Chapter 247 Primitive Beast World Cubs 22
Cangye had a hard time understanding things he had never heard of or seen before, but he did know about mud. He loved it when his mother asked him what was wrong.
He loved it when his mother asked him if he had seen anything, knew anything about anything, or where he might have seen something. At those times, he felt useful and able to help.
Cang Ye's eyes lit up as he spoke.
"Sticky mud? I know!"
Downstream from that stream, there's a place that gets incredibly sticky after it rains! And lots of withered, stiff grass grow there!
The "hard-stemmed grass" he mentioned is a type of wild grass with relatively tough stem fibers; it's actually a kind of reed.
"Great! Take me there, thanks to our sweet baby!!"
Shen Ci picked up the all-purpose bamboo basket, gave the little wolf cub a big, sweet kiss that made his face turn red, and then set off with Cang Ye.
Although the mother wolf doesn't groom her cubs like other wolves, she expresses her affection through kisses, which is also quite nice.
Sure enough, in a low-lying area downstream of the stream, Shen Ci found the ideal clay.
The soil here is dark brown, slippery and sticky to the touch, and highly malleable. Next to it grows a large patch of withered, yellow, but still intact, hard-stemmed grass.
"This is it!"
Shen Ci was very happy and started digging. As she dug, she explained things to Cang Ye.
"This kind of sticky soil, like the soil used to make pottery jars, hardens after it dries."
We mixed it with the hay, which acts like bones, making the mud more solid and less prone to crumbling.
Mud is like flesh, and grass is like bones; together they form a very strong whole.
She taught Cangye to wrap the clay clods they dug up with large leaves and put them in a basket. At the same time, the two of them also harvested a large amount of tough grass and put it in the basket as well.
Luckily, this basket was there; otherwise, it would have been so much trouble to carry the mud and grass back again and again.
Building a house requires a lot of mud, and Shen Ci brought his tools with him this time, including his homemade hoe, which he used to dig a deep pit in the entire area.
After returning home, Shen Ci chose an open space next to the cave as the future site for her house. The area outside the cave was quite flat. At first, it was overgrown with weeds, but as she lived there, she gradually cleared out a space.
All the grass on the surface was pulled out. This time, she decided to make use of the cave, turning it into a storage room, like a basement.
After clearing away the weeds and pebbles from the surface, the first step in making bricks began: mixing the mud.
Shen Ci first used stones to build a large pit, poured clay into it, added an appropriate amount of water, and then stepped in barefoot, repeatedly stomping and kneading it.
This process is very strenuous; simply pounding with your hands is not enough. You have to put all your strength into it to fully mix the mud and water, making it even and flexible.
Just like life, it repeatedly beats and kneads people, and only by enduring it can they become more resilient.
"Sweetie, help your mother get those haystacks and try to break them into smaller pieces."
You can chop them up with a kitchen knife, but be careful not to hurt yourself.
Under Shen Ci's command, the orc was different from the human. Although the orc was still a cub, it was already very strong and could do more things.
Although he looks like a child of only a few years old, what child of that age can catch a rabbit or a pheasant in just a few minutes?
Cangye didn't use a kitchen knife because he wasn't used to it. Instead, he used his claws to tear the hard grass into small pieces.
Sharp teeth and claws are their most robust and instinctive weapons, and the ones they are most accustomed to using.
Shen Ci evenly scattered these grass pieces into the mud pit, then continued to tread and knead them, allowing the grass fibers and mud to fully combine. It would have been great to have a mixer at this point.
Technology is always the primary productive force.
After a long time, a pile of sticky, dark brown mud was ready, mixed with many crushed grass fragments, so badly pounded that they were almost unrecognizable.
After the soil and grass are evenly mixed together, the next step is to make the brick blanks.
Shen Ci didn't have any ready-made molds, but that didn't stop her. If she didn't have any, she would find a way to make them now. Before doing something, she thought it would be difficult, but when she actually did it, she found that it was not so difficult.
If you don't do it, you'll never have it.
She found some wide, flat stone slabs and chopped down several pieces of wood of uniform thickness. As long as the wood was thick enough, she could cut it open and then cut off a piece to make a plank. It didn't matter if it was a little rough. She used a kitchen knife to flatten it as much as possible.
Arrange the wooden planks on the stone slab to form a rectangular frame, roughly the size of two modern red bricks, and temporarily secure it with rope. A simple brick mold is now complete.
"Look, like this."
Shen Ci scooped up a large lump of well-mixed grass mud and forcefully slammed it into the wooden mold until it filled every corner.
Then, use a thin wooden stick to scrape along the top edge of the wooden frame to remove excess mud and make the surface of the brick blank smooth.
This step is a bit like making a cake. Just fill the frame as much as possible and wipe away the excess. This step doesn't require much brainpower.
Finally, after confirming that the shape was correct, the wooden frame was carefully removed, and a rectangular mud brick blank with a somewhat rough surface but a regular shape was quietly left on the stone slab.
"Wow!"
Cangye looked at the soil and grass and exclaimed in surprise that they could be transformed into such a square shape, giving it a lot of emotional value.
He imitated his mother, scooping up a lump of clay with his little hands and trying his best to fill it into another mold.
But he wasn't using the right amount of force, so the mud never filled the corners or the surface was uneven. Shen Ci wasn't worried, and taught him step by step how to slap the mud hard and how to smooth the surface.
"Yes, that's right. Take your time, and you'll get the hang of it after doing a few more."
Shen Ci encouraged her, saying that this was not only to train the little wolf cub's hands-on skills, but more importantly, building a house required so many bricks, how could she manage it all by herself?
The mother and son worked all afternoon, and dozens of wet mud bricks were neatly arranged on the open ground next to the cave. The bricks were not completely dry and still had a glossy sheen.
Okay, that's all for today.
Let them dry here until they are completely dry. Then we will use that earthen kiln to fire them hard like pottery. That way they will become real bricks.
We're not in a hurry. We've been using the time these past few days to make bricks, and we have enough food and firewood for now.
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