Beauty and the Beasts

Bai Qingqing shook her head but wore a confident smile on her face. “It’s not, but there are some results.”

Hearing that, all four males perked their ears and looked toward her.

Bai Qingqing said, “There’s no need to go to the trouble to steam them in small parts like this. Pour all of them into a container and steam them together. After they are steamed, we’ll grind them again. Winston, increase the flame!”

“Alright!” Winston replied strongly, adding a few more hard pieces of firewood into the stove’s already strong burning flame.

Parker brought a basin of the right size to fit into the pot, filled it up with wood pulp, then placed it into the big pot.

It was left to steam on strong flames. When it was about done, they put in another basin of pulp to steam. The ones that were done were brought over for further experimenting.

This time around, they were ground down even more finely. After two rounds of grinding, Bai Qingqing was worried that it wouldn’t be enough, so she secretly threw a glance at Curtis, who was in the kitchen, then brought a snakeskin dress over, filtering the pulp.

This time around, the pulp became even finer, being of a similar consistency to milk. However, its color was a darker yellow.

It should become paper after it was dried.

Thinking of the pulp’s color after they were dried over the stove, Bai Qingqing found this dull color increasingly unbearable.

“Do you guys know if there’s anything white that can dye other things white?” she asked.

Muir and Parker were next to her. Upon hearing this, they thought about it for a while but still shook their heads helplessly.

If she couldn’t bleach it, then the final product would be yellow paper. Bai Qingqing wanted to use the paper for drawing, there was no way she’d be satisfied with this kind of paper.

After they brought the filtered pulp back into the kitchen, Bai Qingqing then asked the same question to Winston and Curtis, feeling especially hopeful towards the latter.

“Do you guys know?”

As expected of a snake beastman who had inherited countless generations of memories, Curtis thought about it before saying, “There’s a kind of white rock deep underground that can turn murky water clear. However, the taste of the water wouldn’t be good and can’t be consumed. However, it should be fine to use it to turn things white.”

Bai Qingqing was elated and grabbed his hand agitatedly, saying, “Where can we find them? You guys mine every day. Are there any in the vicinity?”

Winston suddenly said, “I saw this same type of rock before, but I’m not sure if it’s the right one. I’ll go dig some right away.”

“Alright, alright, alright!” Bai Qingqing nodded. So that Winston would hurry there, she squeezed toward the stove, planning to take over his job.

Winston smiled and got up to leave.

By the time he came back, they had already processed all the pulp and were just waiting for him.

“Is this it?” Winston brought back a big piece of snow-white rock. Its quality was very crisp, and it smashed into a few pieces after being thrown to the ground.

Bai Qingqing got close and took a whiff. The smell was a little piercing, smelling a little like disinfectant for tap water, but many times more piercing. Just smelling the scent from the surface of the rock pricked Bai Qingqing’s nose.

Curtis broke a piece and looked at it carefully. “This should be it.”

After saying that, he walked over to the processed pulp and placed the piece of fist-sized rock into the basin.

There were a total of three basins of pulp. Seeing that Curtis placed the rocks into two of them, Bai Qingqing hesitated for a moment before stopping him from adding it into the third basin.

“Let’s leave this basin as is and use it directly,” Bai Qingqing said.

Curtis drew his hand back. “Should we steam or bake them?”

Bai Qingqing pouted, then analyzed. “The paper I want is dry, so steaming won’t work. The product from baking is very similar, so let’s just leave them to dry this time around.”

Parker nodded. “Alright, we’ll do as you say.”

With things coming to a close, Bai Qingqing smiled, feeling comforted.