Day Eighty-Seven, The Plan (Part II)

Brother Qian dragged Ying Yuefeng away from the vegetable patch, as she was still lingering there with reluctance. They had to go chop down trees; since it was already afternoon, they had to race against time to acquire the timber needed for building their house...

I had lent them both the axe and the knife. If the few of them took turns chopping down trees and transporting the saplings, their speed should be quite fast. Initially, I had planned to go with them, but then I realized that using their stone axe to cut down saplings would be extremely slow and inefficient. Their group of five was already more than enough, so I didn't tag along.

Of course, there was another reason: my earthen kiln was finally finished, and it was just waiting for the tile blanks to be placed inside for firing. This was a major event for me.

With the utmost care, I placed the tile blanks and the miniature water jar into the furnace. I was terrified that the perforated cover wouldn't be able to support the weight of those eight tile blanks, but fortunately, it held up.

This was the first firing, and also the most meaningful one. If successful, we would be able to have tiled roofs in the future. If it failed, I would at least gain some firing experience and be able to figure out the cause of the failure so as to succeed the next time.

The fire was ignited. As twigs were continuously added, the blaze grew fiercer inside the earthen kiln, and tongues of flame spread into the upper chamber. Finally, I managed to lift the large cover and carefully placed it on top.

This large cover was merely a dried clay blank and had not yet been fired, so as I was lowering it onto the top of the furnace, a small piece chipped off the edge where my right hand was gripping it. My hand slipped, and the cover dropped right onto the top of the furnace. Thankfully, it didn't fall straight to the ground, or it would certainly have shattered instantly. If the cover had broken, today's firing plan would have had to be aborted. Fortunately, it didn't; my luck was not too bad.

Only a piece the size of a bowl rim had broken off the cover, which wouldn't affect its usability. As small twigs were continually stuffed into the earthen kiln, the flames inside grew fiercer and the temperature soared. Stoking the fire in the earthen pit became an agonizing task; the heat waves no longer drifted over in gentle succession, but instead surged forward relentlessly in continuous waves. Within a short span of time, my entire body was drenched in sweat.

Because the temperature in the pit was simply too high, I had to crawl out of the earthen pit several times just to let the temperature of my burning skin drop quickly. I even began to regret digging this firewood pit so small; if it had been larger, it wouldn't have been so intensely hot. In such a confined space, the heat radiating from the earthen kiln was terrifying.

I could only go in to add some firewood and then immediately crawl back out of the earthen pit, repeating this process over and over. While I was busy, Ye Qingchen and Ying Yuefeng, who were in charge of transporting the trees, returned. Seeing my bizarre behavior, they came over to inquire closely. Upon hearing that I was firing roof tiles, they were so shocked they were left speechless. Yet I was well aware that skepticism probably made up the greater part of their reaction; both initially wore suspicious expressions, and had we not been mere acquaintances, they probably would have started lecturing me.

Finally, the two of them exchanged glances and then left to resume hauling their timber. In just two hours, they had already chopped a massive pile of saplings. I estimated that before dark, they would have just about all the tree trunks they needed, or if not quite enough, the shortfall would be minimal.

Four hours had passed, and the entire exterior of the furnace was scorching hot. If one were to slap a piece of cured meat onto it at this moment, it probably wouldn't take long to roast it thoroughly. It had turned into a natural oven, and within a radius of one meter around the furnace, it was so intensely hot that I couldn't even approach. No matter how much water I drank, my mouth still felt parched.

According to the notebook, I only needed to wait for the furnace to cool down completely before I could take the tiles out from inside. Whether it was a success might not be known today, but there was no helping it; I simply had to wait for the furnace to cool down slowly.

Having toiled for several hours and shed plenty of sweat, I felt utterly drained, as if hollowed out, so I lay down on the ground to rest. To my surprise, I drifted off to sleep shortly after lying down. When I woke up again, it was because Ye Qingchen had shaken me awake.

By this time, it was completely dark. I hadn't expected time to fly by so quickly; I only felt as though I had dozed off for a brief moment, wanting nothing more than a quick nap, with no intention of sleeping through the night.

When I sat up, I discovered that a bonfire had already been lit in the courtyard, and the rest of them were sitting around it in a circle, having prepared dinner. The staple food was the thin congee I had cooked at noon, and they had also caught some coconut crabs from somewhere, which were already roasted.

The seafood soup left over from midday had been reheated with some added kelp and shellfish. Seeing me walk over, Brother Qian and the others all greeted me. It seemed they had been waiting for me to eat together.

"Brother Luo, little Yezi said you're firing roof tiles?" Brother Qian asked the moment I sat down beside him.

"Yes, tomorrow we'll know the result. If the firing is successful, we won't have to worry about leaks in the roof of our new house anymore; we can tile the whole thing."

"Is that so? What kind of soil did Brother Luo use for the firing? I haven't noticed any clay nearby before."

"Termite mounds!"

"Oh? Well, if it's as Brother Luo says, there really is a chance of success. Termite mounds do have very high cohesiveness. Well, I wish Brother Luo success, and then we can all share in the blessing. Let me thank Brother Luo on behalf of everyone present first." With that, everyone looked toward me. I didn't quite know how to react, but somehow, everyone ended up echoing Brother Qian's words of thanks.

I was well aware that quite a few of them probably doubted it would succeed, but talking more was pointless; opening the cover tomorrow would reveal the truth. Still, my heart felt somewhat anxious, because during the firing, several loud pops had echoed from inside the furnace. It was impossible to guess whether those were the sounds of tiles cracking or the furnace walls splitting under the extreme heat; I could only wait until tomorrow.

Brother Qian knew very well how important Xiao Hei was to me, so when food was being distributed, he made sure to set aside a portion for Xiao Hei as well. When he saw me feeding Lightning, he grew curious and even wanted to take Lightning from my hands to feed it himself. Unfortunately, although Lightning was still small, apart from me, it didn't like anyone else. Even though it only had tiny little teeth, the moment Brother Qian picked it up, it gave him a fierce bite. It didn't pack much power, but it certainly gave Brother Qian a fright. What was even more comical was that no matter how Brother Qian tried to feed or soothe it, Lightning refused to take a single bite, constantly twisting its head around in a desperate bid to return to my embrace... In the end, Brother Qian abandoned his curiosity and handed Lightning back to me, which sent everyone into fits of laughter.

After dinner, Brother Qian began assigning tasks. Early tomorrow morning, they would start excavating the foundations for the new house and crafting mortise and tenon joints on the tree trunks to ensure that every single joint remained extremely secure.

At the same time, he hit the nail on the head regarding the flaws of my current treehouse, pointing out its poor structural integrity. In Brother Qian's words, this treehouse could probably withstand one more non-disastrous typhoon without issue, but at most it could only endure one more. By the time the next one arrived, even if its strength were halved, this treehouse would suffer major structural failure.

Naturally, I wanted to know precisely what factors were causing my treehouse to be unable to withstand the might of a typhoon.

Brother Qian proved his professional background by pointing out everything he considered problematic. For instance, without mortise and tenon joints, a house easily falls apart; within two months at most, all the vines would lose their elasticity due to high-intensity stress, suffer severe wear and tear, and eventually snap.

In other words, once the time came, the lifespan of this treehouse would come to an end. Furthermore, Brother Qian believed there were issues with my roof framing. He remarked that I had just been lucky last time; if the wind had blown from a different direction, the roof I built would have been swept clean away. There was no other possibility.

He had also seen the cables I used to tie down the big tree, and with a smile, he joked that I was like a well-fed person who didn't understand the hunger of others—cables like those could still be safely utilized if simply unraveled, without needing to worry about the separated strands snapping easily.

Additionally, he felt the earthen stove inside the treehouse was hideous, which left me feeling a bit depressed. After all, it was my first time doing something like that; how could I have known any better? However, his next sentence quickly put my mind at ease. He told me not to worry, and promised that once their own house was built and they had a proper dwelling, he would help me renovate my treehouse, and even remodel it according to my own ideas.

Everyone chatted excitedly by the bonfire, and the subject of the latrine even came up. They had already built a latrine on their side previously, which Brother Qian had also constructed. The tricky part in this region was the heavy rainfall; if it wasn't built properly, the courtyard could experience a "Yellow River flood" at any moment.

Moreover, they were discussing the dimensions of the house, how many stories it should have, what each space would be used for, and how to allocate the rooms, all while debating enthusiastically with one another. Naturally, Midakang simply sat quietly to the side watching them, offering no opinions.

...

In such a conversational atmosphere, it was easy to lose track of time. Unawares, it was already midnight, and the moon had climbed directly overhead. I had already noticed Ye Qingchen and the others yawning several times.

As for the invitation for them to sleep up in the treehouse, they had initially all declined. Later, under my repeated invitations, the group finally came up into the treehouse, but they refused the invitation to rest on the upper level. Instead, they rolled out the dried grass mats they had brought and laid them on the floor of the lower level, preparing to sleep there.

These dried grass bundles had been made piece by piece by "One Point Five," ultimately serving as a makeshift blanket for each of them...

As soon as I returned to the upper level and lay down, the snoring from the lower level began to rise and fall in waves. Everyone was exhausted; driven by the need to push forward the progress today, everyone had surely spent every last ounce of their strength.

Lying on my bedding, by the light of the honeycomb candle, I read through the notebook, trying to check whether there had been any mistakes in my tile-making process. Before long, however, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion washed over me, my eyelids drooped uncontrollably, and I drifted off to sleep.

Yet my sleep was restless, haunted several times by dreams of someone hunting me down... Every time I woke up, I had to calm my tense nerves. After repeating this cycle several times, I finally fell into a deep sleep. Just before drifting off, I couldn't help wondering: was my defensive psychological barrier simply too heavy?