Chapter 268: Chapter 268

She imagined herself becoming a martial arts master and couldn’t help but chuckle.

She felt that was too far off; she should start with the basics first.

"Shu’er, what’s making you so happy?" Liu Xu gently asked.

Pei Shu’er shook her head and continued harvesting wheat.

With many people working, and the residents of Lin Mountain also helping, the wheat was harvested by midday.

Since the wheat had already been sun-dried well, leaving it in the field for a day and a half was enough to start threshing it.

With so many hands, threshing was quick. The difficult part was the dehulling and milling.

The ancients used grinding stones for milling wheat, but this method left residues, making the flour black and the texture unpleasant.

Even though a dustpan could sieve out some bran, the amount removed was limited.

Moreover, the flour itself was not very fine, resulting in a somewhat coarse texture when cooked.

Previously, to avoid suspicion, Pei Shu’er used subpar flour in her cooking, which always tasted lacking to her.

Thus, Pei Shu’er studied a functional dehulling machine that could mill flour and remove hulls.

After all, it would also be useful for the upcoming rice harvest.

In this cold region, both crops were harvested once a year.

After thoroughly understanding the books on dehulling machines, Pei Shu’er disassembled one on the spot, becoming familiar with its structure and principles.

Since the machine needed to be mass-produced, she couldn’t directly take one out from her space, and she only had one or two in her space.

She disassembled and reassembled the machine until she had no doubts and then began to make one.

She also made some modifications based on the current situation.

For example, in the absence of electricity, manpower had to provide the machine’s power.

Thus, some parts could be omitted, while others had to be added.

Fortunately, although she hadn’t made a dehuller and grinder before, her experience with other creations helped, and she designed blueprints based on her knowledge.

After some adjustments and calculations, she started the production.

As for the metals, they couldn’t be found in the Deserted Mountain; Pei Shu’er took them out from her space.

To avoid suspicion, she led people to the back mountain and "discovered" a large stone full of metal.

Everyone had long been accustomed to her knack for finding things.

As the Deserted Mountain’s leader, she was the Heavenly Destiny Blessed Girl, always having such luck.

In times of scarcity, finding food was also .

Pei Shu’er sighed upon seeing the lump of iron. Fortunately, her space had some metals.

Otherwise, even if someone could design blueprints, they couldn’t cook a meal without rice.

Pei Shu’er began smelting steel. Luckily, she was alone in the Experimental Building, and she took out a furnace to melt the metals, pouring them into molds once liquefied.

Once the molds dried, she began making the parts.

At first, making this was extremely difficult. She had to repeatedly craft and test it.

But no matter how she adjusted it, the machine wouldn’t operate.

After modifying the power system, the machine finally worked, and she sighed in relief.

However, the results were still unsatisfactory.

It was comparable to, if not worse than, using a grinding stone, which would mean all her effort was in vain.

Pei Shu’er tried improving the pressure and washed the wheat clean before feeding it in. The flour became very fine, but the bran couldn’t go into a separate bag.

After a few more adjustments, it finally worked.

Pei Shu’er smiled, washed the wheat clean, and began grinding it. The resulting flour was fine and white.

Pei Shu’er stepped out, smiling at everyone.

"Lin Yu, Lin Hong, come help me carry something."

Lin Yu looked at Pei Shu’er’s pale face and the slight dark circles under her eyes and quickly asked.

"Young Madam, what’s happened to you?"

Pei Shu’er replied softly, "I made a functional dehulling machine. It can mill flour and remove hulls."

At her words, everyone froze. Isn’t there already a grinding stone? Why did she spend time making such a device?

Lin Yu and Lin Hong immediately brought out the large machine.

It was a machine about half a person’s height, with a funnel-like opening on top and a rectangular iron block below. Beside it was a lever for human-powered operation.

There were also two outlets, each with a sack attached.

Everyone looked at Pei Shu’er in confusion, having never seen such a peculiar thing.

Pei Shu’er asked Lin Yu to assist her. She poured the wheat into the funnel, while Lin Yu turned the hand crank below.

Soon, the machine began to hum and tremble, causing the onlookers to take a cautious step back, fearing the iron box might devour them.

Even Lin Yu instinctively withdrew his hand, ready to defend himself. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅•𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝗇𝖾𝗍

Pei Shu’er laughed, "Don’t be afraid. Keep turning."

Once accustomed, Lin Yu was less fearful and accelerated his turning, speeding up the grinding process.

The others also approached, curiously inspecting the iron box.

After the wheat Pei Shu’er had put in was milled, she stopped adding more, opened the two sacks, and saw that one held fine, white flour free of bran.

The other sack contained the bran, efficiently separated into another bag.

Everyone’s eyes widened with amazement. They had farmed for so long but had never seen flour milled in this way.

Even those from wealthy families hadn’t seen such flour milling—if they wanted finer flour, they had to sieve it multiple times. Though less bran remained, the texture still betrayed some coarseness.

Now, with this fine flour, the food’s texture would improve substantially.

Everyone pinched the flour between their fingers. Feeling its smooth, grain-free texture made their lips curl into smiles, and their hearts beat faster than usual.

They could almost imagine the deliciousness of desserts made from this flour.

If these were made into snacks and taken to trading posts, they’d sell out in an instant.

Immediately, Pei Shu’er assigned some people to continue milling outside while she took a few cooks back to the kitchen.

Using the freshly milled flour, cornmeal, eggs, yeast, and sugar, she prepared a dough, which she then placed in a soil oven.

This was an alternative to an oven, yet it still produced crispy pastries if the heat was well-controlled.