The Prime Minister’s Darling-Chapter 395 - : 202 Unveiled (Two updates combined into one) _2

Chapter 395: 202 Unveiled (Two updates combined into one) _2

In the past, it was always Gu Jiao who did the mending.

Today, when the Yao Family saw it, they almost laughed their sides out.

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They always thought their daughter could do anything and everything, only to find out she’s also a simpleton.

Gu Jiao had just finished watering the vegetable garden and came to the backyard, only to find Mrs. Yao shaking with laughter, holding a pile of clothes.

“What’s happening?” She asked, puzzled.

“Oh my~” Mrs. Yao had laughed till she was in tears and after a while stopped, asking Gu Jiao, “Jiaojiao, who did you learn your needlework from?”

...

Gu Jiao thought for a moment: “Self-taught?”

Mrs. Yao knew it then.

Who else would sew like this?

Mrs. Yao was about to be tickled to death by her daughter. She patted the stool beside her, hinting Gu Jiao to sit down. Then she took an area of the clothes mended by Gu Jiao, and said, “You don’t need to knot each stitch, and you shouldn’t leave the thread end outside. Like this…”

Mrs. Yao unseamed the area once more and then mended it properly for Gu Jiao to see.

“Hmm.” Gu Jiao pondered seriously, “I thought I had been doing a good job sewing.”

After all, mending clothes did improve her surgical stitching skills. She sewed a lot faster than before.

While mother and daughter were talking, Gu Yan and Gu Xiaoshun came back from the Academy, they didn’t need to go to Master Lu’s place to learn today.

The two of them had no idea that Gu Jiao and Mrs. Yao were at home. They entered the courtyard, laughing and joking, each with a feather on their head.

Gu Xiaoshun had his little gang in the countryside, back then he was the number one bully in a radius of a dozen miles. The feather on their heads was the symbol of their gang, the “Feather Gang”.

Later, Gu Jiao sent him to Tianxiang Academy. On the surface, it looked like he had changed, but in reality, he was still a little rascal.

Today, Gu Jiao finally caught him in the act.

“Uh, sis.” Gu Xiaoshun swiftly removed the feather on his head, moving his eyes about, he also took off the feather on Gu Yan’s head.

Both of them stood there, still as statues, waiting for Gu Jiao’s reaction.

“Jiaojiao!”

Aunt Zhang from the alley had come to the door, “The wall in our backyard next to the stove is about to collapse!”

“I’ll go and have a look for you.” Gu Jiao took a look at the two rascals at her home, put down the water bucket she was using to water the flowers, and went to Aunt Zhang’s house with her.

Gu Jiao’s neighbors first found out about her usefulness when the roof of the house next door was leaking. Gu Jiao climbed up and fixed it straight away. Since then, everyone in the neighborhood knew how capable Mrs. Zhuang’s grandnephew’s wife was.

Aunt Zhang’s backyard wall had a crack that needed to be repaired with mortar.

In ancient times, there was no cement. Everything was made from lime mortar and rammed earth.

Lime mortar is not stable enough, it easily gets damp on rainy days. Rammed earth was a better choice.

The materials for rammed earth were red clay, coarse sand, and pieces of lime. Gu Jiao’s grandpa’s house had coarse sand and pieces of lime, but the red clay was used up by Xiaojingsong, who was currently obsessed with building houses with his friends. Gu Jiao didn’t know where to find new supplies in a short time.

Aunt Zhang was getting anxious, “Can’t you fix it today? My wall doesn’t have until tomorrow, it will collapse!”

The courtyard wall was next to the stove and if it collapsed, anyone cooking in the stove room would be in danger.

Gu Jiao thought for a moment and told her, “Wait for a second.”

Gu Jiao returned to her own mansion, found some sticky rice in the stove room, cooked a pot of sticky rice soup, and then poured the thick, sticky rice paste into the uniformly mixed lime mortar.

“Sis, what are you doing?” Gu Xiaoshun asked curiously.

Gu Yan also squatted down, eagerly watching her, “Why are you pouring the rice soup into it?”

Gu Jiao handed each of them a stick, hinting them to keep stirring, “This is sticky rice mortar, which is more useful than rammed earth. It’s perfect for plastering the wall.”

To make rammed earth was a tiring process, three types of materials needed to be mixed together and then beaten repeatedly with tools. The more times it was beaten, the stronger the rammed earth would be.

Sticky rice mortar was less complex, but it was much more firm. This was because cooked sticky rice soup contains a compound called amylopectin, a perfect natural binder. You could even say that the strength of the lime mortar bonded by it was comparable to modern concrete.

“Be careful not to splash it on yourselves,” Gu Jiao warned.

“Okay!” They both responded in unison.

When Gu Jinyu arrived at Bishui Alley, he saw his siblings stirring the mortar together.

Gu Jinyu frowned slightly.

Gu Yan had always been a frail person in her impression, who would be out of breath even from a walk. She never expected him to be capable of doing hard labor.

Mrs. Yao sat on the side, leisurely mending her clothes, not finding anything wrong with Gu Yan doing manual work.

Gu Jinyu collected herself and entered the courtyard, “Mom, sister, brother, what are you guys doing?”