Chapter 9 : Action (1)

"I am not going to build all by myself. I plan to use wood to assist in the construction, and the main material will still be stone. And considering that stone bricks are nowhere to be found, the only way is to find a natural stone cave," Yu Hong explained.

"Oh" The little stutterer didn't quite understand, but she felt that Yu Hong looked confident and composed, so he must be a very skillful person.

"I'll help you!" She patted her chest and said, "I know a cave!"

"Cave?" Yu Hong's eyes lit up.

He had long wanted to stop staying with the little stutterer. Not only was his safety not guaranteed, but the key point was that he couldn't test his black seal casually to determine its effect.

Touching the third piece of strengthened white stone in his trouser pocket, Yu Hong made a quick decision.

"Can you take me to see it?"

He now urgently needs a place to live alone to test the specific effects of the black seal.

He was thinking, what would happen if he strengthened the door and the wall?

Pyroxene can be strengthened into a material similar to jade, and the effect seems to be stronger, so what about the others?

Immediately, the little stutterer took the things back in the house, and then took Yu Hong with her. Instead of taking the old road, she took a small path in the opposite direction and walked into the forest.

After several days of rest, Yu Hong recovered a lot of his physical strength.

As his body recovered, he rarely saw the strange shadows during the day, which made him believe what the little stutterer and Dr. Xu said.

In the cold and quiet forest--

The two of them walked forward, one in front and one behind, with one step deep and one step shallow. They come across the large slope and then they go to the bottom of the slope.

The little stutterer looked around and seemed to have found something near a tree hole.

She walked over and reached out to touch some of the scratches on the edge of the tree hole.

"Right here." She said seriously.

Then, before Yu Hong was about to ask, she raised her hand and pointed to the distance on the right.

Yu Hong was stunned, and looked in the direction the finger was pointing.

He saw a grey rock wall vaguely appearing in the distance from the forest.

In the middle of the rock wall, suspended in mid-air, there is a dark cave.

The entrance to the cave was at least two or three metres above the ground.

Yu Hong looked at the little stutterer and found that she had already started digging vegetables from everywhere, so he held the strengthened pyroxene and walked over there.

Soon, he came to the bottom of the rock wall.

Taking a close look at the cave in front of him.

The entrance of the cave is more than two people tall and one person wide. The interior of the cave is not very deep, and the bottom of the cave can be seen from the outside with the help of sunlight.

There were some things like cloth bags and some furs of unknown animals placed in a mess at the bottom.

"Are there animals here too?" Yu Hong couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, but there are not many." The little stutterer said and also followed him.

"Before, there were many, but due to  black level disasters, now there are only a few."

Yu Hong nodded in understanding, climbed up along the dent and walked into the cave.

The entire cave is only five metres deep, but it is slightly larger inside. It was about three metres wide and just enough for one person to rest.

The ground is quite dry and has no musty smell, which is obviously related to the rock material here.

The cave is oval in shape as a whole, with some non-standard oval cavities.

Yu Hong thought about it and realised that compared to Little Stutterer's house, this place was obviously much more comfortable. At least there was less mould invading his lungs, so he could live longer.

The most important thing is that the Baiqiu Village itself feels a bit weird. He always feels that the fact that he can encounter so many strange shadows during the day may be related to the environment of Baiqiu Village.

Otherwise, why are so many villagers unwilling to continue living there? You know, there are so many ready-made houses there.

"By the way, Yiyi, do you know how many villagers we are still in contact with?" Yu Hong had become more or less familiar with them in the past few days and had a rough idea of them.

From the book and the little stammerer, he learned that many villagers in Baiqiu Village lived in the nearby woods. They either built their own houses or dug cellars to hide in them.

A very few people left and went to the nearest town.

Among them were many people saved by Little Stutter.

The little stutterer also came in at this time and looked left and right in the cave.

"There are four more around here." She counted on her fingers. "Except us."

"Okay, got it." Yu Hong nodded. He took out the prepared tape measure, which was in the stock of the little stuttering room. Then he measured the data of the cave entrance up and down.

Then he climbed down again and observed the surrounding environment.

"Can I live here?" he asked the stutterer.

"Sure. No one will care." The little stutterer nodded vigorously.

Yu Hong was satisfied but This place was also very dangerous. In fact, he wanted to live with the little stutterer, but the shadow was too dangerous and well disguised, making it impossible to guard against him.

In addition, the environment at Little Stutterer's place is too bad and dirty, making it easy for him to get chronic diseases.

And the strengthening of the Black Seal must be kept secret.

These three points combined made him eager to find a suitable place to live alone.

And this cave is the best one among them.

It may take a lot of time just to get the daily necessities and renovation plan.

After all, when you live alone, you can only rely on the food you have saved at the beginning.

The cave also lacks a suitable gate, and things like chimneys and fire pits also need to be built.

After deciding on his future residence, Yu Hong began to wander around the mountains and forests selecting materials using the tools of his little stutterer.

He didn't know what kind of wood the gate could be made of, but he knew it had to be hard and strong enough.

In the next few days, Yu Hong continued to design the structure of his cave, the gate, and various furniture and items, and he also began to select materials.

Soon, he chose a dead tree that was hard enough.

Dead trees are dry enough to provide maximum moisture protection.

Then it's time to cut down the trees.

Yu Hong had a weak body and powerless arms. After a day of chopping, his arms were sore and weak when he came back to little stutterer's home. He could not move at all the next day.

Then-

Clang !

Clang !

Thud~

The little stutterer held the axe in her hand and watched the dead tree in front of her, which was as thick as his thigh, slowly break and fall down.

"Anything else?"

She turned around, looked at Yu Hong with a complicated expression, and asked seriously.

"." Yu Hong had an indescribable look on his face and he shook his head.

"No, it is enough."

Walking forward, he began to cut off the branches with a machete, selecting the straight part of the trunk, and then cutting out the approximate length according to the data of the cave entrance.

 'Although I was just an ordinary office worker before coming here, I also did carpentry work in the countryside for a period of time. Although I am not very skilled, he understands the basic steps and processes. '

The little stutterer watched from the side and came over to help from time to time out of curiosity.

Soon, it was dark. The two of them returned to the house with their tools to rest and wait for the next day.

After a night of nothing to do, the two came here again after eating and They continued the work they had not finished yesterday.

 .

 . 

Because Yu Hong also ate her food, her food was almost finished, so she made an appointment with Dr. Xu to go to Old Yu to buy some more.

Little stutterer helped deal with the dead trees, and soon she saw Dr. Xu approaching from the woods in the distance. So she stood up and waved happily.

"Xu! Here!"

"." Doctor Xu walked closer slowly and frowned when he saw Yu Hong with her.

"Didn't we just change the food? I was wondering why it was gone again, turns out there was one more person." She said in a bad tone.

"Yu Hong is very good!" The little stutterer waved her hands quickly, "He is doing a better job. His house is safer than mine!" She defended him quickly.

"Forget it, let's not talk about it anymore. Let's go quickly. The sooner we go, the sooner we can come back." Doctor Xu glanced at Yu Hong who was not far away. Seeing that he was about to stand up and say hello to her  but before Yu Hong can say anything she took a few steps closer and said :

"What are your plans?" These days, she would occasionally chat with Little Stutterer and ask her about Yu Hong, knowing that this guy in front of her was busy working on his own things all day long.

All the eating and drinking depended on a little stutterer, which put a lot of pressure on her.

Originally everyone had only enough food to sustain half fullness, and now there was one more young man.

"I plan to build a safe house. Although I have to rely on Yiyi for food and drink temporarily, believe me, I will be able to move out soon. I will remember everything Yiyi has helped me with. When I am stable, I will repay her!" Yu Hong saw the other party's intention.

After finishing a sentence, he saw that the other person's expression eased a little, and then he continued.

"When I build a safer place to live, I can help Yiyi build a safer and better one! Her house is not safe at all. If she runs into bigger troubles, she will definitely not be able to survive! Then she will know the benefits of a safe house."

"It's up to you, but it won't be safer if we move to another place!" Doctor Xu obviously didn't believe it. "Don't drag Yiyi down."

"Yes!" Yu Hong said seriously.

Doctor Xu stared at him for a while, said nothing more, and left with Yiyi.

Yu Hong stood in the woods, watching the two people leave. Only when their shadows disappeared did he withdraw his gaze and look up at the sky.

The bright sunshine made him feel safe.

In this kind of weather, even a Shadow would not appear rashly.

After a short rest, he continued to cut the wood with the saw.

He sawed the Burned Tree trunks into thick, long wooden boards.

Burning the surface is to prevent corrosion. It also kills a few insect eggs, and removes excess moisture from the outside.

Once cut into wooden boards, they can be joined together, using the mortise and tenon structure, to create a strong and sturdy wooden door.

The simplest type of mortise and tenon construction used by Yu Hong, to put it simply, is to dig a hole in the cross-section of a thick wooden board. Then, cut a ridge from another thick wooden board that fits perfectly into the hole. Finally, embed the ridge into the hole to form a complete mortise and tenon structure. 

The biggest advantage of this structure is that it does not require nails. Using the jointing technique, Yu Hong slowly and carefully made long, thick and hard wooden boards.

He did not complete it and drag it, but  carried the completed wooden boards piece by piece like building blocks and assembled them at the entrance of the cave. 

During this period, he also constantly tested the black seal effect. 

Strengthened every piece of pyroxene one by one.

As time went by, just when Hong was almost used to the smell of that strange jerky, the wooden door of the cave was finally completed

Early in the morning--

Yu Hong arrived at the entrance of the cave alone and spliced the last thick wooden board to the wooden door. 

The whole wooden door is completely finished, and there is a free door panel in the middle that can be opened though the appearance is quite rough.

This was assembled using parts taken from other houses in the village and combined with wood.

In addition, the large nails used to connect the wood and stone surfaces around were also 'sponsored' by those houses.

The entire entrance to the cave was now completely blocked by a thick grey-black wooden door.

Yu Hong walked in alone and placed a piece of strengthened white stone in a groove behind the door.

This was the method he came up with to prevent the shadow from entering the door.

Since pyroxene can disperse shadows, if we place pyroxene reasonably on the shadow's path, can it also block its entry?