Infrastructure‌ ‌Frenzy‌

In front of the cave, Zhuang Yu dug a reservoir while boiling bone broth.

The importance of this pond is self-evident. Whether his chili field can be watered enough, and whether Feng Wen and the children can survive such hot weather depends on it.

A group of children is working hard, even though they don’t know what they are doing.

“Brother Yu, we’re good.” For fear that they would do less, Zhuang Yu would stop giving them soup.

Zhuang Yu shouted, “Slow down. When the sun gets brighter, we’ll rest and cool off before continuing.”

“We’re not hot at all. Really, we can work now.”

Zhuang Yu was touched. He knows why these children are so eager to express themselves, but they have to bear these at a young age. When they’re this old, they should have been carefree.

He sighed. He still had to make arrangements, otherwise, these children would have to work themselves to death.

Little Mushroom tilted his head and looked at it for a while, but didn’t understand it. Then he took his small wooden stick to poke Feng Wen to let him add firewood to the bottom of the pot. If the fire is bigger, then the soup boils faster.

Feng Wen lowered his head. His brother said to simmer over a low fire, just let him watch that the fire doesn’t go out.

The little mushroom prodded for a long time and just saw Feng Wen standing upright like a little prisoner being reprimanded but not adding firewood, so he angrily ran to the water shell to play with water.

He’s a little sad because this is the last big shell with water. That is to say, he will have no water to play right after. What to do in such hot weather? He doesn’t want to be exposed to the sun like his brothers, then he wouldn’t be beautiful anymore.

Zhuang Yu looked at the sky. The sun is getting bigger and bigger. Then he looked at the small pool that had been dug out. This was a good speed. Sure enough, there were many people and great strength. Then he greeted a group of children to rest, “Come wash your hands and get ready to drink the soup. We’ll dig the pool when it’s cool at night.”

The children were so happy that they had bone soup again. Such a big pot is sure to be enough for them to drink.

Asking them to wash their hands, Zhuang Yu began to fill their shells with soup.

After their hands were clean, the children lined up in a row and ran to their shells.

Zhuang Yu looked at a row of children blowing the soup in their bowl and was stunned. No matter how he looked at it, they looked like a group of small hungry animals. He couldn’t help but be amused.

Because he filled them with bamboo shoots, he cut chopsticks for them.

Zhuang Yu himself is also drinking soup and eating bamboo shoots. The taste is okay. The bamboo shoots are particularly fresh and tender. The bone soup had the fragrance of bamboo shoots and had a special taste.

The children also learned from him, to use chopsticks to hold bamboo shoots to eat. “It’s really particular. We just used to grasp it with our hands.” 

“The bark is also delicious, crispy, and tender.”

“It’s not bark. Brother Yu said just now that it’s bamboo shoots. They’re fresh and delicious, especially delicious.” 

“Yes, yes, I’m full. Oh, I’ve had two bowls. I feel my belly bulging.”

The little mushroom also ate with relish. It turns out that his brother’s neighbors were so delicious. It’s awesome.

A group of children drank until their stomachs were rounded. They lined up in a row, exposed their bellies, and lay there basking in the sun. They originally wanted to continue digging the pool, but Zhuang Yu stopped them. It’s so hot now, it would be bad if they have heat stroke.

“I’m so stuffed. I used to think about it every day. It would be nice to have a day where I’m full.”

“Not only full but also delicious. When I think of the taste of bone soup, my saliva will flow out again, but my stomach can’t hold it anymore.”

Bone soup is actually very nutritious. It’s also added with salt, which is known as the source of life. After drinking it, the little carrot heads feel that they’re full of strength.

At this time, on high ground away from Zhuang Yu’s cave, Xiao Pimao was lying on the ground, watching secretly. His position here had a good line of sight, so he could have a panoramic view of the flat land in front of the cave.

Xiao Pimao took out the shell hanging around his neck and kept licking it while whispering “It’s so delicious, so delicious” as if he’s drinking bone soup and eating bamboo shoots with the crowd. When a group of children finished eating and began to bask in the sun, he left “contented”.

These children have nothing to do except bask in the sun. They watched Zhuang Yu, Feng Wen, and Little Mushroom eat without using shells. They also learned it, found stones, and started chiseling stone bowls.

“Brother Yu said, shells cut hands, so we have to use stone bowls.”

“We use chopsticks instead of holding food with our hands. We’re fastidious people.”

“We have to wash our hands before eating. Brother Yu doesn’t like children who don’t like cleanliness.”

Zhuang Yu was amused but didn’t care about these children, just enjoying this rare leisure.

At night, he started digging again with the children.

The function of this pool is to store water, so it mustn’t be too shallow, and to use it as a swimming pool for these children, so it’s not too deep. Zhuang Yu thought about it and simply divided it into deep and shallow areas. The deep part is two meters deep, and the shallow area only reaches up to Feng Wen’s chest. It has the best of both worlds.

He’s actually a bit in a hurry, because last night, the young patriarch said that he would arrange for the ancestral beast to drink in the river soon, so they could take that opportunity to fetch water and reserve. He had to repair the pond before then.

Fortunately, there were many of them. They dug a little longer when the weather was cool at night.

The next day, when he got up, outside the cave, the kids were already digging, like industrious little bees.

Zhuang Yu didn’t go there and he hurried up the mountain to dig bamboo shoots with Feng Wen. He dug back a lot to make bone soup so as to reward these diligent little guys.

Finally, in the evening, the depth and size of the pool were almost the same as planned, and can now be inlaid with flat stone slabs.

What he has to do now is to let the children rest, because once he’s away, the children will start digging again.

The carrot heads were still wondering why they’re always not allowed to work. They drink such delicious bone soup and are so full. They always feel uneasy if they don’t help to do something.

After drinking the bone soup in the evening, they went to move the slates again and again. All the way, they’re happily talking and laughing.

There are a lot of slates, all of which came from the tribe’s teenagers who have finished training. They can throw away those that are unnecessary so that they can pick and choose more flatter ones.

Zhuang Yu looked at these children. In fact, he’s a little embarrassed. These children helped him so much, but he could only give them some bone soup and some bamboo shoots. If this were in modern times, he would be scolded to death.

But now the conditions are like this. If he hadn’t just discovered the bamboo grove yesterday, he’s afraid he wouldn’t even be able to eat bamboo shoots. He kept this in mind. When the conditions are good, he’ll compensate these children.

The children carried a flat slate. Although these children were young, thin, and weak, they also had some strength.

In fact, from the fact that the teenagers of the Golden Centipede Tribe can cut the stone in half with a stone ax, it can be seen that the humans in this world are physically stronger than the people in Zhuang Yu’s world.

This actually makes sense. In his world, the development direction of mankind is biased towards the use of skills and tools, while the current world tends towards power.

Over time, there will be some subtle changes in human genes, which will be passed down from generation to generation.

A group of children was moving stone slates on a large scale, which of course attracted the attention of the tribe.

“What are these children who have nothing to do all the time doing?”

Someone followed and watched. Zhuang Yu’s cave is relatively remote. Few people usually go there specifically, so no one notices any changes in his place.

“Why did these kids mix together with Yu from the Water Lake Tribe? Don’t they usually wander around and drool at what others eat?”

“The flat ground in front of Yu’s cave was hollowed out by them. If it rains, the rain will not pour into the cave.” 

After watching for a while, they didn’t see anything interesting so they scattered. These children in the collective cave without parents and Yu from a foreign tribe are not worth their concern.

Of course, some of them, out of kindness and for the sake of the same kin, exhorted those children, “Don’t fool around with Yu of the Water Lake Tribe all day. You might as well save some energy so that it won’t be easy to get hungry.”

These children don’t listen at all, “We’re not fooling around. We’re helping brother Yu do something.”

And they aren’t hungry at all now. They eat as much as they have never had before.

People were stunned. How did the children in the collective cave have such a good relationship with Yu?

Some people hate iron for not becoming steel1, “If you’re so close to Yu, won’t you become a lazy person like him in the future?” 

As soon as he finished speaking, a child unexpectedly smashed a stone over, “Don’t speak ill of Brother Yu, he’s not that kind of person.”

When everyone forgot about them, it was Zhuang Yu who made bone soup for them and fed them. In their hearts, he’s different from everyone else. When they bad-mouth him, they’re the first to disapprove. Moreover, they’re willing to help Zhuang Yu and disliked that they had done less.

The group of adults was a little frustrated.

There seems to be something changing in the Golden Centipede Tribe. The children in the collective cave stood on Zhuang Yu’s side, fighting against those rumors. Zhuang Yu no longer seems to be a weak person. Although these kids were still too young, their tempers weren’t small. When some people speak badly of Zhuang Yu, they pick up the stones on the ground and throw them towards them, and run away after hitting them.

It caused a burst of angry scolding, chicken flying and dog jumping2.

When Zhuang Yu inlaid the stone slabs into the lower part of the pool and the wall, the children also brought back a message, “Brother Yu, tomorrow the ancestral beast will go to the river to drink. At that time, all the beasts in the river will be scared away, and we can go to fetch water.”

He’s taken aback. It seems that he had to work overtime tonight to inlay the stone slab of the pool so that it can be used to store water tomorrow. If he missed this, he didn’t know where to get water.

However, there is a problem. His pond is so big and not too close to the river. It takes a lot of time to fill it up, and the ancestral beast may not be able to drink that long.

And even if it’s full, he consumes a lot of water to irrigate the land every day, it will soon run out, let alone use it as a swimming pool.

In other words, he needs continuous and sufficient water to achieve his original vision.

It took such a great effort to build a pool, it’s impossible for it to be useless.

Zhuang Yu thought for a moment. It’s impossible to rely on the Golden Centipede Tribe to provide a continuous water supply for him because the tribe itself saves water in order to survive a water collection cycle. Every time they get water, it’s like a hard-fought war.

His eyes suddenly lit up when he thought of something. Maybe he can really solve the problem of continuous water fetching.

When the time comes, those who look down on him in the tribe will ask him about it, and he doesn’t know what their expressions will be.