Chapter 166: A Troublesome Task

Wang Ge returned to the courtyard. The young Artisan Chen, who had borrowed her candlelight last night, was busy at the crafting station. Their eyes met briefly, and they nodded to acknowledge each other.

Upon entering her room, she wrapped a double layer of cloth tightly around her right wrist to prevent increased pain from excessive movement. Then, she dragged her carrying basket to the crafting station, placing it as far away from young Artisan Chen as possible to avoid mutual disturbance.

Before leaving home, Wang Ge had crafted tool-bench components, which were very sturdy after mortise and tenon assembly. She took out the previously prepared bitter bamboo strips of appropriate width and thickness, cut them into five sections, and then polished them.

First, she crafted the double arms of the "Wulei beast." Each bamboo arm was two inches long, three fen wide, and one fen thick. Since her right hand lacked strength, she clamped the bamboo knife between her feet and used her left hand to hold and polish the bamboo strip.

Next came the legs of the Wulei beast. The standards only needed to be similar to the arms, without being overly strict, but each leg required a scraped curve so that at a glance, they could be distinguished from the arms.

Then came the torso and the monkey head of the Wulei beast. The task requirement was "lively," so she did not need to trouble herself with pursuing a lifelike macaque appearance. That would be putting the cart before the horse.

As she progressed step by step with the crafting, Wang Ge became more convinced of her conjecture.

This luck-based task tested creativity and imagination, not an exquisite and elegant appearance.

Once the five bamboo strips were prepared, assembly began. She selected a long bitter bamboo stick from the basket, cut it in half from the middle, and made two sticks with lengths and thicknesses similar to chopsticks. She then took two wide, curved bamboo pieces, which needed to be stable when pressed onto the tool bench.

After selecting them, she bound them with two turns of hemp rope to secure them, and used the narrowest flat chisel to drill holes in their exact centers. Bamboo had a splitting tendency, so her movements had to be gentle during drilling, preferring to start small rather than drilling too large.

She threaded the two long bamboo sticks just prepared into the two curved bamboo pieces and set them aside temporarily.

Next, she drilled holes in the initial five bamboo strips. She certainly could not use a flat chisel; among the moso bamboo strips in her luggage, she still used her feet to clamp the bamboo knife and polished one of the thinnest moso bamboo strips into a bamboo needle.

Moso bamboo is hard, and using the sharp tip of the bamboo needle to slowly grind holes into the bitter bamboo strips—just enough to thread hemp twine through—was sufficient.

For the two arms of the Wulei beast, she drilled three holes in each.

For the two bamboo legs, she drilled one hole in the uppermost position on each.

Holes also needed to be drilled at the upper and lower ends of the torso: piercing from the left shoulder to the right shoulder, and from the left hip to the right hip.

Because the torso was thick, she had to adjust the sharpness of the bamboo needle. Moreover, after drilling for a while, the tip would dull, requiring constant sharpening.

Polishing the bamboo needle required clamping the bamboo knife with her feet while cooperating with her left hand.

Drilling holes required fixing the bamboo strip onto the tool bench and binding it tightly with hemp rope.

This step was repeated cyclically, and because she could not exert force below her right wrist, the crafting process was extremely slow.

Fortunately, there was no time limit for the task. Wang Ge steadied her mind, taking it one step at a time, blowing away the bamboo shavings every few drills.

After more than two hours, other female artisans began returning to the courtyard, and Wang Ge had finished drilling all the holes.

The final step: assembling them with hemp rope.

Of the three holes on the Wulei beast's arms, the topmost one was installed on both sides of the torso's shoulders. First, thread the hemp rope through the torso, then through each arm, tie double knots on both sides, and cut off the excess rope ends.

The hips of the torso were also first threaded horizontally with hemp rope, then threaded through the holes at the top of the bamboo legs on both sides, tied with double knots, and the excess rope ends were cut off.

The middle and lower holes between the two arms were threaded horizontally with a long hemp rope. Where should the two ends of these two long hemp ropes be tied? They were tied to the two vertical bamboo sticks that had been left resting on the ground, waiting to be used.

After the two long hemp ropes were securely tied, they needed to be parallel; the top rope should be at the top of the vertical sticks, separated by a distance of one inch from the parallel rope at the bottom.

At this moment, the prototype of an absolutely "lively" bamboo Wulei beast emerged.

The rest was to twist a tail using hemp rope. Ahem! Wang Ge glanced around the courtyard; no one was watching her. She quickly applied a bit of her own nasal mucus to the "tail base" position and pressed it onto the "monkey bottom" while it was still fresh.

After a few breaths, it stuck firmly.

Last of all, between the hemp ropes in the middle of the lowest holes of the arms, ahem! She used nasal mucus to stick a small section of hemp rope to thicken the cord so that the arms would not fold inward toward each other.

Do not ask why there was nasal mucus in this season; this substance could be produced whenever needed, regardless of the season.

She tried turning the Wulei beast upside down with its head facing down and feet facing up.

She let go.

Due to the elasticity of the hemp rope, the Wulei beast immediately flew up and down between the hemp ropes like a horizontal bar gymnast. Pull-ups, three-hundred-sixty-degree aerial rotations, revolving around the bar with the abdomen... and other difficult movements were completely effortless!

If this toy could not be considered lively, what else dared to claim to be lively?

Madam Meng had also returned. Seeing Wang Ge swaying the bamboo monkey at the same time as Madam Xu, they came over together and gasped in amazement.

"Is this your task?" Madam Meng asked.

"Yes."

Madam Xu congratulated her, "You are so lucky; you carved a monkey, not a crane."

Wang Ge smiled and offered no explanation.

Madam Meng asked, "Is your hand injured?"

Taking the opportunity to ease her fatigue, Wang Ge briefly explained how she had been pulled down in the morning.

Young Artisan Chen had returned after completing her task and said, "So you were the one who was pushed down. Rest assured, that person has been driven away; many people saw it."

Madam Meng looked genuinely relieved and said, "That is wonderful. If someone with such malicious intentions were allowed to stay, today she harms quasi-master artisan Wang, and tomorrow she will surely harm us."

Madam Xu and young Artisan Chen both nodded in agreement. "Indeed."

Wang Ge smiled gratefully at Madam Meng. Once this word spread, no one would think she was being aggressive or using this "trivial matter" to force out a male artisan apprentice.

Young Artisan Chen asked, "Are you going to submit your task now? Do you need my help? Helping you carry this artifact shouldn't count as a violation, right?"

"I have only finished half of it and still have to keep busy." Having rested, Wang Ge began crafting the character "Wulei" (蜼).

The others stopped disturbing her.

The task materials listed several characters, and only the character "Wulei" was written in Small Seal script, distinguishing it from the rest which were in Clerical script. This was one of the reasons why Wang Ge guessed the task had another solution.

Carving characters was even more difficult than crafting the bamboo monkey. Especially the "insect" (虫) radical, which was more twisted than a live insect.

Since the task allowed either bamboo or wood materials, Wang Ge abandoned bitter bamboo for camphor wood. She placed the wood block on the tool-bench surface, stood up, straddled it, fixed the wood block tightly with her legs, and cut it using the wooden-handled copper saw she had received as a reward.

Once she had cut enough material, the even more difficult carving began.

She could no longer use hemp rope to fix the wood because no matter how tightly it was tied, the wood would shift once the iron knife exerted force.

No matter how difficult, there would always be a way.

Since her wrist was sprained, she used the lower part of her forearm just above the wrist to press down firmly on the wood block, and began!

Concentrating her efforts, she completed it in one breath.

Carving the "insect" radical, carving the "zhui" (隹) radical—the "zhui" in Small Seal script was joined together, but no matter how winding it was, it was still easier to carve than separate parts.

She had to ensure that regardless of whether it was the "insect" or "zhui" radical, it could not be rigid and must be movable.

The secret to movability was to add hollowed-out chains at intervals, connecting segments of strokes with chain links. Carving movable chain links out of a single piece of wood was one of the basic skills of a woodcarver.

"Phew..." Only by constantly blowing away the wood shavings could she clearly see the carved shape.

Madam Meng brought her lunch and filled her flask with water.

After thanking her, Wang Ge neither ate nor drank. Accustomed to deep-seated vigilance, the task rules did not allow anyone to assist. What if helping with food and drink counted too? She would die of injustice.

Although carving characters was troublesome, it took slightly less time than carving the monkey. Of course, if her right hand had not been injured, the total time for this task could have been shortened by more than half.

The holes in the chain links were just right for threading hemp rope.

Just like the effect with the bamboo monkey, the character "Wulei" tumbled and leaped between the two hemp ropes. Once the hemp ropes were secured, they came together to form an elongated "Wulei" character.

When Wang Ge finished all her work, she saw that female official Meng was already standing in the courtyard.

"Artisan official Meng, this is my task." She handed over the task bamboo slip.

"I know of this task. Both of these artifacts pass. All female artisans, come over and pass them around to learn how quasi-master artisan Wang solved this problem. This type of task format will not appear again." The last sentence was exceptionally stern, directed specifically at Madam Zheng, who had failed at carving the crane yesterday.

Female official Meng's attitude left Madam Zheng, who was already depressed, bewildered. What was there to learn? If she had been the one to carve a monkey, she could have done it too!