Having made up their minds, Lu Zhe and Shen Bing started looking for a suitable place to dig.
Lu Zhe looked around: "First of all, it can't be too far from the camp! Otherwise it would be too tiring to carry things back and forth."
Shen Bing nodded: "You're right. Luckily there are many hills around the campsite, so let's choose from among them." Then she pointed to a gravelly hillside: "Hey, what about over there?"
"Let's go check it out!"
The two walked over to the hillside. Lu Zhe stabbed his paratrooper knife into the ground, dug out a rock, and the surrounding soil also loosened. He scraped around a bit, the mud trickled down.
He shook his head: "Too many pebbles, the soil quality is also unstable. If it collapses, we might get buried."
Next they inspected a small verdant hill. The soil was loose with serious seepage that could also easily collapse!
They also checked out a shale cliff that looked sturdy, but rock layers formed during different periods had uneven toughness and could easily crumble under external forces!
"So the most difficult problem to solve when digging caves is collapse!"
Lu Zhe said somewhat regretfully: "You're right. There's no special structure like the bear cave here. If we insist on digging out a cave, we'd have to install collapse anchors and supports at any time, and build voussoir arches out of bricks and clay, pretty troublesome, and still not necessarily safe."
"Unless we find a similar structure to the bear cave?"
"Not necessarily..."
Lu Zhe noticed the rock mountain near the banyan tree.
It wasn't a mountain formed from piled up rocks, but a single gigantic boulder itself. On three sides it was embedded in the earth slopes overgrown with vegetation, unclear how big it was. Bird droppings on the top allowed lush bushes and moss to grow. Only the 30 meter high southern rock face was exposed.
Lu Zhe walked up to the rock face, placed his hand on it, and information about it streamed into his mind!
"Formed 1.1 billion years ago in the Mesozoic era as granite, main components silicon dioxide, calcium carbonate..."
"Hey Sis Bing, do you know about the Ancient Cliff Dwellings?"
"I know of them but haven't been." Shen Bing stared blankly for a moment.
"Could it be... you want to carve caves out of this rock?"
Lu Zhe slowly turned his head: "Why not?"
Shen Bing was astonished:
"Of course not! This rock is so hard! If you want to carve out a storage room, it would take five, seven, eight years at least to finish!"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "It looks difficult, but actually won't take that long! And once we carve out space here, it'll be like having a fortress! No monkeys, crocodiles, storms or tidal waves can do anything to us."
Shen Bing felt it unbelievable: "Lu Zhe, carving storage rooms out of a cliff face is practically an impossible task for us."
"Why do you say that?"
"The rock face is too hard, and we don't have modern tools, how can we possibly carve it out?"
Lu Zhe smiled: "Were the Ancient Cliff Dwellings carved out by modern people?"
Shen Bing froze!
The Ancient Cliff Dwellings referred to nearly 100,000 square meters of artificially carved caves of varying sizes on a sheer rock face, with over a hundred chambers, an extremely spectacular sight.
The chambers had doors, windows, kang heating beds, stoves, horse mangers, cabinets, chimneys and so on. Some even had anterooms, like modern two or three bedroom units.
"That probably took thousands of artisans several years to complete right?"
"Mobilizing thousands for a few years just to build 100 some civilian houses? I don't think it's very likely!"
Shen Bing thought about it, and felt he had a point.
"Not only the Ancient Cliff Dwellings, there are cliff cave dwellings all over the country. As long as the methods are right, with just one month we can have an extremely sturdy chamber."
Of course Shen Bing knew what it meant if they had a stone house!
Ignore raging gales, fierce birds and beasts, pleasantly cool in summer and warm in winter, clean and easy to keep clean.
"You know how?"
Lu Zhe nodded: "A little!"
"Could it be you're descended from ancient stonemasons?"
"No, there were relevant descriptions in The Why of Everything."
"Lu Zhe, I'm getting more and more curious about your The Why of Everything. When we get back, you definitely have to give me a set!"
"Um... what if it goes out of print?"
"Such a good book, how could it possibly go out of print?"
"Who can say for sure? I think the 16 Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Art is pretty good too, but that still went out of print!"
Shen Bing placed her hands on her hips, widened her eyes, and her chest heaved: "Humph, then lend me your set to read!"
"Oh, is Sis Bing so cute when angry?"
"Cut the crap!"
Lu Zhe nodded: "Sure, I'll definitely look for it properly when I get back!"
"Alright, enough kidding around! Really, how long would it take to carve out a chamber?"
Lu Zhe recalled that a surname Lv stonemason descendant had said on the 10th CCTV documentary that carving out a 20 square meter chamber didn't require very advanced skills. Five stonemasons working for about a month could complete it.
Right now, Lu Zhe's strength was around ten times that of normal people. Just in terms of work efficiency, one of him was worth three or four people, plus the girls' assistance, it shouldn't be worse than five stonemason's efforts. Conservatively, around one and a half months should be about right.
"Including making the tools, around one and a half months."
"Making what tools?"
Lu Zhe thought about it: "The main tools are rivets and iron pry bars, and hammers!"
"We don't have any of those!"
"We don't, but there's no need to worry. These tools are very crude, and can be made completely from what we already have."
"Keep making tools huh?"
"That's right, process the iron ore, smelt iron. And this time, we have so many pull carts. Many pull cart materials can be used to make bellows to improve iron smelting efficiency!"
Everything Lu Zhe said, Shen Bing didn't even dare imagine, yet hearing him state it so matter-of-factly, it was as if it were all a given!
She felt like there was no difficulty in this world that could stump the youth before her.
"Then... start now?"
"Yes, let's start now!"
After finishing speaking, Lu Zhe began making bellows!
It sounded difficult, but was actually very simple if you had the concepts, and everything could be done with materials on hand.
He disassembled some spokes from the bicycle wheels to use as pliers, bending them into 5 cm segments.
He also split twenty or so 40 cm long, 5 cm wide bamboo strips to make the bellows frame.
Second step: he punched holes in the middle of each pair of bamboo strips and strung the spoke segments through to act as a simple bearing.
The two bamboo strips were now fixed together but could still spin freely, forming an "X" shape.
Third step: three "X'"s were joined end to end to form an "XXX" group. Two groups were made.
Fourth step: some sailcloth was torn off and glued onto the two "XXX" groups with tree resin. This formed square cylinders!
Fifth step: the ends were sealed off with bamboo strips, one end made into a handle, the other fitted with plastic boards to make the air outlet and valve!
The two valves had one sitting on the outlet, allowing air to only flow outwards, while one covered the bottom inlet, only allowing inwards airflow.
When pulling, air was sucked in from the bottom inlet. When pushing forwards, the air would be forced out through the outlet into the furnace!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
esick Sect? Well, at least it's considered a respectable orthodox sect. Wait a minute— What kind of vibe are you all giving off? Shouldn’t this be a love-struck, romance-obsessed sect? Why does everyone here sound more like demonic cultivators? "Master, today he’s getting married. This disciple wishes to descend the mountain and crash the wedding, then toy with him to death right in front of his wife..." "Elder, I only got into your sect through connections, so why won’t you teach me anything?" "Because I also became an elder through connections." Thankfully, Su Ji was just an outer sect labor disciple. Surely, nothing too crazy would— "Junior Brother, you’ve broken through to Qi Refining. Once you sever your useless spiritual root, you can officially become an outer sect disciple." "The Great Dao is merciless. Don’t let a worthless spiritual root waste your essence and spirit, hindering your cultivation." Is this really the Lovesick Sect? ... Three years later, Su Ji sat in the seat of the Lovesick Sect’s sect master, sighing with emotion. His rise to this position all started when his junior sister adamantly insisted on preserving his "spiritual root." "Mmm... Senior Brother, what’s our relationship now?" "Stop talking. Keep going." "By the way, that newly promoted top-tier sect—didn’t they come to buy our Love Beans?" "One top-grade spirit stone per Love Bean—is that really so expensive?" "I suspect they’ve eaten too many Love Beans." "Now they’re lovesick." Well, this really is the Lovesick Sect after all.
agon king storylines. At the start, I obtained the "Ultimate Lackey System" - the more I act as a lackey, the stronger I become. What else could I do? I chose to become the personal henchman of the ultimate villain, Su Muwan. I provoke all sorts of chosen ones, snatch away their opportunities, and commit every evil deed imaginable. You ask who's behind me? Hmph! You're not worthy of knowing my lady's name! ...... ....... I am Su Muwan, the eldest daughter of the Su family. Since childhood, I've possessed extraordinary talent in martial arts, which led to my arrogant and domineering personality in my past life. I was even foolish enough to repeatedly challenge those favored by heaven, ultimately resulting in a tragic death. In this life, I must behave and absolutely cannot walk the same path again!! However... SLAP!! "So you're the Dragon King, huh?!" When I saw my little lackey swagger over and viciously slap the Dragon King who was hiding his identity, I felt my heart sink. Su Muwan's suspended heart finally died as she watched Qin Luo, her utterly loyal lackey, standing before her. She fainted on the spot from shock. Heaven is determined to destroy me!! (Pure love 1v1, light-hearted, no angst, single female lead, villain, reincarnation, lackey)
reezy rom-com) Good news: Jiang Liu is quite the ladies' man. Bad news: He’s lost his memory. Lying in a hospital bed, Jiang Liu listens to a parade of goddesses spouting "absurd claims," feeling like the world is one giant game of Werewolf. "Jiang Liu, I’m your first love." "Jiang Liu, you’re my boyfriend—she’s your ex." "Jiang Liu, we’re close friends who’ve shared a bed, remember?" "Jiang Liu, I want to have your baby." The now-lucid Jiang Liu is convinced this must be some elaborate scam... until someone drops the bombshell: "The day before you lost your memory, you confessed your feelings—and got into a relationship." Jiang Liu is utterly baffled. So... who the hell is his actual girlfriend?! ... Before recovering his memories, Jiang Liu must navigate this minefield of lies and sincerity, fighting to protect himself from these women’s schemes. But things spiral even further out of control as more people show up at his doorstep—each with increasingly unhinged antics. On the bright side, the memories he lost due to overwhelming trauma seem to be resurfacing. Great news, right? So why are they all panicking now?
