While Adelaide was pounding the wood, Ed quickly went to prepare the wood for boiling the next pool of water.
Some lime needed to be added to the pool to remove impurities and separate fibers. Ed had just finished doing that when Adelaide's voice came over.
"Master, it's your turn."
That's way too short! Ed felt a headache coming on, which suddenly reminded him of a game he used to play, "If you're a man, stir it a hundred times."
Is that the name? It doesn't seem so, but who cares! It's been too long, he's forgotten, and he has no way of verifying it now.
Ed glanced at the simmering wooden paddle and figured it shouldn't be a big problem, so he decided to let it cook slowly. He then turned and walked towards Adelaide.
"Adelaide, you're so useless!"
Hearing Ed's words, Adelaide did not object, but silently thought to herself, "You'll know once you try it yourself."
She then handed the heavy wooden stick to Ed, while she stood a little further away and just watched Ed.
Ed took the wooden stick. This stick for pounding the wood was quite thick. At first, he didn't feel anything when he pounded it a few times, but as time went on, Ed couldn't take it anymore, and the range of motion of the stick was obviously getting smaller.
But there was a spectator staring intently at him, and Ed, being a man, still had some pride, so he could only force himself to keep up the act.
"Ninety-seven…ninety-eight…ninety-nine…" Adelaide counted for him from the side.
After all, he was too young and his small body couldn't handle it. After barely managing to do ninety-nine, Ed's hands fell limply to his sides, and the wooden stick rested on his shoulder.
"Adelaide, did you count correctly? I think you missed one." Ed thought of a game he used to play and wanted to get a free pass.
"No, Master, I counted very carefully," Adelaide answered firmly, giving him no chance.
Ed had no choice but to console himself: "99 strokes should be more than three seconds! I'm definitely not a three-second man anymore!"
Ed continued his work with a bittersweet mix of pain and pleasure.
In fact, the tools for papermaking have already been developed; paper can be produced once the pulp is formed. The current task is to make the pulp.
After the two worked for most of the day, the pulp was finally finished.
"Master, is this the tool that turns this white mud into paper?" Adelaide asked, looking at a strange object in Ed's hand.
"Yes, Adelaide, this is a wooden curtain, you see, do it this way."
After saying that, Ed took the wooden curtain and put it into the wooden paddle, shook it from side to side, and then picked it up. A layer of white stuff was attached to it. He then peeled off the white stuff and put it aside. He repeated this process for a while until a pile of white stuff was accumulated.
Then Ed took out a clean wooden board and placed it on top, and then put a large stone on the board.
"Adelaide, this is fine for now. Once the water dries tomorrow, it will be paper."
"Master, is this okay? I'd like to try it too."
As he spoke, he took Ed's wooden curtain, and imitating Ed, he placed it diagonally into the pulp, slowly swayed it from side to side, then picked it up to drain the water, and slowly peeled it off and placed it aside. He did the whole process much better than Ed did.
Looking at Adelaide, Ed could only sigh inwardly, "God is so unfair!"
The two didn't finish all their work until very late.
"Ah! It's finally finished!" Adelaide stretched her arms and stretched her body, exclaiming with relief.
"Master, what else can this paper be used for besides writing?"
Ed looked at Adelaide, whose eyes were full of curiosity, and said, "Come closer, I'll tell you in a secret."
Adelaide glanced at Ed suspiciously, but still stuck her head over.
"Besides writing, this paper can also be used for..."
Adelaide's face immediately turned red, and she disappeared in a flash.
Ed looked at the empty space and felt somewhat glad that he had only spoken up now.
Ed didn't see Adelaide until the next day; he hadn't seen her all day and didn't know where she had gone. However, some paper was missing yesterday, so Ed must have taken it.
"Adelaide, is this paper any good?" he said, smiling at Adelaide.
Adelaide's face instantly turned red, and she gave Ed a look that could only be understood but not explained.