Song Tan's Notes

Xin Jun's return also means that things are really going to get busy from now on.

The mugwort harvested during the Dragon Boat Festival has become brittle and burnt after being dried for two days.

One-third of it is hung upside down and stored back in the warehouse. After three years, when it is used to make moxa wool again, its effects will be long-lasting, gentle, and profound.

The remaining leaves need to be knocked off first.

Tall shade nets were strung up in the factory yard, and the employees, wearing thick work gloves, were pinching the bottom of the mugwort and shoveling it down in handfuls.

If you don't keep repeating this action, it's actually quite stress-relieving.

On the other side, an elderly man sat in front of a large winnowing basket, rubbing off the stalks of mugwort leaves and picking them out.

This is the kind of meticulous work you do, and there's no particular order to it.

Everyone chatted while working, their hands never stopping. They earned a hundred or two hundred yuan a day, and they were very happy.

Although mugwort leaves are too light to be fanned by, and because they contain fluff, they are not suitable for indoor use, the temperature is not too high when doing it in the courtyard, which is completely shaded, in the early morning and evening.

Therefore, when Old Song's family inquired in the village and learned that priority would be given to the elderly living alone, people immediately came to sign up.

Grandma Lotus was the first to respond enthusiastically.

She earned a salary this year by helping Liu Liu take care of her child, which forced her to turn down many other jobs. Now that she finally saw Liu Liu taking a few days off to get her child vaccinated and handle the paperwork, she immediately seized the opportunity.

The elderly living alone are also happy.

They receive daily subsidies, and officials visit them during holidays. In addition, the Song family also sends rice, flour, cooking oil, cotton-padded coats, and cotton-padded trousers during holidays... Life couldn't be more comfortable these days.

They occasionally take on small jobs like this, which don't pay much but aren't too strenuous. They sit here and do some careful work, like choosing fishing rods, just like when they used to prepare bait. Everyone enjoys it.

The cleaned-up leaves will be taken to another open area.

Thick plastic sheeting was laid on the ground, and a group of strong men and women, who were paid slightly higher wages, were using mallets to beat the ground evenly.

This is the key step in pounding mugwort leaves into fine mugwort floss.

A mortar and pestle can also be used, but that won't achieve the same even mixing over such a large area. While mixers and grinders are highly efficient, the excessive heat from the blades can damage the quality of the mugwort leaves.

Anyway, there are plenty of people who can use it now, so let's just do it meticulously.

Xin Jun was full of anticipation: "Will the moxa sticks work well tonight? If so, I'll ask Dr. Guo to do some moxibustion for me. I feel really exhausted after coming home this time."

Although I didn't do much physical labor or stay up late like before, for some reason, a heavy sense of fatigue still weighed on me.

Seeing that he didn't look as energetic as before he left, and considering that he still had to relieve Zhang Yanping, Song Tan quickly said:
"Qiaoqiao, get a piece of mugwort paper, let's make one for Teacher Xin first."

Qiao Qiao responded. With last year's experience, he quickly rolled up a moxa stick, stuffed it tightly with moxa wool, sealed it, and handed it to Xin Jun.

"Teacher Xin, you must get some rest."

"Otherwise, you won't even have the energy to look at the photos of me at the amusement park."

Xin Jun laughed.

As expected, Qiaoqiao is the most considerate person in the world: "Okay, I'll watch it after I've rested tonight."

The newly promoted employees are also keeping busy.

When I was working like a beast of burden in the city, the daily commute alone was exhausting. I couldn't help but stay up late and suffer from sleep deprivation.

But in these mountain villages today, sleep deprivation is a complete joke. They've even developed a wonderful routine of falling into a deep sleep by 9 pm. Good heavens, at their age, they never even had such a wonderful biological clock during their elementary school years.

Sleeping soundly at night and eating well during the day gives you boundless energy.

Now that I've been assigned to tidy up the mugwort stalks, I can't be more motivated.

Originally, according to Song Tan and Dr. Guo's plan, these mugwort stalks could have been crushed and made into inferior mosquito coils for outdoor use.

But after trying it a few more times, the smoke was too much, so I gave up and changed to drying and crushing it, then stuffing it into pillows.

This time, manual breaking is unnecessary.

The employees operate the shredder, only needing to control the time and pressure to avoid grinding the food too finely and causing powder to seep out.

These textured pillows don't feel prickly at all; instead, they feel just like the rice husks and buckwheat husks we used to sleep on as children.

In addition, it has a light, bitter aroma of mugwort. Even before it was made, the employees asked, "Can we buy this?"

Yes, it is possible, but if this byproduct of mugwort is not used to make pillows, it can only be used for composting.

After all, because the content of mugwort oil is too low, it would be too pungent to put in pigsties or cowsheds if used to make mosquito coils.

but……

"Each employee is limited to one purchase, and these pillows need to be taken out and aired frequently."

The dormitory building has such a large courtyard in front and behind it, and they love to take their quilts and pillows down to air them out. This is not a drawback at all!
All they asked was, "How much?"

I'll keep the cheap stuff for myself and resell the expensive stuff, hehe!
Song Tan didn't stop her, and roughly calculated: "199 then."

Then they asked She Min to estimate how many pillows are needed for one pillow, how many can be made, and prepare to put a link on the online store.

Then he called Qiaoqiao over: "Do you want to do a live stream of making this mugwort pillow?"

There's not much technical difficulty involved. Whether the villagers sew their own pillowcases at home with sewing machines to sell, or they buy ready-made ones, all they need to do is fill the pillows.

The downside is that because it needs to be turned out and dried frequently, it cannot be strictly sewn into fixed sections.

Remembering this, Song Tan instructed She Min, "The product details page says that if you sleep in a bad position, all these mugwort stalks will rub up to the top. It is recommended for people who are used to old-fashioned pillows."

She Min nodded: "If we're not broadcasting today, can I try sleeping first?"

After spending the Dragon Boat Festival at home, his initiative at work greatly increased.

Song Tan nodded: "This has a slight effect on insomnia and cervical spondylosis, but there's no need to advertise it. Just experience it for yourself."

She wasn't exaggerating the effects; these stems routinely transport nutrients to the leaves, thus absorbing a very rich amount of spiritual energy.

It produces a lot of smoke when burned, but that doesn't mean it's ineffective.

These granules are placed between the head and neck, and the spiritual energy they contain dissipates slightly, with good results within a year.

She Min nodded, then picked up the camera again and took pictures seriously.

At the same time, Dr. Guo also came up the mountain to ask her:
"Have you prepared the olive oil and packaging boxes? You also need to disinfect and clean your small bottling machine."

"Besides mosquito repellent sachets and mugwort sticks, we also need to make mugwort mosquito repellent paste. We harvested dozens of acres this time, and apart from the border regions, the online store should have plenty of stock." (End of Chapter)