“At our current pace, it’ll take at least two months to completely tame Han Pi.”
“Han Pi?”
“Oh, that’s the name I gave the Primal Panda.”
At night, Qin Tian and Ye Lin sat in front of the campfire, sipping meat soup. When Ye Lin heard the name Qin Tian had given, she instantly fell silent, hesitating over whether or not to make a comment.
Qin Tian didn’t think there was anything wrong with the name and continued, “But in another week or two, once Han Pi isn’t as aggressive, I should be able to…”
As he spoke, Qin Tian’s voice grew quieter and quieter until it completely trailed off.
“Should be able to what?” Ye Lin asked, not sure why Qin Tian had suddenly stopped.
Without answering her question, Qin Tian looked at the meat soup in Ye Lin’s hand and instead asked, “Why aren’t you eating?”
It was only now that Qin Tian noticed Ye Lin hadn’t really eaten anything tonight.
“I just don’t have much of an appetite.” As if trying to hide something, Ye Lin instinctively covered her stomach.
Qin Tian paused for a moment, then realized, “Is it Aunt Flo?!”
After saying it, Qin Tian felt a little awkward and quickly corrected himself, “Your relative’s visiting?”
“No!” Ye Lin’s cheeks flushed, and she vehemently denied it.
“Then it’s coming soon.” Although he’d never had a girlfriend, Qin Tian knew a thing or two about these matters.
Ye Lin didn’t respond, which was as good as admitting it.
At the moment, Ye Lin was feeling a little irritable, partly because her period was about to start, and partly because she was worried about how to deal with it.
After all, on this Deserted Island, there was no such thing as sanitary pads.
***
“So how long do you think you have?” Qin Tian asked again, looking serious.
Now that it was out in the open, Ye Lin wasn’t as embarrassed. She said, “I’m not sure.”
“Not… not sure?” Qin Tian was at a loss.
Ye Lin nodded. “A woman’s cycle is usually twenty-eight days. Logically, it should have started a few days ago, but until now, I’m only just starting to feel it.”
She continued, “I think maybe my irregular schedule these days, or other reasons, made my period late. As for how many days, I don’t know.”
Qin Tian pondered for a moment and said, “Let’s start making paper tomorrow. I don’t know if we’ll be in time.”
“Paper?” Ye Lin was excited. “Really?”
There was no need to say how important paper was to Ye Lin, who was about to start her period.
“It won’t be as good as the paper we usually use.” Qin Tian didn’t answer her directly, but his words still gave Ye Lin a sense of certainty.
“As long as it works.” On this Deserted Island, Ye Lin didn’t dare hope for more.
***
The world’s earliest paper appeared during the Western Han Dynasty, but that paper was rough and low-quality, unfit for writing. It wasn’t until Cai Lun improved papermaking technology in the Eastern Han Dynasty that practical paper was made.
At that time, the papermaking process was very lengthy, not because there were many steps, but because the step of obtaining pulp took a long time.
Back then, before starting to make paper, papermakers would soak the plant material in water for a long period. Once the plants softened under the action of microorganisms, they’d fish them out and pound them into pulp.
This method of making pulp took a lot of time, and the resulting pulp had short fibers, so the paper was prone to tearing.
That’s why Qin Tian planned to use a modern method to make the pulp.
That morning, Ye Lin was sound asleep when a foul stench suddenly jolted her awake.
Opening her eyes, Ye Lin saw Qin Tian walking over from a distance, holding a jar—the source of the awful smell.
Pinching her nose, Ye Lin sat up. “What’s that smell? What’s in the jar?”
“Urine.” Qin Tian’s face was expressionless.
“Oh.” Ye Lin nodded, but the next moment, when she realized what he said, she jumped up. “I didn’t know you were into that kind of thing!”
“Get lost!” Qin Tian rolled his eyes at Ye Lin. “This is for making paper, alright?”
Though he said so, Qin Tian still found the jar pretty disgusting.
“I’ve never heard of anyone making paper with urine,” Ye Lin said, backing up a few steps to get away from the smell.
“I don’t gain anything by lying to you.” With that, Qin Tian set the jar outside the Camp.
***
Making paper was their top priority right now. Qin Tian didn’t bring food to the Primal Panda today. After breakfast, he and Ye Lin started shaping Pottery and he explained the papermaking process step by step.
After Qin Tian’s explanation, Ye Lin finally understood that the urine was actually useful, though deep down, she still struggled to accept it.
The items they shaped included several reagent bottles and a tube with two inlets at the bottom and one at the top—not a lot, so by noon, everything was fired and ready.
For the rest of the time, Qin Tian cut bamboo into strips, then used the Survival Knife to pry up and peel off the bamboo skin, handing it to Ye Lin to weave into square frames.
The weaving method was the same as when they made a fish trap—first interlacing the bamboo skins up and down into squares, then tying them to the frame with bamboo strips.
The frames were for scooping pulp. Since they had to fit into a jar, the frames weren’t big, about the size of an A4 sheet.
All afternoon, Qin Tian and Ye Lin worked on making these frames. By nightfall, they had made a total of fifteen.
In modern papermaking, most methods use Potassium Hydroxide Solution, which can separate the lignin and gums from the plants to obtain cellulose-rich pulp.
This method produces pulp with long fibers, making the resulting paper strong and not easily torn.
So before making paper, Qin Tian had to get this reagent.
On a Deserted Island, getting chemical reagents sounded impossible, but in fact, Qin Tian had already figured out how to make Potassium Hydroxide Solution.
***
The next day, Qin Tian connected the two lower inlets of the tube to jars containing urine and Shell Powder, and the outlet was connected to a clean jar.
Then, he used firewood to heat the jar with Shell Powder, while Ye Lin brought over a kettle to slowly pour water into the upper inlet.
“The main component of urine is urea. After sitting for a while, it releases ammonia gas, so if you want ammonia, just seal the urine jar for a while.”
“The main component of Shell Powder is Calcium Carbonate, which, after heating, becomes Calcium Oxide and carbon dioxide.”
Looking at this set of Pottery apparatus in front of her, Ye Lin felt like she was back in the school chemistry lab, instinctively reciting the chemical reactions.
Looking at Qin Tian, and recalling his papermaking method, Ye Lin felt that this man was truly remarkable—able to come up with solutions even on a Deserted Island.
Qin Tian had no idea what Ye Lin was thinking. He just focused on tending the fire. It was only when he saw Ye Lin zoning out and letting too much water flow in that he spoke up, “Ye Lin, water!”
Startled back to her senses, Ye Lin quickly adjusted the water flow so it entered the tube slowly, ensuring full reaction with the carbon dioxide and ammonia gas to obtain Ammonium Bicarbonate Solution.
At the tube’s outlet, Qin Tian sniffed the resulting liquid. When he caught a whiff of the stench, he knew a chemical reaction was happening inside.
For this kind of reagent reaction, a glass tube would have been best. With a clay tube, there was no way to see the changes inside, so they could only judge by smell.
The reaction was slow. After an hour, Qin Tian finally had enough Ammonium Bicarbonate Solution.
Next, he mixed saltwater with the Ammonium Bicarbonate Solution, stirring constantly to get a white Sodium Carbonate precipitate and Ammonium Chloride Solution.
On this Deserted Island, you never knew when these reagents might come in handy. Qin Tian sealed up the Ammonium Chloride Solution in a Pottery bottle for future use.
He put the Sodium Carbonate into a jar and heated it over a fire to get white Sodium Carbonate.
During this, Ye Lin took out Calcium Oxide—also known as quicklime—from a jar and added it to water to make a Calcium Hydroxide Solution.
Finally, it was time for the last step in making Potassium Hydroxide.
With Sodium Carbonate in hand, Qin Tian added it to the Calcium Hydroxide Solution and stirred. During this process, the calcium ions in the Calcium Hydroxide Solution combined with carbon dioxide to become a Calcium Carbonate precipitate, and the cloudy solution gradually turned clear.
Seeing this, Qin Tian tossed aside the wooden stick in his hand. “It’s finally done.”
“Too much work,” Ye Lin sighed. “If only we had electricity—we could just electrolyze saltwater and get Potassium Hydroxide Solution right away.”
To get Potassium Hydroxide Solution, they had to first make Ammonium Bicarbonate, then Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Carbonate, and Calcium Hydroxide—a total of four steps—before finally getting Potassium Hydroxide Solution. If only they had electricity, it could’ve been done in one.
“Next time, let’s tie the Survival Knife to a bamboo pole and stick it in saltwater, then just wait for lightning to strike,” Qin Tian joked, pouring out the Potassium Hydroxide Solution from the jar.
***
After a brief rest, Qin Tian and Ye Lin each grabbed a Stone Axe and collected all kinds of plants from around the Camp. They put everything into a clay jar and added Potassium Hydroxide Solution before heating it over a fire.
With the help of Potassium Hydroxide, the plants in the jar gradually broke down. After boiling, the plants turned into white, fluffy pulp.
Then, Qin Tian and Ye Lin took the jar to the river to wash away the impurities, leaving only the white residue.
Finally, they put the residue back into a jar, added clean water, and stirred until they had pulp.
The rest was simple. Qin Tian and Ye Lin took turns scooping pulp with the frames, coating them with a thin layer of fibers, and leaving them to dry in the sun.
There was a lot of pulp, and even though they’d made plenty of frames, it still wasn’t enough. They had no choice but to wait for the first batch of paper to dry before continuing to make more.
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