The moment the stick pierced the sand, before Chen Hao could even utter the words "wine cellar," the clouds above his head seemed to have been ripped open.
The first drop of rain hit his forehead, burning him with a jolt.
"Ouch—" He had just looked up when a second and third drop fell one after another, clattering and splashing onto the broken pieces of the pottery jar, sending up wisps of white smoke. The edge of one piece of pottery quickly turned white, like a gnawed biscuit.
“Acid rain.” Nana’s voice was colder than the raindrops. “Intensity pH value 3.2, corrosiveness continues to rise.”
"What? Not again?" Chen Hao jumped up, pulled out a wooden stick, and frantically picked up the scattered fragments of the pottery jar. "My fermentation sample! And this hole..."
Before he could finish speaking, a pungent odor wafted over, the sand on the ground, soaked with wine, was bubbling, and the purplish-black rock surface began to turn gray and peel off.
"The underground structure is being eroded." Nana grabbed his arm. "Let's go."
She pulled the person towards the cave, and the fire behind them went out completely. The remaining fruit pulp churned into murky foam in the acid rain, like a pot of overcooked medicine.
When the two rushed into the cave, their trouser legs were rustling, the edges curled and blackened. Chen Hao plopped down on the dry stone platform, panting like a leaky bellows.
"It's all over, it's all ruined." He looked down at his palms, his fingertips red. "Is our life like that of a rat? We just managed to gnaw a hole, and the house collapses right away."
Nana stood at the cave entrance, her optical eyes scanning the ever-expanding puddle outside. The rainwater fell on the sand, not forming puddles, but slowly seeping in like oil dripping into flour, leaving behind small, steaming pits.
“The weather model is activated,” she said softly. “The local atmospheric sulfur content is abnormal, and the frequency of ionospheric disturbances is increasing.”
The cave was quiet for a few seconds, with only the faint sound of its internal parts turning.
Then, a semi-transparent data screen rose from her wrist, displaying a dense array of jumping curves: temperature, humidity, wind speed, pH level... finally settling on a red countdown timer.
"Prediction period: 37 days."
"Thirty-seven days?" Chen Hao looked up abruptly. "You mean this poisonous water needs to be stored for more than a month?"
“The margin of error is ±2.3 days.” She retracted the screen. “The open-air facilities will be completely destroyed within 72 hours, and the existing food reserves can only be maintained for a maximum of 48 hours in the exposed environment.”
Chen Hao opened his mouth, then closed it again, finally uttering only one word: "Fuck."
He lay down on the stone platform with his arms outstretched, like a freshly unearthed mummy.
"I just wanted to brew some wine, and I found a hole, but God gave me a 37-day suspended sentence," he muttered. "It would have been better to just stab me to death."
Nana turned around, her metal feet making a crisp tapping sound on the rocks. "The optimal strategy at present is to establish a closed-off supplies management area. It is recommended to prioritize the relocation of unopened containers and toolkits."
"You make it sound so easy." Chen Hao rolled over, burying his face in his arms. "I'm too lazy to even stand up now. My heart is completely dead."
Nana didn't speak again, but walked deeper into the cave and scanned the rock wall structure with her beam of light. After a moment, she stopped in front of a depression.
"This area has localized fire resistance and can support controlled combustion operations."
"What are you burning?" Chen Hao asked in a muffled voice.
“If protein-rich foods need to be preserved for a long time, traditional sun-drying and pickling methods are no longer feasible.”
"Then what do you suggest? Risk your life to dry it?"
Nana paused for two seconds, then suddenly pulled up a video clip. The video showed a row of dried fish hanging under the eaves, swaying darkly, with firewood burning slowly underneath, wisps of smoke rising from the eaves.
"In a rural area of the world, the low-temperature smoking method is used to extend the shelf life of fish, with an average storage time of up to six months."
Chen Hao raised his head, sniffed, and seemed to really smell the aroma of roasting.
Then he remembered something and sat up abruptly: "Wait—that pile of rotten dried fish I threw in the corner! Isn't that the same principle?"
He crawled over on his hands and feet, rummaging through a pile of wet junk, and finally pulled out a moldy bag from under the tarpaulin.
Upon opening it, several dried fish were found swollen like soaked wood ear mushrooms, their surfaces covered in green mold.
"Ugh!" He almost threw it away. "This thing is edible?"
“Not inedible.” Nana took the examination. “But it shows that it still retains some structural integrity after the original preservation treatment failed, proving that smoking did indeed delay complete decay.”
Chen Hao stared at the fuzzy green thing, then his expression suddenly changed.
"Have you noticed..." he said slowly, "that we've been taking the wrong path the whole time?"
Nana looked at him.
“We’re always thinking about how to seal, how to hide, how to freeze.” He grinned, looking a little silly. “But back when our ancestors didn’t have refrigerators, didn’t they just rely on a fire and a puff of smoke to hang meat on the rafters for half a year?”
"You mean, refactor the food preservation logic?"
"Right!" Chen Hao slapped his thigh and stood up, forgetting there was a loose stone under his feet. He stumbled a bit before regaining his balance. "Don't try to fight this awful weather to dry it out. Let's do the opposite—let it get wet, and then we'll coat it with a layer of smoke! No matter how bad the acid rain is outside, it'll have to eat through this layer of smoke oil before it can hurt the inside!"
Nana's optical eye contracted slightly, and the data stream scrolled rapidly.
"It is theoretically feasible. Phenolic and aldehyde compounds in smoke have antibacterial effects, and the carbonized surface can also form a physical barrier."
"See, see, I knew I wasn't a complete loser!" Chen Hao excitedly spun around, his chubby body creating a gust of wind. "Let's get started! Gather firewood, build the frame, set up the chimney—"
Before he could finish speaking, Nana raised her hand to interrupt him.
“Insufficient fuel reserves, poor ventilation, limited space in the karst cave, and no readily available heat-resistant containers.”
“Uh…” Chen Hao was stunned.
"And the top priority right now is to ensure the safety of the shelters. Acid rain could cause the rock to leak."
Chen Hao deflated and plopped back down.
"So, the moment you saw a glimmer of light, they dragged you back to the cellar." He sighed. "Why is life so hard?"
The sound of rain outside the cave grew louder, pounding against the rocks, like countless people gently tapping bowls to urge someone to eat.
He bent down and fiddled with the moldy fish, rubbing the green spots on its surface with his fingers, then suddenly leaned closer and smelled it.
A strange smell, a mixture of burnt wood and rotten odor, entered my nostrils.
He frowned, sniffed again, and his eyes gradually brightened.
“You know what?” he said, “Although the smell is disgusting, when I was a kid, the cured meat in my village was like this at first—it smelled sour, but it became fragrant later on.”
Nana looked at him.
"So..." he grinned, "could we try a small piece first? We don't need to do anything big, just take a piece of rotten fish and slowly roast it over a fire, see if we can turn this 'sour' smell into 'fragrant' smell?"
“The experiment has low costs and manageable risks.” Nana nodded. “I agree to start the feasibility verification.”
"Alright!" Chen Hao perked up, took out his small knife, and cut off a small piece of the fish tail. "Let's start with the worst material. Anyway, we're not expecting it to taste good. Let's see if it can withstand the dampness."
Nana walked to the fire-resistant zone of the cave wall, used the robotic arm to draw out a square area, then removed the metal plate from the outside of her backpack, bent it into a V-shaped guide channel, and fixed it below the crack at the top.
"It can be used as a simple smoke exhaust channel."
"Wow, that's amazing!" Chen Hao gave a thumbs up. "You were hiding this skill?"
"Item 17 of the Emergency Modification Module Pre-set Plan".
"Alright, the scientists are ready, now it's the farmers' turn to perform."
He squatted in the center of the designated area, took out a flint and steel, and with trembling hands, tried several times to ignite the tinder. When the flames rose, the entire cave was illuminated.
He skewered the small piece of fish on a wire and hung it over the fire.
At first, there was only a slight smoke, then the bluish-gray smoke slowly rose along the metal guide channel, and spread outwards after hitting the top of the rock.
The taste gradually changed.
The initial fishy stench faded, replaced by a strange, burnt aroma, mixed with a resinous scent, swirling in the humid air.
Chen Hao took a deep breath and laughed out loud: "Hey, it really does have that flavor."
Nana scanned the smoke components, and the data in her eyes flickered.
"An increase in the concentration of compounds such as phenol, cresol, and formaldehyde was detected, and the surface proteins began to cross-link and solidify."
"Translate into human language?"
"An antibacterial protective film is forming on the outer layer."
"It's a success!" Chen Hao almost jumped up. "This is the first batch of smoked test subjects on this desolate planet! I'll have to write about it in my memoirs!"
Just as he was feeling smug, there was a soft "snap" sound above his head.
A drop of water fell, landing precisely in the center of the smoked fish, sending up a small plume of white smoke.
The two looked up at the same time.
A thin crack appeared on the top of the rock, slowly oozing a transparent liquid.
Nana immediately erected a force field shield, blocking the subsequent water droplets.
“Acid rain seeps into the rock strata,” she said. “This place is not suitable for prolonged use of fire.”
Chen Hao looked at the fish that was half-drenched, half charred and smoking, half dripping wet, like an absurd work of art.
He was silent for two seconds, then suddenly smiled.
"It's okay." He pushed the wire forward, letting the remaining dry half continue to be exposed to smoke. "If it's cracked, it's cracked. We'll just build it somewhere else."
He turned to Nana and said, "What if we turned the whole cave into a smoking room, with three shelves, burning pine branches at the bottom, hanging dried fish in the middle, and exhaust pipes at the top—"
"The structural load-bearing capacity and the risk of gas trapping need to be assessed."
"Just tell me if it's feasible!"
"The technological approach has a theoretical basis."
"That's definitely doable!" Chen Hao's eyes lit up. "The first thing we'll do after this rain stops is go find some wood! We'll cut down a lot, and smoke a hundred of them at once!"
Nana's beam swept across his face, recording his facial parameters: the corners of his mouth turned up 37 degrees, his pupils dilated 12%, and his heart rate rose to 98.
"My mood is fluctuating significantly," she said. "Do I need to drink more water?"
"No need." Chen Hao waved his hand, staring at the flickering fire. "I'm perfectly sober right now."
The firelight reflected off his face, making it appear to bounce.
The smoked fish was still slowly changing color; the wet side started to steam, while the dry side grew increasingly dark.
He reached out and poked at the firewood, sparks flew, one of which landed on his shoe and burned a small hole.
He didn't shake off the tremor, nor did he cry out in pain.
He simply stared at the flames and whispered:
"You know... if we could really turn this dump into a cured meat factory, wouldn't people passing by think it's some crazy barbecue restaurant?"
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