Playing with Mud

He dove in twice, but didn't even see a shadow of a fish.

He had originally planned to dive in again to confirm, but it was probably because he hadn't eaten breakfast and had been hungry for most of the previous day, causing his blood sugar to drop.

Now, slumped by the lake, he was dizzy and seeing stars. If he hadn't come up then, he probably would have sunk straight to the bottom.

After resting for a long time, he finally managed to catch his breath.

During this time, seeing the three tribe members who had no idea what to do and were about to go call for help, Zhou Xu waved his hand with effort.

"I'm fine. How's the mud you were digging?"

"We've already dug quite a bit."

As he spoke, the tribe member with mud-caked hands pointed to the side.

"Is this enough, Chief? If not, we can keep digging."

Hearing this, Zhou Xu tilted his head and glanced to the side. The dug-up mud had already piled into a small mound, but in Zhou Xu's opinion, it was clearly not enough.

"Keep digging."

Relying solely on his two hands, the efficiency was indeed too low. But even Zhou Xu couldn't create any decent tools for them on the spot.

There was no choice; things had to be done one by one.

Accepting the reality of no fish resources, Zhou Xu took advantage of the rest period to adjust the plan for the next few days in his mind.

Once the adjustments were mostly complete, he had also basically recovered.

His plan for this afternoon, besides determining if there were any fish in this saltwater lake and digging up lake mud, was to research pottery making.

As long as he could successfully fire pottery jars, Freshwater could be stored in advance, and they wouldn't be so tight on resources like they were now.

However, Zhou Xu had no intention of just starting to play with mud right away.

To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools.

Although Zhou Xu hadn't researched pottery making before, he liked to drink tea and, by extension, liked to buy tea cups.

To avoid being ripped off, he had also studied a tiny bit and acquired a lot of useless knowledge.

Tea cups weren't considered pottery; they were usually porcelain, but both of these were fired from earth, so they had some commonalities.

And what was most important for firing such vessels? It was the kiln, and preferably one with a walled interior, which would allow for higher internal temperatures and greater stability.

Therefore, he now needed to use the stones he had collected to build a kiln that could maintain a stable internal temperature.

He definitely couldn't build a very large one, so he could only make do with something for now.

At the same time, these stones couldn't fit together perfectly, so Zhou Xu's method for dealing with the gaps was simple: just plaster them with mud.

This was also one of the main reasons he had asked the three tribe members to keep digging; he still needed to build a kiln, and this amount of lake mud wouldn't be enough.

Using a flat, palm-sized piece of Little Bone as a tool for plastering the mud, he applied several layers. At first glance, the kiln looked quite presentable.

"That's about it."

He set the bone piece aside and looked at the kiln, which was starting to take shape. Zhou Xu clapped the mud off his hands and nodded with satisfaction.

However, his work of firing pottery could obviously not officially begin yet.

The process of firing pottery wasn't as simple as just shaping the mud and then firing it. After shaping, it still needed to air dry naturally, which would take at least two to three days.

He was currently still in the preparation stage.

Taking a sip of water, Zhou Xu, having finished building the kiln, unhurriedly walked to the lake and started working with the mud.

[This feeling is truly marvelous.]

After all, the last time he played with mud was when he was a child. After growing up, he basically never did such things again.

Without attempting any large items right away, Zhou Xu first took some mud and shaped small rice bowls.

After all, he was a complete novice at firing pottery and didn't expect to succeed on the first try. He was bound to experience multiple failures.

Making small bowls was more convenient. If one was fired and broken, he could just make another one. By accumulating experience this way, once he could consistently fire small bowls, he would then tackle the larger pottery jars.

This was to avoid lacking experience from the start and accidentally ruining a large pottery jar he had painstakingly made, thus wasting all his effort.

Zhou Xu's hands had limited precision, and he wasn't an experienced master craftsman. The small bowls he shaped were somewhat irregular, and at a glance, each one looked different.

With a little adjustment, they were improved to a barely acceptable level.

Fortunately, playing with mud itself wasn't difficult, and since everyone was doing it for the first time, he might not be much better than a primitive person.

"The rest is up to you. Please place the shaped pottery bowls here to air dry."

He led by example, shaping five or six himself. Once the tribe members beside him had roughly understood and learned how to do it, this task naturally fell to them.

This was because Zhou Xu had discovered that under these harsh conditions, the tribe members' mental state was generally better than his.

Or rather, their bodies had long since adapted to a life where they could barely eat a few mouthfuls and drink a little water a day, while Zhou Xu's body clearly hadn't adapted yet.

At this moment, he was already hungry and tired, so he had to sit by the fire pit to drink water and rest. At the same time, he also gave guidance on weaving baskets to the handicraft team. When he had nothing else to do, he would close his eyes and doze off.

This continued until the gathering team, led by Dashan, returned.

"Chief, as you instructed, we've gathered a lot of stones. The number of branches also far exceeds any previous time!"

As he spoke, Dashan's voice was filled with unconcealed excitement.

At this very moment, the branches brought back by their gathering team were piled up, forming a small mountain as tall as a person!

This amount meant they wouldn't need to deliberately gather branches for the next two to three days. They could just pick some up casually while doing other things.

The freed-up manpower could then be used for other arrangements.

"Good job, you've worked hard."

After inspecting the wood and stones Dashan's team had gathered, Zhou Xu praised them without reservation.

"Oh right, how many insects did you catch?"

This was undoubtedly one of Zhou Xu's most pressing concerns, as it would directly affect how much food everyone would receive that evening.

As it turned out, Dashan and the others had achieved quite considerable results this time. Judging by the quantity, it was at least two to three times more than before.

However, upon closer thought, it wasn't that surprising.

Yesterday, they had just arrived, and by the time they got here, it was already late. With so many things to do, they hadn't had much time to catch insects.

Unlike today, they had officially set out early in the morning. Their main tasks for most of the day revolved around picking up branches, collecting stones, and catching insects. It was only natural that they caught more today.

Update delivered, thanks to book friends 'Go With The Flow Brute', 'Leisurely Bystander', and 'Book Friend 20210929094646704' for their tips!