Chapter 13 Playing in the Mud
He dived twice but didn’t even see a shadow of a fish.
I originally wanted to dive again to confirm, but it was probably because I didn’t eat breakfast and I was hungry for most of the day yesterday, so I was a little hypoglycemic.
Now I am paralyzed on the edge of the lake, feeling dizzy. If I don’t come up at that time, I am afraid I will sink directly.
It took a long time before I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
During this period, looking at the three tribe members who had no idea what to do and were about to call for help, Zhou Xu waved his hands with difficulty.
"I'm fine. How is the mud you asked to dig?"
"A lot has been dug."
As he spoke, the man named The tribe member with mud hands pointed to the side.
“Are these enough for the leader? If not, we can continue digging.”
Hearing this, Zhou Xu tilted his head and glanced next to him. The dug out mud had piled up into a small mountain, but in Zhou Xu's opinion, it was obviously not enough.
“Keep digging.”
The efficiency is really low with just two hands, but even Zhou Xu couldn’t come up with any decent tools for them right now. .
There is no way, this matter must be done one by one.
Accepting the reality that there are no fish resources, Zhou Xu took advantage of the rest to adjust his plans for the next few days in his mind.
The adjustment is almost complete, and people have basically recovered.
In addition to confirming whether there are fish in the salt lake and digging out lake mud, the most important thing he planned for this afternoon was to study the pottery making technique.
As long as the clay pot is successfully fired, the fresh water can be stored in advance, and it will not be as tight as it is now.
But Zhou Xu had no intention of just starting playing in the mud.
If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools.
Although Zhou Xu had never studied pottery before, he liked drinking tea, and he also liked to buy some tea cups.
In order not to be fooled, he also studied a little bit and mastered a lot of useless knowledge.
Tea cups are not considered pottery and are generally made of porcelain. However, these two items are both made of clay and have something in common.
What is the most important thing if you want to burn this kind of utensil? It's a furnace, and it's best to be one surrounded by furnace walls, so that the internal temperature is higher and more stable.
So now he needs to use the stones he picked up to build a furnace that can create a stable temperature inside.
It's definitely impossible to make one if it's too big, so we'll have to make do with it first.
At the same time, it is impossible for these stones to fit tightly together, so Zhou Xu's approach to these gaps is also very simple, that is, to directly paste them with mud.
This was one of the main reasons why he asked the three tribe members to continue digging. He still had to build a stove, and the lake mud was definitely not enough.
Using a palm-sized, relatively flat small bone plate as a tool for making mud, after gluing the inner and outer three layers several times, the stove looked quite similar at first glance. of.
“Almost.”
Putting the bone plate aside and looking at the stove that was already in some shape, Zhou Xu patted the mud on his hands and nodded with satisfaction.
However, his work of firing pottery has obviously not been officially started yet.
The matter of firing pottery does not mean that you can just knead the mud and bake it. After kneading, you have to wait for it to dry naturally. This stage will take at least two or three days. He is still in the preparation stage at the moment.
After taking a sip of water, Zhou Xu, who had finished building the stove, walked slowly to the lake and started muddying up.
【This feeling is really amazing. 】
After all, he only did things like playing in the mud when he was a child. When he grows up, he will rarely do such things.
Didn't build anything big right away, Zhou Xu first made some mud and made a small rice bowl.
After all, he was really a novice when it came to making pottery. He didn't think he could succeed at once. He must have experienced many failures during this period.
It is easier to make small bowls. Anyway, if it burns out, just change another and continue to burn. In this way, you can accumulate experience. When you can make small bowls stably, you can then mess with those big clay pots.
Otherwise, if you are inexperienced at the beginning, you will burn and smash the big clay pot that you made with great effort, and end up working in vain.
Zhou Xu’s hands have limited precision, and he is not an experienced master craftsman. The small bowls he makes are somewhat irregular. At first glance, each one is different.
With a slight adjustment, it is improved to a level that is barely visible.
Fortunately, playing with mud is not difficult in itself. In addition, it is the first time for everyone, so he may not be able to do it much better than the primitive people.
“The next step is up to you. Put the kneaded pottery bowl here to dry.”
He took the lead and pinched five or six people. After the tribe members on the side almost understood and learned it, this matter naturally fell on them.
Because Zhou Xu discovered that in this harsh environment, the mental state of the tribe members was generally better than his.
In other words, their bodies have already adapted to the days when they can't eat more than a few mouthfuls of food or drink more than a few mouthfuls of water a day, but Zhou Xu's body has obviously not adapted yet.
At this time, he was already hungry and tired, so he had to sit by the fire to drink water and rest. At the same time, he gave some advice on the basket weaving problem of the handicraft team. When he was fine, he squinted his eyes. Take a nap for a while.
Until the collection team headed by Dashan comes back.
"Chief, according to your wishes, we have picked up a lot of stones and the number of branches is far more than any before!"
After speaking, Dashan's voice contained a tone that could not be concealed at all. excited.
At this moment, the branches brought back by their collection team were piled up in bundles, forming a hill as high as one person!
With this amount, I feel that in the next two or three days, they will no longer need to deliberately collect branches. They can just pick up some while doing other things.
The freed manpower can be used for other arrangements.
"Well done, thank you for your hard work."
After seeing the wood and stones they collected from Dashan, Zhou Xu praised them without hesitation.
“Oh, by the way, how many bugs were caught?”
This is undoubtedly one of the questions that Zhou Xu is most concerned about right now. After all, it will directly affect how much each of them can get in the evening. food.
The results proved that Dashan and his team's results this time were quite impressive. Looking at the quantity, it was at least two or three times that of before.
But if you think about it carefully, it doesn't seem strange.
They just arrived yesterday. By the time they got here, it was already late. There were so many things to do, and there was not much time to catch bugs.
Unlike today, they officially set out early in the morning. The main task for most of the day was to focus on picking up branches, picking up stones and catching bugs. They caught more than yesterday. It's natural that there are many.
Update sent, thank you to book friends ‘The Rough Man’, ‘Idle Man in the World’, and ‘Book Friend 20210929094646704’ for their rewards!
(End of this chapter)