Chapter 98
The pots, bowls, ladles, back baskets, and winnowing baskets were moved away. The dry firewood and stone pots were moved away. The fire pit was violently dismantled, and the large stones were also moved away. Finally, the wood ash was swept clean, and the messy camp gradually turned into an open-air large square.
It was open, flat, and clean. It looked much more comfortable now.
Dismantling the fire pit and moving the stones was exhausting. Hua Shi’an rested for a while and had the others go and mix the mud. He himself, along with Yan Zhile, shoveled the mud on the side near the bushes.
If you looked at it from above, the camp was an irregular square. The left edge was next to the tree hollows where the tribe members lived, and the right side bordered the sheep pen. And at the top and bottom, one side was an uncleared bush, and the other was next to the grass.
The camp area was actually very large. They hadn’t planned it carefully before. A fire pit was piled in the east, and a back basket was placed in the west. It was messy and cluttered, so it didn’t look big. Now that the things were moved away, although it was not as big as a football field, it was more than enough compared to a basketball court.
Hua Shi’an had already thought it through. The kitchen would be built on the side of the bushes. Few people walked here, so there was no need to worry about the cooking smoke. If the space was not big enough, it could be expanded into the forest, which would be convenient for piling up firewood and miscellaneous things.
The side near the grass was where people came and went. He would build a clean and tidy large dining hall.
Yes, that’s what I’ll do!
The open space was flat, but there were inevitably some potholes. Hua Shi’an and Yan Zhile swung their hoes non-stop, leveling the raised areas and filling in the depressions, bit by bit.
Building a stove did not require a foundation. They could start working after the ground was leveled.
At this time, the camp was like a blank canvas in front of him. Hua Shi’an put down his hoe, picked up a piece of charcoal, and began to draw on the canvas.
There were many people in the tribe. One or two stoves and one or two pots were definitely not enough. Hua Shi’an planned to make a large one, referring to the multi-functional combination stove in modern society, and make a U-shaped stove.
The U-shape was very clever. If the stove was built a little larger, with three pot openings on each of the extended parts, and four on the bottom plane, then they could have ten pots cooking at the same time, and they would no longer have to worry about not having enough food to go around.
And the firebox for adding firewood was opened inside the U-shape. The person who was tending the fire could sit in the recessed part, and would not disturb the tribe members who were cooking outside. The only disadvantage was that the recessed part was not wide enough to pile up a large amount of dry firewood.
But it was not difficult to solve this problem. A door was opened on the opposite side of the U-shaped opening, and a simple woodshed was built next to it. It would be convenient to take and put as much firewood as you wanted.
The matter of the woodshed would be put aside for now. Today’s goal was the stove and the workstation.
A proper combination stove in modern society integrated a cutting board, a vegetable washing sink, and a stove. Their stove had ten pot openings and could only be used for cooking. It had no other functions at all, so they had to build a separate workstation for cutting vegetables and meat.
Hua Shi’an had also thought this through. The workstation would be built opposite the stove, in a shallower U-shape, with a walkway in the middle. After cutting the meat and vegetables, you could turn around and pour them into the pot, which was convenient and fast.
The workstation could also be built a little higher. The bottom could be hollowed out to be a cabinet, where pots, bowls, and ladles could be placed, and the future oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar could also be stuffed under it.
With bamboo as a ruler and charcoal as a pen, Hua Shi’an quickly drew a blueprint on the open space.
The mud needed for building the stove was also ready. Hua Shi’an threw down the charcoal and immediately got busy with a group of sub-beasts.
The fire pit had been completely dismantled. Whether they could have a hot meal tonight all depended on them.
Building a stove was much more troublesome than building a blast furnace. Although the initial steps were similar, the clay mixed with reed fragments was piled up along the black line. But just as it was piled up a little, they had to start leaving an ash pit. With one hand, they pinched, dug, and smeared, creating an ash pit on the thick mud wall for the firewood to leak ash after it had burned out.
Without any buffer, as soon as the ash pit was done, it was followed by the firebox, and then the flue. While building the main body of the stove, they also had to dig out the opening for stuffing in dry firewood, the firebox for the dry firewood to heat up and burn, and finally, smooth the countertop and dig out the pot opening for placing the pot.
The sub-beasts were all novices, learning as they did, and it was inevitable that they would make mistakes. For this reason, the half-built stove in the corner was even dismantled once. Although Hua Shi’an didn’t say anything and even comforted them, the sub-beast who had made the mistake blushed with shame and wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
From morning to dusk, a group of sub-beasts walked in circles in the camp.
Hard work paid off. With the joint efforts of more than a dozen mud men, finally, as the last rays of the setting sun fell, the empty camp had a simple U-shaped stove and a yellowish-brown, shallow U-shaped workstation.
It was built and baked at the same time. The simple but not crude stove was completely dry. The countertop, which was covered with small stones, was dyed orange-red by the brilliant sunset clouds. The ten black pot openings were as perfect as works of art, round and smooth, without a single flaw.
Most of the time, it was the sub-beasts who were cooking. The final height of the stove was level with the belly of a medium-height sub-beast. A sub-beast standing in front of the stove could just reach the pot, without having to tiptoe or bend over, which was much better than the previous fire pit where they could only squat to cook.
The materials for building the stove were not just clay and reed fragments. There was still a pile of stones left over from dismantling the fire pit. Hua Shi’an and the sub-beasts picked out the large ones and washed the small and smooth ones, and then inlaid them on the countertops of the stove and the workstation, one by one, tightly fitted.
The stones were embedded in the clay, flat and neat, and not at all rough to the touch. And they also looked… uh, you might get a little trypophobia if you looked at them for too long. After all, the stones were too small, and they were densely packed one by one.
But a countertop inlaid with stones was much easier to clean than a mud countertop. It was inevitable that some soup would be spilled during cooking. A mud surface might soak it in, but a stone surface could be wiped clean.
Of course, the stove they had built in one day also had a drawback: it was not very durable. Although the clay was mixed with reed fragments, clay was still clay. It was no match for reinforced concrete. If it was used frequently every day, it would last for a year and a half at most.
Actually, if he wanted to, Hua Shi’an could also make a sturdier stove, such as making a mold to dry the clay into mud bricks, and then using the mud bricks to build the stove. But that would be too much trouble. The current simple version of the stove was enough.
Because in a year and a half, they should have their own houses, and each household would have its own independent kitchen.
After a day of dealing with mud, Hua Shi’an and a group of sub-beasts were covered in it, like mud men. You couldn’t even tell who was who without a close look. The work was done, and it was time to wash up. Hua Shi’an waved to the little mud monkeys and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Let’s go, let’s go and take a bath. After we’re done, we’ll move the firewood back. It will be time to prepare dinner soon.”
“Okay!”
The sub-beasts replied in unison and followed Hua Shi’an to the river.
A group of people had just started to walk when a messy sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corner of the camp, and then a large group of people rushed out.
Fresh and emerald green wild vegetables, colorful mushrooms, and sweet and delicious sweet potatoes… everyone was carrying a back basket, and the back basket on everyone’s back was full. The gathering team led by Chief Mu had returned with a full load.
Just as one foot stepped into the camp, seeing the dozen or so mud men led by Hua Shi’an, Chief Mu’s steps came to a halt, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise. And when he saw the empty camp beyond the crowd, Chief Mu’s eyes widened, and he rushed to the center of the camp with his back strap.
“What’s going on? Where are the things? Where are our pottery pots, back baskets, and winnowing baskets? Did I go to the wrong place? This is our camp, right?”
He had returned from a hard day’s work to find his home had been emptied. Who wouldn’t panic?
The bath would have to wait. Hua Shi’an walked back to the camp and stood beside Chief Mu with a smile. “Don’t be anxious, Chief. The things are in another place. We tidied up the camp today.”
Hearing this, Chief Mu breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could take a second breath, he suddenly realized something, quickly looked around, and suddenly turned to look at Hua Shi’an. “No, I understand you moved the things to tidy up the camp. But what about the fire pit? How come my big fire pits are gone? How are we going to cook tonight?”
“I told you not to be anxious. Do you think I would let everyone go hungry?” Hua Shi’an let out a low laugh, lifted his chin slightly, and pointed to the inner side of the camp. “There, that’s our new fire pit. It’s called a stove. More than a dozen of us spent a day building it.”
He had been so focused on finding the missing things that he had completely missed the new things. Now, following Hua Shi’an’s finger, Chief Mu finally noticed the two half-person-high behemoths standing in the camp.
From a distance, they looked like two thick mud walls, with a slightly strange shape, not at all like a fire pit. Chief Mu walked forward with a puzzled expression and stood in front of the not-yet-dry workstation. Without needing Hua Shi’an’s explanation, looking at the smooth stone countertop and the large and small mud compartments on the inner side, his eyes lit up, and he tapped the workstation with a trembling hand.
“This is so well made. This is for putting things, right?”
“The bottom is for putting things, and this large countertop on top is for cutting vegetables and meat.” Hua Shi’an walked inside the workstation and pretended to cut vegetables with his arms suspended above the countertop. “Just like this. See, Chief? Isn’t the height just right?”
The countertop was very wide. Chief Mu stood beside it and, mimicking Hua Shi’an’s movements, laughed heartily. “Oh my, this thing is so useful! The height is just right. It can be used for putting things and for cutting vegetables and meat. It’s so much easier than squatting to work.”
“As expected of you, Shi’an. You’re so smart. Although I knew that squatting to work was inconvenient, if you asked me to think of something, I wouldn’t have been able to think of this even if I racked my brain!”
Hua Shi’an touched his nose. “It’s not that I thought of it. It’s just…”
“The stranger, right?” Chief Mu finished his sentence with a smile.
Chief Mu was just a bit slow, not stupid. He had long since seen through the story of the stranger. From various plants to a variety of tools and utensils, with all the things that Hua Shi’an had taught the tribe so far, the stranger would have had to talk to him for three days and three nights.
Perhaps the stranger didn’t exist at all. But what did it matter? Everything Hua Shi’an did was for the good of the tribe. How he knew, how he understood so much, was not important.
He saw through it but didn’t expose it. Chief Mu turned to look at the stove and very naturally changed the subject. “You said this is a fire pit for cooking? I know this hole. It’s for putting a pot, right? Then what about the firewood? Where do you put the firewood?”
“Over here.” Hua Shi’an walked to the inner side of the stove and beckoned to Chief Mu.
After walking around to the inside of the stove and looking at the neat row of fireboxes and ash pits, Chief Mu was still a little confused. And when he learned the principle of the stove and the use of the various openings from Hua Shi’an, he was ecstatic. He caressed the stove with great fondness and at the same time, called over the chatting tribe members in the camp.
“Don’t just stand there. Put down your back baskets and come and see. The new fire pit that the Lord Priest made is so magical! Hahahaha… we’ll never have to squat to cook again. This thing is brilliant, so brilliant!”
The sub-beasts of the gathering team heard him and rushed over like a tide.
The workstation was not yet dry, so they didn’t dare to touch it easily. Dozens of people all gathered around the stove. In a short moment, the sound of discussion broke out, and the camp turned into a morning vegetable market.
“Is this a fire pit? What does this have to do with a fire pit?”
“What’s this big black hole on top for? There are a full ten of them.”
“Wow, is it really made of yellow clay? It looks so exquisite.”
“There are also a lot of holes inside. What are these for?”
They were all asking questions, but no one could answer them. Just as Hua Shi’an was about to explain to them, the class representative, Hong Yinglan, stood up. “I know, I know!”
“The large holes on top are for putting pots. Ten holes for ten pots. The small holes inside are for stuffing in dry firewood. I just bent over at the opening and looked. There’s still a lot of space inside. It should be that you stuff the dry firewood in from the opening and burn it inside!”
“What about the one at the bottom? What’s that hole for?”
“I know! After the dry firewood is burned, there will be ash. That hole must be for the ash to leak out!”
“I understand. You add firewood in the middle, and the ash leaks out from the bottom, and then the flames float up to cook! Heavens, it’s so magical. A fire pit can actually be made like this.”
“You don’t have to worry about sparks flying around, and you don’t have to worry about the wind blowing out the firewood. This new fire pit is so amazing!”
“Hey, look. There’s a small hole on each side of the countertop. What are these for?”
“Smoke, for letting out the smoke!”
…
One after another, the sub-beasts discussed animatedly, like a carnival.
As the sky gradually darkened, the hunting team returned with a full load. The four huge green iguanas brought the atmosphere of this carnival to its peak.
Wild vegetables were not worthy of the new stove. It had to be opened with meat.
