The chubby boy ran to the thatched shed, found the bamboo tube he had left there, shook it, and found that water had dissolved. He happily took it to the two boys and said, "Please have some water, one sip each."
The boy exclaimed excitedly, "Thank you!"
After the three of them finished drinking a sip of water, they went to borrow bamboo tubes from the team members.
The second son's wife came out and carried both loads of bamboo tubes inside.
The eldest daughter-in-law was still breaking up ice when Zhou took out four 5L mineral water bottles with a pained expression. "Let's cut open the tops of these bottles too, and make holes on both sides of the left side so that we can easily string ropes to carry them in the future."
Seeing that the water in the earthenware jar had melted, Er Ya opened a takeout box, used a bamboo strainer to scoop out a large chunk of ice from the takeout box and placed it on the lid of the takeout box. Then she carefully poured the melted water from the jar into the takeout box, and put the ice from the lid of the takeout box into the earthenware jar.
After that, she went in and brought out a bucket of water. It contained some crushed ice, but the opening was small, so it couldn't hold large pieces; only small ones could be stuffed in.
Er Ya picked out all the melted ice cubes from the takeout box that could fit into the water jug and stuffed them in, then poured the melted water from the plastic container into it as well.
She then continued to pour the melted water from the other ceramic jars into the takeout container, and the water from the takeout container was then poured into the bottled water bucket.
The opening of the earthenware pot is too big; water will leak out if you pour it directly into the bucket. The takeout box is just right. Although the opening is even bigger, the rectangular takeout box has corners, so you can pour the water into the bucket along the corners. If you are careful, the water will not spill.
Chen Kai had a fire started, and then moved two stones to build a stove. "Move all the pottery jars near the fire so the ice will melt faster."
Chen Kai placed a ceramic pot on the stove and stirred it with a small wooden spatula. The ice began to melt quickly as soon as it was heated.
"Xiao Bao, go and get a small bamboo spoon."
In the team now, wherever there are large soup ladles, they use a section of bamboo tube with two holes punched in it, a wooden stick inserted through it to secure it, and that's how they use it as a large ladle.
The smaller ones are made from smaller bamboo tubes and are shorter.
"Er Ya, do you have any empty takeout boxes? If so, bring one over."
"Yes, I just freed up two. Here you go, Uncle."
After taking the bamboo ladle, Chen Kai quickly scooped the water out of the earthenware pot, because if the water was too hot, the plastic bottle would be damaged.
He scooped out three spoonfuls of water and continued adding ice cubes to the earthenware pot, making sure the ice kept coming in.
Chen Kai poured the water from the takeout container into a 5L mineral water bottle. Sigh! He should have made a few funnels sooner!
Cutting a few mineral water bottles won't help; they're all plastic bottles with the same opening. It's only useful for bottled water, since they don't have many water containers!
Chen Kai heated the pot while filling it with water, and soon an empty earthenware pot was ready.
"Er Ya, we have an empty earthenware pot. Take it inside and use it."
Inside, the four 5L mineral water bottles were filled again, which made Zhou drink a few more sips of water.
Er Ya happily asked her sister, "Sister, would you like some water?"
Daya: "Yes!"
She was thirsty, so of course she wanted to drink. The cool ice water made her feel incredibly comfortable, and the pain was relieved quite a bit.
Outside, several more stone stoves were set up, and the children from the team were helping with them.
Er Ya was worried that they would steal the ice cubes, so she took a little girl and patrolled the area repeatedly.
While Da Ya wasn't looking, Chen Kai slipped a small piece of ice into the mouth of one of the kids helping out nearby.
The child's eyes widened in surprise, but Chen Kai put his right index finger to his lips, telling him not to make a sound.
Then he tricked Er Ya and the girl into leaving every now and then, and fed each of the children who were helping a small piece of ice.
Large chunks of ice are too cold to hold in the mouth, but small pieces are okay. They don't have anything else to hold ice, so they have to eat it.
They borrowed all the bamboo tubes from the team, but it still wasn't enough. People outside tried to clear out their containers so they could go in and fill them.
Old Man Chen: "We'll give the ice to the team and let them break it themselves. We don't have time to do it."
Old Man Chen and the others started to worry. There was still such a large piece of ice without a container, and the ice was starting to melt slowly. Their hearts were breaking.
Zhou said, “Xiao Dong, go and call the people who went to find food, and tell them to bring back all the stone containers that can hold ice and water.”
Old Man Chen: "Tell everyone in the team to go and find it, and call over a few people in charge of supplies, and tell them to come and break the ice themselves."
Chen Kai sighed as he watched Xiao Dong rush out.
One cubic meter of ice, even ignoring the gaps inside, is equivalent to one cubic meter of water, which is a full 1000 liters of water.
A bottle of water is 18.9 liters. If you fill it up and count it as 19 liters, it can fill more than 50 bottles. They are so poor that they only have these containers left, how can that be enough?
With so much water, their family can finally take a good, long bath.
Daya released another large block of ice, and the four unfortunate children were forced to move.
Da Ya was suffering in silence, unable to express her pain. Why was she always the one who got hurt?
The eldest son's wife was still breaking up ice blocks, and Old Man Chen was pacing back and forth anxiously, as there were almost no containers left to hold them.
The team sent two young men to manage the supplies.
Seeing so much ice outside the Chen family's thatched hut, they were stunned for a moment, and at the same time wondered, isn't so much ice good? They have water to drink, so what are they all worried about?
Er Ya was worried because they were almost out of containers. Seeing that they were still standing there in a daze, she called out, "Uncle, hurry up and go in!"
When the two young men approached and saw such a huge block of ice, their jaws nearly dropped to the floor.
Old Man Chen didn't even look up. "You guys figure it out yourselves."
The two men were incredibly excited; such a large block of ice could melt into a lot of water.
A man, his face flushed with excitement, shouted, "Smash it!"
Xiaodong had reminded them to bring tools and containers, but they only brought tools because they had no containers left.
Chen Xiaohua glanced at it and asked, "Do you have ice containers?"
The two men suddenly realized they had nothing to put in their luggage! Now it was their turn to worry.
The two hurriedly ran out, one to find the village chief and the other to find the group that had gone out to find food.
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Zhou's head. "Plastic bags! Let's get those plastic bags out and put the ice in them!"
They had previously tried those thin red bags, which didn't leak.
Soon, they filled several red tote bags with ice.
When the village chief and the others arrived, they were also very excited, but then they were worried about what to pack it with.
The village chief of Dashan Village looked at Chen Jiadao and said, "Bring all the plastic bags and takeout boxes from the team. Tell everyone in the team to find containers that can hold ice and water. Tonight, we'll distribute the food according to how much of this stuff we hand over."
"Oh dear, the ice has melted, it's melted!" the eldest daughter-in-law cried out in distress.
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