The tree hollow was pitch black, and it took Zhao Xiaoxiu a while to adjust before she could see the layout clearly.
It turned out that this was the root of the charred tree outside, and for some unknown reason, the entire root had been hollowed out, forming a semi-circular tree hole.
The highest point of the tree hole is three meters high, and the lowest point is less than one meter high, just big enough for a person to squat down.
Zhao Xiaoxiu was only four years old. The cave didn't feel oppressive to her at all; on the contrary, it gave her a strange sense of security.
The cave was empty, and no animal droppings were found.
However, due to the high degree of enclosure and thin air, Zhao Xiaoxiu started sweating profusely and had difficulty breathing after only a few minutes.
She carefully inspected the entire edge of the tree hole to confirm that it was a naturally formed hole before reluctantly squeezing out through the narrow crevice.
When you come in, you have to climb downhill, but when you come out, there's a slope, so Zhao Xiaoxiu can squat down.
After passing through a narrow passage, about a meter long, made up of charred tree roots, Zhao Xiaoxiu finally breathed in fresh air.
The little girl stood at the entrance of the tree hole, propped herself up with a small stick, put one hand on her hip, took a few deep breaths of the damp, cold air, and the heat completely subsided. She sniffed and immediately ran excitedly to the bottom of the tree.
"Dad! I found a big tree hole. There's nothing inside, and it's sealed very well. We can use it as a storage room!" Zhao Xiaoxiu said as she ran.
Zhao Gang, busy chiseling wood, turned his head to look at the little cub with its flushed face and covered in wood chips and dirt. He found it both funny and helpless, as the protective suit he had just put on was already dirty.
Fortunately, the protective suit was waterproof. The tentacles on Zhao Gang's body emerged, filled with water from the nearby stream, and turned into a showerhead to wash away the dirt and wood chips on Zhao Xiaoxiu's body.
The dirty baby was cleaned up by the two tentacles and became clean again.
Zhao Xiaoxiu chuckled sheepishly, brushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead, and said expectantly:
“Dad, let’s seal up the gap and open a new door closer to the treehouse. Then the tree hole will become our storage room.”
As he spoke, Dad came to Jiao Mu and gestured to the location of the tree hole he had just seen, then drew the location of the new door.
The new door is located at the lower left of the platform. If you dig half a meter further in, it will connect to the tree hole inside.
Zhao Xiaoxiu put her hands on her hips and said proudly, "Dad, the new house you found is absolutely amazing! It's like getting a storage room for free. We can store all the food in there in the winter, and we can get it just by walking a few steps whenever we need it."
Zhao Gang was so flattered by the cub's praise that he immediately picked up his tools to carve a new door and put down the other two walls of the wooden house first.
Jiaomu wood is inherently soft and tough, so it's not too difficult to carve. Zhao Gang first outlined the area of the doorway, which is 1.5 meters high, and then started carving from the edge towards the center.
With tools in hand and plenty of strength, they carved out a passage in an hour that allowed them to peek into the tree hollow inside.
Zhao Xiaoxiu took over the rest. There were still two walls of the treehouse that weren't finished, and she wanted to do her part.
The little girl took the initiative to pick up the axe and took on the task of splitting and chiseling a new door for the storage room, so that her father could continue building the treehouse.
Zhao Gang never stopped the cubs from doing chores, even if they didn't do them well, because he felt it was a good opportunity for them to learn.
Only the cubs that can work eat more and grow strong.
So, all afternoon, the sound of chiseling echoed through the valley, 'thump, thump, thump,' one after another, making Peter Pan at the bottom of the lake drowsy.
By evening, Zhao Xiaoxiu's door was mostly finished, but the walls were uneven and looked very rough.
Even with this level of skill, Zhao Gang praised it several times in a row, making Sister Monkey roll her eyes so hard they almost flew to the sky.
Zhao Xiaoxiu didn't care; her father's praise meant she had done well!
"I'm the best!" the little girl thought to herself, clenching her fist. She swung the axe, hacking away with tremendous force.
The treehouse was enclosed on all four walls. On the outer wall, Zhao Gang deliberately left a small window, which he would install later when he found glass or other light-transmitting materials.
Before it got completely dark, Zhao Gang, along with Sister Hou who didn't want to work and just wanted to run away, laid the tarpaulin on the roof beams as the bottom layer.
Zhao Gang then planned to add another layer of hay and timber to get through the winter first.
The treehouse isn't upwind, so strong winter winds won't blow it this way. With the tarpaulin layered with dry grass and weighed down with wooden planks, it shouldn't be blown away.
When the light rain started to fall at night, Zhao Xiaoxiu had already moved into the brand-new treehouse with her father.
Although there was nothing in the house, she believed that she and her father could fill it up soon with their own hands.
I slept soundly in the treehouse all night, and when I woke up in the morning, the sun was still hiding behind the clouds.
A light rain was falling, and damp, cold air drifted in from the open window. Zhao Xiaoxiu climbed out of the tent, and the warmth she had brought out of her sleeping bag was instantly blown away.
Raising her small hand to feel the damp chill, Zhao Xiaoxiu murmured, "Winter is really coming."
She and her father didn't have much time left to prepare.
After a simple breakfast of a nutritional drink, Zhao Xiaoxiu and her father began another busy day.
Zhao Xiaoxiu continued chiseling at the door, stopping to rest when she got tired, and helping to collect the scattered scrap wood, neatly stacking it under the tree roots as firewood.
It rained for two days in a row, making the already damp ground even muddier.
Worried that the cubs would get cold while working, Zhao Gang lit two firewood piles, the flames leaping high and warming the air in the activity space below the treehouse.
After ensuring the cubs wouldn't get cold, Zhao Gang continued to focus on tidying up the charred wood and branches.
He plans to build another room under the treehouse to serve as a kitchen and activity room.
Since fires cannot be lit in the trees, a stove is built on the ground. The heat from the fire will then reach the treehouse upstairs. Even if it snows heavily, the fire in the stove below will keep the treehouse warm enough to sleep on.
This will be a very warm winter, Zhao Gang thought to himself.
Sister Monkey was sent out to find the stone.
Humans prefer to walk on dry ground, so the ground under the tree had to be paved with stones again.
This makes starting a fire and boiling water safer.
Monkey Sister preferred finding stones to logging; she liked this kind of mindless work.
Pulling the hoverboard, we wandered through the valley, picking up suitable rocks and throwing them onto the hoverboard, and that was it.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, the rain finally stopped, and the sun rose.
Significant changes have occurred in the open space within the green wall.
Two small wooden houses have been added to the originally lonely charred wood: the upper one is a bedroom, and the lower one is a living room, dining room, and kitchen.
The muddy ground beneath the charred wood was completely covered with stones, and the gaps between the stones were filled with tightly hammered slabs of gravel, forming a single stone surface of nearly fifty square meters.
The lower-level wooden house was built on the stone surface, with four wooden walls leading directly to the top second-floor platform, saving the need for a roof.
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