Drive to the Tang Dynasty, where supplies are refreshed daily!

Seeing that Li Tai was so spicy but still kept eating, Li Shimin also picked up a piece of fish and put it in his mouth.

The first thing you feel upon tasting it is the heat, followed by a burst of fresh, fragrant, spicy flavor that fills your entire mouth.

The fish meat crumbled at the touch, releasing even more of its spiciness.

"hiss--"

Li Shimin couldn't help but hiss, then quickly picked up the milk and took a sip to suppress the spiciness in his mouth before saying, "This is indeed a bit spicy."

Empress Zhangsun looked at the boiled fish and wanted to try it, but seeing that Li Tai and Li Shimin were both suffering from the spiciness, she hesitated to eat it.

Especially now that she is pregnant, Empress Zhangsun has many concerns.

Noticing Empress Zhangsun's hesitation, Xiao Ran thought for a moment, then went to the kitchen to fetch a bowl of water and placed it in front of Empress Zhangsun.

"Madam, if you want to eat it, you can blanch the fish in water first, so it won't be so spicy, but it will affect the taste to some extent."

Empress Zhangsun nodded, picked up a smaller piece of fish, dipped it in water, and then ate it.

Just as Xiao Ran said, rinsing the fish with water does affect the taste and texture, and even though it's rinsed, it's still a bit spicy.

Empress Zhangsun took a sip of milk and shook her head. "It seems I won't have the pleasure of enjoying this."

Li Lizhi placed a piece of squirrel-shaped mandarin fish on Empress Zhangsun's plate.

"Mother, eat this. This is delicious too."

Empress Zhangsun gently ate the fish.

“It’s really delicious.”

A whole table of food was left, and not a single bite was left.

After dinner, Li Shimin left with Empress Zhangsun, as it would be completely dark by then.

Xiao Ran and Zhang Dalang chatted about the glass workshop. The glass they were producing was already quite good. The biggest problem was in the polishing. However, they could only try and improve it little by little. There was no other way, but they figured it wasn't far from perfect.

Now they're not discussing the finished glass, but rather the scraps from previous glass projects and the damaged glass.

After all, glass is relatively brittle, and no matter how careful you are, some pieces will inevitably break, and others will crack due to temperature differences and other reasons.

"Young master, what should we do with all this glass?" Zhang Dalang asked, somewhat troubled.

It would be hard to just throw them away, but if we put them back in the furnace to remelt them, the glass is of varying colors and even had impurities in the initial firing. It's easy to imagine that if we put them back in the furnace, the quality of the glass produced would not be very good.

Xiao Ran thought for a moment and asked, "Were there many pieces of broken glass?"

Zhang Dalang nodded, then shook his head.

"I don't know if it's a lot, but it's enough to fill that corner."

Zhang Dalang pointed to the corner of the room and said.

"I'll go check it out tomorrow and see if it can be reused. It would be a shame to just throw it away."

It was made with a lot of hard work, so it would be a real shame to just throw it away.

Zhang Dalang responded and then went back to studying how to grind the glass.

At this moment, the little princess was sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) playing cat's cradle with the little princess of Chengyang, while the little princess of Gaoyang had also teamed up with Yan Yao.

San Niang and Di Renjie sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and listened quietly to the adults chatting.

As dusk approached, it was soon time to go to bed.

A group of children went to sleep obediently, and Xiao Ran also washed his face and went to bed.

the next day.

As dawn broke, Xiao Ran woke up. Sun Simiao, without fail, stood by the pool for his morning exercise, accompanied by Di Renjie. Xiao Ran silently joined him.

After the three finished their Tai Chi routine, Xiao Ran greeted them.

"Morning."

Sun Simiao nodded in response, while Di Renjie replied with a serious "Good morning."

The air is very fresh early in the morning, especially in Kaolao Village, where the mountains and rivers are beautiful and the air is even better.

Xiao Ran took a deep breath and then exhaled, feeling completely cleansed.

Sun Simiao went to check on his medicinal herbs, while Xiao Ran circled the pool again, which he considered a form of exercise.

After we went around and returned, breakfast was already prepared.

The little princess sat in the chair, nodding her head like a chick pecking at rice.

Xiao Ran was amused by the little princess's appearance, picked up a sesame cake, and held it under the little princess's nose.

Smelling the delicious aroma, the little princess immediately opened her eyes and saw a large sesame cake waving in front of her.

"Ah woo~"

The little princess took a bite of the sesame cake, and Xiao Ran laughed out loud. He let go of her hand and let the little princess hold the sesame cake herself.

Seeing this, everyone burst out laughing. Li Tai even said, "It seems only delicious food can wake up Si Zi."

The little princess completely ignored what Li Tai was saying, her eyes only on the sesame cakes, which she ate with relish, making Xiao Ran hungry just watching her.

After breakfast, the little princess and the other children went to school, while Xiao Ran went to the glass workshop with Zhang Dalang, Li Kecheng, and others.

As soon as I arrived at the glass workshop, I saw Qin Huaidao.

He was slowly grinding a small piece of glass.

Xiao Ran laughed and said, "I was wondering why I hadn't seen you this morning. So you're here."

Qin Huaidao raised his head and greeted Xiao Ran.

"Xiao Langjun."

Xiao Ran asked, "When did you arrive? Have you eaten?"

Qin Huaidao nodded, "Young master, don't worry, I've already eaten. I was thinking about this glass last night before bed, and I felt like I had a breakthrough, so I came to try it out today."

Seeing that Qin Huaidao was serious, Xiao Ran didn't force him to talk, but followed Li Ke to the place where the glass shards were.

There aren't many glass shards. It seems most of them were produced before the technology was fully mature, so most of them are colored, besides the common darker ones. There are also green ones, and even some yellow glass shards mixed in.

Li Ke said, "These are the ones. We were thinking of putting them back into the furnace to remelt them, but Da Lang said no."

Xiao Ran nodded, "That won't work. The reason these were discarded was because they contained a lot of impurities. If we put them back into the furnace to melt, the glass produced afterward will also contain impurities."

As for cleaning first, then filtering out impurities before smelting, that would be too costly and unnecessary, especially since Xiao Ran can't currently produce many of those machines.

"What should we do with all this glass?" Li Ke asked.

Xiao Ran scratched his head, then a brilliant idea struck him: "It could be used as a window."

"Make windows?" Li Ke looked at the shards of glass on the ground.

"But it's all broken into pieces, how can it be used?"

Xiao Ran suddenly remembered that back in the 1960s and 70s, glassmaking technology wasn't as advanced, so most of the glass had a greenish tint, and some windows were simply made by joining together various colored glass fragments.

However, given the current amount of broken glass, it's impossible to replace all the windows in Kaolao Village with glass, but replacing all the classroom windows with glass is feasible. This would allow for better light transmission and also be more aesthetically pleasing.

Even if glass manufacturing processes become perfect in the future and high-quality glass can be produced, there's no need to replace the classrooms; they can simply be used as a distinctive building.

Xiao Ran looked at Li Ke and said, "Sanlang, let's find someone to measure the dimensions of the classroom windows first, and then study the connection problem of these glass shards."

Looking at the shattered glass, Li Ke remarked, "Could fish glue work to piece these pieces back together?"

To make fish glue, you need to steam the fish bladder first, then boil it, then mash it, etc. When using it, heat the fish glue in water until it melts, then apply it to the surface of the wood. After it cools and dries, the glue will be successfully glued.

The large-scale use of fish glue actually began during the Song and Ming dynasties, when it was mostly used in shipbuilding because it was waterproof.

Xiao Ran did know about this thing, but if Li Ke hadn't mentioned it, Xiao Ran would have completely forgotten about it.

"Then I'll leave this to you. I'll go find someone to take the measurements first. If the fish maw isn't suitable, we'll try other types."

If fish glue doesn't work, then Xiao Ran will have to find a way to extract sodium silicate to make glass glue.

Li Ke nodded and accepted the task.

Making fish glue on the spot is definitely too late, but fortunately, most carpenters have some in stock, since they can use it when making furniture.

Li Ke went to find fish maw, while Xiao Ran came to the classroom.

At this moment, Sun Simiao was taking the pulses of these children inside the classroom.

Xiao Ran didn't disturb him, but instead led several young men from the village to take measurements.

Sun Simiao withdrew his hand from taking Xiao Ran's pulse and looked at him.

"What are you doing?" Sun Simiao asked.

Xiao Ran walked over to Sun Simiao, hugged the little princess who had come closer, and said, "I just went to the glass workshop and saw that some of the glass that was previously substandard has now cracked or shattered. So I was thinking of using these broken pieces of glass to replace the classroom windows."

Sun Simiao nodded. "I see."

The measurement would take a little while, so Xiao Ran wasn't in a hurry.

"Grandpa, how are the children's health?"

Sun Simiao shook his head and sighed, "There's nothing seriously wrong, it's just that my body is a bit weak, I'll just need to take good care of myself in the future."

There's nothing we can do about it. We were poor before, and there wasn't much good food to eat. It's only now, because of Xiao Ran, that Kaolao Village has developed and we have money, so we can eat more.

What Sun Simiao sees now are the children whose deficits have already been partially covered.

However, Sun Simiao changed the subject and said, "There should be a balance in nourishing the body. You can't just eat fish and meat all the time, or it will be in vain."

Xiao Ran understood this. His body hadn't fully recovered yet, so it couldn't absorb nutrients. No matter how much meat he ate, it wouldn't be stored in his body and would only cause diarrhea.

However, there's no point in telling Xiao Ran this.

"Grandpa, you should tell them to talk to their families after school."

Xiao Ran couldn't possibly tell everyone door to door.

Sun Simiao nodded. "I understand."

While Xiao Ran and Sun Simiao were chatting, the little princess sat in Xiao Ran's lap, neither moving nor making a sound.

Only after Xiao Ran finished speaking did the little princess speak.

"Little Nang-kun~ Can we talk about that sweet fish duck again today~"

Xiao Ran naturally fulfilled the little princess's wish to eat.

"Okay, we'll eat at noon."

He did it once yesterday, and the cook in charge of the kitchen naturally learned it, so he didn't have to lift a finger at lunchtime today.

The little princess clapped her hands happily.

"That's great~"

At that moment, a young man walked to the door.

"Young master, we have finished measuring."

Actually, all of these windows are the same size, but just in case there were any discrepancies when they were made, we simply measured them all.

Xiao Ran put the little princess down and greeted Sun Simiao.

"Grandpa, I'm leaving now."

Sun Simiao nodded, then turned and picked up the herbs, teaching the children to recognize them.

Xiao Ran returned to the glass workshop with the data. Zhang Dalang and Cheng Chumo were leading a group of people in making glass with great enthusiasm, Qin Huaidao was still grinding his glass, and as for Li Ke...

He was lucky; he didn't have to search extensively because his third grandfather had some, but not many.

However, they were only trying it out with fish maw, so it wouldn't matter if they didn't use much. Li Ke was even thinking that if it didn't work out, he would go to Li Shimin.

When Xiao Ran returned, Li Ke was trying to align the two pieces of glass and stick them together, but he quickly put the glass down again.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Ran asked.

Li Ke turned around and sighed.

“Young master, are we thinking too simply? This doesn’t seem to work. The shattered glass has different curvatures, so it’s impossible to piece it back together.”

Xiao Ran squatted down, picked up the two pieces of glass and examined them closely, and found that it really was true.

"This is an oversight on my part."

Nowadays, glass is either cut directly with a cutting machine or mostly with a diamond-encrusted dagger. Trying to shape glass by hand is simply impossible.

Didn't you see that Qin Huaidao was still polishing the glass to the point of being thin?

However, it's not entirely without a solution.

Xiao Ran first had a wooden frame made according to the dimensions of the window, and then said, "Let's pick one out first. Place it with the edges flat against the four sides, and fill the middle as much as possible. If it can't be filled, we can just pour molten iron in later."

In this way, the glass panes will not fail to connect due to differences in curvature, and the aesthetics will not be affected.

Li Ke nodded. "I don't understand these things. I'll listen to you."

This was Xiao Ran's first time trying it, but there's always a first time for everything.

The two of them simply sat down on the ground and started picking out glass, choosing only the large pieces.

"Sanlang, be careful not to cut your hand," Xiao Ran cautioned.

Li Ke nodded. "Don't worry, it won't happen."

The two of them spent the whole morning picking through the glass, almost forgetting they should have gone to eat, until Xiao Ran got hungry and realized it.

"Let's go eat."

Li Ke nodded, about to agree, when a maniacal laugh rang out.

"Hahaha! I did it! I did it!" (End of Chapter)