Chapter 7 Methods of Making Fire

"squeak--"

"Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak--"

Banxia could hear the music even with her eyes closed. In the early morning, the mice were calling more beautifully than singing, one after another, with ups and downs, like a symphony orchestra.

She opened her eyes and immediately ran her hands into her messy hair. Fortunately, no mouse had gotten in last night.

She climbed up from the bed, causing it to creak. The rats' noises under the bed immediately stopped. Banxia could imagine that the rodents, who were having a concert, all raised their heads in panic, worried that the black board would suddenly collapse. The girl cleared her throat: "Dear guests, I'll count to three. If you don't leave after three..."

Before she could finish her words, the mice scurried out right under the girl's nose and disappeared from sight in a matter of seconds.

"...I will select a few lucky guests to stay and make breakfast."

Banxia rubbed her hair.

“You run really fast.”

In the past, Banxia had tried to block the rats. She searched the room carefully from top to bottom, and checked all the gaps that might allow rats to pass through, to make sure that no needle could be inserted. But when she opened her eyes the next morning, a pair of dark little eyeballs were staring at her, and their pointed, moist little noses were poking around.

Banxia sighed secretly at that time. This was not entirely a bad thing. At least breakfast was solved.

Now Banxia no longer tries to block rats. These little creatures can appear from all kinds of incredible places and disappear in all kinds of incredible places.

She jumped out of bed, pulled her clothes from the back of the chair and put them on, then drew a circle on September 7th on the wall.

When she didn't go out, she would just wear a baggy white shirt with only a pair of shorts underneath, and walk around the house with her long legs bare.

There is actually no need to wear clothes unless it is winter.

Banxia was actually willing to run naked, but the teacher stopped her. The teacher said that clothes not only have functional functions such as warmth and decoration, but also distinguish you from wild beasts. If you don’t wear clothes, one day you will blend into this wild world and forget your identity as a human being.

Banxia said, isn't that good? Humans come from nature and return to nature. We are all hairless naked apes!

The teacher smiled and said, "You are not a naked ape, you are a girl."

Banxia asked the girl what was wrong?

Girls should be pretty. You are the most beautiful girl in the world. If you don’t wear clothes, the world will take advantage of you.

The teacher said this while rubbing her face into a round and flat shape.

"Am I pretty?" Banxia grinned at the dirty mirror in the bathroom, "I don't know if I'm pretty or not, I'm face-blind."

The Colgate toothpaste on the washbasin had been rolled into a layer of skin, but Banxia still squeezed it and applied the last bit of green toothpaste on the toothbrush.

It looks like this tube of toothpaste is unusable tomorrow. I'll just have to cut it open with a knife then. I can always scrape out some of the inside.

First, keep taking care of your teeth!

This is the rule her teacher set for her: even if the world were to be destroyed, she must brush her teeth every day!

The teacher once took Banxia to search half of the supermarkets and convenience stores in Qinhuai District and obtained mountains of toothpaste and toothbrushes, all of which were piled in the room downstairs.

Banxia thinks that these toothpastes can be used for at least twenty years.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, the girl scooped a bucket of water from the big bucket in the corner of the bathroom and poured it into the plastic basin, then squatted down to wash her face.

The ceramic washbasin in the bathroom is unusable as it was broken a few years ago. There is a big crack on the bottom, so big that you can insert a finger into it, so you can only use a washbasin.

The big red barrels used to store fresh water were found by the teacher. There were two of them, placed side by side in the bathroom, taking up half of the space in the bathroom - that was originally where the shower room was. The two plastic barrels were one meter high and had lids, which were just right for storing fresh water. Whether it was for drinking or use, Banxia would draw water from these barrels. On average, one barrel of water could be used for three to five days.

After washing her face, the girl casually poured water on the floor outside the bathroom to wash away the dirt and dust on the ground.

She does not need to save water because there is no shortage of fresh water in Nanjing.

The main source of fresh water for Pinellia ternata is rainfall. Nanjing is a rainy city, with regular rainfall for eight months a year. Moist temperate cyclones come from the sea, bringing abundant rain. From March to October, this long period is Nanjing's typhoon season.

After washing up, Banxia tied her hair into a ponytail and then it was time to make breakfast.

"Dad! Mom! What are we having for breakfast this morning?" Banxia held a rubber band in her mouth and hummed a vague tune, "How about porridge? Dandelion porridge? I picked them yesterday, so they should still be fresh. If you don't say anything, I'll take that as your consent!"

As expected, no one spoke.

That means unanimous approval, and we will have dandelion porridge for breakfast today.

Banxia always has a good grasp of her parents' psychology.

The kitchen is just across the wall from the bathroom. This is a three-bedroom, two-living-room house, with a master bedroom, two additional bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and finally a kitchen and a bathroom.

When cooking, you must close the kitchen door and open all the kitchen windows to ensure ventilation. Only then did Banxia lift the stove under the stove with great effort.

“This thing is really heavy.”

An old-fashioned honeycomb coal stove. God knows where the teacher found this thing. The stove is half a meter high and is a cylinder. There is a vent at the bottom of the stove, covered with a lid. This thing was originally used to burn honeycomb coal - honeycomb coal is a short cylinder that can be stacked one on top of another and placed in a vertical furnace. However, it is necessary to ensure that all the holes of the honeycomb coal are aligned from top to bottom. The holes are to ensure air circulation. Air enters from the vent at the bottom of the stove, passes through the holes that are aligned up and down on the honeycomb coal, and finally comes out of the furnace. The coal can burn only when there is air circulation.

It is obvious that Banxia does not have honeycomb coal in her hand now.

But she had a wall of firewood.

Each piece of firewood was as long as a palm and as thin as two or three fingers. They were piled up against the wall of the kitchen, more than one person high.

All of these firewoods were chopped by Banxia. The thing that Nanjing has the most is wood. The streets are full of lush camphor and oak trees. She chopped down the trees and sawed them off, then chopped them into small firewoods bit by bit and piled them on the balcony to dry. Fresh wet firewood cannot be burned as it will produce thick smoke. So the firewood must be dried after being chopped. She first put it on the balcony to dry, and then put it in the kitchen to dry. The firewood that was chopped first is burned first, and the firewood that was chopped later is burned later. No matter which firewood it is, it should be dry by the time Banxia wants to burn it.

In this world without natural gas and coal, Banxia’s only fuel is gasoline and firewood.

She couldn't bear to use gasoline.

So most of the time she was burning wood.

Banxia rolls up some slightly thinner firewood and dry grass leaves into a ball, which makes an excellent fire starter that can be ignited easily.

But having fire starter is not enough, you have to light it.

How to order?

Since the day humans mastered fire, the method of ignition has been iterating and updating. Drilling wood to make fire was too time-consuming and labor-intensive, so people learned to use minerals to make flint and flint. It was too troublesome to make fire every time, so people learned to use charcoal to preserve the fire. As long as the half-burned charcoal is covered with fine ash, the time for the flame to go out can be greatly delayed. Hidden fire will always last longer than open fire. Such fire can even be carried in a box and used whenever needed.

Banxia carefully took out a metal box from under the stove.

This is the fire.

The eternal flame.

She opened the box, took out the lighter, and lit it with a "click".

(End of this chapter)