Preparation for the Age of Pottery

"What's the matter with Sister Bing?"

"She seems to have a lot on her mind!"

Jiang Yao looked at Shen Bing's bamboo cup: "She's barely touched her lemonade."

Ning Shu thought for a moment: "Maybe Sister Bing is thinking about her family and friends again!"

Tang Xiaoguo sighed sadly: "I miss my parents a little too."

Mentioning their families made the girls feel a little melancholy.

Lu Zhe also thought of his parents.

He knew that the ones who raised him were not his biological parents, but his adoptive ones!

But their bond was no less than that of blood relations!

His adoptive father was his biological father's war buddy. They say the two had saved each others' lives before.

When Lu Zhe was five, his father passed away in an accident.

The funeral was held very solemnly, with many high-ranking leaders attending.

A few days later, his mother handed him over to his adoptive parents, saying to him out of the blue: "Little Zhe, mommy's going to find daddy..."

And then she vanished without a trace, as if she had evaporated from the world.

Many people said she had died too.

From then on Lu Zhe was raised by his adoptive mother. When he turned ten his adoptive father got transferred and became a mid-level official at the National Development and Reform Commission.

They lived quite comfortably. His adoptive parents cared for him as their own and put great efforts into raising him.

He studied diligently, hoping that one day he could repay their kindness.

But who could have expected this accident to happen during a university event!?

Luckily though,

he had a younger adoptive brother, his adoptive parents' biological child.

It was also because of this younger brother that he hoped his "death" would not be too devastating psychologically for his adoptive parents.

Sometimes Lu Zhe would think, when he's gone, he hoped his brother would grow up properly and achieve great things early, so as to fulfill his filial duties on his behalf.

Thinking of their families disheartened everyone for a while, but they still had to keep looking ahead!

"Lu Zhe, what's your plan going forward?" Ning Shu asked as she wiped her tears.

Lu Zhe collected himself and pondered briefly before analyzing their current circumstances.

"Today we obtained two new freshwater sources, but both come with some limitations.

It takes some time to collect enough water dripping from the rock crevices to fill up a bottle, given the distance. We can only carry back one bottle per trip.

The underground water needs filtering and boiling before it's safe to drink. Not only does it require someone to repeatedly operate it, but the filtering is also quite slow."

Lin Qianqian asked: "Is there a way to solve this?"

"I've thought of an automated filtering method for the underground water!"

"How do we do it?"

"Like this!"

Lu Zhe stood up, took out a piece of worn clothing from his pack, and cut it into 1 cm wide strips with his steak knife!

He then braided three strips into a loose cord.

Jiang Yao picked up a hemp rope: "Can't we just use this?"

Lu Zhe shook his head: "For filtering purposes, fabric cords absorb water better than hemp ones!"

He then tied several tight knots along the braided cord.

Next he filled up a 2L bottle with contaminated water, and placed a smaller empty bottle slightly below it.

He put one end of the fabric cord in the dirty water and the other end in the empty bottle.

"The fabric soaks up water but doesn't easily absorb dirt. Each knot acts as a filtration point. Once the whole cord is soaked, clean water will drip into the bottle below."

Lin Qianqian exclaimed: "What a clever technique!"

Ning Shu snapped her fingers: "With this we can make ten or eight of these filtration contraptions! We'll have plenty of filtered water to boil and drink tomorrow morning!"

Lu Zhe nodded: "That's right!"

"Ladies, what are we waiting for, let's get to work!"

Lu Zhe also reminded: "It doesn't have to be a one-to-one ratio. One large bottle can feed three to five small ones. That improves efficiency."

"Got it!"

The setup was simple. In less than 15 minutes, the four girls had made over twenty filtering cords.

"This way, there's no need to watch them. We'll have water ready to boil tomorrow too!"

Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "Improvements can be made to the rock crevice water source too!"

"How do we improve that?"

"Get some larger containers."

"Larger containers? But we used the biggest bottles for the auto filtration system!"

Lu Zhe shook his head again: "Still not big enough."

Tang Xiaoguo said: "Then make more trips?"

"That's no good either. It's not exactly close by. The traveling back and forth would burn up too much energy. The cost-effectiveness is too low that way."

Lin Qianqian said: "Why not station two people there?"

"Still not ideal. Since it's a water source, it's very likely to attract other animals too. Having fewer people around would be troublesome if a bear or boar showed up!"

Ning Shu thought for a moment: "Oh I know, collect water with the helmet!"

"The helmet does have more capacity, but it's covered in too much resin. Plus it's still not big enough!"

Ning Shu asked: "Then what do we use?"

Lu Zhe squeezed the soil around him, dug up when the girls were getting to the underground water.

"We use this!"

"The mud?"

Lu Zhe nodded: "This soil is from the layer above the coral bed and below the surface. It's full of volcanic ash, kaolin, and silica, giving it excellent plasticity and adhesiveness."

Lin Qianqian said: "You don't mean pottery do you?"

"That's right!"

Lu Zhe smiled lightly: "We can use this soil to make ceramics! Like bigger jars and basins, which can hold more water at a time and improve our quality of life!"

"But wouldn't ceramics leak?"

"We can glaze them!"

Jiang Yao wondered: "But what do we use as the glaze?"

Lu Zhe knocked the steel helmet: "We'll use this."

Tang Xiaoguo blinked in surprise: "You're going to fire the helmet into glaze?"

"Of course not. This resin on it is from the Damar tree native to Southeast Asia. It softens around 120 degrees. We can scrape it off with fire and coat the ceramics to waterproof them. If it's not enough we can collect more from the woods. This place is full of Damar trees!"

"Is that stuff toxic?"

"Not at all! It's used as food additive and in chewing gum. Melted and coated onto ceramics, it seals the porous surface. Only problem is its low softening point means it can hold water but not for cooking."

Ning Shu nodded: "You sure know a lot. Is this also from your book of ten thousand whys?"

"You bet!"

"Shall we start now then?"

Lu Zhe checked his watch: "Ceramic making has quite a few steps. Too late to start today! But we can wake up early tomorrow. From then on, we'll be officially entering the ceramic era!"

After the discussion, they divided up the bear paws, which were rich in collagen proteins. Skinned, the flavor was not as strong either. Comparatively, it was the tastiest part of the bear.

After dinner, they bid each other good night and turned in.

But Shen Bing did not fall asleep.

Lying on her side, she gazed at the sleeping Lu Zhe in the adjacent hammock, her mind flooded with thoughts!