When Tian Cai arrived at Carpenter Chen's house, he was working in the yard. After he understood Tian Cai's purpose, he took out all the things he had borrowed from her without saying a word.
"Take it back and use it first. When you're done, just return it."
Tian Cai didn't bother to be polite with him. She thanked him and left with her tools. She wanted to go up the mountain again before it got the hottest.
Tian Cai put the tools in the main room and went around to the backyard to check the terrain. She had previously reserved a large area for growing strawberries, and this time she could directly occupy half of it to build a house. She was more inclined to build a bamboo house.
Tian Cai roughly measured the size with her steps. This area was at least enough for her to build a two-meter square bamboo house. She also had to consider the extended part of the eaves and the aisle, so it couldn't be too big. In fact, it was not impossible to build a three-meter one, but what Tian Cai wanted was an exquisite and small bamboo house. After all, she was alone, so she didn't need a too big one.
She changed into long-sleeved clothes, packed some tools and ropes into her backpack, filled a pot of water, called Mimi who was lazily lying under the crabapple tree, and the two of them went up the mountain.
She vaguely remembered an area where there were large tracts of bamboo, the kind of tall and thick bamboo that was most suitable for building bamboo houses.
Tian Cai was a fast runner, and with Mimi, a little kid from the mountains, it didn't take long for the two of them to climb over several hills.
She saw many medicinal herbs along the way, and she dug up the more precious and hard-to-find ones and put them into her backpack. By the time she reached the bamboo forest, Tian Cai's backpack was almost full.
There are so many medicinal herbs in the mountains at this time. She hasn't gone into the mountains to pick them this year, but she can go into the mountains for a few days after she finishes her work in the bamboo house.
Tian Cai walked around in the bamboo forest for a few times. The forest was very large, with bamboos as thick as calves everywhere. She happily took the hatchet and started chopping.
Tian Cai was very strong and the knife had been newly sharpened, so she could chop down a tree in just three or five strokes. She tied the chopped bamboos into a bundle of ten. In less than two hours, Tian Cai had finished a bundle.
This is definitely not enough to build a bamboo house. Tian Cai raised her wrist to look at her watch. It was already noon. She didn't bring any dry food today, only a pot of water.
She sat on the bundle of bamboo and wiped the sweat off her face. "Mimi, go get me something to eat. Either pheasant or rabbit will do."
The little fellow who was lying lazily on the side responded with an "Ah" when he heard this, stood up and stretched, then walked out with light steps.
Less than twenty minutes later, the little guy came back with a hare in his mouth.
"Great!" Tian Cai gave it a loving pat as usual, then gutted the rabbit with a hatchet. His quick movements showed that he was used to doing it.
Mimi took care of her own lunch, and Tian Cai ate a whole roasted rabbit. After eating, they continued to work. By four o'clock in the afternoon, the chopped bamboo on the ground was stacked more than half a person's height.
She couldn't transport so many bamboos at once, so she could only move them like an ant, going back and forth between her home and the bamboo forest, carrying them down bit by bit.
By the time the sun was about to set, there was still a small half left to be brought back. She was always impatient and didn't want to do it tomorrow.
Tian Cai sat in her yard wiping her sweat. She had placed all the bamboos outside the fence. She was afraid that the vegetables in the backyard would be crushed, but it would be too crowded if she placed them directly in the yard.
When Qin Ling and Wang Laoer came over with a cart of straw, Tian Cai had just finished eating and was about to go out with a rope.
As soon as he saw their posture, Tian Cai knew that they were here to help him repair the roof.
"This—I was thinking of doing it myself in the next couple of days. I'm so sorry to bother you again."
It was too dangerous for a girl to do this by herself. Qin Ling didn't take it seriously. He looked at the rope in her hand and asked, "Where are you going?"
The few of them were already quite familiar with each other, and Tian Cai had nothing to hide from him. Moreover, she planned to ask him and the Wang brothers for help when building the house, so she told him everything about her plan.
Qin Ling parked the flatbed in the yard and said, "I'll go with you."
With their help, the three of them brought back all the remaining bamboos at once and piled them outside the fence.
Tian Cai estimated that the bamboo house he wanted would be about two meters high, with part of it buried in the soil and part exposed above, and at least one bamboo stick would be three and a half meters long.
She told Qin Ling about her idea.
"You're not thinking right," Qin Ling waited for her to finish, then paused for a moment before continuing, "Not every root has to be buried in the soil, so there's no need to leave them that long."
Seeing that Tian Cai didn't understand, he took a branch and sketched a picture on the ground. "Like this?"
"Yes, yes, that's it!" Tian Cai's eyes lit up when she saw the sketch. The kind of bamboo house she wanted, which had a bit of the flavor of a stilt house, looked exactly like this!
Qin Ling pointed at the several supporting points below and said, "Then it only needs eight supporting points for one circle."
If, as Tian Cai said, each bamboo is three and a half meters long, then the bottom will be completely sealed off, and the entire building will lose its lightness and appear very bulky.
Qin Ling was very skillful. He drew a few more strokes and then began to chop the bamboos. Tian Cai watched from the side and saw that the bamboos were of different lengths and he didn't know what pattern they followed.
"How many windows do you want to open?" Qin Ling asked.
Tian Cai thought about it, stretched out his hand and made a two-sign gesture, "Open two!"
Anyway, I'll sleep here in the summer, and then use bamboo strips to make windows that open up and down, and then prop them up when I need to open them.
When the wooden house is built, the bed, tables and chairs inside will also be made of bamboo. Just thinking about it makes her happy. She feels like she is making a big toy for herself.
Tian Cai herself didn't realize that after she knew her personal safety was guaranteed, the lively part of her nature that had been suppressed slowly emerged.
Qin Ling had already calculated the approximate materials needed in his mind. He said to Tian Cai, "You go back first. We can do it ourselves."
"Okay." Since she couldn't help much here, she simply went back to prepare dinner. "You guys can eat here tonight. I'll go back and cook."
When Wang Laoer heard this, he immediately grinned. He had heard a long time ago that Doctor Tian was a good doctor!
Since the work was not very delicate, the moonlight was enough, so Tian Cai did not take out a flashlight for them.
She went back to the vegetable garden, picked some green onions, and made some scallion pancakes with dough.
His hands kept moving, and he took out a few potatoes that had been stored in the cellar. He quickly cut the potatoes into shreds and stir-fried them in a pan.
As soon as she finished this, she ran to the backyard fence and called Qin Ling and Wang Laoer to come in for dinner.
It was almost nine o'clock when they finished cutting all the bamboo, and they would continue with the rest tomorrow.
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