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The small wooden house took shape quickly, and they were allowed to plaster mud on the outer walls. Wu Yue brought Xiao into the house and pointed to the spot under the window. He said, "Build a stove here with stones and mud, and you can cook with a fire. You can grill meat or make soup. If you build a long stove with a hollow in the middle, it will become a kang. The heat from the stove can be transmitted to the stove, and it will be very warm in winter."
As a southerner, he had never used a kang, so he only knew the basic principles. If he really wanted to make one, he would have to experiment.
He looked up at the roof and said, "But this is a wooden house after all. You must be careful when using fire and don't burn it down."
Xiao nodded and suddenly asked, "Then wouldn't it be safe to build a house with stone?"
Wu Yue nodded. "Of course, we can use not only stones but also bricks. The houses we build will be stronger and safer than wooden houses. However, it will be much more troublesome to build a house like that than a wooden house."
Xiao said, "It's not a big deal. There are plenty of stones on the mountain over there that can be used. And what are these bricks you mentioned?"
Wu Yue explained briefly: "There's a kind of clay that, if you shape it into square pieces and then burn it in a fire, it becomes bricks. Oh, and you can also use this method to make pottery. It can be used as bowls, cups, and pots."
Xiao suddenly became interested and grabbed his hand: "What kind of soil is it?"
Wu Yue recalled and thought for a moment: "My hometown mostly uses red bricks. I don't know what kind of soil they use. As for making pottery, they use clay."
He recalled the small amount of clay that came in the craft kits he received along with his art textbooks in elementary school: "The clay was white, very fine, and sticky. It was harder to break than ordinary mud, and could be easily molded into various shapes."
Xiao's eyes lit up as he listened to his description. After he finished speaking, he immediately said, "I know where to find this kind of clay!"
"Oh, really?" Wu Yue was shocked and immediately put the house building behind his mind. He asked, "Where is it? Take me to see it!"
You can build a house later, just live in a tent for now. Pots, pans, and utensils are used every day. Wooden products are good as containers, but they cannot be used to cook food and are prone to mold.
Leaving a group of people to continue building the wooden house, Xiao took Wu Yue to the canyon in the northeast direction.
The small canyon is surrounded by tall mountains on one side and low hillsides on the other. There is sand and pebbles on the ground, and it looks like a river once flowed there.
After asking Xiao, Wu Yue got a positive answer: "It's usually dry here, but when it rains heavily during the growing season, the rainwater flows down from the mountains and forms a river."
The dry riverbed wasn't flat either. The further they went, the higher the terrain became. After walking for about an hour, Xiao finally stopped and said, "This is it."
Wu Yue looked left and right but didn't see any clay.
Xiao walked to a half-recessed mountain wall and scraped away the moss and weeds on the surface with his Tang Dao, revealing the grayish-white soil underneath. "Take a look, is this what it is?"
Wu Yue rushed forward in two or three steps, grabbed a piece from the cliff, and squeezed it in his hands. The touch, the viscosity, the appearance...
It's clay!
"Yes, yes, yes!" Wu Yue was overjoyed. After searching the space but not finding any suitable tools, he simply started working. "Quick, dig more!"
Xiao handed over the scabbard and said, "Use this." He then took the Tang sword and started digging.
Believe it or not, even though this thing is sold as a handicraft, it is very well made and very practical, and can be used for anything.
Since Wu Yue had the space, he wasn't afraid of not being able to bring anything back. The two of them kept digging until it got dark, then stopped and prepared to go back to the tribe to eat and rest.
Wu Yue, delighted with his harvest of clay, played with and kneaded a small piece while pondering what pottery to make. First, of course, was a pot. With over two hundred people from the Sharp Fang Tribe relying on his pot, it wasn't enough. Then there were basins and buckets, convenient for storing water. And of course, bowls. While they had plenty of wooden bowls, wood molded easily, and those were mostly cup-shaped, making them awkward to use...
His mind was full of thoughts about pottery, and he accidentally stepped on a smooth pebble. With a crisp sound, his ankle twisted severely.
"Fuck! It hurts so much..." He fell to the ground, holding his ankle and gritting his teeth, waiting for the pain to pass.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Xiao, who was walking in front, heard the noise and quickly turned back to check.
"It's nothing, I just sprained my ankle. It will be fine after a while." Wu Yue, whose ankle was swollen, gritted his teeth and said, "It's just a sprained ankle. The problem is not serious, but it hurts a lot."
"Can we go? It's getting dark, and it's dangerous for the two of us to be outside." Xiao extended his hand to him, frowning slightly. There was a pack of wolves in the mountains, and this canyon was also their territory. It was fine during the day, but at night, two people who were alone...
Wu Yue also understood that this primitive world was full of dangers, so he grabbed Xiao's arm and stood up with difficulty.
But the road was not smooth to begin with, and now whenever my injured foot touched the ground, it was excruciatingly painful, and I couldn't walk at all.
Xiao suddenly handed over the Tang sword, then squatted down with his back to Wu Yue: "Come on, I'll carry you."
Wu Yue felt a little embarrassed. He was a grown man and was being carried on someone's back... The last time he was carried was when he was seven years old?
After a slight hesitation, he still lay obediently on Xiao's back. The situation was special now and he couldn't afford to think too much.
Xiao was very strong, and carrying Wu Yue, a man weighing over 100 pounds, seemed like a piece of cake for him. He strode back with Wu Yue on his back, and his speed was even faster than when he came.
It seems that he was taken care of by someone before... Wu Yue was a little depressed. He buried his head on Xiao's back and turned on the autistic mode.
The moonlight is very good today. Xiao is carrying a person on his back and walking on the rugged road. He observes his surroundings while striding forward.
His body temperature was already high, and now with another person behind him, the part where they were touching was even hotter, making him feel inexplicably dry in the mouth.
After walking a few steps, the person behind him suddenly buried his face in his shoulder. The slightly cold skin made Xiao's breathing stop, and he almost stepped in the wrong place and fell.
But the man was getting more and more excessive, and the warm breath he exhaled kept brushing against the skin on the back of his neck, making him feel numb and itchy.
"Wu Yue." Once again, shrinking his neck, he couldn't help but speak, "Can you please stop blowing on my neck?"
"Ah?" Wu Yue looked up and discovered in the moonlight that goosebumps stood up on the back of Xiao's neck.
"Are you ticklish? Sorry, sorry, I didn't know." Wu Yue apologized, stroking Xiao's neck.
"Hmph..." Unexpectedly, Xiao let out a muffled groan and his body tilted. Although he finally stood firm, he still scared Wu Yue.
"Don't touch my neck." Xiao said with deep helplessness.
"Um... I didn't mean to. Okay, I'll try not to touch you." Wu Yue simply tucked his hands into his sleeves and gently supported Xiao's back with his elbows. "Is this okay?"
Xiao nodded, but for some reason, a faint sense of loss came over him.
Wu Yue, who had nothing to do, tried to find something to talk about: "Speaking of which, I have a brother who is also very ticklish. One time, he and I were riding a motorcycle together...well, it's a kind of vehicle for two people, running very fast. I was riding a motorcycle with him, and I deliberately hugged his waist. As a result, he reacted very strongly, and we both fell hard. We both had bruises and swollen faces, and I even broke his new motorcycle, hahahaha..."
That guy was his best brother, friend and family member in the orphanage.
Looking up at the two celestial bodies in the sky, one large and one small, Wu Yue translated them into Big Moon and Little Moon according to Earth's names. "You know, there's a saying in my hometown that seeing the moon makes you miss home. I really feel that way now."
Unfortunately, the 'moon' he and his family saw was not the same one.
Xiao pursed his lips and said nothing, but silently tightened his arms.
There was no more conversation along the way, and the two hurried back to the tribe. Fortunately, they did not encounter any powerful wild beasts on the road. The occasional rabbit or fox was scared away by them from a distance.
Xiao took Wu Yue to Xia's tent and asked her to apply some herbal remedies. Although he didn't have high hopes for the leaves, it was better than nothing, so Wu Yue applied them obediently.
With Xiao's support, Wu Yue, who had applied medicine, jumped to the campfire and waited for food.
When they heard that the messenger of God was injured, everyone in the Sharp Tooth Tribe was very worried and gathered around to ask about it. Wu Yue talked until his mouth was dry before they finally believed that it was really just a minor injury.
After sipping bone and vegetable soup to moisten his throat, Wu Yue pulled out a piece of clay, added some water, and began to try to shape a bowl. He first figured out the general technique and steps so he could teach others tomorrow.
I vaguely remember that when I was a child, the teacher taught me a very simple method in the handicraft class, which was to roll the clay into strips, and then stack the strips into the shape of utensils.
Wu Yue planned to try this method first. He would use a strip of clay as the base, and then lengthen each strip of clay a little bit to make the bowl gradually bigger. When the size was right, he would stop increasing the size and just increase the height a little bit.
After each new piece of clay is placed, it must be carefully blended with the clay underneath using your fingers, so that the finished product will not fall apart or leak.
This job was not too difficult. Wu Yue patiently smoothed every gap bit by bit and finally got a noodle bowl.
Looking around, Wu Yue found it a bit ugly, but it looked usable, so he put the bowl into the space. The space was cool and dry, perfect for drying semi-finished products.
As usual, I eat meat, drink soup, and then go to sleep.
In his dream, Wu Yue was eating wheat noodles in a ceramic bowl that he made himself. There was also a fried egg in the soup. He was so happy!
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