Chapter 402

Mu Xueqing was suddenly ambushed and had her face covered in slobber, causing a flush to instantly spread across her pretty little face.

For the past few days, due to Wu Dong and the others, Mu Xueqing and Wang An had been in a state of living apart.

Therefore, the little intimacy the two usually shared every night had been cut off.

Of course, since Mu Xueqing was pregnant, the intimacy between them was indeed just "little intimacy"—the kind involving mouths, hands, and feet—definitely not the real thing.

With that intimacy cut off for several days, and now with Wang An's sudden attack, it was hard for the two of them not to lose control.

When they lost control, the movements inevitably became a bit too large, mainly because Wang An's hand had reached into a place it shouldn't have reached during the day.

This made Mu Xueqing even more shy, and she wanted to push Wang An away, but she was still holding a pile of things in her hands.

Consequently, Wang An became a bit unrestrained.

A long time later, Mu Xueqing finally escaped Wang An's clutches and said coquettishly:

"It's broad daylight, are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Wang An chuckled and said cheekily, "Wife, you really are my lucky star! Haha."

As Wang An spoke, he took the cloth layers from Mu Xueqing's hands.

Seeing Wang An's action, Mu Xueqing asked in surprise:

"What's this? You want to help me make shoes?"

Wang An was stunned upon hearing this and subconsciously glanced at the cloth layers in his hand. Come to think of it, the only use for cloth layers really did seem to be making shoes.

However, Wang An immediately smiled and said:

"Make shoes? What shoes? Let's just go to the supply and marketing cooperative and buy a few pairs someday; it's too much trouble to stitch soles every day."

Hearing Wang An's words, Mu Xueqing immediately said:

"Buying shoes costs money. I'm just doing it while I'm free. Now that we have a sewing machine at home, making shoes is fast too."

Although Mu Xueqing's words were flawless and reflected the typical frugality of women in this era,

to Wang An, it was still quite moving. Wang An suddenly felt a sense of "with a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for?"

However, Wang An still insisted:

"From now on, besides the fur boots I wear for mountain trekking, we won't make cloth shoes at home. We aren't short on money, and stitching soles every day will ruin your eyesight."

Mu Xueqing still wanted to speak, but Wang An immediately said in a tone used to coax a child:

"Be obedient, wife, be a good girl."

Mu Xueqing rolled her eyes at Wang An and said crossly, "Do you take me for a child?"

"Hahahaha." Wang An laughed cheekily.

Once Wang An finished laughing, he didn't continue to dwell on the issue of buying shoes; after all, many things are like that—once they are bought, whether one is willing or not, one accepts them.

Then Wang An brought up his idea of making clothes for the dogs.

After listening, Mu Xueqing said quite curiously:

"So you want to put a suit of armor on our dogs, like the generals in ancient times?"

Wang An thought about it and felt that seemed to be the case, so he nodded and said:

"Putting this stuff on a dog shouldn't be called armor; it should be called protective gear."

Mu Xueqing nodded and subconsciously asked:

"These cloth layers are so hard, will the dog be comfortable wearing them?"

Upon hearing this, Wang An also realized this problem.

Moreover, Wang An suddenly discovered that protective gear, while looking simple, was actually a very difficult thing to truly make.

Because when hunting dogs go into the mountains, they must maintain their agility; in other words, this protective gear cannot affect their ability to jump up and down or turn left and right.

This placed high demands on the material for the protective gear: it couldn't be too heavy, couldn't be too hard, and most importantly, it had to be durable.

Actually, Wang An had initially thought of leather, but in terms of durability, only well-tanned cowhide could do the job.

However, if one wanted to collect cowhide, one could go door-to-door in the entire Kaoshan Tun and probably not be able to scrape together a whole hide.

Because cowhide, besides being sellable for money, was truly too useful in the countryside.

The vast majority of cowhide was sold, and even if it wasn't sold, it would be made into fur boots.

One must know that fur boots made of cowhide were extremely durable.

To say that one pair of shoes could be passed down for three generations was definitely nonsense, but wearing them for three or five years really was no problem at all.

Even the scraps left over after making fur boots wouldn't be thrown away; they could be used as patches later or to make harnesses for horse-drawn carriages.

Furthermore, in the countryside, there was a type of rope that had to be used, called a "sha rope," which was used to tie up crops on the cart when hauling them.

Generally, this rope was twisted from hemp; if cowhide were used, it would be durable for ten thousand years.

Although cowhide was indeed very useful, these weren't the most critical points.

The most critical point was that in this era, a cow in the countryside simply couldn't die unless it died of old age, illness, or severe injury.

But if the cows didn't die, where would the cowhide come from?

To be honest, cloth layers, although just several layers of cloth glued together, were really quite durable, except for the fact that they weren't wear-resistant.

Just thinking about how this stuff was always used to make shoe soles, one knew how tough it was.

But this stuff was also really hard and brittle; as soon as it was folded, the glued-together cloth would quickly come apart and no longer be durable.

Consequently, the flash of inspiration from just a moment ago instantly turned into darkness.

Just when Wang An was at his wit's end, Mu Xueqing continued:

"How about cutting the cloth layers into strips and then sewing them onto leather, just like stitching shoe soles?"

As soon as Wang An thought about it, his eyes lit up again.

One had to say, Mu Xueqing's brain was truly quite intelligent.

So Wang An hugged Mu Xueqing again and gave her a good nibbling.

"Aiya, stop it, you've covered my face in slobber again," Mu Xueqing said softly while being nibbled.

Mainly, Mu Xueqing really didn't dare to be too loud because the sounds of the two little sisters playing could be heard from the outer room.

Wang An, having had his fill of nibbling, laughed and jumped from the kang to the ground, ran out the door, and headed toward the three dogs.

Although Wang An's tailoring skills were superb and he could accurately judge a person's measurements, he had never made clothes for dogs, so he had to measure the dogs first.

After measuring the dogs, Wang An ran to the lower room and took out a few wild boar hides.

In the absence of cowhide, wild boar hide combined with cloth layers was the most durable thing Wang An could think of right now.

Returning to the room, Wang An quickly cut out the protective gear for the three dogs based on their measurements.

Actually, Wang An only measured Da Hei's size, because he realized while measuring Da Hei that this protective gear had to be adjustable in size.

If it were made to a fixed size, then after sewing the cloth layers onto the wild boar hide, the gear would likely not fit nine times out of ten.

After cutting the wild boar hide, Wang An pondered carefully for a while before taking the scissors to the cloth layers.

Thanks to the big boss "ubuhyvygt" for the tip!

Thanks to the big boss "202211052270" for the tip!

Thanks to the big boss "202011309037" for the tip!

A salute to the three big bosses!

(End of chapter)