Chapter 91

Lin Zezu returned to the small courtyard, his melancholy quickly dispelled by the busyness of the work ahead. Fugui summoned Li Tieshuan and Li Genfu to help install the still hood. The earthen pot had already been positioned and secured the day the stove was built. Fugui retrieved a soaking-wet straining cloth from a large water vat and wrapped it around the rim of the pot. He then hammered and patted the cloth until it was as flat as possible. Li Tieshuan and Li Genfu lifted the hood together, placing it rim-down with steady hands onto the flattened cloth. Using prepared red clay, they sealed the joint, working from the ground all the way up to where the hood met the cloth. Red clay is known for its incredible adhesiveness—a quality the local farmers summarized with a rhyme: "A lump of mud in the rain, a block of copper in the sun." This perfectly described the clay’s binding power.