Chapter 46: Carving

Chapter 46: Wood Carving

Following the crackdown on collusion between insiders and outsiders and illegal reselling, along with the distribution of flour rationing coupons which allowed people to purchase flour legally, the rumors gradually subsided and the market returned to order.

Once the market stabilized, He Yuzhu went to the free market to take a look. There was only a small amount of flour available, and the price was slightly higher than that at the state grain store. It was all sold by families facing a shortage of food who were parting with their fine flour in order to buy coarse grains.

Seeing this situation, He Yuzhu gave up any thoughts of selling flour himself.

Time flew by, and the weather grew increasingly cold. Sijiu City ushered in the first snowfall of early winter.

When He Yuzhu woke up in the morning, his first task was to add firewood to the fireplace and the heated brick bed (*kang*). Thanks to his interspatial dimension—where he had planted some oil pines and Huashan pines, which yielded pine nuts and provided him with a considerable supply of timber—he had plenty of wood to burn. Otherwise, he truly wouldn't have been able to afford the heating.

Looking at the snowflakes still drifting outside the window, He Yuzhu went to the kitchen to make breakfast. He planned to make beef hand-pulled noodles for Yushui and himself. In his dimensional space, he had pre-prepared beef bone broth and dough that had already been left to rise. He simply took them out to use directly.

As He Yuzhu thudded away in the kitchen, pulling the noodles with rhythmic slaps against the counter, Yushui was woken up by the noise.

"Brother, what are you doing?" Yushui asked, rubbing her eyes as she stood at the kitchen doorway.

"Making beef hand-pulled noodles for you. Want some?" He Yuzhu continued stretching the dough.

"I want some! Anything big brother makes, I want to eat." Yushui walked into the kitchen to watch her brother cook.

He Yuzhu turned his head and saw Yushui running over in her pajamas: "You child, running out in just these few clothes! Didn't you see it's snowing outside? Go right back and put on some clothes."

Hearing He Yuzhu's words, Yushui stuck out her tongue and scurried back to dress properly.

By the time Yushui finished dressing and washing up, He Yuzhu had already placed two bowls of beef hand-pulled noodles on the dining table. The noodles in the bowls were topped with generous slices of braised beef and a tea-marinated boiled egg.

After breakfast, He Yuzhu walked Yushui to school and then returned home.

Sitting at his desk, he took out a radish and a small carving knife to continue practicing his knife work. First, he went over the floral patterns and figures he had mastered previously. Once he felt fluent, he remembered the set of carving tools he had bought earlier.

He Yuzhu stood up to fetch the carving tools, then retrieved a piece of sandalwood from his dimensional space. Picking up the carving knife, he tried it out; it felt a bit tough and difficult to control. He had to put the sandalwood aside and find a softer piece of wood instead. Carving wood was entirely different from carving food ingredients. He had to start practicing from scratch, beginning with basic lines and shapes, building up his skills bit by bit.

Throughout the morning, relying on his enhanced and transformed physical constitution, He Yuzhu gradually mastered the usage of the carving knife. Starting from simple geometric shapes, he slowly advanced to carving simple pictures. Wood shavings soon piled up across the desktop.

Checking the time, it was nearly time for lunch. Yushui didn't need He Yuzhu to pick her up from school at noon; her martial arts teacher's wife would pick her up, and she would have lunch with Xiaohu at her master's house.

He Yuzhu cleaned the desktop, went to the kitchen, and since he was alone and didn't feel like cooking a formal meal, he simply boiled some noodles, sliced up some marinated meat, and prepared a bit of salted vegetable to solve his lunch.

After finishing his midday meal, he returned to the desk, picked up the carving knife, and resumed practicing. Once he felt confident that he could control the blade and use it as he pleased, he began trying to carve small, three-dimensional animals. The first model he chose to copy was the little clay rabbit figurine that Yushui had been brought back from Tianjin.

He Yuzhu carved carefully, bit by bit, until the little rabbit gradually took on a recognizable silhouette. Comparing it to the toy rabbit, he began refining the details piece by piece. He worked slowly and meticulously until the first finished product was finally complete. He picked it up and placed it next to the figurine, but found that his own carving looked a bit awkward and wasn't as pleasing to the eye as the one bought from Clay Figure Zhang. The body proportions were slightly off.

He tossed the failed attempt straight into the fireplace to destroy the evidence. Absolutely must not let Yushui see this, lest it ruin his image as an omnipotent big brother in her eyes.

He fetched another piece of wood and continued carving rabbits: one, two... He Yuzhu grew increasingly smooth and confident with the knife, and the finished pieces got better and better. Finally, the wooden rabbit he carved looked virtually identical to the molded clay rabbit toy.

Looking at this wooden rabbit, he decided he could give it to Yushui as a gift tonight.

That evening, after picking Yushui up and returning home, He Yuzhu brought out the wooden rabbit he had carved and held it in front of her: "Yushui, look at what this is."

"A little rabbit! Is this for me?" Yushui asked happily as she took it.

Seeing how much she liked it, He Yuzhu said smugly, "Of course. Your big brother spent a whole day carving this."

Yushui looked at her brother with adoration and said, "Brother, you're amazing!"

Hearing her praise, He Yuzhu floated a little and said, "What other animals do you like? Brother will carve them for you tomorrow."

Yushui replied, "I want a tiger, a monkey, a lion, a little sheep..."

Hearing Yushui list off every animal she had ever laid eyes on, He Yuzhu quickly interrupted, "Alright, alright, let's start with these. Brother has to carve them one by one, and it takes a lot of time. Once I finish these, I'll carve the others for you."

"Then carve a monkey first. I like the Monkey King," Yushui thought for a moment and named her top choice.

He Yuzhu readily agreed: "Alright, tomorrow brother will start carving a Monkey King for you."

Hearing that her brother agreed to carve a Monkey King, Yushui said happily, "Brother, you're the best."

The next day, after dropping Yushui off at school, He Yuzhu cooped himself up at home and immersed himself in carving practice. To carve the Monkey King, he first had to establish its visual image. He Yuzhu pondered for a moment; the Great Sage Equaling Heaven wearing a purple-gold crown was a bit too difficult for his current skill level. It would be better to carve a Q-version (chibi style) Monkey King instead.

Spending the entire day on it, he finally produced a satisfying piece of work.

Looking at this Q-version Monkey King standing about 10 centimeters tall—extremely cute and endearing—he figured Yushui would surely love it.

When Yushui came home in the evening, He Yuzhu handed the Monkey King over to her: "Take a look, do you like it?"

Yushui exclaimed, "Wow! So cute, really pretty! Much prettier than the Monkey King in the picture books."

The picture books of that era lacked fine printing, and the depiction of the Monkey King wasn't particularly handsome. However, that didn't stop children from loving the Monkey King.

Since the winter was too cold to venture out much, He Yuzhu stayed firmly at home, practicing his wood carving. His craft steadily improved. Starting from simple small animals, he gradually progressed to carving human figures, then more complex animals, people, landscapes, and beyond.

As time flowed on, the Spring Festival was approaching, and He Yuzhu decided to make a wooden carving gift for both his master and his senior fellow apprentice (*shibo*) this year.

He Yuzhu retrieved some small-leaf red sandalwood from his dimensional space that he had collected over the past two years, planning to carve play-walnuts (*wenwan hetao*) as gifts for his master and senior master.

Selecting wood of suitable size, he cut it into several identical blocks. First, he carved the general shape of the walnuts, then meticulously detailed the intricate shell textures. After carving a dozen or so walnuts, he picked out the two most closely matched to form a pair, and crafted a few custom wooden boxes to hold them.

He also made several sandalwood combs, carving delicate phoenix patterns onto them, intending them as gifts for his master's wife and senior master's wife.

As for his senior sister Fan Tian, Yushui, Xiaohu, and Fan Yao, he carved small Q-version figures modeled after each of their likenesses.

Busy from dawn to dusk, He Yuzhu finally finished everything right before the New Year.