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Translator: Silavin
Su Bai spread the Animal Hide completely flat on the table, with stones pressing down on the four corners.
He first looked at the cow horned girl and instructed, “Ah’Hua, watch carefully, I’ll write your name first.”
“Yes, Shaman,” Yan Hua gave a firm nod.
Su Bai wrote the name of the cow horned girl on the Animal Hide and pushed it over, saying, “This is how your name is written.”
Yan Hua tilted her head, curiously looking at the characters on the Animal Hide, and exclaimed in surprise, “Is this really my name?”
The Animal Hide clearly showed the two characters for Yan Hua. The strokes were clear, and the font was large, making it easy to see at a glance.
“Yes, both these characters are written from top to bottom. You can take it to practise,” Su Bai said softly.
Yan Hua nodded repeatedly, her red eyes fixed on those two characters, her face full of delight.
“Shaman, what about my name?” Yu Ying started to get excited.
“I’ll write it for you right now,” Su Bai smiled and continued writing on the Animal Hide.
Yu Ying’s pink fox tail wagged non-stop as she exclaimed with joy, “Shaman, is this really my name?”
“Yes, your name has a more complex structure, you’ll need to practise it more,” Su Bai advised.
Yu Ying tucked her pink hair behind her ear and asked, “Shaman, can I write it once for you to see? You can point out where I need to improve.”
“I want to write for the Shaman to see too,” Yan Hua raised her hand repeatedly.
“Alright, I’ll break down the characters and show you the stroke order. It’ll be easier for you to understand,” Su Bai said calmly, then started writing on the Animal Hide.
The fox eared girl and the cow horned girl both nodded heavily, watching Su Bai expectantly.
Su Bai dusted off the charcoal dust from the Animal Hide and said, “Alright, you can take it and start learning.”
“Thank you, Shaman,” Yu Ying and Yan Hua said with beaming smiles.
Seeing their enthusiasm, Su Bai thought to himself, [Indeed, people of this era are the purest. They’re so happy just knowing how to write their own names.]
He lowered his head and continued looking at the Animal Hide on the table, needing to continue plan for papermaking.
Su Bai pursed his lips, picked up the charcoal pen, and thought to himself, [Now, we need to find the raw materials for papermaking.]
He narrowed his eyes and kept thinking, trying hard to remember what the raw materials for papermaking were. [It is not very realistic to actually cut down trees for papermaking. We just don’t have tools to fell trees. Right! Wheat Straw can be used for papermaking, but… but we don’t have wheat… we need to find something else to substitute it…]
Wheat Straw was the stalk left after Wheat matures and had been threshed. It could be used for papermaking and weaving certain crafts.
Su Bai blinked his black eyes, falling into a dilemma. [There is no Wheat in this era though. We would need to find something else as a substitute.]
After pondering for a moment, he thought of Dog Tail Grass and muttered, “The forest is so big, there should be some.”
Su Bai sketched the general shape on the Animal Hide, wanting to ask Cang Shi and others to look for it while they were out hunting.
Yu Ying excitedly picked up her Animal Hide and said with a smile, “Shaman, look! I’m done writing. How is it?”
“Me too. I’m done writing too. I think I wrote it exactly the same as you.” Yan Hua chimed in.
Su Bai put down the charcoal and clasped his hands, looking up and saying, “Bring it over and let me take a look.”
As soon as he looked up, he could not help but laugh. It was not because of what they had written, but because of Yan Hua and Yu Ying’s faces. They were covered in charcoal dust, looking quite comical. They must have smudged it while practising.
“Shaman, what’s wrong? We haven’t shown you yet.” Yu Ying pouted.
*Puff!* Yan Hua could not hold back when she saw the fox eared girl’s face. Her shoulders were shaking as she laughed, “Xiao Yu, why is your face black again?”
“No way! I just washed up…” Yu Ying instinctively touched her face, then looked at the cow horned girl and teased back, “Sister Ah’Hua, you’re the same.”
Yan Hua was stunned for a moment, then said nonchalantly, “It doesn’t matter, a true warrior is bound to get a little dirty.”
Su Bai was both amused and sighing. “Bring it over and let me take a look.”
“Yes,” Yu Ying handed over her Animal Hide.
“Hmm…” Su Bai pursed his lips and said, “Xiao Yu, your characters are written a bit too spread out.”
The fox eared girl’s name was written very spread out, looking more like separated strokes than a single character.
Yu Ying cupped her chin with both hands and mumbled, “But, when I write them closer together, they become a black mess. I can only write them more spread out.”
Su Bai suddenly understood. It was unavoidable with charcoal as pens. He softly said, “Okay. We’ll deal with this later. Once we make proper pens, it’ll be easier to write.”
“Okay, Shaman, please look at what Sister Ah’Hua wrote,” Yu Ying nodded.
Yan Hua pursed her lips, placed her Animal Hide on the table with an expectant look, and said, “Shaman, I wrote it differently.”
Su Bai looked at what the cow horned girl had written and covered his face as he laughed, “Ah’Hua, although you wrote it close together, it’s a bit too close.”
The name written by the cow horned girl was all intersecting. The character ‘炎’ overlapped top and bottom, and so did the character ‘花’.
These two characters looked like they were full of holes, not like Chinese Characters at all.
Yan Hua pointed at her chin with her index finger and helplessly said, “But when I write, my hand unnaturally shakes.”
Su Ba’s eyes widened. He believed that Yan Hua was too strong. Exercising every day, using quick bursts of strength, it was inevitably a bit difficult for her to suddenly start to gently write.
Writing was not exactly difficult, but it was not simple either. Every stroke needs to be neat and tidy, which is a bit challenging for those who have never done it before.
“It’s okay, you just need more practice. You’ve already done very well,” Su Bai praised. [Well, for the people of a primitive Tribe, writing Chinese Characters for the first time, these are already exceptional results. They would improve after a few more attempts.]
Yan Hua tucked her black hair and seriously asked, “Shaman, can we really learn how to read and write?”
“Yes, Shaman, reading and writing is very difficult. We can’t even write our own names well,” Yu Ying said with difficulty.
“Of course you can. With me teaching you, you’ll definitely learn. You just need more practice,” Su Bai gently said.
“That’s good, thank you, Shaman,” Yu Ying’s pink eyes crinkled into crescents as she smiled.
“I’ll definitely take it really seriously. A warrior never backs down.” Yan Hua said earnestly.
Su Bai smiled with satisfaction and instructed, “Alright, Ah’Hua, go and ask Cang Shi to come here.”
“Yes,” Yan Hua immediately replied and turned to leave the Teepee.
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