William Carter misunderstood, thinking the other party’s head shake was a negative gesture, and hurriedly explained, “Let those warriors outside the courtyard help me pick up a few stones. I want to take a look at them.”

　　Ethan Brooks turned his head and immediately replied, “No problem. As long as you don’t leave this manor, you can command any of the servants… I need to return to Zhao City for a couple of days. When I come back, I’ll instruct them to follow your orders—if you need anything in the future, just tell the servants.”

　　William Carter nodded lightly, then complained, “I’m not a serious person. Always talking so solemnly is unbearable for me… Hmm, can we be a bit more casual when we talk from now on?”

　　A faint smile appeared at the corner of Ethan Brooks’s mouth. He looked at William Carter and said something meaningful: “Let’s wait until you truly learn Jin dialect… Speaking of which, although what you say isn’t Jin dialect, you can always produce different sounds. It seems your language is even more complex than Jin dialect, which makes me very curious—what kind of education did you receive in your original country since childhood?

　　…Well, you don’t need to answer that, because I wouldn’t understand your answer! Hmm, I’m really looking forward to it…”

　　After speaking, Ethan Brooks got up and took his leave, looking thoughtful.

　　In the following days, William Carter strove hard to improve his own meals.

　　In the Spring and Autumn period, there were no pots in the modern sense. Cooking rice was done in three-eared bronze cauldrons, with a pile of firewood burning under the cauldron to heat the water. The cauldron was large, with a big heat dissipation area. To cook the contents thoroughly, the fire had to be strong enough to keep the soup from cooling down, so during cooking, the heat waves rolling off the cauldron made it impossible to get close. Once the soup inside boiled and the burning firewood was removed, a layer of soot would already be floating on the surface, making it unappetizing at first glance—the cauldron had no lid.

　　Reforming the standard of meals was a systematic project. William Carter started by reforming the cooking tools. First, he directed people in the courtyard to build a stove—but bricks hadn’t been invented yet in this era, so to build a stove, William Carter had to invent brick-making technology first.

　　To make mud bricks, you need a mold. But there were no saws in this era, so it was impossible to make brick molds from wooden boards. William Carter had to invent the saw—by taking a fine bronze sword and using a file from the wheel repair tools to file out fine teeth, making it suitable for cutting wood.

　　After much effort sawing the boards, William Carter was frustrated to find there were no nails in this era. Boards were joined using mortise and tenon joints, or simply tied together with straw rope. So, he had to invent nails—by sawing bronze rods into sections and sharpening one end to make crude nails…

　　Once the mud bricks were ready, William Carter was troubled again to find that brick-firing technology didn’t exist yet. At this time, houses were built with rammed earth walls. So, he had to gather a group of potters to make a small brick kiln—but even brick kilns hadn’t been invented yet. What a world!

　　He wondered… Without comfortable and leisurely lives, how did Laozi, Mozi, and Confucius manage to create such great works of thought?

　　In short, just to solve the problem of a single meal, William Carter undertook a major systematic project. To finish all these trivial tasks as quickly as possible and eat tasty food soon, William Carter had to introduce the concept of assembly lines and segmented construction… He divided the potters building the brick kiln into several teams, each person responsible for a section of the wall. Ethan Brooks had found quite a few people; in modern times, such a construction crew would be enough to build a skyscraper, but in the Spring and Autumn period, it took them a month just to build a small brick kiln.

　　It’s worth mentioning that even soil sieves hadn’t been invented at the time. When making mud bricks, the slaves used their feet to stomp and mix the mud, so the mixture would be well blended—for this, William Carter had to invent yet another thing…

Chapter Four: Cooking a Good Pot of Soup Is Hard (Part 2)

　　A month later, the small brick kiln was finished. Then came the problem of the iron pot… In the end, William Carter carefully calculated that in this one month, he invented new tools at a rate of two or three per day, equipping the entire brick-making and catering industry with all the necessary tools—even shovels weren’t overlooked. The shovels of the Spring and Autumn period, like the spade-shaped ancient coins seen today, were both heavy and inconvenient.

　　The small brick kiln was fired up, burning the black stones William Carter had found—coal. He stood by the kiln, looking at the brick blanks glowing red inside, and grumbled discontentedly, “Just the amount of bricks for one stove took hundreds of people a whole month…”

　　It was said that the brick kiln needed to be fired for several days, a time estimated by the potters based on pottery-making experience. William Carter stood by the kiln for a while, but couldn’t wait for the bricks to finish firing, so he turned and went back inside.

　　William Carter didn’t notice that as soon as he left, Ethan Brooks appeared, bringing Samuel Clark with him. The two of them checked over William Carter’s month’s worth of work one by one. As Samuel Clark inspected, he commented, “So many new tools—some I’ve heard of, some I’ve never even heard of… It seems this young master comes from a family of great pottery artisans… Ah, and he even knows a bit of carpentry and ironworking. That’s hard to figure out. These days, people guard their skills closely, passing them only to their sons, not sons-in-law. Who would teach an outsider’s child? Yet he’s mastered three crafts—rare! Strange!”