing off the mud covering the writing.

Damn it!

He barely recognized any characters, but the ten on the trough he knew: “Within one hour, move this item out of the wooden ring.”

Such a long, heavy stone feeding trough would be nearly impossible to lift, even with ten people. It was indeed a luck-based task—bad luck for him.

What terrified him more was that the mud hiding the characters wasn’t ordinary soil; the gray residue stuck to his fingers and couldn’t be wiped off even with saliva. This meant pretending not to notice the task was impossible—he’d surely be caught. And over a dozen candidates nearby must have seen him.

What to do… what to do?

This disaster, it was all Wang Ge’s fault, always dragging him down again and again!

One hour was too tight. Wang Ge calculated in her mind: splitting a hundred bamboo fibers meant the total time for thinning the bamboo strip had to be kept under half an hour.

Too tight, too tight!

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She picked up the tender bamboo strip.

Within one breath, she estimated all the data: length two and a half feet (about 60.5 cm); width two inches (about 3.63 cm); thickness two fen (about 5 mm). The outer green skin and inner yellow bamboo lining had only been roughly scraped off.

Within two breaths, she planned the maximum width each bamboo fiber could have: first, the rule required each fiber to be at least two feet long, both to test splitting skill and to prevent candidates from exploiting loopholes (no one could just slice the 2.5-foot width into a hundred parts). Second, with the strip only two inches wide, accounting for unavoidable loss, each fiber’s width must be less than one-tenth of a “fen distance” (within 0.24 mm).

With the data calculated, it was time to start.

She chose one end as the top, used the iron knife to make a central cut, then split the bamboo strip along its natural grain. The unused half (one inch wide) was placed in the basket.

At this moment, more candidates arrived at the bamboo materials area to claim fixed tasks. Three came simultaneously to the tender bamboo pile. The female official informed them only two tasks remained.

Wang Ge had already blocked out all distractions except the task. All her focus was on splitting fibers, forgetting the official monitoring her and the hourglass ticking beside her.

After splitting into one-inch widths, she split again. During this, fiber loss occurred as she pulled off stray strands.

The other half strip (half an inch wide) was also set aside in the basket.

Now, the half-inch bamboo strip in her hand needed thinning. Only by thinning could the fibers be split properly. The iron blade served both as a bamboo knife and scraper. The bamboo rested on her left thigh; she held the rear half with her right hand and the knife with her left.

Thinning was done in two steps: first, removing burrs by holding the knife steady while pulling the bamboo strip backward. She scraped both the green and yellow sides twice each cycle, controlling pressure carefully and pushing her leg upward for resistance.

Chak… chak…

The sound was piercing, like metal scraping glass.

The second step was layering the thickness. She made a horizontal cut at the top, ensuring the upper and lower layers were even. Her index finger pressed between the layers, using force to split them downward to the end. The bamboo strip length remained two and a half feet. The part next to the yellow bamboo lining was discarded as waste.

She continued to scrape the inner surface to remove burrs created during layering. After smoothing, the thickness was now less than half a fen (about 1 mm).

Next came the real test of a bamboo craftsman’s skill: splitting the thickness again.

There were two methods: one starting from the top cut; the other leaving about a finger’s width from the top, making a horizontal cut halfway through the thickness, then bending the lower layer down.

Wang Ge chose the second. While bending down, her thumb and index finger of one hand pinched the upper layer (her index finger wedged between the two layers). As she bent, the other hand pulled the lower layer outward. The hand pinching the upper layer remained still. Through pulling and bending, she controlled the thickness to remain consistent.

After this step, the bamboo strip’s thickness was just slightly thicker than one-fifth of a fen distance (about 0.5 mm).

The bent-off lower half was also waste, set aside with the other scraps.

Since the bamboo strip was now extremely thin and flexible, one pass of the blade was enough to remove burrs.

Only then could she begin splitting fibers, the penultimate step.

She made a central cut from the top, splitting the strip evenly.

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Her right hand tightly pinched the tops of the two split bamboo fibers, pulling upward!

Her left thumb and index finger pinched the two fibers, acting like a “leveling knife.” They held steady.

Over the “Sword Gate!”

Pulling upward.

Over the “Sword Gate!”

Continuing upward, over the “Sword Gate”...

The calluses on Wang Ge’s fingertips now acted as a protective layer, preventing injury. The harder she had trained, the thicker the calluses, and now they shielded her perfectly.

No pain, no gain — not a bit of cheating allowed.

That’s why she always said a craftsman’s rough palms are their badges of honor! This badge not only represents glory but also serves as a tangible shield.

The two evenly split bamboo fibers were now each less than one fen distance wide (estimated 2.1 mm).

She placed one fiber into the basket.

The remaining fiber in her hand no longer needed splitting. Depending on her skill, she would cut it into as fine a width as possible.

The splitting method was the same as before.

The first bamboo fiber was split out, clearly within one-tenth of a fen distance—converted to millimeters, less than 0.2 mm.

In fact, it could be split even finer. With a thin enough blade and skillful cutting, an excellent craftsman could continue splitting at the fiber’s tip. But this fiber already met the task requirements; there was no need to waste time showing off.

She split the second fiber!

Then the third, fourth...

At the discarded wooden ring, the hypocritical candidate was out of options. No matter how he pushed or lifted, the feeding trough didn’t budge. Although failing the task this time wouldn’t get him expelled from the training camp, what if he failed next time?

It was all Wang Ge’s fault. If she hadn’t stopped here, he wouldn’t have followed. If he hadn’t followed, he wouldn’t have seen the writing on the feeding trough. It was her fault, and since it was her fault, he wouldn’t stand aside and ignore it! No way!!

(End of chapter)