Han Cheng scratched his head in frustration. It's just a mortise, and he had to make it so complicated. This is unbearable.
He removed the burning charcoal from the now deeper and larger mortise and extinguished the burning charcoal on the mortise wall. Then, he contemplated a solution.
How can we ensure that the upper part, already burned, wouldn't catch fire again while expanding the mortise with burning charcoal?
Water and fire are incompatible, and Han Cheng's first thought was of water. He used a bowl previously used by several tribes during the joyful meeting, filled it with half a bowl of water, and dipped his hand to wet the upper half of the mortise that had already been burned. Then, he picked up a piece of burning charcoal from the nearby fire and put it into the mortise, followed by blowing on it.
The moment the burning charcoal was placed in the mortise, a sizzling sound accompanied by rising white smoke occurred. This was because Han Cheng had accidentally spilled water below during the water experiment.
After experimenting for a while, Han Cheng gave up this method. Not only was it easy to wet the lower part of the mortise when pouring water, but a crucial reason was that after burning charcoal for a while, the upper part of the mortise would dry up, and then it would start burning again.
At this point, what needed to be done was to wet the burning part with water again. However, this process was not smooth. It was either burnt by the burning charcoal, or too much water was poured, extinguishing the burning charcoal below.
Shaman, having understood Divine Child's intention, was quite puzzled. He couldn't understand why Divine Child had to exert such great effort to make another type of ladder with the ladder already in place.
In his eyes, the current ladder was already very good. It was convenient for going up and down and simple to make.
The huge significance of the mortise was something that Han Cheng couldn't explain to Shaman because Shaman had never seen a variety of wooden tools.
After thinking for a while without a solution, Han Cheng stood up from the ground with a bone-made blowtorch, stretched lazily, and observed the lively tribe with Shaman.
The gate of the deer enclosure was open, and the deer enclosure was empty. The proud deer led its harem and descendants out to eat grass.
Now, Han Cheng and Shaman are no longer worried about this because, apart from the first few times when the deer forgot about time, delaying the return, the rest of the days were very punctual.
The deer lord, who had gone from frugal to luxurious, had completely forgotten about the Salt Mountain and other places.
In the rabbit enclosure, some rabbits were basking in the sun against the wall, some were eating grass, their three-petal mouths moving delicately. They looked gentle eating without showing their teeth, but their speed was exceptionally fast. In a moment, a piece of grass would be entirely eaten.
The reproduction speed of rabbits was terrifying. Even though Shaman personally dealt with a batch last autumn and early winter, by now, the rabbit population's size had exceeded last year's peak.
Seeing this group of rabbits, Shaman would have a face full of smiles. Just by looking at his expression, Han Cheng knew that he was reminiscing about the wonderful feeling of using a wooden stick to end the lives of rabbits last autumn.
The enclosure walls were still being raised, and the western section of the gate was already more than half done.
Most of the adults in the tribe were contributing to this major project.
Shang failed to catch it, and the dustpan, filled with mud, fell and hit Third Senior Brother's head below, covering him in mud. Third Senior Brother, covered in mud, cried out in frustration.
Shang continued to explain something.
Third Senior Brother, with a head full of mud, looked quite ridiculous, making Han Cheng burst into laughter.
Third Senior Brother and Shang noticed that the Divine Child and Shaman were watching them, so they stopped and laughed foolishly.
Han Cheng walked over and gestured for the Third Senior Brother to wash up.
A light bulb went off in Han Cheng's mind. He suddenly grabbed Third Senior Brother, who was about to leave and urged him to squat down.
The third Senior Brother was confused by Han Cheng's actions, unsure of what the Divine Child wanted to do to him. Nevertheless, he followed the instructions and squatted down.
Without hesitation, Han Cheng quickly removed the mud from Third Senior Brother's head, held it in his hands, and said to Third Senior Brother, who was touched, "Alright, go wash up."
Without waiting for Third Senior Brother's response, he ran to the tree trunk with the mud in his arms.
Confused, the Third Senior Brother looked at the Divine Child, who happily left with the mud. He reached out and touched his head, covered in mud and full of doubt.
Could it be that there's something special about himself, and when mud falls on his head, it turns into a treasure?
Han Cheng was delighted because he suddenly remembered how to solve this problem.
Han Cheng kneaded the lump of mud removed from Third Senior Brother's head, then dug some out and smeared it on the upper part of the mortise.
After smearing it, Han Cheng rekindled the fire pit he wanted to extinguish, selected a suitably sized piece of charcoal, put it back in, and then used the blowtorch to blow air.
Shaman stood on the side, tilting his head, watching the Divine Child's strange actions.
Han Cheng's face quickly showed a smile because this method was surprisingly effective.
The mud blocked the direct contact between the wood and the flame, and it wasn't as troublesome as using water. Just smear the mud, and the rest will be taken care of.
After eliminating various disturbances, burning the mortise was not slow.
By the evening, four mortises appeared on the trunk at intervals of thirty centimeters.
Burning mortises with fire sped up the process compared to using chisels and had another advantage: the mortises were less likely to crack after being burned by flames.
Of course, chisels were still indispensable in the process of mortise burning. They were used to roughly shape the area where the mortise needed to be created, making it easier to burn with charcoal.
It took four days for Han Cheng to use this method to create eight symmetrical mortises on two wooden pillars that would become ladders.
With the help of Lame, Han Cheng, holding various-sized wooden sticks, hammered them one by one into the mortises from bottom to top, from long to short.
The tree sticks were slightly thicker than the mortises, which could increase the ladder's firmness, preventing it from becoming a shoddy job that would break at the touch.
After nailing eight mortises on one side of the pillar with wooden sticks, with the help of Lame and Hei Wa, Han Cheng rolled the other pillar with mortises on the ground for half a turn. He aligned the mortises with the eight wooden sticks one by one. Then, he let Lame, who had stronger strength, use a piece of wood suitable for striking to vigorously hit the outer side of the wooden pillar.
With Lame pounding, the eight tree sticks slowly entered their respective mortises.
Ahem, don't think too much.