Chapter 66: Otherworld Primer
Su Ran first went to the riverside to wash up, then began continuing to build the shed that was not completed yesterday.
She first placed several pieces of wood intended for the shed’s top beams on the ground, arranging them in sequence to form a rectangular shape.
Then, holding the entrenching tool, she began digging pits at the joints of the several pieces of wood.
The rain shelter has a total of six supporting pillars, so six pits need to be dug in total.
Because it was close to the woods edge, and there had just been a heavy rain a while ago, the soil here was still quite easy to dig.
She only took a dozen minutes to dig the six soil pits about thirty centimeters deep.
Then she began assembling the shed’s pillars and beams.
Following the order marked yesterday, she used the hammer on the multi-tool axe to gradually knock the tenons hollowed out on the wood for the beams into the grooves on the wood for the pillars.
After all the tenons were knocked in, she found a thin branch, chopped off two pieces of wood shavings with the axe, shaved them into wedge shapes, then nailed one into each of the upper and lower ends of the already joined groove and tenon for reinforcement, making the tenon fit more tightly and securely.
Su Ran followed this process to install all the pillars and beams on one side of the shed together.
Just after finishing installing one side, she saw the werewolf carrying a red-skinned pig on its shoulder, rushing out hurriedly from the woods.
After it flew out of the woods, it almost instinctively turned its gaze toward Su Ran’s side.
Because Su Ran was processing the wood for building the shed here yesterday.
As soon as the werewolf landed, it immediately threw off the red-skinned pig on its shoulder.
It stood in front of Su Ran, brows tightly furrowed, its facial expression showing it was a bit angry yet somewhat helpless.
“Ran Ran, Su Ran, you, wu… Ao wu~ not good wu~”
It looked at Su Ran for a long time, its face showing a “why don’t you listen” expression.
But struggling to find suitable words that Su Ran could understand, the whole wolf appeared scratching its ears and cheeks in frustration.
Su Ran looked at the tip of its tail behind it, which was quickly flicking back and forth revealing clear irritable emotion, plus its series of fragmented sentences, clearly knowing she should quickly comfort the pure little silly wolf in front of her at this time.
But in fact, she still couldn’t help but purse her lips and look a few more seconds at its silly and cute appearance.
“I’m fine oh~”
Su Ran took a step forward, closing the distance with Gray, raised her two hands for it to see: “See, it’s already better oh~”
Gray lowered its head to look at her palm, but its brows furrowed even tighter.
It grabbed Su Ran’s wrist with one hand, pushed her palm for her to see herself, and pointed at the two shriveled small blisters on Su Ran’s palm: “Bad! Ran Ran, blood! Wu wu wu wu…”
It wu wu’ed a long string to refute Su Ran’s words, Su Ran helplessly rubbed her two hands together, then held them up for it to see: “Gray, it doesn’t hurt oh~”
Seeing the werewolf still wanting to say something, she quickly placed her hand on its chest, tiptoed and kissed its firm chin: “Okay, Ran Ran doesn’t hurt, come help me build the shed first, after it’s set up we can eat!”
After speaking, she forcefully dragged Gray to the side of the already assembled row of rain shelter frame, squatted down, while continuing to assemble the remaining frame, gestured for it to see.
Then she saw the werewolf heave a heavy sigh.
It looked at her very helplessly once more, then unwillingly followed Su Ran’s action and squatted down.
The rain shelter’s frame was easy to build, but the roof cover on top was a bit tricky.
This thing couldn’t be taught to the beastmen before it was made, so Gray couldn’t help Su Ran complete it.
And if waiting until the shed structure was set up to install the roof, Su Ran couldn’t reach the top.
In the end with no choice, Su Ran could only first make the entire shed structure and roof cover upside down on the ground.
After it was done, then have the beastmen help flip the shed over and insert it into the pits she dug.
With Gray’s help, plus Su Ran’s guidance on the side, the shed’s frame was quickly made.
Next was the more troublesome roof part.
But this part was a bit time-consuming and laborious, Su Ran planned to continue after eating breakfast.
At this time, the four-eared ox that Gray hunted was completely dead.
As soon as it heard Su Ran say making fire to roast meat, Gray immediately happily picked up the red-skinned pig and ran to the riverside to skin it.
And at this time, other beastmen had already started making fire to roast meat at the riverside.
A week ago, tired of having a bunch of beastmen following behind her butt every mealtime, Su Ran directly taught the beastmen the method of making fire.
But before teaching, she first gave the beastmen a demonstration lesson on the dangers a fire might cause.
As for the teaching method, it was also very simple.
On a previous day, she used the entrenching tool at a spot near the river beach on the river beach to first dig a circular firebreak about three meters in diameter.
Then she began frantically piling branches inside the firebreak, and the branches piled were all extremely flammable ones.
After the branches were all piled, she pulled Gray to dig wooden buckets together.
But to go faster, after digging two normal buckets with handles, Su Ran no longer insisted on the bucket shape.
She directly asked Gray to hollow out tree trunks, making six large wooden jars with sealed bottoms that could hold water, without lids.
She and Gray dug a total of more than ten such water jars.
Feeling it was about enough, she had Gray catch a live white-headed sheep back, and finally had Gray call over the other beastmen.
When the beastmen first arrived here, they were all very happy, seeming to think Su Ran had made some new thing again.
Especially seeing the white-headed sheep that was constantly struggling and bleating in fear, the beastmen’s gazes became even more eager.
And at this time, Su Ran held a torch in her hand, and after seeing that the number of beastmen, especially those cute little ones, had mostly arrived, she slowly extended the torch in her hand to the dry grass piled in the middle of the branches.
That time was already dusk, just when the sky was about to darken.
The scorching flames rapidly spread on the dry grass in the middle of the branches, and in just a few minutes, a raging fire blazed on the grassland enclosed by the firebreak.
The flames devoured the branches with crackling sounds, reaching up to two meters high at the peak.
And at this moment, inside the fire circle, suddenly came a heart-wrenching howl.
It was the miserable cry of that white-headed sheep.
To prevent this white-headed sheep from running out of the campfire with flames on its body and into the forest causing real disaster, Su Ran had beforehand steeled herself to have Gray break its four legs.
Listening to that white-headed sheep’s miserable cry, Su Ran, who used to soften endlessly at the sight of injured little cats, was also very surprised at herself for being able to do such a cold-blooded and ruthless thing.
But in such a truly survival-of-the-fittest world, she felt a voice in her heart kept telling her: “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You didn’t torture this sheep deliberately for pleasure or unreasoned reasons, but for your own wonderful life in the decades to come, you can only sacrifice its life.”
