Chapter 28 Toilet Renovation and Drain Cleaning

It was still early when the Blackstone tribe members finished their dinner.

Ha Gang consciously picked up the large iron pot and prepared to go to the river to wash it.

Xu Que stopped Ha Gang: "Don't wash it today! Put the pot back in the original stove first!"

Ha Gang frowned in confusion: "Why didn't you wash today?"

Xu Que pointed to the members of the Black Stone Tribe and explained to Ha Gang, "I want each of them to learn how to use a wooden bucket to fetch water from the river to wash their pots!"

"Huh? Carrying water? What is carrying water? How do you carry water?" Ha Gang asked Xu Que in confusion.

All the members of the Blackrock Tribe, including Hou and Hua, looked at Xu Que with puzzled eyes, waiting for him to explain the common doubts they shared about Hagang.

Xu Que straightened up, used his foot to lift the carrying pole, reached out and grabbed it, then draped it over his shoulder, slightly bent over to hang the two buckets on the wooden hook, and then got up and started walking.

"See that? This bucket is called 'carrying water' when it's full of water! Each of you practice once, then carry a load of water back from the nearby river! I'll use it to wash the pots!"

After listening to Xu Que's explanation, the tribe's primitive people all stood up, rubbing their hands together, eager to try it out.

"The buckets and carrying poles for fetching water are all over there!" Xu Que pointed to the neatly arranged water-fetching tools on the side.

The primitive people, who were full and idle, found carrying water to be novel and fun, and they all rushed to carry water.

"There's one more thing I want to tell everyone: buckets with smooth, clean walls are specifically for carrying water! Buckets with rough walls are for carrying manure! I hope everyone won't get them mixed up in the future! Today is the first time using them, so there's no difference between manure buckets and water buckets; both can be used to carry water! After using a manure bucket for carrying manure, don't use it for carrying water again!" Xu Que finished speaking, and in less than a minute, all the water buckets and manure buckets were gone!

Before long, the members of the Blackrock tribe returned one by one, carrying water.

Xu Que pointed to the large iron pot, signaling the tribe members to pour the water they had carried back into the pot!

Xu Que stood on the edge of the large iron pot and used a small tree branch that he had just pulled up to scrub the pot as a rag.

After washing the pot, Xu Que then instructed the tribal members who were carrying manure buckets to pour the swill from the pot into the weeds not far ahead.

Pour the fresh water brought by another group of tribal members into the pot and boil it! Then fill each wooden thermos.

Xu Que walked up to Hou with a wooden thermos in hand: "Take out your horn cup, I'll pour you a cup of hot water! You need to drink more hot water these days because you're on your period!"

Hou held the horn cup Xu Que had given her in both hands, wanting to ask what menstruation was! But she vaguely felt that Xu Que had mentioned these things to her a while ago!

With curiosity, she lifted her animal skin skirt and looked down, and sure enough, it was true!

Taking advantage of the high level of excitement and curiosity among the tribespeople, Xu Que quickly gathered the young people and, using wood, built a row of washing basins for the tribe members on the left side of the entrance to the Black Stone Tribe cave.

The original washbasin was constructed from rows of round logs, each one meter high.

The top is formed into a trough shape using mortise and tenon joints. A ring of resin is dripped into the gaps between the wooden boards in the rectangular trough to prevent water leakage.

After Xu Que finished all this work, he had the tribe members fetch clean water from the river and pour it into the washing pool.

After observing for five minutes, he found that not a drop of water leaked!

Since we've already come this far, let's grit our teeth and clean up the cesspool inside the Black Stone Tribe cave!

Xu Que asked each tribe member for their opinion: "How about we clean out the cesspool inside the cave today? If we don't, it'll suffocate people when the south wind blows! Plus, our tribe seals the cave entrance so tightly at night, there's a high chance of carbon monoxide poisoning!"

"I originally planned to use buckets to clean out the latrine bucket by bucket! Some time ago, I went to the back of the cave to investigate the terrain and found that there is a ditch behind our tribe's cave. Whenever it rains, the flash flood flowing down the ditch will carry away some of the garbage!"

"I have an idea! Let's dig a hole diagonally downwards at the back of our cave, so that the sewage from the cave's cesspool can flow into the ditch! Whenever there's a flood in the ditch, the garbage will be washed away, and there won't be any smell! It's very environmentally friendly!"

Xu Que inserted several wooden planks directly into the cesspool, on the side where the hole was made. If he didn't do this, a hole would be dug from the back of the cave all the way to the cesspool in the Black Stone Tribe cave. The sewage in the cesspool would immediately flow out through the hole, and the tribe members who dug the hole would suffer!

To avoid this unnecessary embarrassment, Xu Que had no choice but to insert the wooden board into one side of the hole in the cesspool, allowing the sewage to temporarily separate from the hole wall!

Ha Gang gripped a thick, pointed piece of wood with both hands and thrust it upwards at a 45-degree angle toward the spot Xu Que had marked behind the cave.

The title of the leader of the Four Great Vajras is well-deserved! Ha Gang cleared the passage from the cesspool to the ditch in no time.

Xu Que noticed a lot of movement on the wooden planks inside the cave and knew that the sewage channel had been opened!

When Ha Gang was a little further away, he removed the wooden planks from the cesspool, and the sewage was all discharged into the ditch behind the cave with a loud rumble!

Xu Que had the primitive people carry dozens of buckets of water from the river and pour them into the cave's latrine to wash the cave clean! They didn't stop until the smell was gone.

Finally, following Xu Que's instructions, Ha Gang blocked the manure outlet at the back of the mountain and returned to the cave with the other tribe members.

"That's enough for today! I want to finish building the men's and women's shower rooms tomorrow! Does anyone have any objections?" Xu Que said to the primitive man who was resting on a straw mat and preparing to sleep.

"A shower room? What's that?"

"It's for taking a bath!" Xu Que said, jumping off the straw mat and standing on the ground to demonstrate for everyone.

Flower, the chieftain of the Blackrock tribe, opened her animal hide food bag, took out a beetle that she had previously stored inside, and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing it with smacking sounds.

Xu Que looked at the flower, eating the insects with the same gusto and relish as modern people eating rice crusts. He couldn't help but gag a few times, then turned to look at Hou beside him: "I don't believe you're also looking for midnight snacks in animal skin food bags?"

"What midnight snack? I never eat bugs! I'm a vegetarian! I'm just trying to make a stone tablet album with the stone tablets!" Hou said, glancing at the brightly lit wild goat oil candle wrapped in leaves.

Xu Que smiled with some relief: "Let's draw this tomorrow! Anyway, it's not in a rush, there's no need to rush! Besides, sitting on the bed to draw the stone tablet commemorative album late at night, the animal blood ink will get everywhere! It will take a long time to clean up the next day, it's too unbearable! I think we should draw it tomorrow!"