Actually, their past is quite simple. They were classmates at the same school. Later, they met again in Fuzhou. That's when Wang Lun fell in love with Li Ling, but later, due to certain events...
At this moment, Liu Ruoxi heard Liu Ruoling talking to Li Ling, so she interrupted Wang Lun's story and said, "Let's stop here for today, we'll continue later." Although Wang Lun found it a bit strange, she wouldn't listen, so he decided not to continue, since he didn't want to talk about it anyway.
The two continued making lunch. Suddenly, Liu Ruoxi asked, "Does your hand still hurt?" Wang Lun said, "No." Then, he said, "What do you mean by 'hurt' or 'not hurt'? What are you asking?" Liu Ruoxi shook her head and said, "Nothing, I just hope you won't be let down." Although Wang Lun was somewhat clever, Liu Ruoxi's words seemed incoherent and confusing. He was about to ask Liu Ruoxi what she meant when Li Ling and the other woman walked in. Wang Lun still didn't ask. Wang Lun felt that this matter shouldn't be known by a third person. It was a man's intuition, and Wang Lun trusted this feeling.
Lunch was ready quickly. The four of them sat down at the table and began to eat. It seemed the same as before, yet different.
After the meal, Liu Ruoxi went to wash the pots and pans. Wang Lun and Li Ling went together to check the remaining four pillar pits, which were all in good condition. Then they went to clean up the excrement. Last time, Wang Lun cleaned it up by himself, while Liu Ruoling carried the excrement. This time, it was still Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling doing the work together. Wang Lun asked Li Ling to pull up all the grass in the area near the camp entrance so they could plant houttuynia cordata in the afternoon. Li Ling went to pull up the grass.
Wang Lun first cleaned the chicken coop, which Liu Ruoling had already mostly cleaned. He went in and quickly finished cleaning it. Then he moved on to the rabbit pen. Liu Ruoling, on the other hand, carried all the manure to the open space by the door to ferment before using it as fertilizer. After that, she sprinkled some wood ash into the chicken coop, and that was it—the chicken coop was finally tidied up.
When Wang Lun arrived at the rabbit pen, he found that it was already half-cleaned. However, there were many rabbits, which meant they produced even more droppings. Wang Lun still planned to clean the droppings up to the entrance first, and then remove them from the pen.
While Wang Lun was still cleaning up, Liu Ruoling came over and started moving the rabbit droppings away.
The two spent another half hour cleaning the rabbit enclosure. They changed the mother rabbit's hay and then left. Wang Lun told Liu Ruoxi to go take a shower first, saying he could still hold it in. Liu Ruoling naturally went too; having spent so much time together, she had become less reserved with Wang Lun.
After taking a shower, the two of them went to pull grass with Li Ling in front of the door. The three of them pulled grass for more than an hour, clearing all the grass from a patch of ground in front of the door, before going back inside to drink water and rest.
But after a while, Wang Lun woke the two of them up again. He needed them to go and move all the trees and firewood back. They should prioritize carrying the trees. It should be quick, since only nine trees had been cut down; Wang Lun had carried one back at noon, leaving eight. The three of them could carry two trees back in one trip, so they only needed four trips to bring them all back.
Sure enough, Wang Lun and his team carried all nine tree trunks back in just four trips. On the last trip, they even called on Liu Ruoxi. One of the trunks was particularly long, too much for Wang Lun to carry alone; it required two people. The other trunks were too short for either Li Ling or Liu Ruoling to lift alone, so they had to call on Liu Ruoxi.
After Wang Lun and his three companions carried all the tree trunks back, taking advantage of the remaining time, Wang Lun decided to take Li Ling and Liu Ruoling to move some thicker branches. They could move some more the next morning and then begin building the shed. Wang Lun's reasoning was sound, and Li Ling and Liu Ruoling had no objections, so they followed him to continue.
By the time they returned, it was getting dark, so Wang Lun decided not to go out. He closed the camp gate and told Li Ling and the other woman to rest. He then moved a ladder over and drilled a hole in the wall. Of course, he had already chosen the spot—perfectly level with the opposite wall.
Despite the wall being half a meter thick, Wang Lun used various tools and spent over an hour carving a groove twenty or thirty centimeters deep. He figured that would be enough. He'd leave it at that for now, since it was getting dark.
Wang Lun climbed down the ladder and returned to the house. He saw Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi, who also looked like they had just returned, so he asked, "What happened to you two? Why are you so out of breath?" Liu Ruoxi said, "We turned over the patch of land near the camp entrance, and we can plant the houttuynia cordata tomorrow morning. But how do you plant it?"
When Wang Lun heard that Li Ling and Liu Ruoling had thoroughly turned over the patch of land in front of the gate while he was knocking on the wall, he was impressed by their skill. He said, "Thank you for your hard work, but we can't plant it tomorrow. We have to let the grass die in the sun first." Liu Ruoling asked, "How long will it take before we can plant it?" Wang Lun thought for a moment and said, "The earliest would be tomorrow evening." Liu Ruoling was quite happy to hear that she could start planting the houttuynia cordata tomorrow.
Wang Lun took out the bundle of houttuynia cordata and asked everyone to break off the old roots, keeping only the edible parts and using the old roots for planting.
Together, the four of them quickly picked out the tender roots, stems, and leaves of the houttuynia cordata. Wang Lun specially placed the remaining old roots in a basket. The tender roots, stems, and leaves were taken out and washed clean. Some were set aside for tomorrow's consumption, while the rest were salted by Wang Lun and placed indoors. Once they had wilted somewhat, they could be placed in a ceramic jar, where they could be preserved for a long time as long as the lid was not opened.
Therefore, Wang Lun needed to make a pottery jar first. Fortunately, he had something to do at noon today, so he hadn't used yesterday's fine clay to make the pottery blank. Wang Lun mixed the clay and asked Li Ling to use it to make a pottery blank. Wang Lun felt that he wasn't very lucky and was afraid that it wouldn't fire well. Actually, Wang Lun had asked Li Ling to make it because he felt that his own work wouldn't be good, while Li Ling's was very good.
After Li Ling finished, Wang Lun carefully placed the clay pot and lid in the corner to air dry before firing. He also checked the clay bowls and large bowls he had made yesterday. They had dried well and were ready to be fired. He figured the recent hot weather had accelerated the drying process.
Wang Lun carried three earthenware bowls and a large bowl to the hearth. He then asked Liu Ruoling to help him move two bundles of firewood and place them in a corner of the fire. Only then did he begin to place the three earthenware bowls and the large bowl in the center of the hearth, adding more firewood around them, and begin firing the pottery.
Pottery making is a long process, and since we need to keep watch because of the hyenas, it's a good time to make pottery.
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