Chapter Twenty-Three: The Bellows

After lunch, Zhou Zhi went to the woodshed to inspect the chaotic pile of goose feathers. Thankfully, wild geese had plenty of plumage, and even the finer feathers could be used. Zhou Zhi gathered them together, weighed them in his hand, and felt quietly delighted. "Good, there's enough."

He then borrowed an axe from Old Zhang’s house, along with two small knives that Zhang used when castrating pigs, and some iron nails.

In the backyard of the Zhou family, many elms and willows were planted. Earlier this spring, one willow tree had inexplicably withered and died, just in time to be chopped down for use as planks.

This willow was about half a foot thick in diameter. Zhou Zhi swung the axe and, within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, had felled it.

He peeled the bark with a kitchen knife, scraped it clean, and chopped the trunk into sections about a foot and a half and a foot long. These sections were then carefully split into boards about an inch thick using the kitchen knife. The boards were then scraped smooth.

The work was not particularly strenuous, but shaving the boards required patience, ensuring each piece was as flat and smooth as possible, free of splinters.

After tidying up the thirty-odd planks, he made two larger boards about a foot and a half long and a foot wide.

The materials were nearly ready, but he still needed a wooden shaft. Jujube wood was best for this purpose. The Zhou household had no jujube trees, so Zhou Zhi thought of the cemetery to the west of the village.

To the west of Baiyue Village lay a vast graveyard, where the poor buried their dead without much ceremony. Over the years, some graves had become unrecognizable, their owners forgotten, so the place earned the name "The Mound of Untended Graves."

Wild grass as tall as a man grew there, thorns everywhere, but amidst them were many jujube trees of varying thicknesses. Because no one tended the area, when the jujubes turned red, village children would risk scratches from the thorns to harvest them all.

Axe in hand, Zhou Zhi braved the drizzle and quickly reached the graveyard, hacked through the brambles, and found a straight jujube tree. He chopped it down, peeled it, and was left with a shaft over three feet long and two inches in diameter.

He weighed it in his hand—it was just right. Hurrying home, he found his sister, Zhou Lüyun, standing in the yard, looking puzzled at the neatly arranged planks.

"Xiao Zhi, what exactly are you making?"

"Sister, you'll see soon. I'm going to try making something that will make cooking much easier for you in the future." Zhou Zhi replied with a sly smile, keeping her in suspense.

Seeing Zhou Zhi soaked but in high spirits, Zhou Lüyun felt sorry for her brother, but couldn't bring herself to urge him inside. She thought to herself, this brother is getting stranger by the day—I'm curious to see what he'll come up with.

Ignoring him, she picked up a sieve and went to feed the chickens in the backyard.

Zhou Zhi resumed his busy work. First, he nailed the planks together to build a rectangular wooden box three feet long, a foot and a half high, and a foot wide. One side of the box remained open for now.

He cut small holes in the front and back of the box, then fashioned thin wooden pieces into doors, hanging them over the holes as swinging flaps.

Using the two large boards, he fashioned a clamp, arranged the goose feathers neatly, and secured them with cowhide cords around the board. This was what later generations would call "cat ears," though it was, in fact, a piston.

He then bored a round hole in the clamp, matching the diameter of the jujube shaft. Gently, he slid the clamp into the box from the open side, then made another small hole in the front of the box, inserted the jujube shaft through it, and fixed it securely into the clamp’s hole.

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At the end of the jujube shaft, Zhou Zhi nailed on a vertical handle, so it could be gripped when in use.

The final step was to nail shut the top of the wooden box, sealing it tight.

Ah yes, he still needed to cut a square hole in one side of the box—a so-called "mouse hole"—for blowing air.

Zhou Zhi had never done woodworking in his previous life, but he had seen carpenters at work. Carpenters naturally had their own handy tools, but with only these simple implements and relying on memory, he had managed to create such a device—quite a feat.

Looking at the rectangular wooden box, rough and plain though it was, Zhou Zhi's face shone with pride and satisfaction.

It seemed coming to Ming had really honed him; tasks he'd never tackled before now came easily.

Gripping the vertical handle, he gently pushed and pulled it back and forth. With rhythmic "clack-clack" sounds, wind rushed from the "mouse hole" at the bottom of the box.

It worked!

Zhou Zhi clapped his hands in delight.

He'd labored nearly all afternoon, and as dusk was falling, he carried the wooden box into the kitchen.

His sister was already preparing dinner. Zhou Zhi called out excitedly, "Sister, look—what do you think this is?"

"Xiao Zhi, you worked all afternoon. What's it for?" Zhou Lüyun circled the wooden box, examining it with a puzzled look.

"It blows air. With this, you won't need a fan anymore when cooking, and you won't have to worry about smoke filling the house on rainy days," Zhou Zhi declared proudly.

"This thing? Really?" Zhou Lüyun was still skeptical.

"Try it and see!"

Zhou Zhi placed the box beside the stove.

Wait—the stove needed a hole on the side, otherwise how would the wind enter the hearth? Without hesitation, Zhou Zhi used the axe to smash a hole in the side of the stove. Since it was made of mud bricks, it was easy enough.

He aligned the "mouse hole" with the stove’s opening and pulled the vertical handle. Wind rushed into the hearth.

"Amazing! It really works!" Zhou Lüyun laughed with joy.

She finally understood, grabbed the handle from Zhou Zhi, and pulled it herself, elated.

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"Xiao Zhi, what do you call this thing?"

"Let’s call it a bellows," Zhou Zhi replied after a moment’s thought.

Actually, bellows were a staple in northern farmhouses in later generations, especially in the seventies and eighties—every household had one, nothing rare.

When the bellows were invented is lost to history. All Zhou Zhi knew was that his family didn’t have one, nor did any neighbors, nor had he seen one anywhere in Baiyue Village.

The siblings' laughter in the kitchen drew their mother, Zhou He, from the inner room. She quietly entered, saw Zhou Lüyun working the bellows, and noticed the smoke had vanished from the kitchen—she was astonished.

Just then, Aunt Li, their neighbor, called from the yard, "Sister Zhou, have you seen my chubby boy?"

Without waiting, she strode into the house, caught sight of the bellows, circled it a few times, and exclaimed, "Oh my, this thing is wonderful! When did your family make it?"

Learning that Zhou Zhi had crafted it in a single afternoon, she praised him endlessly, saying he was growing cleverer, that his fall had made him smarter, and now he was a prodigy.

After showering Zhou Zhi with compliments, she hurried away.

Being a notorious gossip, it took no time at all for the nearby neighbors to learn that the Zhou boy had invented a bellows, making cooking much easier.

Before long, the little bellows attracted a crowd, and the Zhou family’s small courtyard was packed with people.

The bellows were simple to make, and soon enough, someone figured it out and went home to build their own. People began to regard Zhou Zhi with newfound respect, believing the Zhou family was destined to produce talented offspring—this boy was extraordinary.

Zhou Zhi smiled modestly at everyone.

His younger brother, Zhou Shaocheng, suddenly bounced home, cheeks flushed and brimming with excitement. Seeing the house and yard full of people, he wondered what was happening. He hurried inside and found everyone gathered around the wooden box, peppering his brother with questions, and some were praising Zhou Zhi nonstop.

To Zhou Shaocheng, his brother was now his idol. To impress him, he seized the moment, raised his little face, and announced proudly, "Brother, this afternoon I did as you said—I hit Chubby hard in one spot, and I actually made him cry!"

At this, everyone exchanged looks, while Zhou Zhi felt mortified.

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