Chen Hao swallowed the last bite of the cold pancake, his throat dry and tight. He wiped his mouth, stared at the pile of wheat husks left by wild boars by the field, and suddenly slapped his thigh: "The land has been plowed like this, if we don't build a granary, where will we put the harvest? Are we supposed to accept it with our lives?"
Nana was squatting on a stone slab calibrating the sensors when she heard this. She looked up and her optical eyes swept over his trouser legs, which were covered in grass clippings: "Based on the current crop growth cycle, the first large-scale harvest will take place in three months. The existing storage space has reached its maximum utilization rate."
"Look, even the robot agrees!" Chen Hao grinned, casually pulling a wooden strip from his tool bag and gesturing. "We'll build a sturdy shed right here, just enough to keep out the rain. We might add a door to keep out the rats."
“I recommend using a triangular truss structure.” Nana drew a three-dimensional diagram outlined in blue lines in mid-air. “The foundation needs to be buried more than one meter deep, and horizontal bracing should be used to enhance wind resistance.”
"Oh, you want to hold an architectural design competition?" Chen Hao waved his hand and stuck the wooden strip into the ground. "A few pillars to support it, some thatch on top, and it'll be fine as long as the wind can't blow it down. I'm not building a palace."
Nana didn't say anything more, but silently recorded his decision deviation value.
The next morning, just as the sun was peeking over the treetops, Chen Hao was already wielding his hammer and clanging away. He hammered the wooden stakes into the soft soil at an angle, and casually tied the crossbeams together with vines a couple of times to secure them. He hummed a song as he worked, his tune more off-key than a wild boar's.
Nana stood three steps away, continuously scanning the construction progress. Her voice was calm and even: "The main load-bearing column has tilted at an angle of twelve degrees, the soil bearing capacity is insufficient, and there is a structural risk."
"It's nothing!" Chen Hao said without turning his head, adjusting his position on an unsecured beam. "I call this artistic tilting, understand? Architectural aesthetics!"
"The probability of collapse has risen to 69," she added.
"Seventy percent, seventy percent, you think you can crush me?" He laughed, pushing off with his foot. "See, perfectly stable—"
Before he could finish speaking, the beam beneath his feet suddenly slipped.
Immediately afterwards, a muffled thud came from the ground, like someone sighing underground. The soil at the base of the slanted main pillar collapsed instantly, and the entire frame swayed twice as if drunk, before slowly tilting to one side.
Chen Hao reacted incredibly quickly—he jumped away immediately, but unfortunately, his movement was too hasty, and his left foot tripped over the scattered vines, causing him to fall face-first into the mud. Before he could even get up, a loud crash resounded overhead, and pieces of wood rained down, sending dust billowing into the sky.
Almost simultaneously, Nana activated the protective protocol. A pale blue energy field unfolded in front of her, deflecting the flying wood and rocks. She strode forward, and just as a beam was about to strike Chen Hao's back, a mechanical arm suddenly extended, pulling him half a meter away.
The smoke and dust have dissipated somewhat.
Chen Hao coughed twice on the ground, spitting out the mud in his mouth. When he looked up, the place that should have been a granary looked like it had been gnawed by a giant beast. Twisted and crooked wood was piled up into a pile of ruins. The only intact thing was a piece of thatch, which was slowly drifting down onto his head.
"..." He reached out and picked the grass, looked at it, and then casually tucked it behind his ear. "At least we know which structures can't be used."
Nana crouched down to check his arm for abrasions. "Minor contusions, no fractures," she said, then turned to the ruins. "A broken conductor was detected, causing a short circuit and localized high temperatures. The power has been automatically cut off and sparks extinguished."
"Ugh, it almost spontaneously combusted." Chen Hao sat up, brushing the dust off his clothes. "Do you think anyone would believe me if I posted this photo with the title 'A Modern-Day Carpenter's Car Crash'?"
A commotion arose in the distance. The wild boar herd, which had been dozing by the field, was startled by the loud noise and all looked up, some of the smaller ones even jumping up. The gray-maned leader stood up, sniffing the air in their direction, as if assessing whether another battle was about to begin.
"Stop watching!" Chen Hao waved at them. "Free show, no need to thank me!"
Nana had pulled up the new design drawings, which floated between the two of them. "Modified plan: adopt deep pile anchoring technology, inject a mixed clay reinforcement layer at the bottom, use a cross-bracing structure for the main body, and set the roof slope at 35 degrees, improving drainage efficiency by 42 percent."
Chen Hao leaned closer to take a look, scratched his head, and said, "Why does this thing look like a tent?"
"Functionality takes precedence over aesthetics."
"Alright then." He sighed. "I didn't believe you last time, and I ended up lying on a pile of rubble. This time I'll listen to you. You can't make me sleep on a pile of rubble again."
After saying that, he began to collect the scraps. Some of the wood was bent under the weight, and some had split in two. As he picked them up, he muttered to himself, "If only I had let wild boars do this job. They're much more reliable at digging than building houses."
Nana suddenly raised her hand, her optical eyes locking onto a certain spot: "Pay attention, there is a stress concentration at the connection point of the third column on the right. If it continues to be used, it may suddenly break when the load increases."
"Oh." Chen Hao stopped what he was doing, stared at the seemingly intact wooden strip for two seconds, and then threw it into the scrap heap. "Your problem is like the weather forecast. It always says it will rain, but it's sunny every day."
“I’m just providing the data,” she said calmly. “The decision-making power always rests with you.”
"Come on, you're the construction site supervisor now." Chen Hao patted his pants and stood up. "You tell me what to do, and we'll do it. But there's one condition—don't let me get buried in my own house again this time."
“We cannot guarantee absolute safety,” Nana projected the construction process chart, “but we can keep the risks within an acceptable range.”
"Sigh, I really miss the days when I could lie on the sofa and eat potato chips." Chen Hao looked up at the sky. "Back then, the biggest disaster was when potato chips fell into the cracks of the sofa."
"According to the database, the average success rate of recovering fallen potato chips is 63%."
"Look, even the robots are mocking me."
The two redefined the foundation area. Nana used a laser to mark the precise coordinates, while Chen Hao dug deeper and deeper with a shovel. The deeper they dug, the more moisture seeped from the bottom of the pit.
"Wait a minute." Chen Hao stopped what he was doing, rubbed some mud on his finger and smelled it. "Why is this soil a bit sticky? Could there be groundwater underneath?"
"Scanning." Nana closed her optical eyes, and the internal system quickly activated. "A shallow aquifer has been detected, 1.2 meters from the surface. If we proceed with the excavation as planned, it may result in water accumulation in the pit."
"What should we do then? Do we have to build a well first?"
"It is recommended to change the foundation type to an elevated platform design with ventilation channels at the bottom, which will solve the problems of load-bearing and moisture-proofing at the same time."
"Fictional?" Chen Hao frowned. "You want me to build a stilt house?"
The analogy holds true.
"But there are no crocodiles here, so why are they three feet off the ground?"
"The main things to guard against are mold, pests, and moisture penetration," she paused, "as well as the food you might store in the future."
Chen Hao was silent for a moment, then looked down at his mud-covered gloves: "So you mean, I not only have to learn how to build houses, but also how to be a farmer who knows how to prevent dampness?"
"The learning curve is within expectations."
"Heh." He smirked. "You robots are really something, even your compassion is in energy-saving mode."
He picked up his tools again and began cleaning the site according to the new blueprints. Nana marked the stake positions, repeatedly calibrating the angle of each new stake. Chen Hao was panting heavily from exhaustion. He sat down to drink some water, looked at the mess before him, and suddenly smiled.
"Would you call this a failed startup? The project went bankrupt on the very first day."
"We are currently in the prototype testing phase," Nana said. "Each collapse represents a valuable accumulation of data."
"You really know how to comfort people." He shook his head, stood up, and said, "Fine, let's do it again. But if it collapses again next time, I'll declare this land under Wild Boar's control, and he can build whatever he wants on it."
He hoisted a new log and headed towards the designated spot, his footsteps making a soft thud as he walked on the loose soil. Nana followed half a step behind him, the mechanical joints clicking slightly.
Sunlight shone on the edge of the ruins, where a broken rope dangled into the muddy water, swaying slowly.
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