Fluffing a single quilt's worth of cotton batting, from start to finish, took about a day. Luckily, Master Liu had brought his eldest son as an assistant, so after two or three busy days, the work was nearly complete.
Next was the project of refurbishing Widow Xie's old quilts. This involved taking them apart, removing the mesh netting that held the cotton in place, and then re-fluffing the batting—which had become hard and compacted over time—until it was soft and loose once more.
Ji Huan had intended to give half of her cotton to Widow Xie so their family could make a few new quilts as well, but Widow Xie flatly refused. She insisted that her old quilts weren't worn out and that re-fluffing them would make them good as new. The argument eventually devolved into another lecture about how Ji Huan didn't know how to manage a household properly.
Ji Huan quickly changed the subject and asked Master Liu about it, and his answer confirmed what Widow Xie had said.
