Main House Completed

A stretch of rocky shore.

Zhou Ye hid behind a large boulder, secretly watching a herd of deer in the distance.

There were over twenty deer in the herd, about a hundred paces away. Yet something about them was strange. They seemed remarkably disciplined? They stood in line, licking a rock face beside them one after another?

This left Zhou Ye utterly bewildered. Had even the wild beasts here become spirits?

Never mind that for now. Could he catch a few of them first?

After hunting the wild boar, Zhou Ye was no longer short on meat. But with prey right before his eyes, he could not help feeling an itch in his hands.

Drawing a throwing spear, Zhou Ye used the boulders and shrubs as cover and quietly began to approach. With his current strength, he had to get within thirty paces.

Before long, Zhou Ye had reached the fifty-pace mark. The way ahead was even more crucial. He absolutely could not alarm the herd.

After taking several deep breaths, Zhou Ye darted forward again and hid behind a clump of shrubs a few steps ahead. But the deer standing watch seemed to sense something and immediately began looking around.

Seeing this, Zhou Ye did not dare make any rash move. He waited for quite a while. Only after the herd had calmed down did he move again...

Yet the moment he rose, the herd spotted him. As the lead deer let out a sharp, urgent cry, the entire herd turned tail and ran.

Chasing after them for several steps, Zhou Ye hurled his throwing spear with all his strength. In the end, it landed behind the herd, striking nothing but air.

With a hint of regret, Zhou Ye retrieved the spear. Perhaps it did not even count as a battle—he had not gained any Basic Throwing experience.

Still, Zhou Ye found it rather strange. What exactly had those deer been licking? It was clearly just a rock face. Could stones really taste that good?

When he came before the rock face, he found traces of moisture on it. Water was slowly seeping out, forming tiny droplets across the surface.

So those deer had been licking the water droplets?

Using a tree that grew at an angle along the rock face, Zhou Ye climbed up onto it. He immediately found the source of the seepage: more than a dozen cracks spanning several feet. Water continuously seeped from those cracks.

Zhou Ye dipped his palm in some water and licked it as well. A bitter taste filled his mouth. Then his eyes lit up, and joy surged through him. "Salt! This is rock salt. So this rock face is a rock salt deposit!"

He had to thank all those wilderness survival programs he had watched. How could one obtain salt in the wild? It was an extremely important topic, including extracting it from seawater and finding rock salt deposits like this.

Zhou Ye not only knew about this mineral, but also knew how to crudely refine it into edible salt.

Salt was one of the most worrying shortcomings of the Little Homestead. Now that he had found these rock salt deposits, what else did he need?

After hurriedly making a round of the surrounding area and finding no other threats, Zhou Ye ended his patrol of the region behind the steep cliff.

After rushing back to the Little Homestead, Zhou Ye brought his tools and dug up over a hundred jin of rock salt that very day...

However, the most important task at present was still firing bricks.

Once the brick kiln had been warmed up, Zhou Ye placed the prepared mud bricks inside and officially began firing them.

Without modern instruments to monitor the temperature, firing bricks with primitive methods was a long process that required the heat to be raised very slowly.

The third day was the most critical. The kiln needed to reach an extremely high temperature, and he had to keep working the bellows from time to time, barely able to close his eyes for the entire day.

Therefore, the first day was relatively easy. Other than adding charcoal now and then, there was not much else to do.

Taking advantage of the free time, Zhou Ye began extracting salt.

He smashed the rock salt into powder with a sledgehammer, then added the powder to a basin of clean water. Once the salt had dissolved, he poured the brine into a water vat and added plant ash. When in doubt, plant ash solves everything.

After letting it settle for a day, he filtered out the impurities and used charcoal to purify it further.

Another day later, he could begin boiling the salt. The salt he ultimately extracted would be edible.

Thus, over those three days, Zhou Ye fired bricks while extracting salt. In the end, he found that the salt content of these rock salt deposits was not particularly high. One hundred jin of rock salt could only yield a little over thirty jin of edible salt.

Still, no matter what, now that he had a source of salt, he could finally breathe easier.

Once the grueling third day was over, the brick kiln began to cool down slowly. After another day of firing, he let the charcoal extinguish on its own and began the natural cooling process.

The temperature of fired bricks absolutely could not change too suddenly, or the bricks would crack apart.

At last, the kiln entered the natural cooling stage, and Zhou Ye suddenly had free time again.

In another twenty-odd days, it would be early autumn. The crops in the fields should be ready for harvest, and he still had to hurry and plant winter wheat.

With that in mind, Zhou Ye used those few days to build a waist-high fence around the fields, plastering it with a thick layer of clay. He also set up quite a few scarecrows around the area.

It would not stop large wild beasts, but at least it could scare off small animals and birds trying to steal food... right?

Finding that he still had plenty of time, Zhou Ye simply took the opportunity to build a smokehouse outside the Little Homestead as well...

And so, the natural cooling process finally ended. It was time to witness a miracle.

When Zhou Ye opened the brick kiln, he saw red bricks arranged neatly inside. Their quality was absolutely up to standard, certainly enough to build a chimney.

Now it was time for the final stage of the main house.

Over the next few days, he built the chimney, then roofed the house. Inside, he built a fireplace and stove; outside, he laid a thatched roof and clay-straw concrete exterior walls...

That day, seeing that the three-room main house had been successfully completed, Zhou Ye smiled in satisfaction. It had been nearly three months since he crossed over. At last, he had a home.

As planned, the room in the middle would serve as the kitchen and dining room. The room on the right would be his bedroom, while the one on the left would be used as a storeroom.

Less important supplies would be stored in the now-vacant bamboo hut, while more important supplies would be kept inside the main house.

Once everything had been moved into place, as for the remaining clutter in the yard, he could slowly sort it out later.

To celebrate the housewarming, Zhou Ye prepared a lavish spread that night. There was fish and meat, as well as vegetables and fruit. He even indulged himself a little and poured a brimming cup of wine.

As he drank and ate, Zhou Ye became slightly tipsy.

The construction of the Little Homestead was basically complete. Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation had almost all been taken care of. No matter what the future held, at least today, he could be happy for a while!